The Great Horned Owl.

I always want music related games to be good. And when I heard Harmonix was partnering with Disney to make a game called “Fantasia”, I was intrigued. Might we finally get to conduct along with our favorite classical pieces from Disney’s Fantasia? Short answer: nope.

Ever wondered how many times I redraw a comic? Of course you haven’t. But now you can watch as I agonize over every single line in HYPERSPEEEED! The entire process has been sped up for your viewing pleasure. Hope you enjoy it. :)

The “Hammer” is my pianist.

Can we all agree that LSP plays the clarinet?

I’m not going to tell you to give up on your dreams. However, I do think that you should know what you’re getting into. The best way to do that is to go to college, be a music major, find out what it’s all about, and decide for yourself if that’s what you want to do for the rest of your life.

That’s the great thing about finding what you want to do the rest of your life. YOU CAN KEEP LOOKING until you find that one thing. Of the music majors I knew in college, I’d say half of them became band directors. The other half either found a different career they wanted to pursue, or stayed in school (to get their masters or PhD). 

True, the job market for music educators is small and very competitive. If you want an idea of how easy/hard it is to get a job coming from a certain program you should be able to go to the School of Music office or Alumni office and ask:

• What percentage of students are employed right after graduating?
• What percent are still employed after five years?

There are no million dollar contracts in music education. There is no fame or fortune to be had. HOWEVER, there is a great sense of satisfaction teaching others about music. Teaching music can be a very fulfilling career. 

Once you get to college, you should also be open to other possibilities. You may find that you want to teach at a collegiate level, so you stay in school and get your PhD. You may find that you want to become a business administration major with a music minor because you want to work in the front office for an orchestra. There are  so many things that can happen between now and then that you wont know until you put yourself in that situation.

You will never know for certain until you try. So, DO TRY!!

If you’re still on the fence about it, go talk to some music educators (preferably ones you don’t know). Ask your band director, choir director, orchestra director to put you in touch with other teachers you can talk to. You can also ask the college of music admissions office if you can talk to some of their students.

P.S. - sorry this is such a long meandering answer.

Only 8 hours left in this awesome kickstarter! Low brass players (and everyone else) should check it out.

So, if the Titanic violin turns out to be the real deal do you think it should go on a playing tour, or do you think it belongs in a museum?

*cue the Indiana Jones reaction GIFs

While I was at TMEA last week, I had a chance to meet with the guys from the Free Music Ed podcast. First of all, Stephen and Gannon are amazing hosts! I had a great time talking with them. Everything from webcomics to Star Trek to middle school band made it into the conversation. You can listen to the full interview here. Also, check out the rest of the FreeMusicEd podcasts, they have some great episodes (don’t forget to subscribe).

Hey everyone, I am going to be exhibiting this week at the TMEA convention in San Antonio (booth 3423)! The convention is from the 13-16th, help spread the word. Come by the booth to check out the sketch cards I’ll be making, the Odd Quartet prints and shirts, and the free hugs/high fives we’ll be giving out. There may also be free candy and Valentine cards on Thursday for the people who stop by the booth.