Tony Bennett sings without a microphone at the end of each concert, because of something a cab driver once said to him. Photo source: Jazz at Lincoln Center. Tony Bennett with the Bill Charlap Trio.

Tony Bennett told an interviewer that he’s still performing at 84 because: “I can’t not do it.”  The legendary vocalist will be performing Saturday night (Aug. 28, 2010) here in Philadelphia at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. David Patrick Stearns, a music critic from the Philadelphia Inquirer, did a fantastic interview with Bennett that was published in today’s paper. Below are some of the highlights from the interview, and more than a few words of wisdom from Tony Bennett:

David Patrick Stearns: I love the moment in your concerts, usually near the end, when you sing without a microphone. How did you come to do that?

Tony Bennett: Years ago when New York cabdrivers were all philosophers, I had one guy, he had a Brooklyn accent, who said, “All you guys are a bunch of bums. You use microphones. I grew up in an era when Al Jolson and Ethel Merman used to hit the back wall with their voice.” And that stayed with me. The microphone is almost like . . . an invisible curtain between you and the audience. When you eliminate the microphone, the curtain disappears. It’s like you’re visiting something really personal.

Stearns: Often, late-in-life singers maintain their voices but lose their fire for performing. They seem bored. I can’t imagine you falling into that.

Bennett: You should never be bored. In the Italian American neighborhood where I grew up, my siblings and I would entertain the family, and we were so young and cute that everybody loved us. That stayed with me the rest of my life. . . .Frank Sinatra was a great friend of mine and he made me realize that instead of being frightened of audiences, that they will help you. If you’re nervous . . . and if you want to do it right, they’ll support you. The old tradition that some audiences are cold is not true. That means the artist is cold. If the artist loves to perform and wants everybody to have a good time, the audience sees it right away. They know when you’re first walking onstage.

Stearns: How did you develop your singular jazz/pop singing style?

Bennett: I was told not to imitate singers; then you’ll only be part of the chorus. You have to imitate musicians. Find out how they’re phrasing. I like Art Tatum. He was the most unbelievable piano player. Stan Getz had this honeyed sound. I put those two together and got my own style.

Stearns: From there, you dipped into film and musical theater, but generally stuck to the concerts and recordings. In the heyday of the TV variety show, I don’t remember seeing you very often. Why is that?

Bennett: When I lived in Los Angeles, Fred Astaire would come by to chat, and he told me something that changed my life completely. Don’t make a move without care. You don’t know how quickly you can find yourself in an alley and saying, “How the heck did we get here?” If something is not completely right, I just say that I’m busy. I won’t make a move unless it’s just right for the audience and the musicians I’m performing with.

Stearns: You’ve talked about the battles with Columbia recording executives from Mitch Miller to Clive Davis, who pushed you to record music you disliked.

Bennett: Sometimes Mitch Miller would say, “You have to do this song!” And we’d battle about it. If it was real stupid I’d stay away from it. But every time I had a big million-seller, they’d say, “Record what you want.” Then I would do the American songbook. It ended up that I created this vast catalog of the American songbook albums during the years, and they never went to No. 1, but those are the ones that are still selling.

Stearns: What further recording plans do you have?

Bennett: Stevie Wonder keeps telling audiences that he wants to do an album with me. He once received the highest honor in France and he only now got around to picking it up 30 years later, so he’s a different kind of guy. Whenever it [the album] is, I’ll welcome it. Everybody’s reaction is “I can’t wait to hear it.”

When was the last time you sang ‘Supercalifragilistic – expialidocious’? I got to sing it Wednesday night with about 300 other people at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute’s Mary Poppins sing-along. What is a movie sing-along? It’s when you go to a movie and sing along with the characters on screen, of course!

I missed the theater’s Grease, The King and I, Oklahoma, and Sound of Music sing-alongs and was determined to get to at least one. So, there I was, watching Mary Poppins in a packed theater of people ranging in age from about 3-years-old to 90-something.

There were groups of disabled kids in wheelchairs, elderly couples, pre-teens, and grownups of all ages. Some of us had likely seen or sung along with the soundtrack to Mary Poppins countless times. The film version shown had the lyrics written on the screen, like subtitles, so if you didn’t remember this below, you could read along while singing:

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it
Is something quite atrocious
If you say it loud enough
You’ll always sound precocious
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins) and Dick Van Dyke (Bert).

What I didn’t remember about the song, and about the movie overall, was how, almost, subversive it was for its day (1964), and how funny it was. I didn’t remember that supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was something you could say to impress people who were easily impressed by appearances, and, of course, by big words:

He traveled all around the world
And everywhere he went
He’d use his word and all would say
‘There goes a clever gent’
When Dukes and maharajas
Pass the time of day with me
I say me special word and then
They ask me out to tea

Mr. Banks, Mary Poppins’ employer, revered order and money and was lampooned throughout the film. The poor but honorable Dick van Dyke character Bert (a chimney sweep, one-man band, and sidewalk artist) was held in high esteem.

Mr. Banks’ insistence that his son invest his tuppence in the bank rather than selflessly give it to the bird lady (‘Feed the Birds’) leads to his downfall (an amusing chain of events causes him to get fired from his job at the bank). But alas, the father experiences a resurrection (he gets rehired and also becomes a better person) – partly the result of his telling a joke to the elderly bank chairman who fired him. So as not to spoil the ending, I’ll just say the joke went over splendidly for all involved…

We first hear the joke in an utterly quirky part of the film where the song “I Love to Laugh” is introduced. (Watch the YouTube clip above and listen for the joke about the man with the wooden leg…). This scene makes me wonder how much the Zucker brothers (Airplane, Police Squad!, Naked Gun) were influenced by this particular film.

What I liked most about the evening was that the 3-year-olds, the 50-year-olds, and 90-year-olds all had something in common – we were all there to laugh, and sing.

Anyone who has ever taken a music lesson knows the feeling of dread that comes from showing up at the lesson - unprepared. But what if it was ok to be unprepared? Painting: Guitarist by David Allen.

I recently heard an adult guitar student say something that many of us have likely said at one time: “I need to cancel my lesson, because I haven’t practiced.”

The thought of showing up at a music lesson unprepared causes a myriad of emotions in people – shame, embarrassment, anxiety….and outright fear.

Music teachers are so used to students cancelling lessons that many of them charge for the lesson whether the student shows up or not.

Where did we get this idea that a music lesson was an audition of sorts that we had to meticulously prepare for each week? That we were somehow ‘wasting’ the time of the teacher if we didn’t practice the material well – or at all – in a given week?

The fear of not having enough time to practice – and showing up at lessons totally unprepared – likely keeps enormous numbers of adults from formal study of a musical instrument. Between jobs, family, children, friends, civic commitments, house chores, hobbies, Facebook, surfing the internet! –  who has time to practice an instrument?

What if you were told you could sign up for music lessons, but didn’t have to practice?

I played the guitar as a pre-teen, teenager and young adult, and then put it down. Over the years, I took a few lessons here and there. Usually, I just stopped practicing, and ended the lessons.

For the last five years, I’ve studied with Chuck Anderson (our own Music After 50 blogger!). I sometimes marvel at how I’ve not only stuck with guitar lessons for five years as an adult, but have made leaps and bounds musically I would have previously thought were impossible. How did I do it? What is the secret to my ‘success’?

Brace yourself…..Chuck told me to come to the lessons whether I’d practiced or not!

I have used countless lessons to work on the material that was given to me the week before. That’s one solid hour of ‘practice’ with a teacher assisting as needed. When I was first learning scales, I would sometimes simply practice the scales – in the lesson. I used to say to Chuck this must be pretty boring for him, and he’d say, ‘No. I’m used to it. I do this with students all the time.’

I searched the web for conversations about this very topic, and found exactly what I suspected I’d find. In a conversation thread on violinist.com, students talk about postponing lessons because they haven’t practiced. Here are some excerpts:

“I would much rather be prepared for my lessons, out of respect to my teacher and for my own self esteem.”

“I can’t help questioning my habit of wanting to avoid wasting my teacher’s time and disappointing her for lack preparedness on my part, at the same time, I also firmly believe that it is not the most efficient way of utilizing my teacher’s time or my tuition if I didn’t practice enough before a lesson.”

One lone commenter says the following, but gets little support for his views:

Why do we need to be prepared for a lesson? Sometimes [the teacher] will need to help the students through rough spots. Times when you have been sick; [times] when you have been busy. Times when you hit a plateau and [can’t] get past a problem. It seems like these are the times when you need a lesson (and [an] understanding teacher) most. This is when a good teacher shines and helps you get back on a good path in playing.

My experience with my teacher is exactly as described above. On a practical level, Chuck gets paid whether I’ve practiced or not. It’s my decision to use my time wisely or unwisely. It is only because of this lack of external pressure to practice – that I’ve made so much progress musically.

Of course I’ve practiced – some weeks more than others and some years more than others. But unless I’m sick or out of town – I attend a lesson each and every week. The discipline required in my course of study? Showing up. It is having the permission – not to practice – that motivates me to attend the lessons! And, of course, attending the lessons is ultimately what motivates me to practice! As any good teacher knows, a student’s motivation to excel comes from within. And learning how to motivate students is the hallmark of a great teacher.

If you’re talking to prospective teachers, ask them about their approach to lessons and practice, and listen closely.

Speaking of practice, I wrote a short ebook called Ten-Minute Music Practice: How to Do It and Why It Works. It’s got practical advice that is tailored for beginners, as well as people who haven’t picked up an instrument or sung in many years. It’s also great for people who have been stuck at the same musical level for years. If any of these describe you, take a look here.

Today, July 7, 2010, at noon, Ringo Starr asks us all to stop what we're doing and say: "Peace and love; peace and love" in honor of his 70th birthday. Image: "Choose Love" CD cover.

Ringo Starr turns 70 today. The former Beatle is asking people to do him this favor – at noon:

“If you’re on a bus, if you’re on a boat, at noon, where ever you are, just go, ‘Peace and love, peace and love.’ That’s your birthday gift to me. How great is that?” asks Starr in a video message on his website.

A writer named Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times talked to Ringo Starr about his milestone birthday. See an excerpt of the interview below and the full interview here. Some of the questions were silly, ‘gotcha’ types of questions; not one was about Ringo’s music - past or present. Although it would have been nice to see a question or two about Ringo’s current U.S. tour or his latest album “Y Not,” it was not meant to be. Oh well. Peace and love! Here’s the excerpt:

NYTimes: What would you like to get this year?

Ringo Starr: You know what I’m asking for: peace and love.

NYT: How are you feeling about the number 70?

Ringo: As far as I’m concerned, in my head, I’m 24. That’s just how it is. The number, yeah, it’s high. But I just felt I’ve got to celebrate it. I’m on my feet and I’m doing what I love to do, and I’m in a profession, as a musician, where we can go on for as long as we can go on. I’m not hiding from it, you know.

NYT: When you were 24 what did you think you’d be doing at age 70?

Ringo: I don’t know, but when I was 22, actually, I remember this so well, and I was playing, and there was another band, and these people in that other band were 40, and I was saying, “My God, you’re still doing it?” [laughs] Which doesn’t look funny in black and white, but it was incredible, and now I’m waaaaay past 40. My new hero is B. B. King. I have a great line: B. B. is still playing, even though he is sitting down now. But hey, I’m sitting down already. You’ve just got to get on with it. I’d like to be out there pretending I’m only 55, but I’m not.

NYT: You’ve had a few interesting things happen to you over the last year. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is taking one of your drums.

Ringo: They’re taking a whole snare drum. I’m lending it to them because, it’s well-documented, in 1964 that old Bill Ludwig, he presented it to me. I bought these Ludwig drums, and in the shop in England, the guy wanted to take the sign out, but I love everything American, the music and the instruments. So I made him leave the sign on. So I was a running commercial — on Sullivan, and all that touring of America, it said Ludwig drums. And so to thank me for that, they gave me this gold drum, and that’s the one that’s going into the Metropolitan for a year.

NYT: How does that make you feel, to have one of your possessions on display at the Met?

Ringo: Well, yeah, cool.

NYT: That’s it?

Ringo: I mean it. I’ve had a couple of pieces of clothing in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

NYT: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame isn’t too shabby, but come on, this is the Met.

Ringo: It’s cool. That’s all I can say. It’s very cool.

NYT: A few weeks ago the Vatican finally gave its approval to the Beatles. How did you feel about that?

Ringo: It didn’t affect me in any way, but I do believe that the Vatican have better things to deal with than forgiving the Beatles. I don’t remember what it actually said — it had some weird piece in it, too. That they’ve forgiven us for being, what, satanic? Whoever wrote it was thinking about the Stones.

NYT: Are you ever surprised by the unpredictable ways in which the Beatles continue to resonate in the popular culture? There’s a novel out now called “Paul Is Undead,” which imagines that you’re a ninja and your band mates are zombies.

Ringo: I only ever see the covers and the titles. I don’t read it all. But it’s always on. There’s nothing we can do about that. What’s more interesting to me is that our records are still coming out. And they’re the same records and the new generation gets to hear them, and as far as that’s concerned, that’s the most important thing to me. The music we make, it’s still going on.

NYT: Do you get much chance to listen to all the Beatles covers that continue be produced?

Ringo: You have to talk to Sony about that. They have the publishing and they’ll give it to anyone.

NYT: You’re using the occasion of your birthday to give a message back to your fans.

Ringo: Yes, I want to spread the word that at noon, wherever you are — in New York, in L.A., in Paris, in London — I just pray that you’ll put your fingers up and say, “Peace and love.” I did it two years ago, it was the first time, and I did it out of Chicago because I was on tour. This year, we’re playing Radio City, so we’re doing it in New York. In Japan there were little get-togethers and it went worldwide, so that was great.

NYT: Do you think we’ve got a good chance at getting peace and love this year?

Ringo: I think the more we promote it, the more chance we have of getting it.

Mary Chapin Carpenter's new album 'The Age of Miracles' highlights the artist's gifts as a singer-songwriter rather than the hitmaker she was in the '90s.

What I have always loved about Mary Chapin Carpenter is that her music comes across as an authentic representation of who she really is at her core; at its best, it never sounds manufactured, pretentious, or striving.

She has never appeared on album covers with that come-hither look that so many female artists use to sell their material, and has only infrequently presented her fans with music that felt like a joint musician – marketing department effort.

Mary Chapin Carpenter

When I looked around to see what others thought of the album, I came upon an interview with Carpenter by Jesse Kornbluth. Kornbluth says he doesn’t hear any song on the new album that has that self-consciously manufactured “hit” quality to it, except perhaps one. Carpenter’s response:

“Looking back twenty years, perhaps the greatest struggle throughout is the struggle to be authentic. In the ’90s, when I was having great success and things were crazy as could be, there was pressure — sometimes spoken, sometimes not — not to do this or that. And I thought: who am I? The hardest time during those years was when I said “yes” to something that didn’t feel authentic to me. But that is how you learn too. I had a wonderful career with Sony, but they needed to get records on the charts. Since I started recording for Rounder, that kind of pressure has disappeared.”

Carpenter’s biggest radio hits are what brought her fame and fortune, but they were never the “meat” of her work. She is a reflective, soulful singer-songwriter to the core. Her guitar work is impressive for its mastery of simplicity. She never moves beyond a basic comfort zone with the instrument, but she’s mastered what she does well; her strumming and picking style are strong, and she lets the fantastic session guitarist Duke Levine create moods around her melodies.

At 52, Carpenter writes about topics that would likely not be on the mind of someone half her age: her return to health after a pulmonary embolism three years ago; the joys and struggles of marriage and intimacy; the non-violent protests of Buddhist monks in Burma.

I am happy that Carpenter now has the luxury to focus only on her music without the pressure of creating “hits.” Fortunately, that is what the most loyal and supportive fans respond to anyway.

Summer music camps for adults offer supportive, fun settings in which to improve on your instrument, songwriting, or vocals.

If you want to take your music to the next level, get experience performing in front of others, and just have fun, there is is nothing better than spending a week at a summer music camp for adults. There are bluegrass camps, jazz camps, guitar camps, songwriting camps, band camps, orchestra camps, chamber music camps - all geared toward adult musicians.

The camps self-select for people who are easy-going and supportive, so don’t worry that you’re not “good enough” to go. Musicians of all levels – many are beginners – play with and support each other. 

Below is a list of camps throughout the U.S. This is not an exhaustive list, and simply reflects a sampling of both well-known and not-as-well-known camps. If there’s a camp you’d like to tell us about, put the information in the comments section below this post. The comments will stay on the site permanently, and become an ‘addendum’ to this post. Enjoy; don’t forget your bug spray, flashlight, and bathing suit, and write in with your story when you come back!

Acoustic Music Camps
These include camps that focus on folk, bluegrass, songwriting, roots, blues, country, etc.

• California Coast Music Camp – Palo Alto, Calif.
• Grand Targhee Bluegrass camp -  Alta, Wyoming
• Guitar Intensives – Barr Harbor, Maine
• Hill Country Acoustic Music Camp - Kerrville, Texas
• Maine Fiddle Camp - Montville, Maine
• Meadowlark Music Camp - Washington, Maine
• Mountain Arts Gathering - Paul Smiths, New York
• NashCamp Bluegrass Camps - Nashville, Tenn.
• Pete Wernick’s Bluegrass Jam Camps - throughout U.S.
• Puget Sound Guitar Workshop - Bremerton, Washington
• Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp. Estes Park, Colorado
• Summersongs Songwriters Camps - Camp Ocean Pines, Calif., and Ashokan, N.Y.
• WUMB – Summer Acoustic Music Week - Central New Hampshire

Band Camps 
You may play traditional band music, classical, and/or jazz at these camps.

• Allegheny College Band Camp for Adult Musicians - Meadville, Pa.
• Interlochen Adult Band Camp - Interlochen, Mich.
• New Horizons Summer Music Camps - throughout U.S.

Jazz Camps
Some of the camps for jazz instrumentalists welcome vocalists as well.

• Jamey Aebersold’s Summer Jazz Workshops  – Louisville, Kentucky
• Jazz Camp West - La Honda, Calif.
• Jazz Vermont Band Camp for Grownups - Newry, Maine
• Tritone Jazz Fantasy Camps – Rochester, N.Y. and Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin
• Vermont Jazz Center Summer Program - Brattleboro, Vermont

Classical, Chamber, Orchestral Music Camps
Both the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony are offering great opportunities for classical players to work with orchestra members.

• Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Academy - Baltimore, Maryland
• Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp - Interlochen, Michigan
• Interlochen Guitar Festival and Workshop - Interlochen, Michigan
• Sonatas - Bennington, Vermont
• Strings International Music Festival - Philadelphia Orchestra Camp, Bryn Mawr, Pa.
• Summertrios – Chambersburg, Pa., and Bryn Mawr, Pa.
• SummerKeys - Lubec, ME

Jim Donio, head of NARM, the association of music merchants, doesn't believe CDs will completely disappear from the marketplace.

If you’re an independent musician trying to get your music heard by more than family and friends, you’ve likely heard that you need to get on board with social media and the digital marketplace. But you may be completely confused about what many of the newer tools can do for you or how to access them.

Wouldn’t it be great to just sit in a room and get a crash course in everything you need to know? Well, your wish has been granted! The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) is running its popular Music Business Crash Course  on May 14 and May 15 in Chicago during its annual convention, and independent artists are encouraged to attend.

The course is an affordable $29 for individual artists and students, and $99 for industry professionals (who are not already part of NARM). “I don’t think we can be much more supportive of the business or future artists,” said NARM president Jim Donio in a recent interview with Music After 50.

When NARM did the course in San Diego in 2009, one of the attendees was Jennifer Warnes,  a well-loved pop-rock singer in the ‘70s and ‘80s. (Remember “Up Where We Belong,” from an Officer and a Gentleman and “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing?).

“I said to her, ‘You’ve sung Academy Award-winning songs, and you came to the Crash Course?,” said Donio. “She said, ‘I need to learn how to compete in the business today. I still want to make my living in this business, and at this stage of my life, I need to know about digital and mobile, and how the economics have changed.’ ”
Music After 50 talked to Donio about the Crash Course; new technologies; and the future of CDs…

Leah R. Garnett (LRG): Who in the Music After 50 readership will benefit most from attending the crash course?

Jim Donio (JD): Perhaps someone who was once in the business but took time off to raise a family. Maybe the kids are off to college and they’re thinking of getting back into the business. The business has literally and figuratively transformed in the past 10 years, so I would say someone who is coming back to the business after 10 or 20 years or someone who is just starting out. Unless you only want to play music for your own enjoyment, you simply cannot ignore the changes in the current music business.

LRG: Name one of the more significant changes.

JD: Today’s music retailers are not only physical or digital stores, they are mobile music service providers such as Nokia, Verizon and AT&T. Music as a piece of content is very valuable in the mobile space. The sound quality on an iPhone is probably equivalent to that of an iPod. You can now buy music over the airwaves of your mobile service provider.

LRG: My sense is that anyone alive today who is 40 or over will continue to buy CDs into their 80s! I don’t believe that the CD will die off completely, at least for many years. What do you think?

JD: I don’t see CDs going away for the broader market. I think there will always be a desire for the physical manifestation of our entertainment. The CD market is certainly not growing, but I agree with you – I don’t think the market will ever totally disappear.

LRG: Most people are surprised to learn that digital sales have not yet surpassed CD sales. What is the breakdown?

JD: The business is about 65 percent CDs; 35 percent digital. CD sales continue to be a significant source of income for many ‘DIY’ or independent artists.

LRG: Because they sell CDs at concerts?

JD: In part, yes. A CD is one of the many kinds of merchandise that artists can sell around their music. You might have a T-shirt for sale, and several other items. You can find a vendor and create a little store for yourself. LRG: What is it about the CD that will keep it from disappearing?

JD:  People buy CDs and other music products to capture a moment in time. The leading example of that has been Michael Jackson’s death. It was a horrible, sad event, but for anyone to suggest it was a once-in a lifetime phenomenon would be wrong. A high percentage of the sales of that physical music product were people wanting to capture that moment in time, and it will happen again. There’s also big business in deluxe products for the ‘superfan.’ These are boxed sets, coffee table books, etc.

LRG: Talk about the resurgence of vinyl; what do you make of it?

JD: Vinyl has had inordinate incremental growth over the past 3 years. What it symbolizes is that there is a niche market. It is not a fad or a trend. It will probably continue because there are people who want to capture the vinyl experience. They want the physical product; the liner notes; the tactile experience of actually putting the record onto a player. Overall, it is, of course, a very, very small percentage of the business. Vinyl is mostly sold in the independent retail marketplace. For many independents, either physical or online stores, vinyl is a very significant portion of their business.

Take a look at Record Store Day. That’s April 17th. There will be a lot of unique product that is created for that day. Some vinyl records have digital cards inside. So, you get the experience of having an album but you also get the digital version. Some records come packaged with a CD. I see all of these options in the spectrum of consumer ‘touchpoints.’

LRG: You told me the market is now ‘horizontal’ rather than ‘vertical.’ Talk about what you mean by that.

JD: It means that sales of products are now occurring together. At any moment in time, you or me or any music fan we know may say, today I’m going to download a song to my phone. The next day, you could be in Target with your kids or grandkids and see the latest Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana CD, and the kids ask you to buy it. Maybe they also want a T-shirt and a doll. Next week, it could be your mother’s birthday and you’re going to buy her a Frank Sinatra boxed set that costs $125. Then, you might give your college age child a Napster or Rhapsody subscription. In the space of a few days, you may have purchased something physical, digital, and mobile.

LRG: This all sounds very good for the business overall and of course for your membership.

JD: It is. But I can’t talk about all the upbeat, optimistic things without getting back to certain realities. Even with all of the innovation we’re seeing; even with Record Store Day and the resurgence of vinyl, and all of the creativity on the physical side, millions of people are making the choice to not pay for anything. The percentage of people who pay for music has dropped dramatically in the last 10 years;  it’s really scary. Comparatively speaking, there’s a much smaller population of people who are willing to pay for music. The unbridled, rampant theft of intellectual property has decimated the music business and the marketplace. I’m not saying technology is bad and that downloading is bad. While they enable the theft, they are also incredible tools for marketing and discovery. We can now gain access to music on a worldwide basis we never would have heard. This is not a U.S. problem, but a global problem. It’s not just music, but books and movies as well.

LRG: It’s a hard problem to solve.

JD: I certainly don’t want to turn people away from learning more about the business! If you’re producing and creating really good music; if you have a particular niche, genre, age group or geographic group that you serve; if it brings you enjoyment and you can make money from it, come out to the Crash Course and learn the new tools of the trade, and benefit from them.

LRG: You earlier mentioned that there is and will be a market for people to own physical products (CDs, DVDs, etc.) of artists who have passed away; what about artists living and working now?

JD:  Susan Boyle has sold 4 million CDs and counting. Here’s this woman who pops up on a UK talent show. She’s 48 years old. She always wanted to be in the music business, but never got a break. She lived a secluded life with her mother and cat in Scotland. She breaks onto the world scene. She gets on YouTube. Millions of people see her. She comes in second at the contest. She gets signed to Sony. She releases an album around the holiday season. Except for maybe one other artist, her CD sales eclipsed those of everyone else. What’s up with that? Who is she appealing to? Absent any data, I would venture to say that if you looked into who bought her album, it was purchased, for the most part, by people her age and older. But you’d probably find a very high percentage of younger people who purchased her album to give as a gift to someone else. I would say that Susan Boyle was the poster child of ‘give the gift of music’ in the 2009 holiday season. Was her CD not the perfect gift to give a parent, a grandparent, a godparent, a teacher?

Pianist Ramsey Lewis shared his thoughts on composing and performing at a master class last week at the University of Pennsylvania.

The wonderful thing about playing music is that – as you get older – you often get better. Although playing music is physical, the greatest demands are mental: your patience, endurance, creativity, and emotions are constantly challenged.

At 74, Ramsey Lewis is one of those artists that was not only great way back when, but he keeps getting better. I was fortunate enough to attend a master class/concert last Friday that was given by this living legend. Lewis was an artist in residence for three days at the University of Pennsylvania and gave three free master classes to anyone in the community who wanted to attend. Penn’s Center for Africana Studies organized this incredible event.

Lewis, who has 80 albums, 3 Grammys, and 5 gold records to his credit, shared his thoughts on composition, jazz, classical music, the ‘smooth jazz’ radio format (and why it’s largely disappeared), and why we as listeners or musicians need to open our ears to all forms of music.

If you’re not familiar with Lewis, he is the absolute embodiment of music. Trained in classical music, gospel, and jazz, he has composed for the Joffrey Ballet (to hear clips, go to Lewis’ site  and click “audio” at the bottom); he collaborated with Earth, Wind & Fire on Sun Goddess (now you know who he is!), and hosted the popular Legends of Jazz radio and TV series.

On composing and playing Lewis says: “Don’t close out music. Don’t say this music is ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Let it influence you. The music that is not you will ‘edit’ itself out [in your own music]. You may not know how much you like a certain type of music until you allow yourself to experience it.”

At one point in the evening, the conversation turned to smooth jazz, always a touchy subject in the jazz world (ie, is it or isn’t it jazz?). In addition to hosting Legends of Jazz, Lewis was also a morning radio host in Chicago (his hometown) for a smooth jazz format. Lewis introduced his audience to a variety of artists, while keeping the ‘smooth’ format intact. But ultimately, ‘Madison Avenue’ took over, says Lewis, and the powers that be decided that ‘smooth jazz’ was not actually music but a ‘lifestyle.’ Music would simply be background as a way to sell certain cars, vacations, and other elements of this marketing-concocted ‘smooth jazz’  lifestyle.

Ramsey warned his bosses that people would quickly become bored with such an obvious marketing-driven ploy. The audience, as expected, did become bored. The smooth jazz format didn’t ultimately work, and it was dropped from numerous stations around the country.

I occasionally listened to Lewis’ ‘smooth jazz’ show when it was syndicated in Philadelphia, and I admired Lewis for his ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ attitude. He peppered the smooth format with classic jazz that helped the audience learn where some of the music originated. I think it’s safe to say that many people explored jazz more fully after hearing the  smooth, soulful sound of Grover Washington, Jr., in the 1970s.

Lewis’s latest album, Songs from the Heart, consists of all originals. It was funny to hear this master musician and composer tell the audience: “Only recently did I allow the title ‘composer’ to be attached to my name.” Lewis has written perhaps 250 songs, but they were ‘accumulated’ over time, he says; he would write two or three per album, he said, because the labels asked him to.

Now, in his 70s, he is composing music because he wants to. Among his greatest influences, he says, was pianist John Lewis, the former music director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, because Lewis was both a scholar of European classical music and the blues.

Lewis closed the evening playing his “Clouds of Reverie,” a heart-stopping classical piece, for which he got a standing ovation. To hear a portion of the piece, visit Ramsey Lewis’ site and click audio.

Tish Ciravolo founded Daisy Rock Girl Guitars, which makes lighter, smaller - and sparklier - guitars that are aimed at girls and women.

When I first went looking for an electric guitar I could use for jazz, the weight of the guitar – and not just the sound – was a factor in my buying decision. I ended up with a semi-hollow body guitar, rather than a hollow body, simply because the guitar was lighter. Although few men likely buy a guitar based on its weight, most women probably do.

That’s what Tish Ciravalo, president of Daisy Rock Girl Guitars, did when she bought her first bass guitar in high school. She returned it the next day because it was too heavy, and shopped for something lighter. 

Fast-forward to Tish the adult woman in 2000 - and the mother of a little girl. When Tish saw a picture her then one-and-a-half year old daughter drew of a daisy, Tish, who had played in rock bands throughout the ’80s, instinctively drew a neck and headstock onto the daisy. She then took the concept of a feminine looking, lighter-weight guitar to her husband Michael Ciravolo, president of Schecter Guitars, and suggested that Schecter put out a line of guitars designed specifically for girls and women.

It took some time for the guitars to gain acceptance. But now, 10 years later, Daisy Rock Girl Guitars, distributed by Alfred Music Publishing, has sold 150,000 guitars in 26 countries and Ciravolo hopes to put a guitar (which is often pink and sparkly) into the hands of every girl who wants one.

But are marketing pink, sparkly guitars just to girls and women a form of reverse sexism? Tish thinks absolutely not. The company’s goal is to get girls, many of whom have felt left out of rock music, playing music, says Tish. The company sponsors guitar camps for girls and serves as a cheerleader of sorts for girls in bands. Tish talked to Music After 50 about how she got her start playing guitar, and how the designs of her guitars differ from what’s out there…

LRG: When did you start playing guitar?

TC: I was 15, and my best friend Barbara Haughey taught me how to play the guitar. Soon after that, I found myself in love with music, and I was touring with a band called Plateau and dating the guitar player. I hopped from band to band in the ’80s in L.A., including Rag Dolls, The Velvets (a female Psychedelic Furs-type outfit), They Eat Their Own (new wave pop), and eventually, my own group, Shiksa and the Sluts. I even had a “big hair metal phase,” with a band called Lypstik. We had a billboard on the side of the Roxy and everything. It was fun!  My first bass was a competitor’s bass, which I immediately took back to the store I bought it at the next day. I ended up with the smallest bass on the market, a Yamaha BX-1. Now I play the Daisy Rock Diamond Sparkle Rock Candy Bass.

LRG: Did you have any competitors (guitar companies aimed at women) when you started in 2000 and do you have any now?

TC: It’s shocking to me that before I founded Daisy Rock in 2000 that there were no other girl guitar manufacturers. Once I came into the marketplace other companies tried to compete, but they eventually dropped off. Daisy Rock is still the only girl guitar company on the market today. We’re proudly heading the girl rock revolution!

LRG: Is yours a word-of-mouth business or did you invest substantially in advertising?

TC: It’s a little bit of everything. We’ve never done big advertising, just guerilla marketing. I have done interviews with USA Today, CNN, and some other big media outlets, but our passion lies with sponsoring girl rock camps throughout the world by donating guitars and letting the instruments speak for themselves. Word-of-mouth is very important and we’ve even added a component on our website that allows a customer to log into the site and post their thoughts on the guitar model they play.

LRG: How much are your guitars?

TC: Daisy Rock Girl Guitars is trying to be the solution to every girl guitarist. Keeping that goal in mind, our catalog ranges from beginner models priced at $99 USD to a professional model that can go upwards of $3,000.

LRG: What colors sell best?

TC: Pink. Sparkly.

LRG: What percent of your customers are girls and teenagers and what percent adult women?

TC: Since we do not sell directly to the consumer since we are a manufacturer, it is really hard for us to know what the ages are. We think our largest growing customer is between 11 and 25 years old.

LRG: What is your best-selling guitar among adult women?

TC: Most of the older women love the Retro-H-Deluxe Ruby Sparkle and the Bangles Signature Model.

LRG: Do you provide any training to the retailers in how to sell your guitars?

TC: We had to in the beginning… it seems like things have gotten a lot better at the store level since the company started. And we still go into retail stores and make sure to connect with the managers to see if they have any damaged guitars they need to swap out for new guitars and to see that our models can be seen and accessed by the store’s customers.

LRG: What retailers carry your guitars?

TC: We are available in 26 countries and retailers small and large. Everything from your local music store to the bigger chains. You can visit our dealer locator online.

LRG: What about your guitars makes them most suitable for girls and women? Are they smaller? Designed differently?

TC: Yes. When we decided to make a girl guitar, I thought about all the things that frustrated me with my own instruments. So Daisy Rock Guitars feature a lighter weight design, and a ‘Slim & Narrow’ neck profile, so guitarists with smaller hands can easily wrap their hands around the neck to play. We also put a lot of emphasis on the aesthetics. Our guitars are available in every color from pink sparkles to black.

LRG: Do you sell only electric guitars or acoustics as well?

TC: We sell acoustic guitars, acoustic/electric guitars, electric guitars, and electric basses.

LRG: Do you still play guitar?

TC: Hell yeah! I actually just played with my band sASSafrASS on the 18th, while we were shooting a spot for Beta Records TV and we had a gig at the Joint on Feb. 28. It’s a fun group of people I work with at Daisy Rock, and we play a genre we like to refer to as “Cowboy Punk”. You can check us out on myspace.

LRG: How old are your daughters? Do they play?

TC: Yes, they both love to play. Nicole is turning 12 and plays bass, and Sophia is almost 10 and loves guitar.

LRG: What’s in Daisy Rock Guitars’ future? 

TC: Daisy Rock’s mission is to help every girl enjoy playing guitar and making music, so that’s what we intend to do. Guitars for the singer/songwriter, the metal rocker, the pop star. If there’s something missing from our line today, our goal is to make that type of guitar in the future. We are in charge of the Girl Guitar Revolution!

Gloria Hoffner, a former reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, now has a second career playing music in nursing homes.

Nearly 20 years ago, I had a guitar teacher who made most of his income playing concerts in nursing homes. I never knew such a career existed, and it was years before I met anyone else who did this work. Now, a confluence of events has made playing music in senior facilities a sought-after career – and second career – for both amateur and professional musicians.

For one, the baby boomers continue to age. Not only are there more people living in nursing homes and senior housing, the musicians themselves are aging. Many musicians have grown tired of playing in bars or venues where the pay and audience appreciation may be low. At the same time, there is a better understanding among geriatric professionals that music not only provides entertainment, but healing. It keeps people more engaged in life, with each other, more pain free, and less anxious and depressed.

Although nursing home work has been harder to get during the recent recession, it is there. Below is an interview with Gloria Hoffner of Media, Pa., who successfully transitioned from a journalism career to playing music in nursing homes and senior living facilities.

LRG: How long did you work as a journalist and what did you cover?

Gloria Hoffner (GH): I was a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer for 21 years. During that time, I covered everything from town meetings to a murder. Most of the time I covered education in the suburbs with a focus on special education and autism. I am very proud of a story that exposed a lack of classrooms designed for students with autism in Delaware County. It resulted in a state investigation and an order requiring all districts to serve students with autism within their own district schools.

LRG: What prompted you to switch careers – and play music in nursing homes?

GH: I worked at the paper through several buyouts, downsizings, and two sales of the company. So with the future of newspapers looking grim, I looked into switching careers. I’ve spent my life volunteering for various organizations so it was natural to look at my work in that area. I’ve been a registered Girl Scout since childhood and a leader; a Boy Scout leader since 1987; a church and community volunteer; etc. I played in an adult band and we played concerts once a month at local nursing homes. While playing in nursing homes, I met activity directors. Being an activity director seemed like a career that might interest me.

I took a part-time job two hours a week at a local nursing home as an activity assistant to get a feel for the work. The director at the home noticed from my resume that I played guitar and asked me to bring the guitar and play for the residents. I loved playing and enjoyed it so much that in the fall of 2006, I enrolled in a course to earn my activity director certification, with plans to complete the course and then look for a job as a director. 

LRG: How long have you played music?

GH: I played piano in elementary school, picked up guitar in junior high, and added baritone horn in high school. From high school on I played guitar at church and scouts. I taught private guitar lessons and formed a group and played professionally at weddings throughout the 1970s and 1980s.  I majored in journalism and minored in music at Temple University where I earned a B.A. I have played guitar at church services most years since 1969.

LRG: Do you have any formal training in singing?

GH: I sang in “Messiah” with the Main Line Chorus in 1985.

LRG: What is a typical day for you?

GH: I have no typical day. That is one of the things I love, as I also never had a typical day at the newspaper. Every day brings a new chance to meet people and play music. On average, I play at two locations a day. I play music for an hour at most locations.

LRG: Are you ‘performing’ or are you running interactive sessions?

GH: I do both – I play and interactive with the audience.

LRG: What songs do you play? Do you take requests?

GH: I play classic sing-a-longs, showtunes, country tunes, patriotic songs, holiday themes. I do take requests.

LRG: Are you on a stage or do you just play in a room?

GH: I play in a room usually. I bring my guitar, music stand, and an amp system.

LRG: For those who are interested in playing in nursing homes/independent living facilities, what advice can you provide?

GH: This is a very rough time due to cutbacks in nursing home budgets as a result of the housing downturn – seniors who can’t sell their homes don’t move into retirement communities – and the government is cutting back funding for public nursing homes. I’ve since discovered there are hundreds of seasoned musicians that have been playing at nursing homes for years; sadly, due to the recession, many are turning to other venues. I wake up every morning in prayer for the new day. I am fortunate that my home is paid for, my husband has health insurance for both of us, and I have always lived a thrifty lifestyle.

LRG: Did you ever work as an activity director or have you stuck with playing only?

GH: A friend said, “Why take the director’s job (three were offered) when you can play music?” I didn’t do what I naturally would do as a journalist – research. I listened to the Lord and my heart – and my husband said, “Try it for a year.”

LRG: What can someone generally charge an hour?

GH: It is so individual I would not want to say.

LRG: How many hours is a ‘gig’?

GH: That depends on the client. Usually an hour – but I’ve done up to four hours at one location.

LRG: What do you like best about your work?

GH: I LOVE working with people! It is what I loved about being a reporter – never the elections, the courts, the cops… I loved feature stories and telling the story of each individual’s impact on the world. And best of all, being a small cog that helped make a difference – eg, writing about homeless families and the response from the readers, which placed seven families in homes!

LRG: What reaction do you get from your audiences?

GH: I get smiles, hugs. I’ve had people who stopped speaking due to dementia sing all the words to a Christmas carol. I had a woman who, after months of silence, spoke up and said to her husband, “We heard that song (I was playing) at the Latin Casino,” and tell the memory in detail. I had a woman, a former scout leader, for whom I played Girl Scout songs; she had severe dementia, but she remembered me, the songs, and the event three weeks later! I’ve had people wheeled into an area for music who come in complaining of pain and leave smiling and thanking me for the music making them forget their pain.

LRG: How do you go about finding work?

GH: It is word of mouth, my website, networking. A lot of musicians use agents and some nursing homes hire only through agents. I use agents, but mostly I am on my own.