Music, Education, and Technology

Marty Gold conducting.

My grandfather, Marty Gold is a pioneer in music and music technology and has always been a true inspiration to me. He is the reason I became a musician. As a child, I loved listening to him play piano. I was intrigued watching him write orchestral arrangements on a stack table by the pool, and I loved playing in family jam sessions with him over the years.

Conducting the family band.

Marty Gold has enjoyed a diverse career in music. He toured with the Korn Kobblers as an arranger/pianist in the 1940s. The 18-piece swing band was all the rage and their best-selling records played on 175 radio stations daily in their heyday. The Korn Kobblers had some of the very first music videos on record.

Marty Gold left life on the road and soon became an A&R man for RCA Records in NYC. He arranged and produced such artists as Sarah Vaughn, Peter Nero, Lena Horne, and Marian McPartland. He also led The Marty Gold Orchestra and arranged, conducted, and recorded dozens of records for RCA, Decca, and others. Some of those recordings were among the first to be in “Stereo.”

A few Marty Gold Orchestra records.

This became a theme for Marty Gold: always on the cutting edge of music technology. At the age of 70 he got a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer. He learned to use Finale music notation software at the age of 80. And now, well into his 90s, he continues to use the tools of technology in music.

When he retired from RCA, Marty Gold wrote arrangements for school orchestra and band for Warner Bros. Publications, Alfred Publishing, Carl Fischer and others. Some of the highlights in my own career have been where our musical paths have crossed. In the early 1990s, I was a music education editor for Warner Bros. Publications and as we were developing a series of Song/Activity books for Shari Lewis I was able to bring my Grandfather in to write all of the piano arrangements. Shari was thrilled to work with Marty again (he produced her records many years prior). For me, it was so exciting to be working with my grandfather professionally. Now, 15 years later we’re still working on projects together and it continues to mean the world to me.

With Father’s Day approaching, I want to thank my Grandfather, Marty Gold, for being such an inspiration to me. I am thankful for the career I enjoy in music and am thankful he modeled such an inspiring life in music when I was a child.

Marty Gold and me in 2006.

Who inspired your decision to pursue a career in music? Please share your stories.

As they saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words! The same is true for distance learning. It can take a lot of words to describe what a simple look “under the hood” will readily convey. Enter Berkleemusic Sample courses!

There are four sample courses currently available including Guitar Scales, Concert Touring, Music Theory 101, and Orchestration, and more coming soon.

To access Berkleemusic’s sample courses, click here.

I feel like the luckiest person in the world when performing a Debbie and Friends concert. Last weekend, my trio had the great honor to perform for 300+ kids, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends at the Needham Public Library in Needham, MA. It was an incredibly moving experience! Everyone was singing and clapping and making music together. Here is a link to some pictures from the day.

Music is important part of a child’s development, and sharing a musical experience provides a powerful bonding connection between parent and child.

I really do feel lucky to be able to share in those musical experiences with children and their families through Debbie and Friends!

Those of you involved in music for young children, please share your experiences here.

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Berklee Today, Berklee’s Alumni Magazine, just published a feature story by Julie Pampinella on Children’s Music.

Check it out here.

Berklee Today, Berklee’s Alumni Magazine, just published a feature story by Julie Pampinella on Children’s Music.

Check it out here.

Post Magazine’s article on continuing education opportunities for working professionals does a nice feature on Berkleemusic.

Daniel Levitin, author of “This is Your Brain on Music” has a new book entitled “The World in Six Songs.” In it, he says there are just six types of song in all music throughout the ages, and they help tell a story of music and human evolution.

Those six types are:

– Friendship/Social bonding
– Joy
– Comfort
– Knowledge
– Religion
– Love

To hear more about his findings, including some interesting studies on the body’s chemical reaction to music, listen to this ON POINT interview on NPR online. In it, Daniel Levitin shares findings about music and the brain.

Learning that’s fun is impactful and lasting. For years, Beethoven’s Wig has provided a fun path to learning about classical music for children.

Today, Beethoven’s Wig 4 was released and once again, it is where humor, classical music, and music education come together as one. And this time, to the delight of children and families everywhere, the collection is based on famous dance pieces.

The previous three Beethoven’s Wig CDs have won 40 national awards, and garnered Grammy® Award nominations in 2003, 2005 and 2007. The Sing Along Symphonies were featured on NBC’s Today show and National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Beethoven’s Wig 4 is sure to follow similar acclaim… the music is wonderful, the lyrics are so clever, funny and inventive, and the cover art is incredible: Saturday Night Fever meets Beethoven… Great stuff! Beethoven’s Wig 4 is simply wonderful and should be part of every family’s music collection and every music educator’s classroom. Highly recommended.

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A little late to the table, but I am happy to report that I just read “This is Your Brain on Music” by Dr. Daniel Levitin. Indeed, it was time well spent!

Dr. Daniel Levitin’s book is a wonderful tapestry of history, culture, science, psychology, all woven together under the theme of music and how our brain responds to and processes it!

Unfortunately, for the musically trained, a good portion of the book is devoted to explanations of basic musical elements including pitch, harmony, rhythm, and more. The reason Dr. Levitin took this approach is clear: the book was written for the lay person who does not have a working knowledge of such musical elements. That said, musicians should be prepared to skip large passages of the book devoted to such explanations.

The scientific elements were also made accessible to the scientifically untrained. I am a newbie in this realm and found Dr. Levitin’s explanations and analogies to be extremely pragmatic and clear.

Highly recommended.

Everybody’s doing it. Crossing over to the kid’s music scene seems to be a right of passage these days for rockers with a toddler or two at home. Dan Zanes (formerly of the Del Fuegos), They Might Be Giants, and many others have made the leap. On May 6, the Barenaked Ladies joined the fray and released their debut children’s record, “Snacktime.”

“Our collective kids now outnumber the band more than 2 to 1,” explains vocalist/guitarist Ed Robertson. “We set out to make a record that would be entertaining for them…not strictly a children’s record, but a record that children would really enjoy. Making the focus about what our kids like was a truly liberating process and fun for the whole band.”

Here’s a music video based on their kid’s song entitled “7, 8, 9.”

I’m a big fan of BNL and also of high-quality music for children. To me, this album represents the best of both!