Drum Lessons or Video Games? (By Dave Cifelli)

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I spend a lot of time awake late into the night, as my jobs as a drum teacher and professional musician usually don’t require me to wake up too early in the morning. Recently, I was watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which I watch from to time to time mostly with hopes that the show will feature the great house band, Philadelphia’s own The Roots. Their music is always soulful and impeccably executed and drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has been a great inspiration to me.

On this particular episode, actress Kate Walsh was a featured guest, talking about her shows, promoting a new fragrance--does everyone have one of those now?--and participating in the usual antics of late night television. Within the first thirty seconds of her discussion with Fallon, they came to the topic of her recent enrollment in drum lessons. (http://www.hulu.com/watch/213133/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-kate-walsh-part-1#s-p1-sr-i1)

Walsh mentions that she recently started taking drum lessons after feeling inspired by her abilities on the video game Rock Band. She goes on to say that after receiving a drumset as a Christmas gift and being convinced to “take it to the next level” by her brother, she decided to seek out a drum teacher. However, her search did not bring her to an instructor easily due to her age and beginner ability level, as most teachers are used to teaching kids. Eventually she found a teacher, who it turns out is the teacher of her friend’s kids.

As I was watching this, the teacher in me was thinking, “How odd. Why would any teacher have an aversion towards teaching any student, regardless of age or ability level?” As musicians, we are all students of music for life. A beginner student who is not a kid is perhaps not the norm, but if there is any underlying message here, it’s that you are never too old to learn something new. Musical interests should never be discouraged, especially in a time when the many distractions in the world often deplete the due appreciation that many talented musicians deserve. The more people we have understand music at a deeper level the better. Playing a musical instrument is such a fulfilling experience. After all, the reason why I teach the drums is to pass on my passion for the instrument and music in general to a student who has a comparable desire to learn.

Finally, I must address another interesting aspect of this discussion, which is that Walsh was driven to explore her musical interests after being introduced to drumming by Rock Band. I cannot tell you how many students I have had come to me as beginners who spoke the same words. It is all the more common everyday with technology ruling our world. So, I must ask, “is this good or bad?” I am no advocate of video games. I never played them. My parents decided to buy me new drum gear for holidays and birthdays, rather than the latest console and games. It is hard to say what kind of effect games such as Rock Band will have on the next generation of aspiring musicians. If any of the controller instruments are most like their actual instrument counterpart, it is clearly the drums.

Still, I don’t know where I stand on this. Though I feel video games generally have an adverse affect on America’s youth, I do appreciate that any avenue that leads a child (or adult for that matter) to a musical instrument is valid enough. I guess the point of a blog is to provoke some type of discussion. This subject is something that I feel is becoming a hot topic amongst educators, parents, and kids. I look forward to having this discussion with anyone interested, and if there is not some type of formal study done on its pros and cons already, I would imagine it is coming soon.

Let me know how you feel about these issues, by responding in the "Comments" field below.  Thanks!

Dave Cifelli teaches drums at Hunterdon Academy of the Arts in Flemington, NJ 

The Violin in My Life, Part 2 (By Russell Hoffmann)

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What was I influenced by? I have no idea – sure, my father took violin lessons with John Krauss as a junior or senior in high school only because that was when he could afford to buy his own violin – which he still has by the way. His instrument lay dormant on a shelf  in a coat closet. I never knew there was one in the house.  My mother played clarinet in the Hunterdon Symphony, a much different symphony than the one which exists today. I never heard her play in my formative years. The daily tasks of my father going to school, working, my mother taking care of the house and three active children left very little time to do anything more. Later however, I was fortunate in that they both worked with me at home, including of all things playing trios – 2 violins and clarinet in the back yard. Also, later came the Bernstein's Young Peoples' Concerts with the NY Philharmonic on television – in black and white as color was not affordable yet. Those concerts had a profound impact on my future as a musician! My parents were very supportive in many ways, eg. paying for private lessons ever since my  first  summer school, at $3.00 per lesson with the principal cellist of New Jersey Symphony, Robert Kelber, who visited Flemington once a week to give lessons. My parents took me to the Clinton Museum once a month to listen to a group of men who would sit down to play string quartets all afternoon, have a covered dish supper and continue playing until well into the evening! One day my father told me to bring my violin! I was scared to death. The men welcomed me to sit in on I believe it was a Beethoven quartet at the moment or perhaps Haydn. They played them all! Well, I lasted about 4 measures before becoming lost and struggling to find my way back. It was an eye opener! I was about 11 at the time!  

It was not as intimidating of an experience as it was an honor to be allowed to sit in to play such music I had not experienced before. I kept going back most months with my father and each time I improved. I should mention too that the quartet music was not permitted off the premises. This probably sharpened my sight-reading skills more than anything else!  As it turns out, his connection there was with the then owners of the Clinton Museum, the Marsh family. My father was a friend of the son Peter Marsh – they played violin duets as boys, Peter went on to become a professional violinist, playing with the renowned Lenox String Quartet.

While working on my doctorate, I became aquainted with the organ professor who knew Peter Marsh at University of Binghamton, NY where the Quartet was in residence. He informed me that Peter coached several string quartets then sent them out on a local circuit to perform. One of the quartets went "professional". We know them as the Kronos String Quartet. Two other experiences I can remember as a child was having attended a concert at restored Williamsburg, VA. The concert was of the Baroque and I was hooked! I could not sit in my chair, I had to be in front for a close look. A similar experience was a trip to Tanglewood attending a concert with my parents, I decided once again I had to have a close-up look at the orchestra, its  players and the music they were playing from. I was also awestruck by the conductor and of course everyone dressed in the summer attire of white jackets. Oh, by the way I learned later the conductor who I watched carefully for a long time was none other than Aaron Copland! I was about 12 at the time.

Now, 48 years since that first summer school experience, I can say I have lived my dream. My life as a musician has been nothing less than dramatic and successful. But not without arduous work and a strong sense of commitment. It is very complete as my experiences as a musician incorporate all aspects of being a musician – performance, education, as is with most. With me it has gone beyond that to include experience as a personnel manager of many orchestras in the area, founding a string quartet as playing chamber music has remained very  important to me, founding a chamber orchestra of professional musicians which has had the distinct honor of being the only American professional chamber orchestra to have performed in Spain for the Santander Music Festival in 2000 (you can easily find Newtown Chamber Orchestra on the web) and as an orchestral conductor procuring a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from the American Conservatory of Music.

I encourage all who have read this to define and then live your dream! It's quite a ride!!

Share with our readers your life's dreams, by responding to this blog posting below!

Dr. Russell Hoffmann teaches violin and viola at Hunterdon Academy of the Arts.  Request a Trial Lesson with Dr. Hoffmann at no charge to you!

My Musical Journey on the Guitar (By Robin Stone)

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The person who inspired me to start playing music was my Father. My earliest childhood memories include music in my home. My father was a guitarist and singer in a country band and there were always musicians stopping by to rehearse or just play. Music to me was a social activity. Everyone would participate in some way. The first instrument I played was a drum but I soon moved on to the guitar. My father taught me a few chords on an acoustic guitar but I wanted to rock. He bought me my first electric guitar and amplifier (I still have the amp.) when I was twelve years old. I remember learning Eric Clapton songs and playing in a garage band in those early years, but mostly I would play along with Kiss and Led Zeppelin records and pretend I was a rock star.

In Fifth Grade my family moved to Mountain Lake New Jersey. That is where I met Dave Read. I had no idea that we would become lifelong friends. We still play in a band together to this day. Dave was taking lessons with a great guitarist named Bob Pomicter in Hackettstown New Jersey and he saw getting pretty good. When we would get together and jam Dave would play the most amazing solos. I asked how I could do that and he would simply reply practice your scales. All I knew back then was the pentatonic scale but I would practice every day. Dave was studying classical guitar and learning to read music so he learned more songs and understood things about music that I just couldn’t get. He eventually began to pass along the things he learned.

I remember the day Dave came to my house with a recording of Andres Segovia and made me listen to it. I was impressed and I told him, “These guys are pretty good.” Dave informed me that it was one man with an acoustic guitar! I was knocked out! I really wanted to learn to play like that but there was not much money in my home back then so I couldn’t take lessons. I found a book in a local music store. It was Mel Bay’s Classic Guitar Method Volume 1. It came with a cassette tape with recorded examples of all the exercises. That’s how I really learned to play. When Dave came over I would play for him and he would offer advice where appropriate. I guess you could say he was my first classical guitar teacher. It’s amazing, I am still learning from him today.

When I was eighteen I had some money in my pocket so I went to visit Bob Pomicter and my guitar journey continued. I learned a lot from Bob, especially about scales and improvising. Years later Bob helped my get through the audition at The College of New Jersey. That is where I met Dr. James Day and began to get serious about classic guitar. I also quit my factory job and became a guitar teacher full time. That was in January of 2000. I have been teaching ever since. It has been an amazing journey so far. These days I keep pretty busy teaching private guitar, general music, band, and chorus at a public school. I also play classic guitar at weddings, art galleries, and corporate functions. I play in an acoustic duo, a country band and of course the Dave Read Band. I have been blessed to be able to share my love of music with many people throughout the years and now I am sharing my rock band experiences with my students at HAA. Life is good today!

Schedule a Trial Guitar Lesson with Robin at no cost to you!

Robin Stone, Guitar Teacher