Music in school dances

Many school dances have all different sort of music. Many of what is played is the “new hits”. At school dances such as Homecoming, WPA, which stands for Women Pay All or of course Prom; they hire a DJ and students can request music to be played. All of the music that is played is carefully chosen.

The DJ’s have to make sure top play songs that they think would be appropriate for teens and for a school environment. Many of the songs that “this generation” listens to is not appropriate for school.  If songs are played that staff or Mr. Kline thinks is inappropriate for school, things might go down.

           

            The songs that the students request to be played that are not school appropriate are usually just skipped over or ignored. A lot of people question it or get upset when a song that they want to be played isn’t played but when they tell people what the song actually is, it’s pretty self-explanatory why it wasn’t or isn’t going to be played.

            Although a lot of songs that many teens like are not able to be played at dances, there is still USUALLY some pretty decent music there. But don’t get me wrong there has been a couple dances where basically everything they played was absolutely terrible. But all in all school dances are normally pretty fun.

Different types of jobs in the Music Industry

            There is many different types of jobs inside the music industry and every job has different responsibilities and things to get done in order to help keep things running smoothly inside the music world. A couple examples are: Dance Instructor, Composer, Business Consultant, and a Club DJ. Each job involves things that are way different than others while some are similar in little ways, while others may almost completely overlap with just a few minor differences.

            For example a Composer, writes music for other groups, singers, orchestras can perform in front of an audience. This job is way more difficult than it sounds. For example they have to keep the style consistent throughout the whole piece, and if they are composing music for a specific group that have to write something that fits with that group. For example, they can’t write a country sounding song for a pop artist.

            While on the other hand there are Dance Instructors, which is basically exactly what it sounds like. They teach people of all ages certain moves and dances to fit with a certain song. And more than just teaching the dance they also have to come up with it on their own and know what their students can do and help make their students better dancers.

            There are also Club DJ’s which most people know what it is without explanation but for those who don’t a Club DJ is in charge of playing songs (usually at bars/clubs) to help keep the people there into it and to help make the bar make more money. Many Club DJ’s have signed contracts with certain bars or nightclubs so that the DJ’s have secured gigs to perform at that bar. It just varies on how often they perform there. There main goal is to keep the dance floor packed with people.

            The last one that I listed above was a business consultant these people have to have an insight to where a certain group stands with their competitors.

All in all there are many jobs in the music industry that you can choose from if that is the area you are interested in going into. There is almost garunteed to find a job that fits what you are looking foward to because there are so many different kind of jobs that you can go into.

http://www.media-match.com/usa/music/jobtypes/job-descriptions.php

The demands of an orchestral musician

Not very many musicians are able to become full time musicians in an orchestra. And the ones who do make it to that point have a long road ahead of them. According to Douglas Yeo (http://www.yeodoug.com/articles/text/procon.html) there are many pros and cons to becoming a full time musician. Douglas Yeo is a brass player in the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

For many instrumental musicians, getting the chance to be part of an orchestra as your job might sound like a dream come true, and in many ways it is, but you have to keep in mind all of the details to the job. For example there are many hours of practicing on your own to perfect the music you are given. And in some cases it involves some travel which can seem like a great thing, but it involves leaving for family for varied amounts of time.

“The average week for the Boston Symphony Orchestra involves four 2.5 hour practices and 4 concerts” (http://www.yeodoug.com/articles/text/procon.html ) for a new musician in the band that might seem way over whelming and might have them rethinking their choice in joining the orchestra. But some people in the orchestra might completely love it because of the chance to do what they love, play their instrument, and get paid for it.

The average salary for instrumental musicians is about $108,000 a year on the low side to about $143,000 a year for the top orchestra. Looking at the salary for one year of playing your instrument all day every day, all the hard work might seem worth it. Although it isn’t the highest paying job by far, it is a very good paying job even on the low side the salary is way good enough to make a living on.

Just like any other job that is out there for any type of person there are always pros and cons. No matter what kind of job you get or look for you will find that. For example a doctor or surgeon, a pro is the salary and you are helping a lot of people and a con is sometimes people come and they can’t help them. For an orchestral musician a pro is you get to play your instrument for many hours a day and get paid for it, and a con for this is, it takes up a lot of time and you have to have your music perfect with almost no mistakes.

If you are an instrumentalist and you love to play, keep practicing and if being a player in an orchestra sounds fun or like something you would want to do as a life-long career then go for it, the only thing that is stopping you from becoming one is yourself.

The music Industry

                Today’s music is constantly changing. Whether it be the new country song, or the new rap song. Artists are always working on new songs/music and looking for new ways to perform their music in front of a crowd. If an artist does not attract a decent crowd with their music or performance style they probably won’t last all that long in the music industry.

            The music industry is a very hard area to get into and to succeed in. There are already so many musicians, song writers, and artists out there; it is hard to find your own style. A lot of artists now a days kind of popcorn off of each other so to speak. All of the artists in a certain genre of music have similarities in their style but they usually have one or two things that set them apart, whether that be their look, their voice, or just the way their music sounds. It could even be the way they perform their music.

            There are different T.V shows that help promote singing and help get singers exposed to recording studios. Such as American Idol which is just for people who want to become a singer/song writer and want to become a performer. Or even the show America’s got Talent. Although the show is for anyone who thinks they have talent, many singers go on that show to try to make it through. People who audition for either of the shows have good exposure to people who are high up in the music industry. Especially the people who make it fairly far in the competition and who are in the top so many, when many people have been voted off.

             Although the music industry is very hard to get into it is still a great area of business. There are so many young children who want to grow up to be pop stars or rock stars or anything like that, and in reality maybe half of them will become good enough to even get the chance. But that should not stop anyone from trying, whether you are 17 or 35, if you are good enough you can go far.

            According to http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Musician_or_Singer/Salary the average salary for a musician/artist is $37,889 a year. The more popular you become as an artist the more money you will make. It is basically a popularity contest with all the other singers in the same music genre as you. 

Aspects of music

            There is a lot of important things when you are learning a new piece of music. You have to pay a lot of attention to the key and time signature to see the counting and what key it is in. The key signature tells you what notes are flat or sharp, but even though all pieces of music has a key signature, there is still accidentals throughout any piece of music that you have to watch out for.

            Another important thing to watch out for is dynamics, for those who don’t know, dynamics tell you how loud or soft you are supposed to play. Dynamics help add attitude to any piece of music. And it helps make a part more dramatic if needed.

            The style of the piece is also very important, for example ties, slurs, staccato, or legato. They all change the way the piece of music is supposed to sound. And it helps separate different phrases.

            Resting is one of the most important parts in a piece of music. Whether it be one beat or 20 measures you have to count carefully so you don’t come in at the wrong spot. And even though the rests seem stupid and a waste of time, it actually impacts the music greatly. If you play where you are supposed to be resting you just sound wrong and it makes everything else sound wrong as well.

Chair Placements

                           Chair placements are a big deal in band. Many times in marching band there isn’t really chair placements. You just have your part and you stay with those people most of the time. It isn’t until the end of marching band season and the beginning of concert band season that chair placements even become something you think of. And if you audition for Wind Symphony and get in then you already have your chair given to you.

            If you decide not to audition for Wind Symphony or if you do audition and don’t get in, then you are either in Symphonic or concert band. Concert band doesn’t really have chair placements, you just kinda sit anywhere. But in Symphonic band you have a chair placement test to determine what chair you will sit and what part you will be on.

            Although there is chair placements, it doesn’t really matter where you sit, as long as you know your music and put your all in. Yes, there are different parts, but it all reality there are not all that different. Second is usually lower than first and so on. And there are times that one part plays while the other part rests and vice versa. But all in all, all of the part are important in the band. If they weren’t there wouldn’t be the different parts.

            You can also challenge if you don’t like your spot and want to move up a chair. But the process to challenge is pretty difficult. You have to know your music very well and you can’t really mess up all that much. In every challenge if you win, you can only move up one chair. And there is a certain amount of time you have to prepare and to do the actual challenge. Challenging is basically based on your playing ability and who is better when you come down to it, but no one really thinks about that during a challenge.