"First Thoughts"  The 2011 Wyandotte Marching Chiefs show is entitled "Heroes & Villains". This year, the Wyandotte design team was struggling a bit with the concept development and asked me if I had any shows that I wanted to write.…
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All too often band and orchestra directors find themselves "preaching to the choir" (literally!), trying to convince the "already converted" of the value of music in our schools. The audience enthusiastically agrees, everyone leaves with…
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New Data Overwhelming Although I have been previously asked to document music education’s relationship to the general curricula, previous data while interesting, did not address a more broad set of variables influencing academic success.…
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Symphonic Fanfare makes an outstanding concert opening fanfare. It begins with a dramatic motive played by the first trumpet in octaves with the first trombone. This motive crescendos to a short tutti chord followed by a fermata. This…
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REVIEW 11/2010 Hal Leonard The Best Of Easy Jazz The Best of Easy Jazz -Hal Leonard Corp. 2005 - $19.95 for full score, $9.95 for piano, $4.95 for parts and $14.95 for CD. II. MS. III. 15 Jazz band charts. VI. Individual. The…
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"Essential Jazz Instructional Materials" by John Kuzmich, Jr. October 10, 2010 1. Jazz Piano Handbook - Michel Weir - Alfred Publishing - 2007 - ? II. HS/College. III. Comping/Chordal-Scalar/Voicing. Play-along. VI. Individual. Price…
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Walking Basics - Ed Fuqua - Sher Music Company - 2007 - $22 for book and CD. II. MS/HS. III. Walking bass lines. IV. Play-along. VI. Individual. Walking Basics is a knockout publication dealing with the fundamentals of jazz bass playing…
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PLAY AUDIO INTERVIEW >> Meet Tradition of Excellence: An Innovative New Band Method By John Kuzmich, Jr. September 14, 2011 This isn’t your grandpa’s band class anymore. Technology has brought exciting advances to modern…
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