Andy Zweibel

While I’m finishing up the semester and getting ready to put some posts up about my cooking experiment, here’s a little something to pass the time:

Hey elementary school teachers: don’t you ever tell me that a student “can’t do much” again. Do I make myself clear?

Happy Holidays!

Oh, and happy 100th post for me! What a roller-coaster it’s been; here’s hoping for 100 more!

A lot has happened in the month-and-a-half since my last post here. It can all be summed up in three words, however: I’m Getting Old!

While generally speaking, 21 is not an age that most would consider old, there have been a few things that have happened over the past 6 or so weeks that have made me much more aware of the fact that I’m “growing up” and soon will be in the “real world.” Allow me to list a few:

1. Turning 21 – Yes, the biggest sign of my aging hit me on the 21st of July, when I celebrated my 21st birthday. While the evening was a blast, and a lot of fun to share with great friends, one of them said it best when he noted, “it’s all downhill from here!” 21 is really the last age at which there is any “reward” for a birthday (for those of you out of country-if there are any-I am now allowed to consume alcohol), so my friend made a great point when he pointed out that from here on out, there really isn’t anything to look forward to on a birthday except the knowledge that you’ve lived another year.
2. Staffing a Band Camp - I have now participated in 7 band camps (plus one drum major camp) as a member of a marching band. In early August, however, I had the opportunity to work as a staff member for a band camp for the first time, helping a friend who recently graduated from UMiami with her second band camp as a teacher. This was a really eye-opening experience, and helped me develop my marching band teaching skills immensely. On top of that, it was downright fun!
3. UM Band Camp – I began my third year as a member of the Band of the Hour this August, with band camp here in Miami. This year, I hold two leadership positions in the band; I am the Band Captain, as well as a Section Leader for the trumpet section. It’s hard to believe that I am starting my third year with the band, and even harder to believe that I only have one year left after this one.
4. Junior-Level Classes – Since the first day I arrived on campus in 2007, I heard horror stories of the insane course load of Junior year in the Music Education program. I heard stories of people averaging 3 hours of sleep for the whole year, having to skip meals to finish projects, and having no sense of social life. While the semester has just started, it seems as though these stories may have been slight exaggerations. What really struck me, however, was the realization that all the projects I have heard the “older” Music Ed majors complain about for the past two years, the projects that classified someone as “old” once they had to do them, are now being found on my syllabi. Now, I’m the old person, who will probably be complaining about the massive load of projects an assignments come November.

All of these events, of course have been positive ones in my life, but when you put them all together, they are also a stark reminder that pretty soon, I’ll be graduating and starting a new stage of my life. Scary, huh?

In other news, the first football game of the season is just over a week away, as the Band of the Hour and the University of Miami family will travel up to Tallahassee this weekend to watch the ‘Canes take on rival Florida State in a prime-time game on ESPN on Labor Day. Keep an eye out for me on ESPN, and stay tuned for updates on this blog, and on my Twitter page!

As many of you know, I recently launched a new website, MusicEdMajor.net, geared towards providing news, resources, and tips for music education majors. This has been an incredible experience for me, and I have been fortunate enough to have seen the website receive a very warm reception by the community. The new site, however, has also created an additional time commitment for the blogging component of my life, which brings me to my point.

I began this site almost two years ago, and have published nearly 300 posts here. This had been my only home online, and has been a source of great growth in my thinking, my voice, and my writing. In the past weeks, however, I have been concentrating almost all of my blogging efforts on MusicEdMajor.net. Part of this is understandable–this site has been around for two years, is personal, and already has a readership (albeit small), while the other site is brand new, is more professional in purpose, and is still developing a readership. Does that, however, give me the right to almost completely neglect this site?

I really should clarify that statement–I am not neglecting this site, at least intentionally. I have been reminded multiple times by multiple people that I should not shift my focus entirely away from here, and have even started writing posts here a few times since the launch of MusicEdMajor.net. I don’t want to stop posting here. However, my philosophy towards blogging/writing has been that it must be something that comes from the heart, something that I’m motivated to do. Recently, that motivation has come on the professional side, and been channeled to my new site. The reason none of the posts I began were finished here over the past few weeks was that they all felt forced, they didn’t feel as though they were being written from the heart, as I feel each blog post deserves.

So how do I find the balance? I don’t want to stop writing here, by any means, but I really do enjoy my work at MusicEdMajor.net as well, and want to continue to see it grow. Will my motivation to write here increase as the school year begins in just over a month, or will the beginning of my Music Ed methods classes in the fall motivate me to write more on my new site? I don’t know the answers to these questions, and would invite your suggestions, if you have them, on what I could do about this. For now, I will make it my effort to share any exciting goings-on from my life with you here on as consistent a basis as I can.

Thank you to those of you who have been with me from the beginning for your continued readership, and thank you to those of you newcomers for taking an interest in what I have to say. Until next time…

Recently, I have done a lot of traveling, both on the road and in the air. I have become very familiar with the contents of my iPod-consisting of over 80% music and the other 20% videos, apps, and other files-during these travels. One feature of the iPod, however, that I hadn’t explored much in the past was the option of listening to podcasts. Despite the large volume of music I have, I have been listening to spoken-word podcasts almost exclusively during my trips. I subscribe to and download the podcasts using iTunes, and have configured the software to transfer the five most recent episodes of each podcast whenever I sync my iPod. The podcasts I currently subscribe to are:

• GeekBrief with Cali Lewis (the only video podcast)
• Music Tech for Me with Keith Mason
• Musically and Technically Speaking with Brenda Muench and Carol Broos
• MusTech.net’s Podcast with Dr. J. Pisano and Darren Morton

All of these podcasts share fantastic thoughts on their specific subjects, and explore their niches with excitement and vigor. Many of these presenters also have blogs in their niche, which are the premier blogs on the subjects. The content is fresh, exciting, and extremely useful to the target audience.

This got me thinking, though. What makes these blogs and podcasts so successful is the appeal they have to their target audience. This is not a surprise; most successful ventures in any field are successful because they cater to the audience that they are designed for.

My blog, however, is unique in the fact that it has a few target audiences: namely music educators and people just generally interested in my life. Perhaps my blog’s readership isn’t as high because I don’t have a specific focus, but I like it this way; I have the opportunity to write about whatever comes to mind, without having to worry about turning away readers by writing an “off-topic” post. Another unique feature of my blog, especially the Music Education Blogger side of it, is that some of my posts discuss aspects of teaching music, while I haven’t ever actually held a job as a teacher! I try to bring as many ideas and thoughts as I can to the table considering my lack of experience, but I can’t by any means be considered an “expert” in that field, like Dr. Pisano could in the field of music technology, for example.

So what am I an expert in? Realistically speaking, nothing, but I feel I have a lot of experience at actually being a collegiate Music Education student. I’m not claiming to be an expert at the content we learn in our collegiate courses, but instead I am referring to my knowledge of the experiences that Music Education students have in the collegiate level, and my involvement in the field from a collegiate perspective. Is there a market for collegiate Music Educators who are interested in more information about opportunities to take advantage of, or other suggestions for their specific demographic? I think there is; there is a even professional organization dedicated to this-the Collegiate Music Educator’s National Conference (CMENC). CMENC is the collegiate sub-organization of MENC-The National Association for Music Education, and is the umbrella organization for the FCMENC chapter at UMiami, on which I currently serve as President-Elect.

I don’t want to add another “category” of posts on my blog, though; I fear that writing on too many more subjects increases the risk that people interested in one specific topic will be turned away by the likelihood that a new post will not be on the topic they’re interested in. How, then, can I share my so-called “expertise” on the topic of being a collegiate music educator with other like-minded people?

My idea: I am thinking about starting a podcast on collegiate music education. The podcast would have an extremely loose schedule of being updated once a month, with the decision on when to do a new one being dictated by me and my schedule. Included in the podcast would be tips for college music education students on subjects such as time management and choosing a school, interviews with professors or other professionals with information to share about the music education degree process, and updates on opportunities for music education majors. Each episode of the podcast would be roughly 10-15 minutes in length.

One concern of mine is the time commitment that this would entail, but I am confident that the flexibility of the schedule, and the fact that I could post on my own time, will allow me to share my experiences with everyone while still taking care of my other obligations.

What do you think? Do you have experience publishing a podcast? What advice would you give? Are you a college student? What topics would you be interested in hearing discussed? Please leave your thoughts in the comments!

As I’ve become more active with blogging, and specifically blogging about Music Education, I have had a few opportunities open up for me. The first, of course, was when I joined Joe Pisano of MusTech.net as one of his 100 ME Bloggers in December. Another one of these opportunities has recently come up, and I am absolutely thrilled with the potential it has!

Last week, I was approached by Chad Criswell of MusicEdMagic. He sent me a Twitter message (find him at @musicedmagic) saying that has been looking to expand his writing staff, and he was wondering if I was interested in joining his staff to write about Music Education-related topics, and share my experience as a brass player and a future teacher with the site. MusicEdMagic is one of the most highly-trafficked websites for Music Education articles, so I feel truly honored to be a part of it! I will be aiming to write at least one article per week over there.

What does this mean about my Music Ed blogging here at my personal website? I will focus it mostly on personal experiences in music education, rather than the more “general” subjects I have blogged about in the past. I will try, though, to make a quick post here anytime I make a post I’m particularly proud of at MusicEdMagic. In the meantime, I would highly recommend you check out MusicEdMagic, and consider subscribing to their feed to stay updated on the latest articles on Music Education!

Oh, and be sure to check out my first post ever at MusicEdMagic, entitled “Improving Tone Quality and Musicality Through Listening”