Friday, January 19, 2007

NAMM 2007: Portnoy Parker & Recreational Music Making

Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy will be at the NAMM show on Saturday, January 20. See Mike at the Tama booth with Kenny Aronoff and John Blackwell at 2:30 pm, then at the Pro-Mark booth with Marco Minnemann at 4:30 pm.

Parker Guitars has announced their first acoustic/electric bass guitar at the Winter NAMM show (where else?) in Anaheim, CA. Model PAB40 sports an American Black Walnut body, Parker's own Soundslot feedback suppression system, and their exclusive custom Fishman Matrix Pickup system, which delivers a more natural acoustic bass tone. For serious players only. Suggested list price is $1800 and includes a hardshell case.

NAMM Press Release: Pianos in Plano

NAMM recently sponsored an experimental new piano teaching program with some exciting results. At the conclusion of the new Recreational Music Making (RMM) piano class, nine of the 10 selected teachers indicated a desire to continue teaching RMM-type classes.

The new program was coordinated by Brenda Dillon, a local music educator with a history of teaching adult beginners at the Plano Senior Center, and selected 10 area educators to teach classes throughout the Dallas area to 58 students.

“The students were overwhelmingly enthusiastic about learning in a group,” said Dillon. “And the teachers enjoyed the new method of teaching and observed that teaching this way was not ‘dumbing down’ of piano lessons.”

The test included eight-week classes, one hour per week with two pianos side-by-side; six students seated in a semi-circle facing the pianos; solo playing being voluntary; and a primary emphasis on enjoyment. The teachers also used printed materials developed by Dillon.

These teachers and their students, as well as the Plano Sr. Center students, will be the focus of a new video that will serve as a documentary of RMM piano classes in the Dallas area. The video will be shown at a presentation at the NAMM Show, an annual gathering of the music products industry in Anaheim, Calif. It will also be included in a session on RMM teaching presented by Brenda Dillon at the Music Teachers National Association conference in Toronto, Canada in March.

Online:
www.thenammshow.com/
www.namm.org/

Posted by Mike

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