gearpipe.org

This is the first installment in what I hope to be a weekly feature. If you follow me on Twitter (and if you don’t, you can follow me here: Twitter.com/GearPipeDotOrg) you know I tweet about a lot of ongoing promotions to help support music education. These are things that don’t take a ton of effort…that you can do as part of your everyday life.

In addition, I also link to a lot of other useful information. The problem with Twitter is that you can easily miss what people are tweeting about. So, I thought I’d post a weekly run-down of the things I think you should take a look at.

• Disney and Scholastic have teamed up to put together a two-part music appreciation lesson plan focusing on the jazz music in the new Walt Disney Pictures’ movie The Princess And The Frog. This is geared toward grades 4-6. Lesson 1 teaches students about the sounds of New Orleans jazz, its origins, and its influences. Lesson 2 explains the history and essential role of jazz vocalists and how they have both influenced and been influenced by jazz instrumentalists. They are also running a teacher sweepstakes, in which you can win a trip to Disney Jazz Celebration at Lake Buena Vista, FL.
• Oil up to save the music! Through the end of October, Pennzoil and VH1 Save The Music are teaming up on a promotion. During the “Play the Music. Save the Music” promotion, consumers who purchase any Pennzoil oil change from participating installers, can receive up to 46 free music downloads plus up to a $15 service certificate (mail-in offer). Through this unique program, Pennzoil will donate $60,000 to the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. Check out the details.
• Woodwind and Brasswind is running a great giveaway that will appeal to music teachers. You can win a Buffet Crampon Greenline 1193 Prestige Low C Bass Clarinet worth over $9,000. The winner will also receive a $1,000 WW&BW gift card for their school. You can enter this contest here. This giveaway runs through October 31st.
• Woodwind and Brasswind has also teamed up with SmartMusic, the award-winning learning software with the power to transform music learning, to giveaway a bunch of SmartMusic teacher and student subscriptions. The Grand Prize winner will get 1 Annual Teacher Subscription and 20 Annual Student Subscriptions. Ten 1st Prize winners will received an Annual Teacher Subscription. You can find more details and enter this contest here. This contest also runs through October 31st.
• Finally, I need to plug the promotion we’re running this month on gearpipe.org. If you purchase anything from American Musical Supply this month, they’ll set aside 6% of the purchase price, to be donated to fund music education projects in public school classrooms through DonorsChoose.org. For your purchases to quality, please make sure you click through to AMS from a link on gearpipe.org.

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In the first gearpipe.org podcast episode, I speak with Steven Cox, CEO and Founder of TakeLessons, America’s leading source for private music and voice lessons.

We talk about the state of music education, the strict guidelines TakeLessons private instructor applicants are judged on, and even the role Guitar Hero and American Idol have had on music lesson enrollment.

In the end, Steven leaves me with a great deal of hope, telling me that “even if music (education) is cut, what’s really wonderful about music is that this is not going to stop the level of curiosity and the level of interest that people naturally have in music.”

For more information, please visit TakeLessons.com and Steven’s blog at StevenCox.com.

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Today is Blog Action Day 2009. This is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. Their aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. This year’s topic is climate change.

We all try to make small changes in our lives to be kinder to the earth. As musicians, there are plenty of things we can do within that realm to be environmentally responsible. Here are ten things I came up with. If you have more ideas, please feel free to leave them in the comments section.

Power Your Tour Bus with Biodiesel OK…you probably don’t have a tour bus. Some musicians who do, like Michael Franti, have taken this step to reduce the carbon footprint related to constant touring. If you’re just a small band driving across the state, you can still make a difference. If the drummer’s car has the best gas mileage (and still fits all of your gear), take that instead of the singer’s gas guzzler.

Write A Song About Mother Earth Jimi Hendrix once said “Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.”

Back in 1971, Marvin Gaye included the song Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) on his “What’s Going On” album. If you’re taken in by the soft melodies of this tune, you might miss the weight of Gaye’s lyrics, including “Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas, fish full of mercury” and “Radiation under ground and in the sky…Animals and birds who live nearby are dying.” This was nearly 40 years ago.

The Wiley One, a Phoenix band, has just released a song called Go Green. This is another band that powers their tour bus with biodiesel. A great example of living what you preach. You can download Go Green at the iTunes Store. Here’s a great list of other songs written about the environment.

Just Say No To Aqua-Net If you’re primping for your Friday night gig in your ‘80s cover band (or perhaps you’re still stuck in the ‘80s!), please lay off the aerosol can. I know you need your bangs to stand at attention through the third encore, but chances are some Dippity-do will keep your hair reaching for the stars, and do less damage to the ozone.
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I’m excited to announce our October music education charity: DonorsChoose.org. This is a very unique organization in that it allow us, the donors, to choose a specific project in a specific public school classroom to fund.

For instance, this Colorado teacher is trying to raise $555 to purchase ukulele starter kits for her 3rd to 5th grade students. This classroom is in a Title I school where the students typically cannot afford private music lessons. She has already raised $231 and has just $323 to go.

Or, check out this high-poverty classroom in Texas. This request has come from a pre-K through 3rd grade music teacher who want to purchase rainforest design Remo drums so her students can experience the fun of creating rhythms with their classmates. They only need $72 to fully fund this project.

What can you do to help? This month, there are two ways that we’re raising donations for this charity. First, we’ve partnered with online musical instruments retailer American Musical Supply. If you make an online purchase from AMS during the month of October, 6% of your purchase will be set aside and donated to DonorsChoose. At the end of the month, gearpipe.org readers will get to vote on the projects that we fund with the money we’ve raised. To make sure your gear purchases are tracked, please use the AMS links on this site.

You can also donate directly to DonorsChoose. All month, dozens of websites are competing to raise funds for these projects, so these donations will be tallied for gearpipe.org. Of course, this is a tax-deductible donation and you can choose the classroom project you wish to fund. Keep in mind that DonorsChoose funds all types of classroom projects, not just music-related. So, if your passion is math or science, fund a math or science project. Likewise, if you’d like to fund a project in a school in your town, you can search by city or school. Again, make sure you use our links to ensure that our group gets credit for these donations.

Check back all month and track our progress!