Music Lessons Are Now A Tax Write Off - Children's Arts Tax Credit (CATC)

5. What programs are eligible for the CATC?
To be eligible, a program must be supervised and suitable for children. Eligible programs include:

• a weekly program of a minimum eight consecutive weeks duration in which a minimum of 90% of all the activities are eligible activities;
• a program of a minimum five consecutive days duration in which more than 50% of the daily activities are eligible activities;
• a program of a minimum eight consecutive weeks duration offered to children by a club, association or similar organization offering a variety of different activities when more than 50% of the activities offered are eligible activities or more than 50% of the time scheduled for activities offered to children is for activities that are eligible activities (if both 50% tests are not met, a prorated portion of the fees will be allowed, representing the percentage of eligible activities offered by the organization or the percentage of time scheduled for these activities by the organization); and
• a membership of a minimum eight consecutive weeks duration in an organization if more than 50% of all the activities offered to children by the organization are eligible activities (if the 50% test is not met, a prorated portion of the fees will be allowed, representing the percentage of eligible activities offered to children by the organization).

Read More Here: Music Lessons Are Now A Tax Write Off - Children's Arts Tax Credit (CATC)

Bill Stewart- One of Modern Jazz Drumming's top Drummers

As a drummer, Bill Stewart's playing is distinguished by its melodic focus, and its polyrhythmic, or layered character. To describe someone's drumming style as "melodic" would mean there is a sense that you could "hum along" with discernible linear phrases which tell pieces of a story, akin to a vocalist, pianist, or saxophonist. Stewarts improvisations favor the development and layering of motivic ideas over the raw generation of excitement or display of technical prowess. Stewart has great touch, or dynamic precision, so that his ideas are articulated with an exactness and clarity. He has also achieved a very high degree of independence of his limbs, so that not only the ride cymbal and the snare/toms, but also the bass drum and hi-hat, are free to participate as melodic "first-class citizens." One possible reason for his continued success could be that his drumming is very approachable, being mostly vamp and lick based. Moreover, budding jazz drummers find him to be a very attractive influence because he has essentially taken exercises out of Ted Reed's Syncopation (a popular drum method book) and basic bop drum licks and turned them into music by articulating them fast and cleanly. This makes him very easy to transcribe.


Read More with Youtube Links Here:Bill Stewart

Movement & Dancing

                    An important concept of my philosophy is that the stroke is the most important aspect of playing the drums.  It’s the one way in which you get to express your own personality.  My belief is that, in terms of content, there really isn’t much new to be played.  When you think of the history of drumming, almost everything has been covered.  There are certain rhythms that keep cropping up again and again because they feel so good.  So what really makes a rhythm come off and the listener respond?  It’s the way the rhythm is played.  This is one reason why, as I said in the drum lesson on Attitude, it’s good to have a predetermined about what you’re going to play.  That way, you can concentrate your mental energy on how you are playing, rather than using that energy to think about what you’re going to play.  It’s also a good reason for keeping the basic idea simple.  In terms of ideas, you may think that one idea is “hipper” or more interesting than another, but the corniest idea can sound better than the hippest idea, depending how it is played.

Read More Here: Movement and Dancing

Ari Hoenig - Musical Drumming at its Finest!!!!!!

Ari moved into Brooklyn and found himself playing extensively with a variety of groups, including Jean Michel Pilc Trio, Kenny Werner Trio, Chris Potter Underground, Kurt Rosenwinkel Group, Joshua Redman Elastic band, Jazz Mandolin Project and bands led by Wayne Krantz, Mike Stern, Richard Bona, Pat Martino, Dave Leibman, and Bojan Z.  He has also shared the stage with such artists as Herbie Hancock, Ivan Linz, Wynton Marsalis, Toots Theilmans, Dave Holland, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, and Gerry Mulligan, although he got kicked off the stage by security shortly thereafter See more here: Ari Hoenig

Drum Lesson #6 - Micing the Drums

What are some different ways to mic my drum kit?

This should help: Micing Drums

Drum Lesson #5 - Par II

Internal Hearing – Part II
Some tunes are based on vamps.  Generally speaking, when a tune has static harmony, it tends to have a rhythmic/harmonic vamp.  In many ways these type of tunes, such as John Coltrane’s “Equinox,” the vamp is the bass line. 

Read the whole article here: Drum Lesson #5 - Part II

Drum Lesson #5 - Internal Hearing

Internal Hearing
Once you have accepted the concept that you should always play off of something, the next important point is this:  there is a distinction between what you play and what to play off of.  In other words, there is often a difference between what you are hearing in your head and what you – or the band – are actually playing.  This brings us to the concept of internal hearing.  Let’s call what you are actually playing the external.  That’s what everyone can hear.  However, what you are playing off of is sometimes an internal thing.  Only you hear it in your head.  So there is a separation between what you think about and what you play.
See More Here: Internal Hearing