Disclaimer: This is transcribed using AI. Expect (funny) errors.
Mindy Peterson: [00:00:00] I’m Mindy Peterson and this is Enhance Life with Music, where we explore the ways music makes our lives better. One question that I am asked a lot is how I meet my podcast guests. I met today’s podcast guest in sort of a roundabout way. A few years ago, I interviewed the CEO of Give a Note Foundation, an organization that recognizes and supports extraordinarily innovative music teachers who are attracting students not otherwise enrolled in traditional music classes. I’ll link to that episode in the show notes. After this interview, I went on the foundation’s website to see if there were any teachers that they had recognized who lived in the Minneapolis Saint Paul metro area where I live. And sure enough, there was one. And he was very close, in fact, to the school district that I lived in. So I was really intrigued to look him up and see what he was doing and connect with him on LinkedIn and congratulate him for his success with that grant and award. Fast forward to early 2023, when Schmitt Music, where I work, was naming their educator of the year awards. The same teacher was one of the three selected teachers; I recognized his name, and got to meet him very briefly in person at the award ceremony in February of last year at MMEA, the Minnesota Music Educators Association. Then fast forward a little bit more to summer of 2023. I was at work at the Schmitt Music store in Bloomington, met a local teacher at the store (shout-out to Scott Prescott), struck up a conversation with Scott and found out kind of what he was doing and said, oh, do you know Eric Songer? He’s in the same district that you’re in. He’s doing some similar things. And Scott said, well, yes, I co-host a podcast with him. And I thought, oh my goodness, this guy is everywhere, and he’s a fellow podcaster. Oh, and just an aside. In the meantime, I discovered that Eric was also one of ten winners nationwide of the 2023 Country Music Awards Foundation National Music Teachers of Excellence grant. So 2023 another award for Eric. Here to take us behind the curtains of his innovative music teaching strategies is modern band extraordinaire, Eric Songer. Welcome to Enhance Life with Music, Eric.
Eric Songer: [00:02:27] Thank you, Mindy, it’s a pleasure to be here and an honor to be a guest on your show. You are an amazing podcaster and person and I really look forward to this evening.
Mindy Peterson: [00:02:35] Oh, thanks. I’m really looking forward to it too. A lot of your innovative programming seems to fall under the umbrella term Modern Band. So starting out, just tell us, how do you define modern band or what do you consider it to be? What are its benefits and how did you become interested in implementing these types of classes in your K through 12 setting?
Eric Songer: [00:02:58] Well, it’s interesting, the term Modern Band has been around for maybe about ten years now, but what I’ve been doing as far as my teaching goes started way before that. When I think back to how I got into teaching modern band, it really goes back to my childhood and how I got into music myself, which was, yes, I played trombone in middle school band and yes, I did everything you typically do as a middle school band student, played in the jazz band, did a little marching, but that wasn’t really my passion. My passion was popular music and I’m an 80s child, so I love Michael Jackson, Madonna, Genesis, Prince, all those great 80s pop and rock stars. And that was my avenue into music. And I was addicted to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 growing up, where he would count down the hits. You know what I’m talking about, Mindy.
Mindy Peterson: [00:03:55] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Totally, I yeah, I think we must be the same generation.
Eric Songer: [00:04:00] But, you know, obviously pre-internet, uh, you the only way you could find out the top songs of the week was to listen to that four hour program, and I’d be sitting there with my boom box and my blank cassette tapes, dubbing the debut songs off the radio. And then I took it a step further, and I wrote a little magazine every Sunday that I called Rocket Magazine. And what I did was I subscribed to USA today newspaper and rolling Stone magazine, and I’d cut out pictures of Bon Jovi and, and, uh, Bruce Springsteen and Janet Jackson and paste them into my paper and on the piece of paper into my magazine. And then all I wanted for Christmas in middle school was a copy machine, so I could mass produce Rocket Magazine and then give it to my, my classmates at school. And so that was kind of my thing. In middle school, I was the the popular music magazine dude. And in my basement, to this day, I have 250 issues of this magazine. I did it for about. Five years and I didn’t miss a weekend. So that was my thing. And to this day too, I you you can quiz me about any 80s. Well, 1983 moving forward you give me an 80 song. I can tell you what number it hit on the charts, what the follow up was, what elements from all sorts of useless data taking room. That’s a memory.
Eric Songer: [00:05:20] Be a teacher. Yeah, yeah, but it was my passion. And I realized a little bit later on that, you know, there’s a lot of kids out there. I had friends that were really into music with me, but they didn’t really want to play in band or sing in choir. But they loved music. And now that I’m a teacher, when I became a teacher, I realized that right away that there were a lot of kids in the school that I taught at that wanted to do music, and but they didn’t want to play trumpet in the band, or violin in the orchestra or sing in the choir. But they wanted to play guitar. They wanted to make beats on the computer, or they wanted to rap, and there just wasn’t a spot for them in school. So I wanted to provide an opportunity as the music teacher for those kids, and so I needed to get creative and find a way to do it. So basically, my entire 27 year career, I’ve looked for ways to involve kids that don’t want to be in the traditional music program, as well as take those kids who are in the band, choir, orchestra and give them these extra opportunities because like me, yeah, I played trombone in the band. I wasn’t really into it until I got to maybe ninth or 10th grade. But these kids are finding an outlet through popular music.
Mindy Peterson: [00:06:32] You point out in your website that music education has not changed much over the past 100 years, in the sense that the medium we teach music in our secondary schools is through choir, band and orchestra. Some schools will implement some jazz ensembles, marching bands, musicals, and chamber groups, but for the most part, music education hasn’t really changed a lot. And you believe there should be more options. And it’s pretty clear that there’s a huge benefit to attracting and engaging students in music through these programs who otherwise wouldn’t be enrolling in your traditional band orchestra choir in the K through 12 setting. So really love that that you’re offering these other options that are rigorous and relevant. They provide real world experience. It’s really great experience that could be applied to a future career, too, in a lot of situations. In fact, let’s talk about some of the different options that you provide. Deejaying. Music. Technology. School of rock. Beatboxing. Rapping. Songwriting. What are some of the other options that you offer?
Eric Songer: [00:07:44] Well, this all started in was about 20 years ago now, uh, when the movie school of Rock came out. And probably a lot of the listeners are familiar. You’re familiar? Mindi I’m sure you’ve seen it. Oh, yeah. Right.
Mindy Peterson: [00:07:57] Yeah.
Eric Songer: [00:07:57] Right. So, you know, Jet Black plays this, uh, this rocker that lives with a substitute teacher and his roommate says, you got to start paying the bills, man. And so Jet Black takes a call one day and pretends to be his roommate and accepts a long terme. Sub job. Goes to this fifth grade classroom, has no idea what to do, so he takes all these kids and turns them into a rock band. And, uh, it’s just a really cute movie that a lot of people walk away from saying, oh, that was really nice. And my wife, who’s also a music teacher, she teaches private piano and voice. We looked at each other and were like, we’re doing this like next week.
Mindy Peterson: [00:08:35] Shout out to your wife, Heidi, a fellow musician.
Eric Songer: [00:08:39] Yeah, she’s she’s amazing. So we went to our community ad program, which runs all the after school classes for our middle schools and our district. And we propose this idea. And they were totally on board. And so within a couple of weeks, we started a class that we called the school of Rock. And it was just like the movie. All these kids came in and we’re teaching smoke on the water and all these typical rock tunes, the typical grooves that guitar players learn and riffs and, and, uh, we had all these kids join and like, only half of them did I recognize from my band. So right away, there was that whole thing about, we need to get kids involved in our school music program that wouldn’t normally have an end through our traditional methods. So yeah. So that was the first class. Yeah, yeah. And so right away we noticed that we obviously had some kids that were beginners and some that had been taking lessons for quite some time or were self-taught and had taught themselves quite a bit. So we started a rock band program, which we called GarageBand. And that was, uh, in 2004. And then it just kind of started snowballing from there. I had a kid come up to me a couple years later and said, can I join your garage band, Mr. Song? I’m like, sure, what do you play? He’s like, I play the banjo and I’m like, oh, the banjo. I’m like, man, this is like pre Mumford and Sons. I’m like, what? What do you. Do. I mean, I don’t know if we can have you join the garage. I’m like, what kind of music do you play? And he’s like. Bluegrass. Duh. I’m like bluegrass. I’m like, I know nothing about bluegrass music, but we’re going to start a bluegrass ensemble.
Eric Songer: [00:10:12] And his eyes just shot out of his head and he’s like, wow, that’d be so cool. And so and all these kids started coming out for bluegrass ensemble. I’m like, what in the world? This is crazy. Wow. And then that became a country band that did bluegrass too. So we call it the Country Bluegrass Band. And then we started a hip hop group after that, and a mariachi band, and then a guitar class and music technology and production and ukulele. So it just started as I saw kids that were interested in something. I’m like, we’re going to start this. Even if I had no idea. I’m. I like hip hop music. I am definitely not somebody who can rap or is a, uh, incredible, um, all knower of what all the great hip hop artists are. But I’ve learned so much from teaching it through kids and getting to know other professionals in the twin Cities area that are also hip hop artists, or that teach hip hop, that I just jump in and I think a lot of it’s like, if you go to the traditional method of like jazz band, and you think about kids who go to college become music educators, and maybe they’re a flute player that’s never played in a jazz band, but you know that they’re going to have to teach it. You can’t tell that student you need to learn everything there is about jazz. Before you can start a jazz band, you need to start a jazz band or run a jazz band. When you get that first job and you just learn on the fly. So that’s been a lot of what I have found in doing all these after school classes so well.
Mindy Peterson: [00:11:40] And I’m sure students really admire that and respect that, that you’re not afraid to just jump in and learn as you go and learn along with them and even learn from them in some instances, but that you’re willing to just jump in and do it. And that’s great modeling for them, that you don’t have to be perfect to put yourself out there and try something they love.
Eric Songer: [00:12:03] When they’re teaching you and when when you’re more, uh, the guide on the side instead of the sage on the stage where you can just step back and let them operate. That is almost better than you running the program. Uh, because, I mean, you think about, anyway, these, these kinds of groups that I mentioned, you don’t have a director anyway in those groups. So my job in a rock band or a hip hop group or a mariachi band is to get out of the way as soon as I can and let them just run the show. So if I can let them even choose the songs, learn on their own, and then just be the person that’s like, okay, wait, I got to show you a fingering here. Oh, wait, your technique’s a little off. Um, we got to work on the balance, you know? Whatever. Then then I can step in. But I think they just take ownership over it so much more when they’re kind of. Well, then.
Mindy Peterson: [00:12:54] You’re teaching leadership skills, too. And again, those are transferable life skills that they can utilize in a job interview someday and an actual job. So that’s really exciting. And we all know how we learn so much more when we have to explain something to somebody else than if we just have it explained to us. So if you’re getting out of the way and letting them kind of teach you something, it’s being that knowledge is being integrated so much more in them because they’re having to explain it to you and maybe to their peers too. So that’s really cool. So some of these classes are being implemented in your K through 12 band director role at a public school. Some of these classes are being implemented in after school classes or summer camps through the community editor. Is that right?
Eric Songer: [00:13:44] Right.
Mindy Peterson: [00:13:46] Okay. So a little bit of both. Right. Okay. How have you seen these classes especially specifically in your K through 12 setting. How have you seen these classes engage kids who otherwise would not be attracted or maybe enrolled in the traditional school band, orchestra, choir, model? Do you have a favorite success story about a specific student or class?
Eric Songer: [00:14:10] Well, I want to just talk about a big moment. For me, this was maybe about. Oh 1314 years ago I was at a conference presenting about all these after school classes we just talked about, and there was a fellow educator who raised his hand and said, so why don’t you do any of this during the school day? Isn’t that inequitable to be doing just after school classes? Aren’t there kids that can’t come or can’t afford it? Even though Community Edge is a great job making things affordable and I didn’t really have an answer, I’m like, that’s a really good point. And so I went to my district and said, how can we start teaching these classes as part of the school day? And there’s been a little response to that. Uh, it’s hard with budgets and with schedules to add extra elective classes, as many educators know. So I really haven’t right now. In addition to band, choir, orchestra at our middle school, there’s only one other elective class that’s being offered. It’s a sixth grade music class, and I can talk about that in a little bit. But what I was told is like, well, find a way during what you have during your bands because I that’s my main job. That’s what I get paid to do. Are the concert bands find a way to implement this into your band? So that’s when we kind of came up with the firm band, and which is basically we want to keep concert bands and choirs and orchestras and jazz bands and marching bands, because that’s really effective for a lot of kids.
Eric Songer: [00:15:35] But as we were talking about, there’s so many more kids that can get involved through music by doing other things. So what I started doing was finding things like band lessons. So we’re in a district where kids can take when they’re in band, they get pull out lessons where they get pulled out of either band or another class to get a flute sectional or a trombone sectional or whatever instrument they play. And what I decided to do was give them that option. They can still do that, or they can have a lesson on ukulele each week, or guitar, or songwriting, or improvisation, or DJing, or music theory or any number of things piano, drumset, bass guitar and it’s been just amazing watching these kids come in and take lessons on different things or different aspects of music. And you might think, well, doesn’t that affect how good they get at the clarinet? I’m like, well, maybe, but they’re still playing clarinet in full band rehearsal. But maybe their real passion is guitar. And then so why aren’t we giving them that guitar experience during the school day? Let’s give them those weekly guitar lessons on top of them, playing clarinet in the band.
Eric Songer: [00:16:45] So that’s one way that I’ve added it and the second way, and there’s actually a few. But the second biggest way is kind of a big trend in education these days, at least up here in Minnesota, is to add these things called flex time or resource time. We call it wind time, which stands for what I need. And it’s it’s part of the schedule where kids can, you know, in our school it’s three days a week for 30 minutes each day. They can sign up for what they need for those 30 minutes. So maybe they need to make up a math test. Maybe they need to get some extra help in science. Maybe they have all their grades caught up. And so they’re going to go down to the gym and shoot hoops. Or maybe they can come up to the music room. And so we formed what we call win not wind because it’s called wind time. Wind ensembles, where they form their own bands and they can do whatever music they want. I help them, sometimes I arrange the music for them, sometimes I help them just learn it by ear. I’ve had groups do Disney songs, Taylor Swift songs, 80s, rock tunes, movie themes. Uh, we’ve had thrash metal bands. We had a Weird Al Yankovic tribute band. I’m not making that up. And right now we have nine.
Mindy Peterson: [00:17:56] Kids are probably coming up, coming up with these ideas. Right.
Eric Songer: [00:18:00] So I have 19 of these wind ensembles that meet once a week, and they’re all doing like about 19 songs each. 19 oh my goodness. Each one is anywhere from two to maybe about 8 or 9 kids big.
Mindy Peterson: [00:18:13] And this is middle school. So is that in your school district? Is that six seventh.
Eric Songer: [00:18:19] And eighth, six, seven eight? Yep. Okay. And during the course of the year, yeah, they usually learn about three songs. And I just along with my colleague Tanya Gabel, we just bop around and give them maybe 2 or 3 minutes of our attention each week, but then they’re there on their own, and most of the groups end up flying really high. Some some sink and and don’t make it, but they realize just how hard it is to form a band. But they’re getting a chance to do that during the school day, and that near the end of the year will take them to a couple performances and they get a chance to show off their groups. And a lot of the seventh graders continue doing it in eighth grade and learn three more songs. So it’s just really, really fun to have that as an option. So it’s outside the box thinking it doesn’t make me create another class, or doesn’t force the district to spend more money and add more elective courses. It’s a little more work for me, but I got to do something during that wind time anyway. So instead of just, I don’t know, offering extra help sessions which which we do to during that time, it’s a chance to get more kids involved, and they don’t have to be in the band to be in these wind ensembles. So for example, I have a guitar ensemble, these six kids who are doing, uh, some Latin pop music, and they’re all self-taught guitar players.
Eric Songer: [00:19:34] None of them are in band, choir, orchestra, but they’re in an ensemble that they’ve put together. And then one more success story. You asked for a success story. Yeah, I get I get 2 or 3 of these kids every year. I had a young lady two years ago who walked in. She wasn’t in band, and she’s like, I want to learn how to play the bass, the bass guitar. And I’m like, okay, uh, why don’t you come to these bonus lessons that we do? And so she started coming to these bass lessons every week, and by the summer, she was ready to audition and be part of our GarageBand program. And then the next year, I asked her, do you want to join the concert band? And she was in eighth grade the next year. And she’s like, yeah, she’s like, I’ll play bass in the band. So she played bass. And then that year she wanted to learn how to play upright double bass. So she learned how to do that. And now this year as a freshman in high school, she’s playing in the orchestra on the double bass. And that’s all because I gave her an opportunity to come in and take these bonus lessons on bass guitar. Now, she was really driven. She might have done that anyway at some point, but, uh, it was nice to get her in the door of doing it through the school and having that as part of her school day.
Mindy Peterson: [00:20:39] Absolutely. Well, it’s really inspiring to hear the creative ways that you’ve made this work, even though you you’re not in a situation where you have tons of funding and you have, uh, a school that’s saying, sure, let’s add another segment to our day and let you do whatever you want. You know, you’re finding ways to make it work instead of focusing on the obstacles. You’re really focusing on solutions and how to how to make things work for these kids. And one of the benefits beyond the music benefits is I’m I imagine that a lot of the kids that you’re attracting by casting this wider net are kids who really could be at risk for being disconnected socially from kids, and this can become a huge relational connection for them. Have you seen that to be the case with a large percentage of the kids?
Eric Songer: [00:21:33] Oh yeah. We all know how much music and the arts do for kids and building connections and making them more creative, more innovative, better team players, and just quite simply enjoying school more because we know all we need for these kids that are kind of disconnected from school and, and are struggling, um, is one connection in the school. And if I can provide that through music, then, then I feel like I’m being a successful teacher. And so I feel very strongly about that. So absolutely, Mindy, you’re right on with that.
Mindy Peterson: [00:22:06] Yeah. And that has so many spillover effects for mental health. For physical health. I mean, loneliness can have so many physical implication, negative implications. And so just creating those connections and those relational bonds is is so huge beyond academics, but with the holistic health of a kid. So I really love that. I’m just looking at my list here of all the different courses that you’ve taught and just want a quick rattle off some that we haven’t already mentioned. World drumming hip. I guess we’ve talked about hip hop music history. I have on my notes here that you’ve had student DJs start spinning hits during school lunch. Is that true?
Eric Songer: [00:22:50] Right. So as part of that bonus lesson program, we have a DJ lesson each week so kids can can come in and get a DJ lesson. I just had one today and uh, just started a new student on DJing. So and it’s it’s really cool. It’s it’s really slick today. On how that works. You just need a computer and a DJ controller, uh, digital controller. And you can start DJing music. And so, uh, very user friendly. Uh, easy for a 50 year old like me to figure out. So that’s pretty cool. But yeah. So and then we also offer an after school class too, that they can take where it’s a, it’s a production class where there’s more than just DJing. It’s actually learning how to use like digital audio workstations and learning how to song write. But DJing is a component of that. So kids can be in that class so they can come to the bonus lessons and learn how to DJ. But yeah, then we just provide opportunities, whether it’s DJ ING at lunch, uh, we do something called High-five Fridays, where on Fridays all the teachers go on the hallway and give kids high fives as they enter the school. So we’ll usually have a student DJ down there doing that. Uh, student assemblies, pep fests, concerts. We usually have DJs, so it’s just a really cool way to provide music. And quite honestly, from my standpoint, as I’m getting older and don’t like to move a lot of gear anymore, having a student DJ is a lot easier than having a student rock band perform for something. So sure. And it’s it’s life skills. I mean, we need DJs in this world, so it’s a great skill to have. I have a former student who’s a senior in high school. This year, and he has his own business, his own DJ business, and he’s out DJing all the time, making money and having a lot of fun with it.
Mindy Peterson: [00:24:22] Yeah, well, and like you said, low barrier to entry in terms of equipment needs. And these the kids now know how to work all that technology. They’re learning. So many like you said life skills and the process of doing this and again that social connection I mean just think it’s like social connection waiting to happen. If you have DJ skills, you know, you’re going to become everybody’s new best friend. And then to be able to translate that to, uh, business, whether it’s DJing in college for parties or weddings or, you know, whatever it is. So lots of great opportunities for kids who have some of that experience, some other classes that you’ve taught, movie band, garage band. We already talked about country, bluegrass, pop music experience. Any others that you want to mention that we haven’t already, uh, mentioned?
Eric Songer: [00:25:13] Um, I’ve taught a ton of them over the course of the years, and as the administration and schedule has changed, they kind of come and go. My favorite one I’ve ever done is called music in the image, which was a music and video production class, which was all about making music videos and short movies and commercials. And that was an amazing class that I dearly miss. I love teaching that class because basically every day you just gave the kids, uh, a camera and then a computer, and they would go out and create again whatever the project was again, whether it was making a song and making a music video for it or a short movie or a TV show or whatever, it was just amazing. The creativity, um, the excitement over that class and all the life skills that that taught that went way beyond making a music video or making a commercial. It was just how to work technology, how to problem solve, what happens when everything crashes, what happens when you disagree on how something should go? It was working on acting skills. Video skills? Um, it was working on the business side of things, you know, why do we do this? Why do we make commercials? Um, what? Why is it important to come up with a jingle that’s catchy? Oh, yeah. So that people buy the product. And so, um, kids to this day come back to me and say, that was the best class they ever took in middle school. So I’m doing a class called Wide World of Music, which is just basically sixth grade general music. And I like to teach that class. These are all kids that aren’t in band, choir, orchestra. So I think a lot of times as music teachers, our expertise is in, you know, Western European classical music.
Eric Songer: [00:26:54] So we teach those general music classes like that. And I always think, totally, these are kids that are not wanting to study that music, or else they’d probably be in band, choir, orchestra. So why do we teach the class like that? They’ve already learned that style of music throughout elementary school, K-5. So I take that class and I’m like, let’s do let’s write music for video games. Let’s, let’s rap, let’s beatbox, let’s create beats on BandLab or Soundtrap. Let’s learn about making music for movies. We’ll actually take a Pixar short and create all the foley sound effects and create a music that goes behind all the animation. And so it’s stuff like that where I’m like, we need to be doing that to to grab these kids. And I can’t even tell you how many kids have come up to me and said, is this class offered again in seventh grade? And it’s not, unfortunately. But now they’re joining the after school guitar classes. They’re coming to the bonus lessons that I offer to learn ukulele. And, uh, it’s just really great to see that. So and the problem is, I think a lot of times with music educators is that we haven’t been given that training, uh, in college to teach that way. Uh, it might be a philosophical issue of not thinking that’s music that we should be teaching in the schools. Uh, or it’s just it’s a time thing. We just don’t have time as teachers. And I totally understand that. Um, you gotta put in your extra time to learn about doing things like this, and that just doesn’t exist in the world of education anymore.
Mindy Peterson: [00:28:24] That brings us to another great topic, is a great segue to the topic of what recommendations do you have for college level educators who are teaching the next generation of music educators? What recommendations do you have for them for learning how to make music education relevant for those kids who aren’t already interested in Western, you know, traditional Western music? Because I remember being a kid in school. And if a teacher could make something relevant, I was interested. If it was just, this is what we’re doing because we’ve always done it that way, not really that interested, you know? And it’s such a great way to tap into that intrinsic motivation that kids have if you can make it relevant. So what recommendations would you have for today? A’s music faculty in colleges who are teaching tomorrow’s music educators.
Eric Songer: [00:29:21] Well, I think, number one, there are some tremendous music educators at the college level who are doing this already. I know several of them who are making amazing progress in this area, and I think that’s wonderful. So I think that’s I think.
Mindy Peterson: [00:29:34] You’ve done a lot with Paul Budde over at University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
Eric Songer: [00:29:38] That’s one of the first people I would name is Paul Budde. Paul is one of the most amazing human beings and music educators you will ever meet. And he is making change over in Wisconsin doing amazing things. So yeah. So yeah, there there’s the Paul Buddes of the world that that if you’re a college educator trying to do this, I would find those and seek those people out. Uh, one way to seek those people out are through places or organizations like the Association of Popular Music Education, APME, which is a wonderful organization that’s been around for, I would say, probably about 12, 15 years now. And it’s a worldwide organization of music educators, K through, um, infinite, that are just doing all sorts of creative projects in the world of popular music education. And so if you just get connected with that group, that’s an amazing place to start. Another group to look into is, uh, music Will, formerly Little Kids Rock, which is a great nonprofit organization. They have so many resources out there. Uh, their website is amazing. And you will find ways that you can teach through their resources and through their curriculum. So again, if you’re somebody who’s never done this before and has no idea where to start, that’s a great place to go.
Eric Songer: [00:30:57] Is music well and then just seek people out that are doing this. You know, there I have found so many people through. Thankfully, people like you, Mindy, that have had me on their podcasts, people that have reached out to me and I’ve made a connection then with them. And the circle is building and in the last I would say in just the last, well, since Covid, really when Covid, Covid forced us to do so many different things, including things like I’m talking about tonight, that I think a lot of us have realized that that wasn’t just something to do when we were all stuck at home. This is stuff that is really valuable. And so when it comes to working with things like BandLab or Soundtrap or other other Daws or, um, songwriting or improvisation and doing other projects that don’t involve being in a full, large ensemble, these are things that we can continue to do. So seek those people out, build that network, and just share ideas with each other. Uh, and then when you are somebody that has some great ideas, like one thing that we do, Mindy, is we do a warm up every day with our large ensembles set to like 80s rock tunes, and we’ll just go through all the different keys.
Eric Songer: [00:32:05] It starts with Walking on Sunshine, which is in concert B flat, and instead of playing the actual melody to Walking on Sunshine, we’ll play a B flat major scale in thirds, but in the back track they’re playing along with walking on Sunshine. Sure, and it goes into Jessie’s Girl and then everybody have fun tonight. They’re never going to give you up, and it goes through all these different keys and they’re playing all these scales and arpeggios, but they’re having fun doing it because they’re playing with, hey, we’re getting Rick rolled while we’re playing this, you know, A-flat major scale, you know. Well, that’s great. That’s awesome. So, um, so so then I go and share that at a conference. The next thing I know, everybody wants a copy of the 80s warm up and then the 90s warm up in the 2000 warm up. And then so we’re sharing these ideas with each other. And then the person I’m sharing it with is says, hey, song, or I’m doing this. Have you ever thought about this? I’m like, no, that’s a great idea. So you know how it works in education. You just share these ideas with each other and it’s amazing.
Mindy Peterson: [00:32:58] Yeah, well, and the 80s are huge now. I still remember when my daughter first told me she loved listening to the oldies, and I was like, oh, 50s? She’s like, no, the 80s. I was like, what? That’s the oldies now.
Eric Songer: [00:33:12] Yeah, we’re we’re old Mindy.
Mindy Peterson: [00:33:14] Yeah, yeah. Well, I’ll point out that your website includes a handout from some of your sessions at conferences and colleges where you’ve presented about next generation classes. Um, those handouts include resources, funding ideas, curriculum ideas. You have an article on your website about how to implement modern band into your curriculum. There will be links to that in the show. Notes. I know that you are available also for some of these presentations you’ve presented across the country, uh, for different conventions Nafme state conventions, things like that. You’ve also presented at a lot of colleges and universities. So if a school or an organization is interested in having you come in and speak or present, what’s the best way for them to connect with you?
Eric Songer: [00:34:02] Yeah, you can email me. My my personal email is Eric Eric at Songer Studio Comm Songer Studio Comm. And you can also find me on socials like Instagram. I’m at Eric. And you can also find me on Facebook. So, um, so any of those would be great. And then my website, Warsong studio dot WordPress.com is a great way. Great.
Mindy Peterson: [00:34:27] And you also have information about the band and curriculum that you referred to. Um, sort of your middle school band department’s new way of teaching. Uh, other elements besides the traditional band, choir, orchestra. I know we’re running out of time here, but real quick, can you tell us there’s two things I want to hear about your podcast really quick with Scott Prescott. But I also know that you are a grant wizard. And funding, as you alluded to earlier, is always a challenge for educators. Funding for programs, funding for equipment. You’ve received numerous grants. Do you have any words of wisdom for people who are looking to do more with, with being creative with grants and using that as a funding source?
Eric Songer: [00:35:13] Yes. I’m glad you brought that up, Mindy, because sometimes the number one stumbling block on doing things like this is finding the gear. And the first thing I would say is, especially with things like rock bands, R&B bands, country bands, is that there’s always a lot of people out there just willing to donate gear to your school as a tax write off, or just the kindness of their own heart, or just simply to get that drum set out of their house that’s taking up so much room that never gets used. So I can’t tell you how many people have asked me, do you want my drum set? So that’s the first step I would say is just send out an email to the families at your school and just say, hey, I’m starting a rock band program or whatever it is you’re starting, and just ask for donations, and you will probably be amazed at how much gear you’ll get. So that’s the first step. The second step I would say, is locally. So like if your school district has a foundation, that’s a great place to start. Or local charitable organizations, whether it be like the Lions Club or American Legion or anything like that.
Eric Songer: [00:36:09] Rotary, uh, that’s a great place to go as well. And then a third place to go is Donors Choose. Com, which is like GoFundMe for teachers. So you can go on to Donors Choose and say you want to get a guitar amp that costs $400. You can say, I want to get this guitar amp for my my new rock band program. And and then you just send that out to families. And when you put it on Donors Choose, it goes out to the entire country. So whenever I’ve gone on to Donors Choose, I will get donations from people I know, but also people that I’ve never heard of before and they just want to support. They’re like, that sounds like a cool program. I want to give $50 to that. So that’s a great place to go to. But then as far as other grants too, you’ve mentioned a couple like CMA give a note, just amazing organizations. I won’t even get started because you won’t stop me on how awesome those people are that run those organizations. Uh, Voya Unsung Hero is another great place to go that support teachers. And, uh, and you’ve been.
Mindy Peterson: [00:37:12] A winner of one of their awards and grants, too.
Eric Songer: [00:37:15] Yep, yep. But I would say just just go on to like a grant alert. Com site that just lists grants for educators and look for grants that support what you’re doing. And when I say support, I mean look at the description. Will this support music education or whatever you’re doing. But then look at, look and see who’s won that award the past few years and see if it’s people that are doing similar things to what you’re doing. Uh, Grant, writing is a lot of work, and you really don’t want to put in all that work. If it’s something that you don’t have a good chance of getting. So if you look up all the award winners and you’re like, boy, that doesn’t really look at what it looks like, what I’m doing, then don’t put your time into that. And then always when you do grant writing, save your answers to questions because you’ll get a lot of the same questions for future grants. And yeah, you’ll want to tweak them and write them specific for what you’re doing for each grant, but it’s sure a lot better than just starting scratch every time.
Mindy Peterson: [00:38:10] Yeah, copy and paste and then sort of edit so that it fits whatever the specifics are of that particular one. Yeah, great. Great ideas. Tell us real quick about your podcast. It’s called Pop Life.
Eric Songer: [00:38:22] Yep. It’s called Pop Life. It’s, uh, done with Scott Prescott. We do about one every month and it’s basically on popular music. And we have several different topics that we go through. We’ve done one on the 50th anniversary of hip hop. We’ve done yacht rock, we’ve done one on the year 1983 when it’s celebrated its 40th anniversary. And I think we’re going to do one on 84, because I think 1984 might be the greatest year of pop music ever. And our next one coming out, like I said, probably next week will be on one hit wonders. So it’s just an interesting episode where we just share our ideas on popular music and kind of go down memory road and, uh, just listen to a lot of great old pop songs.
Mindy Peterson: [00:39:00] Fun. Do you have a website for that, or is the best place for people to find that, just to go on whatever podcast app they use for listening?
Eric Songer: [00:39:07] Yeah, you can find it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. We do it through, uh buzzsprout.com. So yeah, you can find it on all those platforms.
Mindy Peterson: [00:39:16] Well, thanks for letting me keep you a little bit late here before I have you close things out with our codas or anything that I didn’t ask you about, that you want to make sure you squeeze in there? I know as always, I had more questions on my list than we had time for, but anything. You just want to make sure you squeeze in before we finish things up.
Eric Songer: [00:39:33] Well, I just want to say, too, that I think one of the greatest things about being a teacher is just all the connections you make with kids and the connections the kids make with each other. And I think anyone who’s listening to this, that’s a teacher or that’s thinking about going into education, you are doing one of the best jobs anybody could do on the face of this earth. And whether you’re teaching music or math or art or English or whatever it is, the kids come first. And it’s those relationships and it’s building those kids into lifelong learners who are joyful and who are just going to become amazing human beings throughout their life. And we do it through our medium, whatever our subject area is. And that’s the number one thing for me. And what I do is just teaching those kids and building those relationships and their self confidence and their drive.
Mindy Peterson: [00:40:19] Um, great inspiration. Well, as you know, I ask all my guests to close out our conversation with a musical ending, a coda by sharing a song or story about a moment that music enhanced your life. Do you have a song or story that you can share with us today? As we wrap things up.
Eric Songer: [00:40:38] My kids always get embarrassed for me when I tell this story. But in 1987, a certain singer by the name of Debbie Gibson came onto the scene. Oh yeah, and me, being this 14 year old boy, was enamored by her. Uh, not only her music, but she was kind of cute. So I had this celebrity crush on Debbie Gibson for the longest time. And when the her pop career ended in the 90s, she went on to Broadway and started traveling and did a couple Broadway shows that came to Minneapolis. And I just happened to have a good friend at the time who was a very good trumpet player, who was playing in one of the shows that she was in. And, uh, so I went to a couple of those shows and got to meet her and, uh, she was just the kindest person ever, and I was I don’t get starstruck very easily, but I did with her. Um, but fast forward to, uh, I think it was 2018. And I know that because it was the 30th anniversary of her first number one hit, Foolish Beat. And on Twitter, she announced a contest and said anyone who wants to can do a cover of Foolish Beat and put it out there on social media, and whoever does the best one will win a FaceTime with me. So we did a cover of Foolish Beat, which was this beautiful 80s pop ballad, and we turned it into an upbeat swing number. And when you.
Mindy Peterson: [00:41:53] Say we, who is.
Eric Songer: [00:41:54] This? Oh my, my wife. Okay. And a couple of my GarageBand colleagues that we do GarageBand together.
Mindy Peterson: [00:42:01] Okay. So this is all adults or was it. This was.
Eric Songer: [00:42:04] All adults. All adults. All. Yeah. And so we put it out there and sure enough, we won. And so Debbie Gibson’s manager calls me and says, well, when do you want to do this? Facetime? I said, well, here’s the deal. I’m a teacher and I would love it if she didn’t just do a FaceTime with me, but did it with all of our rock band students are in our band room and she’s like, well, let me run that up the flagpole. And so sure enough, Debbie was like, absolutely, that sounds like a blast. So oh wow. We got a 45 minute session with the one and only Debbie Gibson on a zoom session before zoom was a thing. This was right before Covid. Okay? And, uh, she got to listen to our our GarageBand kids, and she gave us some advice and kind of a little mini masterclass. And, uh, we talked about music business. She answered questions. She was just an absolute angel and, uh, was so full of information. And then when the pandemic hit, we connected again and she reached out to me and said, would you like me to give some of your students a one on one voice lesson via zoom? Oh my. Which was amazing. I mean, for her to reach out and do that. So she gave lessons to some of my students, including my own daughter at the time, uh, when she was in fourth grade. And uh, so it was just wonderful. So to now be connected with her on that level, a professional level is just amazing. And to have had that experience with my childhood musical idol, uh, was awesome. So. So there there you go. That’s one of my favorite stories as an educator.
Mindy Peterson: [00:43:33] That’s pretty incredible. And how lucky for the students who had Mr. Songer for their teacher, that’s an incredible experience for them, and I’m sure one that they will never forget.
Eric Songer: [00:43:45] Yeah, I think maybe I enjoyed it more than them, but it was pretty cool. My daughter’s okay, still talks about it.
Mindy Peterson: [00:43:52] They probably enjoyed it more. Just seeing how much you were enjoying it.
Eric Songer: [00:43:55] Yeah, yeah. Last year a couple of my students got me from Amazon, a huge life size cardboard cutout of Debbie Gibson, which still sits in my band room.
Mindy Peterson: [00:44:05] Love it. That’s awesome.
Transcribed by Sonix.ai