Took
awhile, I wasn't a natural prodigy, but I kept at it and before
long I was able to play and entertain people with my music.
Chapter
2:
In
my early days I was fortunate enough to be able to go to many
of the local elementary and middle schools during the day and
give concerts and talks on learning music and performing music
as a vocation, and having fun with music. School districts knew
that Music makes kids smarter and the schools would hire me to
come and inspire the kids to play a musical instrument and give
these talks. I was a hungry young and eager performer, needless
to say, I played a lot of grade schools and Jr. High Schools.
I also began teaching music lessons. I think I gave a couple thousand
music lessons during those years. I built up a book of private
lessons-students. My niche was that i would go to them on their
schedule and teach them how to learn their favorite songs. Not
just their favorite song, but HOW TO LEARN ALL their favorite
songs. People loved this and it motivated them to learn. This
wasn't some dreary boring way to learn music, this was fun and
inspiring. Once I knew I had something, I used the power of the
pen and got a few newspapers to write some intriguing articles
about the "Juggling Musical Instrumentalist" (I, unfortunately
was also a juggling geek you hired to juggle and do tricks for
the kids at those soccer parties) A few articles later and I had
a full book of business. I loved teaching but I really wanted
to perform more.
Chapter
3:
I
liked working the festivals, street fairs, coffee shops, and street
corners for a living. I liked working close up to the people.
I seemed to work lots of gigs where I was basically a roaming
street musician taking requests. I didn't plan it that way, it
just happened. I also went through a period of about 10 years
where I worked steady stream of bars and clubs all over Southern
California. Logged in 2,500 gigs at about 250 gigs per year on
average. Played mostly as a single, but had and still do have
a band that plays weekly. I've also played with some really amazing
musicians who taught me alot along the way. Guys like Keary Keefer,
Chris Cram, Bob Boulding, Scott Huckaby, Gerry Manning, Scott
Schoeffel, Martin Gerschwitz, Bernie Pershey, Jim Stacey, Jeff
Briney, Craig Colley and many more. Each one has contributed to
my musical education.
Chapter
4:
I
discovered along the way that just about everybody loves music.
And just about everybody wants to know how to play a musical instrument.
And if they believed they could learn it and play their favorite
songs, they would do so. But they don't know where to start, where
to begin. See I, like most of you, was not born a musical genius.
I had to work at it. And I started from scratch and basically
learned it from the streets and hundreds if not thousands of books
and songs and pieces of literature and gigs.
Chapter
5:
So
I began building this library back in the 1987. I used it as a
resource for teaching music to everyday people and myself included.
By the early nineties I had amassed over 10,000 record albums
and 5,000 pieces of sheet music. I was using the Library to help
me learn songs and earn a living as a clubin' musician. I also
used it to teach other people how to play and write songs. I've
learned hundreds of songs and taught thousands of people how to
play music using this Library.
Chapter
6:
One
day while ocean swimming about a mile off Dana Point, California,
I got this idea. What if I could put this entire Library online.
The Library could be accessible over the Internet. People from
all over the world could learn music online, just as they did
in the original Danman's Music Library. I watched hundreds of
everyday people come to Danman's Music Library and go away with
the ability to speak the language of music. What if we could provide
a path for anyone, anywhere, to learn how to play music? To enable
anybody to fulfill their passion and play music themselves?
Chapter
7:
In
1994, I built myself a Intel 486-66 PC from used parts left behind
from a departed CD Rom company, had a Sigma Chi Fraternity brother
loan me enough money for 32 megs of ram and a 28.8 modem. Ram
costs $50.00 per meg back then. I convinced my friend Jack to
help me build the Library's 1st website using Windows notepad
and old fashioned html code. Then Jack snuck it on tis Real Estate
Company's server. Jack taught me all about FTP'ing and Server
Management and DNS routers and also showed me how to find music
learning files on the internet and how to convert my existing
Library to this new digital format.. Along with a free ftp program
he gave me and a borrowed camera from a guy I met in a bar named
"Bud" I began to film music lessons, convert sheet music
pieces to digital files and gather and create everything else
I could find on learning music and teaching music using the internet.
Chapter
8:
In
the late 90's, I got serious about using video over the web and
began shooting and cataloging an online database of hundreds of
short video clip music lessons taught by real people demonstrating
and explaining each lesson topic.
Chapter
9:
It's
now 2001 and there are over 3,000 different video music lessons
cataloged in Danman's Music Library. I've added a lesson plans
database where the video and sheet music files are combined and
a sheet music-notation library too.
1000's
of pieces of musical notation for the piano, violin, flute and
more. The notation and sound file are included together. This
has proved an excellent resource for K thru 12 school music programs.
Chapter
10:
I
experimented with many different ways to deliver this content
to people watching over their computers. I found lots of ways
that didn't work, and some that did work.
I
also found that people learn music in many different ways. Some
use their eyes while others use their ears. Some use motion patterns
and muscle repetition while others used a combination of some
or all.
Chapter
11:
Some
people learned music only by reading it using notes printed on
a page. And others couldn't read a note but could play their fannies
off. Others learned music by reading tablature for guitar and
listening to the recordings over and over.
Chapter
12:
What
was very clear, was that there is no right or wrong way to learn
how to play music, as long as the method kept the enthusiasm up.
As long as you did not quit, your method was a winner.
Conclusion:
What
I'm attempting to do here is to provide a primary and supplementary
music learning resource and system so that students, teachers
and parents can be assured of the most maximum progress in all
their musical studies.
Thanks
for visiting and remember, music makes you smarter!