Oct. 6, 2025

The Sound of Gold interview with Popmatics

The Sound of Gold interview with Popmatics
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Season 1

On today's show, we get to chat with the founder of PopMATICS! Conversations with Tony Parlapiano. An online piano music teacher whom presents learning to play piano fun. He shares his theatrical mindset techniques for learning to play piano.

The Sound of Gold is broadcast live Mondays at 4PM ET / 1PM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). The Sound of Gold TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).

The Sound of Gold Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-sound-of-gold--6696013/support.

WEBVTT

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This program is designed to provide general information with regards

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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with

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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station

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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,

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legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek

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the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any

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suggested ideas.

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Hi, welcome to the Sound of Gold.

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I am excited to be here with you today and

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I have some special guests that will be joining us.

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I just want to start.

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Off by saying, the sound of Gold. The reason why

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we are doing this, why I'm doing this is I

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am a musician, I am a music teacher, and I

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want to keep music alive.

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Music. Original music is not gosh.

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It's original pieces of music that we grew up with

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that we get to compose, that we get to put together.

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Is in the real We don't use technology. Well maybe

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I'm making myself old, but we don't use like the synthesizers,

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and we don't use.

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The the looping. But I guess now with the new

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technology we do.

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And maybe I'm getting off on a confusing foot here,

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but I want to keep music alive.

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I want to keep music alive in the schools.

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I want to keep musical lives, for music alive, for

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students that want to learn instruments. I want to keep

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music alive for us musicians that want to go out

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and play at venues. I want to connect with venues

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and that have live music. I want to connect with

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schools and teachers. And that's what I do here to

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have this show. I get to connect with these great

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people and build bridges because that's.

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What we do. That's what relationships are. We build bridges

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and that's how we stay connected. And music is a

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beautiful way to keep us connected. So with that being said,

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as a musician and as a teacher, a lot of

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students that I have, a lot of friends that I

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have that are musicians, including myself, take lessons. Right So

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I've been playing for over forty five years.

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Not to give my age away, and I did have

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a birthday yesterday, not to give my age away, but

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I still take lessons. It's not about learning something. I

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just I could be one hundred years old. I'm not

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a hundred, but I could be one hundred years old

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and I could still be learning something on my instrument,

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and with sound. Music is so important because there's so

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much to learn, it's never ending, and you and I

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get to inspire each other as musicians and as students

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and as teachers. We learn from each other. So while

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I have my foot in many doors, my main focus

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is on doing the best job that I can as

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a musician, playing my instrument, and learning from others who

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are more advanced than me or who know different perspectives.

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So what I would like to say is that today

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my special guests are Popmatics, And if you haven't heard

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of Popmatics, Popmatics is a fabulous online school of thought.

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And school of training and.

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Teaching of how to approach specifically the piano and play

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songs and learn to play the keyboard in such different

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ways that I'm planning to take classes, and I'm not

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just saying that. So we have Tony Parla Piana, who

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is the founder, and we have Angela who I want

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to say Sanchez, but I'm not saying her last name, right,

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I know that, But I know Angela's here with us

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and Tony will be joining us shortly.

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Angela, are you on Sanbi? Are you sitting in with us?

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There? You are Hey, I think I'm here.

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Now, how do I say your last name? Is that Sanchez?

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Yeah, it's Senwich, So nobody can say it right the

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first time, but I always say it rhymes with spinach.

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I love it.

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You're so funny.

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So I was just kind of going off a little

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bit on how you know, as a musician, we're always

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learning and I've been playing a really long time and

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I still take lessons because it's like I learn from

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you and I learned from my students, and it's just

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it's a beautiful thing to be a student and to

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be a musician, because it's like never ending. It's not like, oh, okay,

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you know, I'm going to sign up and you know,

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be the president of this company, and then you get

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there you're like, okay, well you know that's it.

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I'm here.

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No, It's like, as a musician, you're always growing and

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always evolving.

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And I love that.

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And I love what you and Tony put together because

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it's such a fun version of our perspectives. And I'm

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not going I'm gonna let you do the talking because

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I only know so much. But I love the both

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of you, and I love your approach and even okay,

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let's put that on hold even before we get there,

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tell me how you got involved, tell me what like

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your music history a little bit like what inspired your

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part of this.

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Yeah, I'm happy too, And and before I do, I

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will just say I love what you were saying at

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the beginning, because that's one thing that Tony and I

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both embrace very seriously in this program is that we

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are students first. So we have this program, we work

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with a lot of adults, but anything that we ask

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our students to do, we're doing too. And that kind

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of goes back to how I first met Tony because

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I was a student myself. Teaching piano was something that

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I've come to later in life. I always kind of

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taught my own boys. But my background in music. I

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did grow up in a musical family, musical parents. My

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sister is a singer songwriter. But my history was really

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just the classical piano for many many years, and I

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took lessons and did all the traditional route, and then

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it was kind of an on and off thing throughout

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my life. I always came back to it, but I

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always felt like I was missing something a little bit,

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the ability to sit down and improvise or play pop music,

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play from court charts, all those things. I could play

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really wonderfully advanced classical music and all of that, but

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I wanted something different.

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And in twenty twenty, when the.

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World of music instruction opened up online, I started searching

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and all these wonderful courses and teachers and Facebook groups,

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and that's how I found Tony, the creator of Popmatics,

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and I started taking prime lessons with him, and I

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feel like that was really one of the first times

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a lot of just in my mind pieces were clicking

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together and I was starting to see things in new ways,

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and I kind of started my journey that I'm still

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on today. You know, I'm here, and there's a long

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ways to go, like you said, and it's it's wonderful

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that there is, because it's one of the funnest things

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I get to do in my life is just learning

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more and more about music. So I started studying with him,

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and then when he decided to start this online school.

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I do also have a background in instructional design, so

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in my previous life, you know, I put together trainings

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for adults, so I'm able to kind of bring that

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skill in and helped him kind of take his methodology

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and ideas and together we built this online school.

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Oh great.

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Yeah, So with that being said, for our listeners that

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never heard of popmatics, that don't know anything about popmatics,

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what would be first of all, how do we reach you? Like,

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how do we find you on the web?

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Yeah, well it's very if you can just remember that

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pop like pop music and then Maddix like mathematics. So

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Popmatics you can go to our website, you can follow

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us on TikTok.

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Those are kind of probably the two best places right now.

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But just look up our site or follow us on

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TikTok or YouTube were there as well?

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All the social platforms really.

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And what makes you?

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I know?

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But maybe our listeners don't know what makes popmatics?

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What what there?

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I find?

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There's a lot of distinguishable like little I can't okay,

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I'm not going.

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To talk for you.

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Tell us, tell us why popmatics stands out, tell us

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why why we would sign up for Popmatics, Like what's

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the approach?

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What's you know? What makes you your popmatics program different

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than just go into a regular teacher.

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Yeah it is.

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It is a very unique method, so much so that

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sometimes when we try to explain it to people they

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don't even quite understand. It really takes being an immerse

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in it to see what it is. But I'll do

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my best just to kind of briefly explain it. So

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when you think about music as a language and how

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we learn languages by listening, hearing things, and then we

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start babbling if we're a baby, and we make sounds,

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and we literally want to do the same thing with music.

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So we spend a lot of time listening and then

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together kind of analyzing figuring out what we're hearing. We

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do kind of focus on pop music, but that's very broad,

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you know, anything that's been on the radio ever, you know,

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and we do a little bit of jazz and classical too.

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But we start with listening and then we do a

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lot of creating, so you know, improvising can be an

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intimidating term. We call it creating, but it's very much

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like story based. We use a lot of kind visual

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prompts in stories. We don't obsess about letter names, we

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don't do a lot of note reading. We might bring

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those things in later, but to start, we try to

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build a very pure experience with you and your instrument,

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making sounds. Listening to them, making it simple enough that

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anybody could follow along, but people with more experience can

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do more with the instruction. So those are the two

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listening and creating or two of our class, you know,

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kind of themes. And then the third theme is understanding.

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So we do believe that you can kind of you'll

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progress faster if you have some understanding and knowledge of

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what it is that you're creating and hearing in a

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shared vocabulary.

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But Tony's lessons.

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On understanding again, aren't like anything you've ever seen through

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his all of his years of private teaching. He has

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all of these creative concepts and ways to kind of

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dig down at the foundations.

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A lot of people start high with chords.

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We start much earlier on with patterns and keyboard recognition,

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and then we kind of work your way up and

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eventually we'll get to chords and we'll get to advanced

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harmony as well. But all kind of through this very

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unique lens that Tony has developed over his twenty years

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of private lessons with students. Nice that any question that

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did that answer your question?

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Yes?

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And I don't know if this is maybe a habit

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of asking like too many questions in one sentence. So

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this might be too many questions, but I love copmatics

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approach because the.

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Many things that I've done and that I do and.

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I juggle, one of them is theater and film and

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so like anything in that genre, Like I know what

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it means.

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I understand it because I've been there. I had my

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foot in the door there. So I don't know if

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I'm giving away any secrets. But some of the things.

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That some of the ways that you guys teach deals

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with like point of view or like like stage like positions,

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and can you give us a little bit more on

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that because you'll.

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Do better than me.

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That's such an interesting question.

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Yeah, and I've been sure if I know what you're

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referring to exactly. But was this from I know you've done,

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like some of our free workshops and our course, was

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there something well you were thinking about?

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Well free workshops? First off, thank you for reminding me.

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Do we have any free workshops coming up?

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We will be specually one soon. Yes.

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Right now, when we don't have a live one running,

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we've got like a video version that you can access

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from our website anywhere. So it's like a thirty minute

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condensed version and so that's available right now, and as

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soon as we get a free one in the next

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live one up, it'll be advertised on the site for sure.

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So we try to do them every now and then.

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But got a lot of initiatives going on right now

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that we're struggling a lot of balls, but we will

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we will do one again, So get on our mailing

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list if you'd like to join one.

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But yeah, that we try to share in those just

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a little bit.

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Like I said, since we're so unique and that that

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free video class called it's called make music Easy. That's

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our tagline. We think that music should be easy. It

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shouldn't it should be something like this is kind of

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what you always demonstrate in your own music, Lisa. It

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can flow out of you effortlessly, and that's that's really

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Our goal is to get anyone who wants to experience that.

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I believe can experience that, and we can help you

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get there.

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Sure.

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Now, I guess I'm to be more general, and again

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I hope I'm not giving away secrets, but.

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Like, no, it's okay, nothing that he mentions campfire.

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So I guess being that I have some acting in

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my in my world and in my whatever you call

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it when he goes campfire, like I'm thinking, my mind

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goes I'm sitting at the campfire, like I'm out there.

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And so like my mind just goes there.

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So then when I'm playing and thinking of campfire and

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I'm like going to different like regions of the piano

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and I'm going to different optaves in different sounds, like

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it's so like I feel like a kid. I have

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so much fun with it, and you know, like, yeah,

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I mean, I don't know if everybody has that same experience.

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Who's who's taken like the campfire lessons, but it's so

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much fun. Are you Are we allowed to give away

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a little bit of that campfire like what I mean

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by that?

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Yeah, I mean of course, yeah, don't worry. There's nothing

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that no trade secrets. You can give away anything you want.

279
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But I mean, I do love what you said about

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feeling like a like a kit Like really that's our

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goal because children also naturally give an instruments.

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They just start playing and having fun.

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And you know, Campfire is the name of our kind

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of creating or improvising series, and it starts with ten

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lessons and then we build out from there. And those

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first that there is a campfire storyline, and so it's

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very story based, and we're collecting logs and here's our

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camp and here's our fire, and here's some sparks, and

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let's throw log that we use all of these metaphors

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and it is a wonderful image because it's got there.

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We're kind of specifically tying some of these feelings and

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metaphors to notes and actions on the keyboard, but also

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just the spirit of the campfire and you know, this

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camaraderie and here we are together. There's a lot of

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other kind of side stories around that metaphor that that

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we just love.

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Okay, and then what about like I know with the

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ear training. Now I have musician friends that can play

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by ear it's no problem, but they can't read music.

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So then like someone like myself, I can read music,

301
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and then I could also compose my own stuff. But

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if you ask me to play by ear, like for me,

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that's work Like it just doesn't flow for me naturally.

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And I know I've taken some of your online classes

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where'll you'll Tony will pick an easy song and we'll

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listen to it. And then as I'm paying attention and

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understanding not overthinking.

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It, I figure it out.

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So it's kind of like and I think I posted

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it a little briefly today in the introduction of today's show.

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And that's really kind of working with intervals, and I'm

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going theory based intervals where where you're.

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Just you know, forget the theory. Let's just have fun

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with this.

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So could you give us an example, maybe, like randomly,

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could we pick just like an easy song.

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Could you explain to our listeners what I'm talking about.

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I could try.

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Yeah, And well, so let me say instead of intervals,

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like I would say that we use the number system, okay,

321
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because you know, in the past people would say things like, oh,

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let's you know, get the sound of an interval in

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your head, and then every time you hear a fifth,

324
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you know, like use whatever your your song was, you know,

325
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tinkle twinkle, Okay, that's an interval, right, which is a

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musical distance. But the problem with just interval training, and

327
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this is for people with musical backgrounds, it's really hard

328
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when you're hearing a song and going very quickly to

329
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just slow down and isolate these intervals. But actually every

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note has a kind of a feeling based on where

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it is in the scale, and some people use sulfa,

332
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some people use numbers.

333
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They're both good.

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We just use numbers in popmatics because that leads naturally

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into harmony. So even just to start with campfire, we

336
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always cam vampfire.

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It's too sound.

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And later you play with them first, but later you

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come to learn it's your one or your home or

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your tonic and your three those two notes. And the

341
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more you create with these sounds and then kind of

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bring in some awareness of where they are in the

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in the scale or the landscape as we call it,

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then when you hear that in a song, you'll start

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to recognize it. And so when you hear these patterns

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and melodies, you have to kind of go slow and

347
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work in tiny pieces at first. But you start with

348
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the melody, figure out where's your camp, where's your home,

349
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and then from there you can kind of put together

350
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the other numbers and draw a map of the song.

351
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Then does that help?

352
00:17:36.839 --> 00:17:37.200
Yeah?

353
00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:40.240
Yeah, Now from what I know, and I don't know

354
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a lot, but from what I what I understand is

355
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when we work together or I will be like I said,

356
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I will be signing.

357
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Up for the like probably next month or something. And

358
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no joke I'm not saying that.

359
00:17:52.440 --> 00:17:53.200
We'd love to have you.

360
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Yeah, yeah, because I want to learn more from you guys.

361
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But you don't.

362
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You're not like, Okay, here's the sheet music.

363
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Like I've already taken lessons somewhere else and they're like, Okay,

364
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here's the sheet music. Work on like three intervals okay

365
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or three measures okay, and smooth it out, get it right.

366
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But you guys don't do that. You guys aren't like

367
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here's the sheet music. You guys are like, listen, listen

368
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to it, feel it, find it.

369
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Kind of thing is.

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That we're always going to start from listening.

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Not that I mean many of our students can read

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music or want to learn to read music, right. It's

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not either or, but there's so many places out there

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that can teach you to read music. So we're trying

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to teach you the other side of the coin, how

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to slay what you hear and so, and we do this.

377
00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:42.279
We model it together. We have live classes and video lessons.

378
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We have listening classes every day and people will bring

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in songs or we have songs and we'll just model

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it with a little section of the song and you

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start with melody. That's the easiest thing for people to

382
00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:56.039
hear normally, and then as you get better with melody,

383
00:18:56.079 --> 00:18:59.160
you'll start hearing basslines, and then after that you'll start

384
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hearing chord quality, and then eventually additional details.

385
00:19:02.200 --> 00:19:04.000
So this is a very staged thing.

386
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You're not going to come in and be able to

387
00:19:05.799 --> 00:19:08.599
analyze all the chords in a song the first day,

388
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but we start with small pieces of melodies and then

389
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work your way up. So when I started, I couldn't

390
00:19:14.279 --> 00:19:16.640
even really play a melody by ear. I could fumble

391
00:19:16.680 --> 00:19:19.319
around and find it, And now melody is easy, I

392
00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:21.960
can hear baselines, i can hear chord qualities, and then

393
00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:26.039
I'm starting to get kind of the more advanced details

394
00:19:26.039 --> 00:19:30.079
of listening. So basically by modeling and supporting students and

395
00:19:30.119 --> 00:19:32.079
helping them, it.

396
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Does take time.

397
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We make it easy, meaning it's fun and anyone can

398
00:19:36.119 --> 00:19:37.960
do it, but it does take time if you really

399
00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:40.440
want to develop that ear training fluency.

400
00:19:40.839 --> 00:19:43.640
So our program is designed to go over the course

401
00:19:43.640 --> 00:19:44.079
of a year.

402
00:19:44.839 --> 00:19:47.200
Okay, you know you don't have to do it that way,

403
00:19:47.240 --> 00:19:48.880
but you know, we kind of say within a year

404
00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:51.160
you can have basic fluency, just as you could if

405
00:19:51.160 --> 00:19:54.359
you studied a language for a year. There's always there's

406
00:19:54.359 --> 00:19:57.119
no ceiling, but you could get comfortable. We have a

407
00:19:57.119 --> 00:19:59.319
student now who just said, wow, I heard a song

408
00:20:00.119 --> 00:20:02.279
down for thirty minutes, figured out the chords, and here

409
00:20:02.279 --> 00:20:04.200
it is. I'm playing it and I'm singing it. You know,

410
00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:06.319
that's kind of our goal for anyone in the program.

411
00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:10.599
And you I was actually like maybe reprimanding myself today

412
00:20:10.599 --> 00:20:12.440
a little bit because I think it's a practice.

413
00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:14.519
Well it was my birthday yesterday, but I think it's

414
00:20:14.559 --> 00:20:16.640
a practice this weekend. And I was like kind of like,

415
00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:18.559
you know, you did practice this weekend and we have.

416
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A class tomorrow, and I'm like going over in my

417
00:20:20.599 --> 00:20:23.440
head and I'm like, okay, miss teacher. I'm like, well,

418
00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:26.200
you get what you put you get what you put

419
00:20:26.200 --> 00:20:26.720
into it.

420
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And then I'm like, okay, that's not fair. Like so

421
00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:32.319
you know, there there's no I learned this the other

422
00:20:32.400 --> 00:20:33.359
day or last week.

423
00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:36.440
There's really no balance, Like you know, we all have

424
00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:38.160
we're people, we're human, we're adults.

425
00:20:38.200 --> 00:20:41.240
We have so much responsibility, so much going.

426
00:20:41.039 --> 00:20:44.079
On that this is like and I remind my students

427
00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:47.440
this too. I should be nice to myself too and say,

428
00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:49.839
you know, it's yes, it's.

429
00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:51.000
What you put into it.

430
00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:54.559
But there's no like, there's no balance. It's a juggle

431
00:20:54.680 --> 00:20:56.839
and it's like how well can you juggle?

432
00:20:56.920 --> 00:20:57.839
Is what it comes down to.

433
00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:04.079
And so with being said, I love popmatics for the

434
00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:07.680
fact that it's just so much fun that it doesn't

435
00:21:07.720 --> 00:21:09.799
feel like, Okay, I have to go take out the

436
00:21:09.799 --> 00:21:12.000
trash kind of thing. It's just like, yay, I get

437
00:21:12.039 --> 00:21:16.799
to like escape my regular responsibilities, even for like fifteen minutes,

438
00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:18.079
just to sit down and play.

439
00:21:19.640 --> 00:21:20.759
And I'm kind of going.

440
00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:24.400
Off a little bit, but I means as a student

441
00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:27.200
point of view, other than a teacher. I mean, how

442
00:21:27.240 --> 00:21:29.240
do you look at popmatics in that way?

443
00:21:29.680 --> 00:21:31.839
Yeah, it really does feel like play.

444
00:21:31.960 --> 00:21:33.960
Like I said, I had that classical background, and when

445
00:21:33.960 --> 00:21:36.759
you're working on a classical piece, you're very focused and

446
00:21:36.839 --> 00:21:39.680
you're using your mind a lot, and it's very technical.

447
00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:42.839
You're trying to get these technical movements in your hands.

448
00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:45.960
And with pop maatics, I just I could sit and

449
00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:48.039
just play for hours. It's almost like I have to

450
00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:51.000
make myself stop because it's just it's fun and relaxing.

451
00:21:51.880 --> 00:21:53.759
If I'm creating, if I'm figuring out a song in

452
00:21:53.759 --> 00:21:56.319
my ear, it feels like a puzzle. I don't get

453
00:21:56.359 --> 00:21:58.440
frustrated like I used to because I know I can

454
00:21:58.480 --> 00:22:00.640
go get help and I've got support and whatnot.

455
00:22:00.680 --> 00:22:02.839
So it just feels that feels fun too. It all

456
00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:04.440
kind of feels like a game.

457
00:22:05.359 --> 00:22:07.559
And we do have a lot of busy adults in

458
00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:09.799
our program, so we have tried to make it where

459
00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:12.440
you can come in. We've got options for if you're

460
00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:15.119
really busy, just go watch this express video every week.

461
00:22:15.160 --> 00:22:17.960
If you have more time once a week to class,

462
00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:21.799
come every day to class. It's it's very much based

463
00:22:21.799 --> 00:22:24.920
around what you said. We all have different so sometimes

464
00:22:24.920 --> 00:22:26.839
we have busy weeks. Sometimes we have a lot of time,

465
00:22:27.039 --> 00:22:29.279
So we try to make it very flexible because we

466
00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:32.960
both have busy just like you busy schedules too. You know,

467
00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:35.599
I have a lot of my own personal music projects

468
00:22:35.640 --> 00:22:37.079
I'm trying to work on, you know, I like to

469
00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:41.400
write songs, I play in a band, I'm learning, you know, teaching, I.

470
00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:42.359
Do all kinds of stuff.

471
00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:45.200
So it's a lot to balance, you know, and so

472
00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:47.279
we try to keep our program really flexible.

473
00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:51.279
Detour just a moment, Yeah, post a little bit about

474
00:22:51.319 --> 00:22:51.799
your band.

475
00:22:52.279 --> 00:22:54.279
Yeah, Well this is something that kind of opened up

476
00:22:54.279 --> 00:22:56.480
for me after I started doing pop maatics and well,

477
00:22:56.640 --> 00:22:58.480
I was in a band once before, I should say,

478
00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:00.680
with my sister, who's a singer song and I was

479
00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:02.519
like the classical piano.

480
00:23:02.279 --> 00:23:04.680
Blair who had no idea. I'm like, chords, what's the chord?

481
00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:05.240
What do I do?

482
00:23:05.400 --> 00:23:07.200
You know? But she was very patient with me, and

483
00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:10.240
I kind of made my way through it. But now

484
00:23:10.279 --> 00:23:12.240
that I have like a much better understanding of how

485
00:23:12.279 --> 00:23:13.839
to learn by listening and listen.

486
00:23:13.960 --> 00:23:15.240
A lot of what we do is listen to the

487
00:23:15.240 --> 00:23:16.880
different roles of instruments.

488
00:23:17.400 --> 00:23:20.480
So I joined a couple of cover bands and I'm

489
00:23:20.519 --> 00:23:22.119
in one of them now and it's just it's been

490
00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:25.119
a phenomenal experience just to get to work regularly with

491
00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:29.359
other musicians and play around town. So we do just

492
00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:32.640
all kinds of you know, everything from seventies up to

493
00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:35.839
modern music, so a little bit of everything. Try not

494
00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:39.680
to be just just songs that people like. And sometimes

495
00:23:39.799 --> 00:23:42.920
I'm emulating a keyboard part. Sometimes there is no keyboard part.

496
00:23:42.920 --> 00:23:45.200
I'm just figuring out what's going to go with the

497
00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:47.079
sound that we're you know, our version of the song.

498
00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:51.319
So I mean pop Mannix has really helped because you know,

499
00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:53.079
you can pull up a chord chart, but it's not

500
00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:54.720
really going to show you what to do in a band,

501
00:23:54.759 --> 00:23:57.759
and a lot of times they're not even accurate. So

502
00:23:58.319 --> 00:24:00.759
you know, I kind of take this skin I've learned,

503
00:24:00.759 --> 00:24:02.559
and I can go and at least be sure about

504
00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:05.359
chords and strong structure and all that stuff. And then

505
00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:08.400
there's a little bit we talk a lot about a

506
00:24:08.400 --> 00:24:10.880
little bit of structure and a lot of freedom. Too

507
00:24:10.920 --> 00:24:13.720
much freedom is intimidating, and that's what our creating classes.

508
00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:16.559
There's enough structure that you're not intimidated, but then you

509
00:24:16.599 --> 00:24:19.759
can go and play like in the playground, and you know,

510
00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:21.359
the band is a little bit like that too for me.

511
00:24:21.400 --> 00:24:22.920
Now. So yeah, so.

512
00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:25.039
You play keyboards and do you sing as well?

513
00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:25.799
Yeah?

514
00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:28.000
I play keyboards and I sing. We do a lot

515
00:24:28.039 --> 00:24:30.759
of harmonies together. I do lead on some of the songs.

516
00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:31.319
I'm kind of.

517
00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:33.759
Newer to singing, so that's one way I've been pushing

518
00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:35.880
myself lately is to sing a little more, and that's

519
00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:36.680
been really fun.

520
00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:38.720
Singing and playing is it's.

521
00:24:38.599 --> 00:24:40.759
So fun and a lot of people in our program

522
00:24:40.920 --> 00:24:42.440
I can't sing, or I don't have a good voice,

523
00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:45.240
but I do think anyone can sing, just like anyone

524
00:24:45.240 --> 00:24:46.279
can learn an instrument.

525
00:24:46.519 --> 00:24:48.319
We all have voices, we can all you know what

526
00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:51.160
I mean just about it. My mom was a choir

527
00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:52.799
director and she always believed that too.

528
00:24:53.279 --> 00:24:55.440
So and we've had students, so people told me I

529
00:24:55.480 --> 00:24:57.720
was tone deaf, and you know, but here they are.

530
00:24:57.880 --> 00:25:00.960
They they're not you know, and they're learning. So so

531
00:25:01.160 --> 00:25:03.559
using your voice is a powerful way to create. So

532
00:25:03.640 --> 00:25:06.359
whether you're a singer or not. Like just if you

533
00:25:06.440 --> 00:25:09.240
listen to Tony playing, he's always humming along and you know,

534
00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:12.920
singing through his imagination and then it reaches his fingers.

535
00:25:12.960 --> 00:25:14.920
And I think I don't do it as much as

536
00:25:14.920 --> 00:25:16.000
he does, but it is.

537
00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:18.400
Our voice is a very powerful way to connect with

538
00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:20.640
basic I think I found.

539
00:25:21.480 --> 00:25:24.960
Since we're on the detour, I do my husband and

540
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:27.960
I we run karaoke. We used to do every week,

541
00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:32.200
but we do so and that's this past year, in

542
00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:34.319
the past year and a half. That's been new for me,

543
00:25:35.160 --> 00:25:37.200
right because I sang as a kid, and I've taken

544
00:25:37.240 --> 00:25:41.079
singing lessons over the years. But I guess it's like

545
00:25:41.079 --> 00:25:43.599
like being afraid, like that fear, like you don't want

546
00:25:43.640 --> 00:25:46.519
to stand up and sing, but there's so much freedom

547
00:25:47.319 --> 00:25:50.200
when and there's so much connection. I'm still I have

548
00:25:50.559 --> 00:25:52.559
I'm like, I'm like right down here, I have like

549
00:25:52.759 --> 00:25:56.680
so far to go, but there's so much connection with

550
00:25:56.960 --> 00:25:57.759
being able to.

551
00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:00.319
And I've also used.

552
00:26:00.200 --> 00:26:02.559
To take singing lessons and play, play and sing and

553
00:26:02.599 --> 00:26:03.599
that's really hard.

554
00:26:04.119 --> 00:26:06.880
But the connection. My point is, and again I have,

555
00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:08.720
I have a long way to go.

556
00:26:09.480 --> 00:26:12.279
My point is is that it's a completely different connection

557
00:26:12.920 --> 00:26:16.359
that you make with your instrument and with the song

558
00:26:16.519 --> 00:26:19.680
because you not only like form it to yourself.

559
00:26:19.680 --> 00:26:21.160
It's kind of like going to the store.

560
00:26:20.920 --> 00:26:24.000
And putting on a dress, or if you're a man,

561
00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:27.000
try it on slacks or something. Either they're gonna fit

562
00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:28.359
or they're too baggy.

563
00:26:28.039 --> 00:26:29.720
And you gotta go find ones that do fit.

564
00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:32.480
And the same thing for music and singing is like

565
00:26:32.839 --> 00:26:37.000
you find a way that it fits you, and there's

566
00:26:37.079 --> 00:26:39.799
the freedom and the beauty in it because you.

567
00:26:39.720 --> 00:26:42.160
Don't tailor it to like Tailor.

568
00:26:41.720 --> 00:26:46.680
Swift or you know or whoever an artist you know,

569
00:26:46.720 --> 00:26:48.039
the popular artists out there.

570
00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:49.920
You tailor it to who you are.

571
00:26:49.799 --> 00:26:53.240
Because that's what makes it beautiful and that's what makes music.

572
00:26:54.119 --> 00:26:56.400
And a lot of my students, I call them magicians.

573
00:26:56.440 --> 00:26:58.640
I said, you are not only the musician, you are

574
00:26:58.680 --> 00:27:01.319
the magician because you're bringing it to life.

575
00:27:01.920 --> 00:27:02.440
You love it.

576
00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:04.839
We actually have we have some characters in our program.

577
00:27:04.839 --> 00:27:06.640
When you get into Deeper Love, we have a we

578
00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:10.240
do have a magician, which is a very specific note

579
00:27:10.279 --> 00:27:12.119
off the landscape, and I won't go into the details,

580
00:27:12.119 --> 00:27:14.960
but part of the story is the storytelling. But yeah,

581
00:27:15.079 --> 00:27:18.720
I believe that to everyone, it's it's your voice becoming

582
00:27:19.160 --> 00:27:20.519
what your voice is meant to be.

583
00:27:20.680 --> 00:27:22.279
That that's why I think anyone can sing.

584
00:27:22.319 --> 00:27:22.440
Now.

585
00:27:22.440 --> 00:27:24.559
I can't sing like any of those people you mentioned.

586
00:27:24.599 --> 00:27:26.599
I just have to be comfortable, and a lot of

587
00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:28.559
people don't like the sound of their voice. But once

588
00:27:28.559 --> 00:27:32.039
you get through that and other people, you know it's

589
00:27:32.119 --> 00:27:34.440
And it's the same with the piano. Honestly, when you

590
00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:37.519
play this way without sheet music. Part one way to

591
00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:39.920
think of the journey is you're you're finding your voice

592
00:27:40.640 --> 00:27:43.200
and you'll see, like Tony will listen to something, I'm like,

593
00:27:43.400 --> 00:27:44.920
it's like, oh, I hear the w C. And I

594
00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:46.920
hear the Norah Jones, and I hear that. You know,

595
00:27:47.400 --> 00:27:50.480
all these influences. I don't consciously try to put those

596
00:27:50.480 --> 00:27:52.279
things in, but he'll hear them.

597
00:27:52.759 --> 00:27:55.200
And that's kind of what developing your own voice is.

598
00:27:55.240 --> 00:27:57.839
It's hearing all the things you like and then creating

599
00:27:57.880 --> 00:28:00.480
your own music and like, over time, your own kind

600
00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:03.400
of style or voice just evolves. It's very much a process,

601
00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:05.279
and I have a long way to go to kind

602
00:28:05.279 --> 00:28:07.920
of like you said, and the beauty.

603
00:28:07.559 --> 00:28:09.759
Of popmatics also when I don't know if I had

604
00:28:09.799 --> 00:28:12.960
said this to Tony or you guys and one of

605
00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:13.759
the classes, or.

606
00:28:13.720 --> 00:28:15.680
Maybe I just thought it and I didn't speak it.

607
00:28:17.039 --> 00:28:19.759
If if you or I or any of our listeners

608
00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:22.519
out there were to take a crayon or a paint

609
00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:27.200
brush and just paint a picture, right, just like be.

610
00:28:27.359 --> 00:28:28.920
Creative and paint something.

611
00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:32.680
It comes out you don't like in the beginning, like okay,

612
00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:35.680
well you know, how is it going to be? And

613
00:28:35.759 --> 00:28:37.680
like how square is the table going to be? Or

614
00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:38.960
how square is the box going to be?

615
00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:44.920
And how you don't like you don't premeditate as an artist.

616
00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:46.920
You just like, yes, give me the paintbrush, give me

617
00:28:46.920 --> 00:28:49.839
the palette with the colors, give me you know, give me.

618
00:28:49.799 --> 00:28:51.920
The canvas, and let me go.

619
00:28:52.519 --> 00:28:55.039
And that's the same thing with popmatics I find is

620
00:28:55.039 --> 00:28:59.160
that there's so much creativity in the teaching you got.

621
00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:02.240
I mean again, just my perception, it's almost like here's

622
00:29:02.279 --> 00:29:02.880
the paintbrush.

623
00:29:02.920 --> 00:29:05.160
I'm going to show you the palette that we're using

624
00:29:05.880 --> 00:29:07.480
and go off of that.

625
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:10.000
Yeah, that's that's a great analogy.

626
00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:12.799
We actually have a an activity called restaurant creons.

627
00:29:13.480 --> 00:29:14.759
That's what he loves to it. I think you can

628
00:29:14.759 --> 00:29:16.680
probably find one on TikTok fairly recently.

629
00:29:16.680 --> 00:29:18.839
And it's like, again, it's a few notes, but they're

630
00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:20.559
all going to sound good together, and then he's like, O,

631
00:29:20.599 --> 00:29:23.640
paint with your restaurant creons. But the way you've described that,

632
00:29:23.720 --> 00:29:26.039
like it's sort of sometimes it's a flow or something

633
00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:27.960
like that, Like, I'm not planning ahead of time what

634
00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:30.440
my creation is even going to be. I have the constraints,

635
00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:33.240
but it's just almost in the moment, you're flowing along.

636
00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:35.640
And we say you might not always even like what

637
00:29:35.680 --> 00:29:38.759
you play, but you're it doesn't matter. You kind of

638
00:29:38.839 --> 00:29:41.160
let go of your judgment while you're in that creating

639
00:29:41.240 --> 00:29:44.240
zone and you don't worry about mistakes. You're just having

640
00:29:44.279 --> 00:29:47.240
fun and seeing, Yeah, what what picture am I creating.

641
00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:49.359
We do a lot of recording too, and we encourage

642
00:29:49.359 --> 00:29:53.319
our students to record these creating activities, and we have

643
00:29:53.359 --> 00:29:55.680
a special locker for every student where they can store those,

644
00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:57.680
and a lot of times we say go back later,

645
00:29:57.799 --> 00:29:59.440
you know, give it, give it a break, and then

646
00:29:59.480 --> 00:30:01.839
go back and listen, and you probably you might like

647
00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:03.920
what you did better than you thought in the moment.

648
00:30:04.599 --> 00:30:07.599
And you'll also we encourage students to use those for

649
00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:10.240
their ear training, because if you were playing with four

650
00:30:10.279 --> 00:30:12.839
notes and you kind of know what those sound like,

651
00:30:12.920 --> 00:30:14.400
so you can go back and oh, I went from

652
00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:16.720
the one, three, four or five, or you know, you

653
00:30:16.759 --> 00:30:19.319
can you can do that with your own playing sometimes

654
00:30:19.359 --> 00:30:22.119
because it's simple and it's using a set of constraints

655
00:30:22.119 --> 00:30:23.119
that you're familiar with.

656
00:30:23.519 --> 00:30:27.400
Okay, so I have a creative Well, I don't know,

657
00:30:27.599 --> 00:30:29.000
I have a question, okay.

658
00:30:29.039 --> 00:30:32.079
And so for my listeners out there who are piano

659
00:30:32.119 --> 00:30:36.200
players or keyboard players, whether you're just learning or your advance,

660
00:30:36.599 --> 00:30:41.079
I think this covers across the board. So let's say,

661
00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:44.359
for the example of like the campfire right now, what

662
00:30:44.680 --> 00:30:47.599
we didn't mention was and you'll have to check it out.

663
00:30:47.599 --> 00:30:51.119
You'll have to go to Popmatics and find out. So

664
00:30:51.240 --> 00:30:55.799
find some of the videos and you'll understand better. You

665
00:30:55.920 --> 00:30:59.759
use the black notes right for the campfire, so g

666
00:31:00.119 --> 00:31:05.359
you with Okay, so there's octaves, right, there's octaves on

667
00:31:05.400 --> 00:31:08.680
the keyboard, no matter how small the keyboard is, or

668
00:31:09.160 --> 00:31:12.039
I mean, there's seven octaves on the regular piano. So

669
00:31:12.279 --> 00:31:17.839
if you're doing campfire, do you mention octaves? Do you

670
00:31:17.880 --> 00:31:22.279
talk about distinguishing where the octaves are or do you

671
00:31:22.319 --> 00:31:24.119
just kind of like just flow with it?

672
00:31:24.400 --> 00:31:24.920
That is that?

673
00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:27.079
Yeah, yeah, that's a good question.

674
00:31:27.599 --> 00:31:30.799
So we start with very specific like we start looking

675
00:31:30.839 --> 00:31:32.680
at the pattern of black notes and get people to

676
00:31:32.759 --> 00:31:35.720
kind of see how they're grouped in twos and threes. Yes,

677
00:31:35.880 --> 00:31:38.440
and then camp fire your your home for those with

678
00:31:38.519 --> 00:31:41.440
some music theory background is G flat, So we use

679
00:31:41.480 --> 00:31:43.400
those five black notes and then we weave in two

680
00:31:43.480 --> 00:31:47.359
white notes eventually, but you're getting the concept of octaves

681
00:31:47.400 --> 00:31:50.359
by like when I mentioned dropping logs in the fire, Well,

682
00:31:50.359 --> 00:31:52.079
I'm playing a low G flat. I'm not going to

683
00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:55.039
use that name right away, but later we'll explain to

684
00:31:55.079 --> 00:31:57.319
people that was you know, that was a G flat,

685
00:31:57.400 --> 00:32:00.920
that's the key here in that was your one. And

686
00:32:01.039 --> 00:32:04.519
so through the experiences they will start to see which

687
00:32:04.559 --> 00:32:07.599
notes sound the same these concepts of octaves, they will

688
00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:11.599
all be learned through experience, and then later we'll take

689
00:32:11.640 --> 00:32:14.119
that same experience and do it in other keys. So

690
00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:17.319
that's just we find that Tony kind of discovered and

691
00:32:17.359 --> 00:32:19.200
I agree with him. The key of G flat is

692
00:32:19.640 --> 00:32:22.960
wonderful for creating it. The layout of the black notes

693
00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:25.599
and where those two white notes are there, the black

694
00:32:25.599 --> 00:32:27.319
notes are the pentatonic.

695
00:32:26.759 --> 00:32:28.759
And then you've got the the other two notes.

696
00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:31.400
But eventually we do a key a month in our program,

697
00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:33.559
so you'll make it through each key. And I think

698
00:32:33.559 --> 00:32:36.799
Tony just messaged me he might be backstage trying to

699
00:32:36.880 --> 00:32:38.000
join us, which is awes.

700
00:32:38.680 --> 00:32:41.400
Are you with us? Have you stepped in?

701
00:32:42.480 --> 00:32:44.559
I think he's backstage, so maybe we need to let

702
00:32:44.640 --> 00:32:44.880
him in.

703
00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:50.559
There we go there is Yeah, thank you, Sorry, I'm late.

704
00:32:51.039 --> 00:32:52.160
That's okay, that's all right.

705
00:32:52.839 --> 00:32:53.920
You're teaching so good.

706
00:32:53.920 --> 00:32:59.960
Excuse yes, So before we even start, you're a liberal

707
00:33:00.119 --> 00:33:00.559
like I am.

708
00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:02.079
Is today your birthday?

709
00:33:02.319 --> 00:33:06.559
No? Mine's the September twenty sixth? Is today your birth

710
00:33:06.960 --> 00:33:07.359
I missed it?

711
00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:10.359
Okay? Happy? Well, maybe I saw it on Facebook. Happy birthday.

712
00:33:10.559 --> 00:33:12.079
Thank you today your birthday?

713
00:33:12.279 --> 00:33:13.960
No yesterday, it was my yesterday.

714
00:33:13.960 --> 00:33:14.720
Happy birthday.

715
00:33:14.880 --> 00:33:16.279
Thank you, thank you so.

716
00:33:18.160 --> 00:33:18.480
Well.

717
00:33:18.839 --> 00:33:21.799
Welcomes. Angela and I have been chatting the whole time, and.

718
00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:26.119
I heard love. I heard a little bit there at

719
00:33:26.119 --> 00:33:27.640
the end there I was backstage for a little bit.

720
00:33:27.720 --> 00:33:32.200
Yeah, okay, I absolutely love Popmattics. I love how you

721
00:33:32.240 --> 00:33:37.839
and Angela present present the classes. And I told Angela,

722
00:33:37.880 --> 00:33:39.519
I said, I will be signing up this year.

723
00:33:39.599 --> 00:33:40.079
I promise.

724
00:33:41.240 --> 00:33:44.680
But before we go into pop maatux Tony, give our

725
00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:48.319
listeners a little history of like where you began, how

726
00:33:48.359 --> 00:33:51.319
you started with music, and how you came about creating

727
00:33:51.359 --> 00:33:52.039
pop maddox.

728
00:33:52.559 --> 00:33:55.160
I'll try to give you a quick summary. So I've

729
00:33:55.160 --> 00:33:57.880
been interested in music my whole life. I started with

730
00:33:58.200 --> 00:34:01.440
band programs. I started playing little guitar in high school.

731
00:34:01.799 --> 00:34:05.440
I grew up in a family with six sisters and

732
00:34:05.480 --> 00:34:07.319
two brothers. They're all older than me, and they all

733
00:34:07.319 --> 00:34:09.239
played an instrument, so we had a lot of instruments

734
00:34:09.280 --> 00:34:12.320
around the house by the time I came around, and

735
00:34:12.400 --> 00:34:14.440
so I experimented with a lot of different things. But

736
00:34:14.440 --> 00:34:17.360
it wasn't really until I went to college that I

737
00:34:17.360 --> 00:34:19.800
started learning how to play the piano, and I had

738
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:23.880
studied several other instruments up until that point. I knew

739
00:34:24.400 --> 00:34:26.400
earlier than that that I wanted to be a music teacher.

740
00:34:26.440 --> 00:34:27.559
I just didn't know that I was going to be

741
00:34:27.599 --> 00:34:29.199
a piano instructor. I thought I was going to be

742
00:34:29.280 --> 00:34:31.559
maybe a high school band director or something like that.

743
00:34:31.599 --> 00:34:34.800
Those were the instruments that I was into. So then

744
00:34:35.159 --> 00:34:37.760
it kind of gave me this opportunity when I fell

745
00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:41.760
in love with the piano right away. But the problem

746
00:34:41.840 --> 00:34:43.880
was is everyone else in college had been playing since

747
00:34:43.960 --> 00:34:46.199
they were sick, so I had to desperately try to

748
00:34:46.280 --> 00:34:49.719
catch up. And I was very fortunate to meet a

749
00:34:49.719 --> 00:34:52.440
lot of musicians who were a lot of self taught

750
00:34:52.519 --> 00:34:54.360
musicians that were in bands, and so I had a

751
00:34:54.400 --> 00:34:57.599
lot of experience early on just getting to play with

752
00:34:57.639 --> 00:34:59.960
other students. And at first I didn't tell anybody this,

753
00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:01.800
but I really only knew how to play in a

754
00:35:01.840 --> 00:35:05.079
couple keys, and I use that transpose feature just to

755
00:35:05.119 --> 00:35:09.119
get by, and that's how I got started. But now

756
00:35:09.280 --> 00:35:12.119
through your question was like how we kind of got

757
00:35:12.119 --> 00:35:16.039
to popmatics, which potmatics really kind of developed organically. I

758
00:35:16.079 --> 00:35:18.519
didn't start off saying I'm going to build this curriculum.

759
00:35:18.559 --> 00:35:22.719
It started off where I had a student that was

760
00:35:22.719 --> 00:35:27.039
a very accomplished musician and a professional musician, but he

761
00:35:27.079 --> 00:35:29.920
didn't have a lot of experience with reading music, and

762
00:35:29.960 --> 00:35:33.000
so I started creating materials that would help him a

763
00:35:33.039 --> 00:35:35.199
little bit more. He had a degree in music and

764
00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:37.840
everything past all the exams, and had the theory and

765
00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:39.960
all this stuff, but every time I would put sheet

766
00:35:40.039 --> 00:35:42.199
music in front of him, it was like you were

767
00:35:42.239 --> 00:35:46.000
creating a separation between him and his instrument. And this

768
00:35:46.639 --> 00:35:50.599
paper thin separation is enough to just lose that connection,

769
00:35:51.079 --> 00:35:52.880
and so I wanted to get rid of that. So

770
00:35:52.920 --> 00:35:57.480
I started creating these visual charts and using I was

771
00:35:57.519 --> 00:35:59.679
actually making him in spreadsheets, and I was using black

772
00:35:59.719 --> 00:36:02.440
cells and white cells to represent the black and white

773
00:36:02.519 --> 00:36:05.239
keys so he could get a picture of the patterns

774
00:36:05.239 --> 00:36:07.400
and the shapes. And all of a sudden, things started

775
00:36:07.400 --> 00:36:10.840
to make sense because he could make these connections and

776
00:36:11.239 --> 00:36:13.239
we could go at the speed of his understanding. And

777
00:36:13.280 --> 00:36:16.880
so we focused a lot on creativity, and over the years,

778
00:36:17.199 --> 00:36:21.400
Angela and I have really been students in our own program.

779
00:36:21.760 --> 00:36:24.199
This was not something that we knew exactly what it

780
00:36:24.239 --> 00:36:27.199
was going to look like right away. Sooner or later

781
00:36:27.280 --> 00:36:30.159
we had the Key of the Month, and Angela and

782
00:36:30.199 --> 00:36:33.880
I kind of put ourselves to the same put ourselves

783
00:36:33.920 --> 00:36:35.920
to the same challenges that we put our students to,

784
00:36:35.960 --> 00:36:38.320
which is we call it the campfire challenge. It's five

785
00:36:38.320 --> 00:36:42.559
minutes every day. Don't miss it day. If you do,

786
00:36:42.559 --> 00:36:45.199
don't let it turn into two in a row. So

787
00:36:45.440 --> 00:36:48.599
you know, we give you know, it's like you can

788
00:36:48.639 --> 00:36:52.360
take a couple days off if that happens, but really

789
00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:54.000
you make it part of the rhythm of your life

790
00:36:54.000 --> 00:36:57.239
and daily creation. There's nothing like it. And I know

791
00:36:57.320 --> 00:36:59.679
that you know this, Lisa. I watch your your live

792
00:36:59.679 --> 00:37:03.119
stream and you're creating and and you're you're bringing in

793
00:37:03.199 --> 00:37:07.840
many elements together and you got the chimes and just

794
00:37:08.599 --> 00:37:10.599
a lot that you can bring into the music, and

795
00:37:11.159 --> 00:37:13.840
it's all kind of what's inside and it comes pouring out.

796
00:37:13.920 --> 00:37:16.559
And so that's that's really what we do through the creating.

797
00:37:16.599 --> 00:37:19.199
So that's not five minutes of practicing your scales or

798
00:37:19.239 --> 00:37:22.599
perfecting your songs. It's really generative making new music from

799
00:37:22.599 --> 00:37:25.039
the inside out. And now that we have that key

800
00:37:25.079 --> 00:37:27.480
of the month, well now we've kind of developed a

801
00:37:27.519 --> 00:37:30.840
whole theme. So every month has a theme. So not

802
00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:32.199
only is there a key of the month, but there's

803
00:37:32.199 --> 00:37:34.800
a theme and that really allows us to shine the

804
00:37:34.800 --> 00:37:38.079
spotlight on certain areas of our program throughout the year.

805
00:37:38.679 --> 00:37:41.400
So that's kind of that's that's that's where, that's where

806
00:37:41.440 --> 00:37:43.320
we are now. It's kind of like adventure Land.

807
00:37:43.679 --> 00:37:45.840
I love it. I love it, and there's so many

808
00:37:45.920 --> 00:37:50.199
questions I have and and Angela has been wonderful and

809
00:37:50.239 --> 00:37:51.960
I'm so glad that both of you are on here.

810
00:37:52.159 --> 00:37:54.320
And I love your approach.

811
00:37:54.360 --> 00:37:56.440
And I had told Angela, I don't know if you

812
00:37:56.800 --> 00:37:59.960
mentioned to Angela, like I have theatrical and film back

813
00:38:00.440 --> 00:38:00.719
and I.

814
00:38:00.639 --> 00:38:01.679
Still have my foot in the door.

815
00:38:01.960 --> 00:38:06.119
So your approach to like the campfire and other just

816
00:38:06.119 --> 00:38:09.800
just your ideas and your perceptions and your perspectives and

817
00:38:10.159 --> 00:38:13.800
like I'm like this little kid. That is just I

818
00:38:13.840 --> 00:38:16.639
have so much fun with the classes that I have taken.

819
00:38:16.679 --> 00:38:18.920
And again I'm like I said, I will be signing

820
00:38:19.000 --> 00:38:23.159
up for more. But your your way of teaching is

821
00:38:23.199 --> 00:38:24.920
not like Okay, we're gonna.

822
00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:27.239
Learn the theory, We're gonna learn like okay.

823
00:38:26.960 --> 00:38:29.679
Your time values, we're gonna learn your dynamics, we're gonna

824
00:38:29.719 --> 00:38:33.320
learn the sheet music and your regions on the piano.

825
00:38:33.519 --> 00:38:36.840
You just like just listen. And I love that because

826
00:38:36.840 --> 00:38:40.679
it takes away that for me personally, I.

827
00:38:40.639 --> 00:38:43.480
Can read music, but I can't do I can't play

828
00:38:43.519 --> 00:38:46.119
by year right, But I'm not great at I don't

829
00:38:46.119 --> 00:38:49.599
think I'm great at reading sheet music either either. But

830
00:38:49.840 --> 00:38:53.960
you take the intimidation out completely. You just make it

831
00:38:54.000 --> 00:38:57.000
across the board fun and so I thank you for that.

832
00:38:57.159 --> 00:39:01.920
So for my listeners out there, pop Maatics is easy

833
00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:05.320
to find on the web, and I know Angela you

834
00:39:05.320 --> 00:39:08.360
said there are some free classes that they can sign

835
00:39:08.440 --> 00:39:10.440
up for and then get into the mailing list for

836
00:39:10.480 --> 00:39:11.679
the classes coming up.

837
00:39:12.119 --> 00:39:15.960
Yeah, Tony, what do you do you have?

838
00:39:16.079 --> 00:39:17.840
I know the key of the month is something new

839
00:39:17.880 --> 00:39:19.239
that you're working on on, But do you have a

840
00:39:19.280 --> 00:39:22.719
specific not genre, but just a specific topic that you

841
00:39:22.840 --> 00:39:26.199
absolutely love teaching out of, like across the board? Like

842
00:39:26.280 --> 00:39:29.360
what do you absolutely love being able to share that's

843
00:39:29.400 --> 00:39:31.760
become maybe an AHA for you that you just like

844
00:39:31.840 --> 00:39:33.320
you you just got to get this.

845
00:39:34.679 --> 00:39:38.199
Well, that's that's a great question, one of I have

846
00:39:38.280 --> 00:39:40.599
to say. I it's hard. It's hard for me to pick.

847
00:39:40.639 --> 00:39:43.960
I'm almost as enthusiastic about talking about the early concepts

848
00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:48.000
as I am the later ones because it's such a

849
00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:50.159
a breakthrough. Am I allowed to Can I can I play?

850
00:39:50.239 --> 00:39:51.119
Can I demonstrate something?

851
00:39:51.280 --> 00:39:52.079
Absolutely?

852
00:39:52.119 --> 00:39:52.679
Absolutely?

853
00:39:52.960 --> 00:39:53.079
Well?

854
00:39:53.159 --> 00:39:55.960
Jumpen. So this this camp fire, my camera might be

855
00:39:56.360 --> 00:39:58.920
mirror image. I can't. I can't tell you we can

856
00:39:58.960 --> 00:40:03.079
see we can't. So you know, one of the things,

857
00:40:03.239 --> 00:40:05.119
I'm just going to give you something really practical for

858
00:40:05.960 --> 00:40:08.480
the people watching, because when you look at the when

859
00:40:08.480 --> 00:40:10.719
you look at the piano, I mean, it's the first

860
00:40:10.719 --> 00:40:12.440
thing most people notice is you got black keys and

861
00:40:12.440 --> 00:40:15.159
white keys. And I think it's important for everyone to

862
00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:20.039
know that, even if you never hear another thing about

863
00:40:20.880 --> 00:40:22.840
how to play the piano other than what I'm about

864
00:40:22.880 --> 00:40:24.760
to tell you right now, it's that you can play

865
00:40:24.880 --> 00:40:29.639
all the black keys and they sound amazing together. Because really,

866
00:40:29.679 --> 00:40:31.800
we have these collections of two and three black keys,

867
00:40:31.880 --> 00:40:34.639
and these are tune believe it or not. These are

868
00:40:34.679 --> 00:40:37.559
tuned to the same pitches that you'd find in wind chimes,

869
00:40:38.679 --> 00:40:41.079
which I know you use. And wind chimes, as we

870
00:40:41.119 --> 00:40:43.599
all know, are kind of meant to be played in

871
00:40:43.639 --> 00:40:46.559
a random order as the wind blows. And so you

872
00:40:46.599 --> 00:40:48.920
can kind of just have this imagination I can play

873
00:40:48.960 --> 00:40:52.639
all these black keys. And what Campfire does is it

874
00:40:52.639 --> 00:40:54.880
starts to organize that a little bit and say, okay,

875
00:40:54.920 --> 00:40:57.360
but these two notes here, these are this is our home,

876
00:40:57.440 --> 00:41:00.119
this is our camp, and this is our fire. So

877
00:41:00.159 --> 00:41:03.000
even though we can be playing, I can just take

878
00:41:03.039 --> 00:41:07.199
a walk like it's a path. At some point I

879
00:41:07.239 --> 00:41:12.440
want to come back home in that home it's campfire.

880
00:41:13.119 --> 00:41:16.440
And so that's again how we kind of teach through story,

881
00:41:16.840 --> 00:41:18.440
and then from there we kind of build it out

882
00:41:18.480 --> 00:41:21.039
because the five black keys, as amazing as that sounds,

883
00:41:21.320 --> 00:41:24.280
we start to include the other two notes from the scale,

884
00:41:24.440 --> 00:41:26.960
and as Angel is mentioning we're in a key, we're

885
00:41:26.960 --> 00:41:29.119
in a key. I'm just not really calling it. Giving

886
00:41:29.159 --> 00:41:31.639
you a story with camp and fire. And so once

887
00:41:31.679 --> 00:41:39.639
you learn how to use those two white keys and

888
00:41:39.760 --> 00:41:43.119
even bringing them together, there's a lot of freedom. And

889
00:41:43.159 --> 00:41:45.119
I don't think any key other than the KYG five

890
00:41:45.159 --> 00:41:47.079
that would be my favorite thing. Honestly, I think Campfire

891
00:41:47.159 --> 00:41:50.440
is my favorite thing because you can't you can't beat

892
00:41:50.480 --> 00:41:52.719
it all the black keys and two white keys, and

893
00:41:52.760 --> 00:41:54.920
it's exactly where these two white keys are. They want

894
00:41:54.960 --> 00:41:57.519
to come in, they want to come home. And if

895
00:41:57.519 --> 00:42:01.159
you stage that out step by step, one thing at

896
00:42:01.199 --> 00:42:04.360
a time, it makes it really accessible. And the piano

897
00:42:04.400 --> 00:42:07.119
can be very intimidating, but just telling someone to play

898
00:42:07.119 --> 00:42:10.039
the black keys, that's not hard, right, play three at

899
00:42:10.039 --> 00:42:13.119
a time. Yeah, it takes a little while to learn

900
00:42:13.400 --> 00:42:15.719
those white keys, but we do it all in that

901
00:42:15.840 --> 00:42:20.480
in that ten day camp Fire series. So all right,

902
00:42:20.639 --> 00:42:23.239
I'm going to stop or I won't. So what do

903
00:42:23.320 --> 00:42:25.079
you Yeah, that's great.

904
00:42:24.880 --> 00:42:27.280
Because I think you just demonstrated what we were discussing

905
00:42:27.360 --> 00:42:29.320
right before you came in, and it's it's great to

906
00:42:29.360 --> 00:42:32.880
have a visual and yeah, hear yes, it's just.

907
00:42:33.800 --> 00:42:37.079
We were live so like people, our listeners could be

908
00:42:37.119 --> 00:42:40.199
watching us on television or they could be listening and

909
00:42:40.320 --> 00:42:44.039
using their imagination. But I love how you've presented this

910
00:42:44.119 --> 00:42:48.880
because for our visual listeners and watchers, yes watchers even

911
00:42:48.920 --> 00:42:51.679
a word, I don't know, but they can they can

912
00:42:51.719 --> 00:42:56.199
see exactly what what you do and what what campfire is.

913
00:42:56.280 --> 00:42:57.760
That makes it easy to understand.

914
00:42:58.159 --> 00:42:59.639
Yeah, well that's it. At the end of the day.

915
00:42:59.679 --> 00:43:01.599
It's we can all talk about what we're doing and

916
00:43:01.679 --> 00:43:03.760
that you know, it's like all these different things that

917
00:43:03.800 --> 00:43:06.039
we understand, but it comes down to playing and that's

918
00:43:06.079 --> 00:43:08.599
a big that's what's so important to us. And it's

919
00:43:08.639 --> 00:43:11.239
not even about like the when we give these types

920
00:43:11.280 --> 00:43:14.440
of constraints and things to work with. It's not about

921
00:43:14.440 --> 00:43:17.320
playing anything perfectly. We're we're we're creating in a world

922
00:43:17.320 --> 00:43:19.960
where mistakes haven't even been invented yet. We're just playing

923
00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.119
and listening and learning is really what it is. They constraints.

924
00:43:24.719 --> 00:43:26.920
It's so fun to do classes like this and our

925
00:43:26.960 --> 00:43:29.039
students come together and I give an instruction, and then

926
00:43:29.039 --> 00:43:31.239
we all go and create for a little bit, and

927
00:43:31.239 --> 00:43:33.400
then we come back and then we have conversation. Do

928
00:43:33.440 --> 00:43:35.800
you have any questions? What did you notice? What sounds?

929
00:43:36.119 --> 00:43:39.599
It's it's such a it's it's just such a magical

930
00:43:39.639 --> 00:43:43.400
experience to have class discussions like that, because that's really

931
00:43:43.400 --> 00:43:45.920
what learning music is all about. It's not just about

932
00:43:45.960 --> 00:43:50.199
the theory. It's it's really more about developing your understanding

933
00:43:50.239 --> 00:43:53.280
of sound. You don't need all the standard terminology, although

934
00:43:53.320 --> 00:43:56.280
we do connect that in the beginning some of that stuff.

935
00:43:56.320 --> 00:43:58.559
In the same way sheet music can create that interference,

936
00:43:58.639 --> 00:44:00.440
Like Okay, we're going to play a sea made record.

937
00:44:00.880 --> 00:44:03.719
People start getting ideas in their head that that means

938
00:44:03.760 --> 00:44:05.840
a certain thing and you can only play it one way,

939
00:44:05.920 --> 00:44:07.519
and there's a right way and a wrong way to

940
00:44:07.519 --> 00:44:09.760
do it. So that's what campfire just takes all that

941
00:44:09.840 --> 00:44:12.559
out and just love it could be.

942
00:44:13.119 --> 00:44:14.760
So I'm watching the time. We have a couple of

943
00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:15.519
minutes left.

944
00:44:16.039 --> 00:44:19.800
Could we spend maybe like two minutes on Angela and

945
00:44:19.840 --> 00:44:24.480
I talked about ear training, like I mentioned intervals, but

946
00:44:24.679 --> 00:44:27.960
I know, as Angela said, you don't really talk about

947
00:44:28.039 --> 00:44:30.960
intervals per se. You talk about like numbers and the

948
00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:35.599
distance between the notes that way. So could you give

949
00:44:35.639 --> 00:44:39.360
us a quick example of what, like an easy song,

950
00:44:39.480 --> 00:44:42.599
like how would you listen to it and play it out?

951
00:44:42.639 --> 00:44:44.559
Like would you? Does that make sense?

952
00:44:44.800 --> 00:44:46.239
I mean a little bit? So let me let me

953
00:44:46.239 --> 00:44:48.199
give you a great example. So one of the first

954
00:44:48.239 --> 00:44:51.119
activities that we do is something that we call listening

955
00:44:51.159 --> 00:44:53.719
for home. So that's really listening for the sound of

956
00:44:53.760 --> 00:44:57.039
campfire where things feel settled. So when you're first listening

957
00:44:57.079 --> 00:44:59.719
to a song, I'll play one. Maybe people probably know

958
00:45:00.159 --> 00:45:22.000
you've heard blackbird Fly. That's home. That's the feeling of

959
00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:25.920
home right there, that's where camp fire. I'm in the key,

960
00:45:26.599 --> 00:45:28.599
you see what I mean. I'm listening and I hear

961
00:45:29.400 --> 00:45:33.559
I hear all that one the birds on the flight

962
00:45:37.960 --> 00:45:52.000
not home yet you can kind of just feel this

963
00:45:52.079 --> 00:45:54.199
feeling of home. So that's one of the first activities.

964
00:45:54.239 --> 00:45:56.039
And what's beautiful about that is you can get used

965
00:45:56.039 --> 00:45:57.960
to that. You don't even have to touch your piano.

966
00:45:58.320 --> 00:46:00.360
You can just be listening to the music and listen

967
00:46:00.440 --> 00:46:03.440
for where the song feels like, resolves, where it belongs.

968
00:46:03.639 --> 00:46:05.199
You can say. You won't not know what key it's

969
00:46:05.199 --> 00:46:06.360
in if you don't have a perfect pitch, but you

970
00:46:06.400 --> 00:46:08.880
can say, whatever that is, that's home, that's home.

971
00:46:08.960 --> 00:46:10.079
I love it.

972
00:46:09.440 --> 00:46:12.639
Well, well, I was you? Is that is that too much?

973
00:46:12.679 --> 00:46:13.199
Go ahead?

974
00:46:13.440 --> 00:46:13.760
No?

975
00:46:13.559 --> 00:46:17.079
No, I could. We could talk probably for easily another hour,

976
00:46:17.119 --> 00:46:19.559
but we have just a couple of minutes left. So

977
00:46:20.239 --> 00:46:23.840
how do our listeners find you? Guys? Again, the easiest, quickest.

978
00:46:23.440 --> 00:46:27.039
Way just type in Popmatics. We were totally original that

979
00:46:27.039 --> 00:46:29.960
that name is going to give you everything. Yeah, popmatics

980
00:46:29.960 --> 00:46:33.519
dot com is where you can find our own website.

981
00:46:33.519 --> 00:46:37.400
But if you just type in Popmatics anywhere TikTok YouTube,

982
00:46:37.639 --> 00:46:38.840
we're the only thing that comes up.

983
00:46:39.159 --> 00:46:44.400
Awesome, awesome, and and you have new programs starting soon

984
00:46:44.559 --> 00:46:47.360
or you just just sign up and you'll see what's

985
00:46:47.400 --> 00:46:48.199
available now.

986
00:46:48.639 --> 00:46:51.000
Oh that's the beautiful thing is Yeah, you can start

987
00:46:51.039 --> 00:46:52.800
any time. I heard you mentioned that before, So the

988
00:46:53.119 --> 00:46:55.199
theme of the month is actually not that new. We're

989
00:46:55.280 --> 00:46:57.719
just that's something we've been doing. We've almost done a

990
00:46:57.719 --> 00:47:00.480
complete year on it, so it's a fully it's a

991
00:47:00.599 --> 00:47:03.559
very immersive one year trip because we take you through

992
00:47:03.559 --> 00:47:06.159
the Circle of fifths, twelve keys twelve months, so you

993
00:47:06.159 --> 00:47:09.079
can actually start at any time, and we have a

994
00:47:09.119 --> 00:47:11.920
welcome course so that there's a nice little on REMP

995
00:47:11.920 --> 00:47:13.920
because if you just come right to classes, it's going

996
00:47:13.960 --> 00:47:15.760
to feel a little bit like drinking from a fire

997
00:47:15.800 --> 00:47:18.559
hose because we have a lot of terminology, so we

998
00:47:19.039 --> 00:47:21.440
have a welcome course that gets you familiar with our

999
00:47:21.519 --> 00:47:24.440
terminology and our practice routines, and then then you can

1000
00:47:24.480 --> 00:47:28.559
hop on the live circuit and wherever you start, you're

1001
00:47:28.559 --> 00:47:30.800
going to get through all twelve keys in twelve months.

1002
00:47:31.079 --> 00:47:32.880
Love it, so you can start at any time.

1003
00:47:33.360 --> 00:47:36.599
Awesome, Well, thank you so much, Tony, Thank you so much, Angela.

1004
00:47:37.159 --> 00:47:38.320
You will be hearing from me.

1005
00:47:39.559 --> 00:47:42.280
I'm so glad that we got had this opportunity and

1006
00:47:43.559 --> 00:47:46.840
our listeners out there, Popmatics, if you're looking to learn

1007
00:47:47.039 --> 00:47:50.559
and go about it in a fun, easy way, Pop Maddix,

1008
00:47:50.639 --> 00:47:53.079
Like you said, it's not hard to find it's.

1009
00:47:52.920 --> 00:47:53.599
Not hard to find.

1010
00:47:53.599 --> 00:47:55.199
Thanks for having us.

1011
00:47:55.599 --> 00:47:59.639
Yes, we'll talk, Yes, you too, right, so much for

1012
00:47:59.679 --> 00:48:00.360
all that you do.

1013
00:48:00.880 --> 00:48:04.320
Oh, thank you for you too. Thank you appreciate this.

1014
00:48:04.840 --> 00:48:06.280
All right, we'll talk soon.

1015
00:48:06.760 --> 00:48:08.760
Thank you so much for tuning into the sound of

1016
00:48:08.800 --> 00:48:13.480
Gold and say tuned. Let's keep music alive and you'll

1017
00:48:13.480 --> 00:48:17.519
find out next week, same time, four o'clock on Monday.

1018
00:48:18.079 --> 00:48:20.599
Next week you will find out who our guests are.

1019
00:48:21.199 --> 00:48:23.880
And I'm so excited. I can't wait. So thank you

1020
00:48:23.920 --> 00:48:27.800
for tuning in. And with that being said, I'll just

1021
00:48:27.840 --> 00:48:28.559
play us.

1022
00:48:36.239 --> 00:49:00.840
Listen you well,