Musician's Institute

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Kizmet, Jun 9, 2017.

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  1. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  2. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    Musicians Institute, also branded MI College of Contemporary Music, now offers many of its undergraduate programs online through MI Online, including Bachelor of Music in Performance (Contemporary Styles) in either Guitar, Drum, Vocal, Keyboard, or Bass, Bachelor of Music in Songwriting & Production, and some associate and certificate programs. Many MI programs are still on-campus and some are on-campus-only. Accreditation is NA, non-RA, through the National Association of Schools of Music.

    MI Online tuition for music courses is 510 per credit or 6120 per quarter. It would be nice to see some price competition develop between MI and Berklee online now. Liberty Online also now has Commercial Music programs in the mix.
     
    Dustin likes this.
  3. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Price competition is good, as long as the quality is competitive. Berklee is amazing - a pretty darn tough act to follow, in that regard.
     
  4. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    The MI catalog - courses for degrees, certs and stand-alone is extensive - nearly 500 pages. Plenty of guitar courses - my main but not exclusive musical interest. Maybe I missed it, but I could find no guitar course related specifically to blues guitar. Berklee has an excellent series - stand-alone or together in a 12-credit cert, that can apply to a guitar degree. Also great instruction in funk guitar, which also interests me.

    I think Berklee has more for me. MI is good though, no doubt about it. YMMV.

    When I die, it's gonna be hard to pry my fingers off the primary Funk chord - E-9th on the 7th fret! :)
     
    Jonathan Whatley likes this.
  5. Asymptote

    Asymptote Active Member

    Do they offer steamboat calliope?
     
  6. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    If you can play a pipe organ - you can play a calliope.

    "A calliope differs in no substantial way from an organ with one rank comprising only closed metal flue pipes. The fact that steam rather than cold air is the fluid is not a substantial difference."

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Calliope_(music)

    Go for it, Asymptote. Hope to see you on the Delta Queen, or maybe the Belle of Louisville. :)
     
    Asymptote likes this.
  7. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I bet there are some Hammond B-3 players - jazz people, who could absolutely burn up a calliope. I'd love to have heard Jimmy Smith, Shirley Scott, Groove Holmes or Brother Jack McDuff, who have all passed on.

    But Barbara Dennerlein is still with us. She's phenomenal! https://www.barbaradennerlein.com/e/
    Maybe I'll make a suggestion.... :) (She also plays pipe organ - extremely well - so calliope ...)
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2023
    Asymptote likes this.
  8. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Riverboat Fantasy One of my all-time faves. (Might sound OK on Calliope.)

    "Sittin' on a Riverboat havin' a party
    Me and My Cajun queen
    She's turnin' 21 on the Mississippi river
    Headin' out of New Orleans

    The Year is 1894
    Oh, Come on mama and love me some more
    Her dark eyes flashed like a Gambler's ring
    She shakes her pretty head and sings

    CHORUS:
    Life for me is a Riverboat Fantasy
    Watchin' the sun go down
    Oh, a rock & roll band, with a reefer in my hand
    Now look at that wheel go round
    Cocaine kisses and moonshine misses
    That's the life for me
    I'm sailing away from my heartache
    On a Riverboat fantasy"

    (Apologies to David Wilcox)
     
    Asymptote likes this.
  9. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    PDQ Bach wrote a few pieces for calliope. He had a wheeled device on stage that emitted "steam". I suspect it was dry ice. In fact, I seem to recall a set of variations on a Death March written for calliope four hands.
     
    Asymptote likes this.
  10. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    "He" was Professor Peter Schickele of the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople.
     
  11. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Bit on Hoople ND (real), and that fictional University here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoople,_North_Dakota

    Funny - I always thought Hoople ND was named for Major Amos Hoople (Ret'd,) of "Our Boarding House" cartoon. "Uncle Bulgy" to his two nephews (behind his back, of course) and one of my first 'finds' in the local paper when I came here from England as a kid.

    Bit on that here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Boarding_House

    There was also a Canadian band called "Major Hoople's Boarding House." Here: https://citizenfreak.com/artists/98887-major-hoople-s-boarding-house No Calliope.

    And IIRC, Major Amos Hoople in the comic didn't play calliope, either. He did play euphonium occasionally, I think, when his stern, middle-aged sister Martha, who ran the Boarding House, wasn't around.
     
    Asymptote likes this.
  12. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Apparently PDQ specified a four handed player...
     
  13. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Note that playing the calliope is the same as playing organ. Regrettably it is not the same as playing piano. The two schools have a keyboard in common and that's about it.

    Right now I'm beating myself up for failing to play Mozart's scale passages with the fluidity they require. Mozart seems so simple and transparent. That's the problem. Nowhere to hide.
     
    Johann likes this.
  14. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Same with Lightnin' Hopkins - and John Lee Hooker, I assure you. And Son House and Mississippi Fred McDowell. ... pure Bedrock!
     
  15. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

  16. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

  17. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I thought at first "teaching an instrument remotely - wow, that's a hard gig." Then I thought of all the great guitar lessons I've found on YouTube - some from a couple of great schools like Berklee, that do this same thing exactly, at advanced levels. I was wrong - could be a very good way for both student and teacher to go, indeed. I read the ad. They've convinced me. I wish Oclef (and whomever they hire) every success.
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2023
  18. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    "Learn to play piano in 30 days!"
     
  19. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    No - we've both seen those - forever. We KNOW how that goes... it's like "Get your Costaraguan PhD., Polish DBA or Jamaican MBA in 4 months..." We've had um - "opportunities" for all those, recently. Hucksters gonna huck.

    I've learned enough musical chops remotely to know -- it works, for what I want to do. YMMV.
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2023
  20. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    During covid lockdowns I did remote lessons by FaceTime. It worked well enough for some purposes but this was one on one and real time not prerecorded video. There's no substitute for instant criticism and patient demonstration.
     

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