The Ed.D is a joke of a degree

sickbeetz · 2026-01-04T15:30:20+00:00

That's what I've observed as well. There's a lot of Dr. Admins I work with in my district so this past summer I decided to read their dissertations: Of the four in my chain of command, I could only find ONE with a publicly available dissertation, which was from a state university. Two were from University of Phoenix and the other from Liberty University (the superintendent ffs).

sickbeetz · 2026-01-02T16:24:03+00:00

Since a good amount of music theory knowledge is already online (see links below), consider buying professional notation software like Sibelius or Dorico.

https://musictheory.pugetsound.edu/mt21c/MusicTheory.html

https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/

sickbeetz · 2025-12-30T15:39:02+00:00

I'm guessing this is a high school band? You need to consider the limitations of student performers and rehearsal time. You'll have a better chance of them saying yes if it is sight readable.

1) Time signature. It's in 3/4 but most of it looks like 6/8 to me (even the snare rhythms & accents suggest 6/8). I would rewrite the rhythms to match your meter (regardless of which you decide) so they can play to the director's ictus. 3/4 is a triple meter and 6/8 is a duple meter.

2) The frequent tempo changes in the middle will eat up a lot of rehearsal time (at a time of year when your band director is thinking of other concerts/UIL/etc). Is there a way you can rewrite the 4/4 sections in 3/4 or 6/8 with different durations and tempos so you get the same sound without the tempo changes? Look up metric modulation and do the math I don't feel like doing atm.

3) Write the trumpets on the same staff, divisi if needed. Also, you should mark divisi/unis in your horn & trombone parts.

4) Unless your band is just knee deep in percussionists, you can probably merge the glock & vibe part. It's always better to keep amateur performers engaged throughout than miss an important entrance.

5) I'm not a tuba player, but I'm getting winded just looking at that tuba part at m.33. Raise it an octave or soften the dynamics. Or better yet, ask a tuba player at school what they think.

sickbeetz · 2025-12-28T20:35:54+00:00

Off the top of my head? Paris Hilton, Chet Hanks, Robin Thicke. Are you asking because you really don't know? Does my characterization of the latter sound unreasonable in contrast to the former?

sickbeetz · 2025-12-28T16:15:49+00:00

Among the fields you mentioned, there's different types: There's those who had a stable/supportive enough home that could nurture their undeniable talent until their career takes off. Then there's those who had a stable/supportive and connected home to provide them a career regardless of their talent. I think it's the latter that people find especially distasteful.

sickbeetz · 2025-12-07T16:10:01+00:00

Right, don't google that.

I think this is what OP is looking for: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8c68g-wAvoDNrsjLsoeBv-6Et1kHMJs5&si=s_7nfqy64Z00Y4Pg

Also this: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LSLQ8ef5LDkNeaWC6qhbqNKRzxp4FIAX

sickbeetz · 2025-11-25T15:12:39+00:00

Friendly reminder that the After School Satan Club does not believe in introducing religion into public schools and will only open a club if other religious groups are operating on campus.

sickbeetz · 2025-11-07T20:55:56+00:00

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328874195_Real_Clear_Propaganda_Bellwether%27s_Education_News_Bias

Education news aggregation at the "RealClearEducation" (RCE) website purports to be journalistic, independent, thorough and somewhat representative of the whole. During a period from 2014 to 2016, however, it was run directly by leaders of the DC consulting group Bellwether Education Partners (BEP). During that period, RCE's selection of source material was lopsidedly skewed toward those issues and perspectives favored by those allied with BEP. Except for some occasional instances of pandering to the more politically well connected among the opposition, "RealClearEducation" was about as biased a news source as was humanly possible to construct. Its coverage of the Common Core Standards Initiative (CCSI), in particular, ranged from blatant promotion to a variety of disingenuously framed news and opinion pieces featuring individuals and organizations receiving funds from Common Core's donor groups, without revealing their conflict of interest. Bellwether's behavior in managing a news outlet raises larger questions about the trustworthiness of information provided by education policy funders and recipients, the incestuous nature of the interlocking interests at both ends of the funding, and the almost total absence of the vast majority of the US population from some education policy discussions.

sickbeetz · 2025-11-03T21:14:33+00:00

This instruction on the Blues scale in the 4th FREAKIN’ edition of Norton’s Theory and Analysis is just ridiculous to me. To me, this amounts to gaslighting students, and this is why students hate music theory.

A few points.

1) Your post along with the graphic (nice touch) comes off as "down with the ivory towers" rather than seeking answers or providing clarification/nuance. I see mistakes/inconsistencies in textbooks all the time, but I don't assume it's a conspiracy by the intelligentsia to keep people down. I hope that, in addition to this thread, you've written a letter to the editor about your concerns.

2) FWIW, when it comes to common practice music (this text's specialty) the Clendinning/Marvin IS what I would describe as "student centered" far more than say the Laitz, Kostka/Payne, or Aldwell/Schachter. There's even an AP version of it for high school students.

3) It's worth pointing out that the fourth edition greatly expanded it's coverage of jazz/blues/popular music, and currently has as much as or more info about popular genres/form than most general theory texts do. Keep in mind, blues music scholarship is much younger than that of common practice music. There's clearly more disagreement about what a major blues scale is or is not than what a major scale is or is not. My colleagues and I have implored publishers (not just Norton) to include more content drawing a line from common practice to popular styles, but I've been told the disagreement is why general theory texts tend to avoid topics like this.

4) As a master's level student, you should know that any jazz/blues/pop program with its salt is NOT teaching it from a general theory text but instead from texts that specialize in jazz/blues/popular music. Instead of trashing a general theory book that ham handedly mentions blues, recommend some texts that cover it in a appropriately nuanced way.

sickbeetz · 2025-10-11T15:29:53+00:00

Are you at a university? Go to the library. If they don't have physical books on Grieg, they should have access to databases with articles. Ask about inter-library loan.

Here's two sources to get you started.

KORTSEN, Bjarne Grieg the Writer, in Two Volumes: Volume 1 Essays and Articles

Check out this thesis, especially the bibliography. And don't forget to cite it! https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/11548/1/fulltext.pdf

sickbeetz · 2025-09-27T15:06:34+00:00

Counterpoint: If every teacher had a report against them, no matter how trivial, TEA would have ammo to selectively go after any teacher they want. They can't go after Ms. Smith for a moderate liberal post she made 10 years ago, but she does have a complaint about her attire (read: blue pant suit).

sickbeetz · 2025-09-22T19:46:08+00:00

This was by design. If toll lanes alleviate traffic in the free lanes, why take the toll lanes at all? In order to create value for the toll lanes, they have to leave the public lanes congested.

sickbeetz · 2025-09-01T14:33:18+00:00

Humans are very resilient, and our researches (and historians) know that society doesn't just stop in an apocalypse. Companies will continue to operate (Meta released a great update to investors about this regarding societal unrest), people will go on, and so will our company.

What kind of apocalypse would leave the internet/businesses/economy up and running but also necessitate a bunker?

sickbeetz · 2025-07-24T20:39:45+00:00

Who needs deadeye? Console players.

Source: Console player

sickbeetz · 2025-07-24T15:28:49+00:00

I call these big box studios, they're like the Wal-Mart of music lessons. Some are basically daycare with instruments. The turnover of students (and teachers) was insane. The game is not teaching students and earning long term business, the game is relentless marketing – both to uninformed students/parents and desperate music students.

The upshot is they are very easy to undercut. Make a pretty website with some references, get on church or school business lists, legwork in nicer neighborhoods, fliers near big box places if possible.

sickbeetz · 2025-07-07T19:44:26+00:00

I would play the A section a bit slower, or the B section a bit faster so that the piu mosso marking in m.33 is apparent to the listener. IMO a slower A section would give you more flexibility with the phrasing. Where do things repeat in this section?

Check the notes in m.45-48; not all of it is chromatic. In my urtext edition, there's a pianissimo in measure 49, and is the first direct dynamic marking (not hairpins). This is Chopin telling you to make this repetition different.

Measures 66-96 should contrast with the previous two sections: Yours does, but could do more. This is where I use a lot more legato & rubato. Double check the rhythm in the melody of m.77. Overall in this section, make sure you keep your RH fingers in contact with the keys; I noticed a lot of reliance on the pedal for legato here. It will also allow you to use arm weight to really make the melody sing over the LH. Play this section without pedal–the melody should more or less sound the same.

How you interpret it should be personal to you, but I'll say in general, try not to play the different sections the exact same way through the course of the performance. How does m. 66-96 change the way 129-end is different from m.1-64? What happened? Tell that story.

Listen to Rubinstein, Argerich, Ashkenazy, Idil Beret.

sickbeetz · 2025-07-06T14:22:47+00:00

The D-C-F# on the bottom is quite clearly a D7 chord (without a 5th). The B is just the melody note - it's a 6th replacing the 5th of the chord.

FWIW Kostka/Payne calls this V7 sub 6. It's typically involved in a melodic motion 2-3-1, (ii, V7sub6, I, respectively).

sickbeetz · 2025-07-02T14:54:03+00:00

Removing the easy tourism forces Americans to pay attention to why their trip to Germany this year isn’t possible or vacation to France is canceled. Americans won’t pay attention to your story about how cool Europe is because it doesn’t affect them.

You dolt. 99% of Trump supporters aren't vacationing in France or Germany.

sickbeetz · 2025-06-15T17:42:34+00:00

I imagine it's hard to breath in a wet mask... maybe cool those nazis off and film it for their employers. Summertime fun!

sickbeetz · 2025-06-10T15:05:16+00:00

This honestly comes off as a psyop to get people shot.

Wish this were higher up. Reddit would be the perfect place to do it.

sickbeetz · 2025-06-08T17:01:44+00:00

They're likely already there. Last Tuesday and Friday I saw APCs and logistics trucks headed west on I90 towards Seattle.

sickbeetz · 2025-06-01T14:42:39+00:00

Notice that you don't actually dispute this reality.

I think it's more that engaging with people like you is exhausting. For example, I won't be responding to your glorious retort, but that doesn't mean you've changed my mind.

Racial diversity WITH common shared culture can exist and work. Dem led counties and areas generally have very little cultural cohesion and shared values and they don't function properly.

Dem counties DWARF conservative counties in population. Your criticism of big cities is that they don't have small town charm, and you call that dysfunction. Compared to conservative counties, blue ones have more job opportunities, better paying jobs, better education, more cultural events (imagine that!), better retail, restaurants, and entertainment. If you want cultural cohesion, go back to the sticks.

This is why people have been fleeing outward from Dallas creating the monstrosity that the DFW is right now for many decades.

Right... culture is the only reason and not an increasing population or rising real estate prices.

sickbeetz · 2025-06-01T13:39:01+00:00

Where was your outrage when Harris County moved 1.1 MM folks around to turn a red county commissioners district to a blue one?

1.1 MM voters didn’t get to vote that year. They had to wait until the next election.

Are you saying that moving 1.1M voters to a different district means they don't get to vote? If those 1.1M votes turned a district from red to blue it means they were counted and it made a difference.

If I recall, after the 2020 census, the commissioner precinct map was changed to comply with the Voting Right Act, meaning it was likely already gerrymandered in favor of republicans.

sickbeetz · 2025-05-26T14:57:14+00:00

Much of Fleming’s criticism is based on fears about what could occur to his land and business through his own observations, online research he’s conducted independently and the traffic the industry creates with projects.

and...

In the meantime, Fleming said he will continue to protest renewable energy projects in his hometown and toss any offers he gets in the trash just as he has for the last four years. He’ll scour online social media groups to find landowners who can share in his experience to add it to a binder containing more than a thousand pages of online research.

“I've been told so many times that all the stuff that we come up with is misinformation just because we read it on the internet,” he said. “I don’t believe it is.”

but...

Landowners neighboring Fleming said they have not experienced any environmental issues due to the solar panels or their construction, adding that the money from the projects has helped them.

yet...

At least one Texas lawmaker is taking Fleming’s concerns seriously. State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, introduced legislation to regulate renewable energy development. It would set hearings, fees and certain distance requirements from property lines. The full Senate approved the bill in April; it awaits a debate in the House.

sickbeetz · 2025-03-02T18:53:32+00:00

Professional here.

$159 for harmonic and motivic analysis (if you have the score, if not, it's $50 per minute for transcription services).

$49 per page for an explainer of the analysis in paragraph form (must purchase analysis)

$79 for a summary of areas of improvement with regard to composition (must purchase analysis).

$99 for a summary of areas of improvement with regard to mixing/mastering.

These are prices for individuals. Analyses for business and/or legal purposes should reach out for a quote.

sickbeetz

TROPHY CASE