Faculty Clinics!

It's finally here! Download a copy of the latest McNally Smith Faculty Clinics Brochure. These clinics are taught by McNally Smith award-winning faculty in your classroom, or here on our campus. Your choice. The clinic descriptions in the catalogue are really fun and interesting (everything from songwriting to laptop studio techniques), and our faculty always cater each clinic to the students' interests and needs. So take a look at the pretty brochure, and email partnerships@mcnallysmith.edu or call 651-288-4908 to schedule a clinic!

Read the whole story on Faculty Clinics on the McNally Smith Website.

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McNally Smith Campus Visitors

Wellstone Elementary School Choir under the direction of Ilya Freyter, visited us here at McNally Smith shortly after the New Year to record some of their songs.  With the help of Faculty Outreach Director, Steve Faison, and our dynamo production staff (thanks Ryan & Todd!), the gang laid down eight wonderful tracks of fun tunes.  Some songs were for the holidays, while others were for every-day listening, all year round.  Here are a few of their tunes:

We've been hosting more in-house visits for schools lately.  Campus visits seems to be a popular option because the students get to take advantage of all our gear and resources.  Lakeville High School got to sit-in on an Artist-In-Industry Seminar, PUC Arts & Tech High School had a one-on-one with facutly member and producer, Joe Mabbott.  Joe was responsible for 25% of the 'Best Recordings of 2008' as named by the Star Tribune!
Students from Global Language Institute (located just down the street from McNally Smith) came to visit for a tour and lunch with some current McNally Smith students.  We look forward to welcoming more schools and students through our door in the new year.  Email partnerships@mcnallysmith.edu if you'd like to schedule a visit!  

Get Ready for Music College

Today we were visited by six extremely bright and talented students with the Office of Higher Education's "Get Ready for College" Program. The students came prepared with rhymes, beats, and some with spoken word poems about their career dreams and aspirations. The group walked directly into Studio 2 (yes, the one with the brand-new SSL Console) and began recording their songs under the direction of Steve Faison, Director of Faculty Outreach, and engineered by two McNally Smith recording students, Cody and Zach. After their recording session, the group had a lunchtime chat in the cafe with current McNally Smith students. They talked about music, college, and spicy hot Cheetos. After lunch, they went for a tour of the school and stopped in on the Artist in Industry Seminar. McNally Smith Faculty member, Lori Dokken, explained the purpose of the course, and how learning about artists and music of all genres helps to make students better musicians. You can check out some of the students' songs below, and be sure to check back later for an updated entry with even more student music...

More about the "Get Ready" Program:

"The Get Ready program is an early intervention and college awareness program. The programs helps prepare fourth through tenth grade students from low-income families and those from groups traditionally under-represented in college with college planning information, academic tutoring and information on career and higher education options." - www.getreadyforcollege.org

Eau Claire Memorial High School visits McNally Smith College of Music

Last Saturday, Eau Claire Memorial High Schools Band Director, Bruce Hering brought his three jazz bands to spend a day working with our faculty at McNally Smith. It was a day of hard work and fun, with ensemble and sectional clinics, a master class with Pete Whitman, lunch in the Cafe, and a faculty concert. Thanks to Ryan McNally and Todd Smith, the day's work was recorded. Thank you Eau Claire Memorial High School students, Bruce Hering, Steve Faison, Pete Whitman, Chris Olson, Dave Schmalenberger, Gary Gratz, Terry Burns, Scott Agster, and Adam Rossmiller. Here's a snipet of Pete's Master Class...yes, that's the band singing.

"The moral of the story that I'm trying to say...
If you can carry the tune, and you can play a little groove - that's it - you're off to the races.
And if you just sing the melodies, learn 'em on your horn.
It's not necessarily about reading, a lot of it is just trying to figure out tunes.
It's the same tunes, the beginning tunes in your beginning band book.
You know, like little brown jug, or any of those tunes will work.
Just start playing 'em by ear
...what you hear on the radio or on the record player..."
- Pete Whitman

About Eau Claire Memorial Jazz Ensemble:
"Directed by Mr. Bruce Hering, EC Memorial Jazz Ensemble has been selected five times as a National Finalist in the prestigious Essentially Ellington Festival and performed at Lincoln Center for Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in New York for five of the past ten years. Memorial jazz bands have been selected the "Best Band" at numerous jazz festivals in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois, including the Rolling Medows Festival in Chicago, the UW-La Cross Festival and the UW-Eau Claire Jazz Festival." - from Jazz at MHS website.

McNally Smith Community Partnerships

Our VP, Chris Osgood, put it best when he defined our new hybrid of admin/faculty outreach efforts as "the booking agent and the talent"... From high school classrooms throughout the Twin Cities to the McNally Smith campus studios and stages, Steve Faison, Faculty Outreach Director, and Anabel Wirt, Community Partnerships & Events, are teaming up to bring a world of fun clinics for metro-area music departments in lots of different subjects from theory to performance to improve to recording technology (brochure posted soon). And they and their team of fellow key changing clinicians can be reached at partnerships@mcnallysmith.edu. You'll probably just talk to Anabel first...unless she's busy thinking of adjectives for this blog entry.

Clinician Profile: Steve Faison

As the Faculty Outreach Director and interdepartmental instructor at McNally Smith, Steve is one of the most versatile performers in the Twin Cities, working as an instrumentalist, guitar, bass, percussion, vocalist, producer, arranger, and recording engineer in sessions and live performances. Steve has performed locally, nationally, and internationally, and is best known for his vocal work with Samoa and Moor by Four. He has studied under such notables as Fran Colby, Ed Shaughnessy, Owen Clark, and Ron Keezer.

Admin Profile: Anabel Wirt

In Community Partnerships and Events, Anabel works to build relationships within the community, coordinating the college's efforts in school outreach and events among students, staff, and faculty. Musically, Anabel is an avid fiddler with a particular fondness for Irish, Bluegrass, and especially Old Time fiddling styles. Anabel also enjoys updating the Partnerships blog, though thinks it funny to write about oneself in the third person.

Vocal Master Class

From the Faculty Clinics, McNally Smith Presents...

Master Class with Judi Donaghy!

(This is really good stuff. Free for schools and brought directly to music classrooms. Email partnerships@mcnallysmith.edu if you'd like more info.) Read on...

General Master Class: Students bring in a prepared song in any style (i.e. jazz, folk, country, rock, musical theatre, R&B, gospel, etc.) and are coached on articulation, technique presentation, and interpretation.

Beginning Techniques: Students are given a warm up routine (cd provided) and taught about the effects of good vocalization. Focus is on range, registers, agility, ear training, and articulation.

Vocal Gymnastics: (Pre-requisite, Beginning Techniques) Students are introduced to exercises that stretch the ear, increase easy flow between registers, increase range, develop diverse style techniques, build ornamentation.

Clinician Profile: Judi Donaghy

If variety is the spice of life, call her "Curry". Judi grew up singing everything from Julie Andrews to Blood Sweat and Tears. In 2001, vocal pioneer Bobby McFerrin hired her to join his 12 member a cappela group "Voicestra". Over the years, one-tme gigs with such greats as Yo Yo Ma, Janis Seigel, Marilyn McCoo, and Carole King made for good diary days. In the Twin Cities, Judi works regularly with The Wolverines Classic Jazz Orchestra, JazzMN Big Band, The Girls, Urbanstride, and her own acoustic ensemble, Judi, Cliff 'n' Daves.

"Takin' It To The Streets" - RNC 2008

Last Summer, The Mayor of St. Paul, Chris Coleman, asked McNally Smith to help showcase the arts of the city by providing music on six highly trafficked street corners of downtown during the Republican National Convention. Several days later, four students in a Publicity and Promotions class answered a plea for help from the new Community Partnerships gal at McNally Smith. Dave, Jennifer, Zach, and Peter put their music business degrees and creative juices to work and together with the volunteers they recruited, they booked, promoted, and executed over 150 street performances during the RNC, bedazzling locals, visitors, and yes - even SWAT teams with the musical talents of McNally Smith students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

The efforts of these four students, the musicians, and the street team volunteers were immeasurable (and this author is forever grateful). From local stations to MPR to Italian and Russian television, our musicians, our city, and our school were everywhere to be seen and heard. Oh yeah, and it also helped that Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart aired from our Campus in the History Theatre. Those same students even made it on the set of the show, and were introduced to America as "The Jon Stewart Singers".

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