Laughs and Local Connections - Update on my Music Podcast

Nothing but Treble...

The most recent project that I've been working on (as if there aren't enough) is the music podcast that I launched back in August. So far I've had a fair amount of success with it, and my colleague that has joined me in this daring venture (Melissa Brown) seems to be enjoying it immensely. I think the most appealing aspect of doing these weekly podcasts is the simplicity of it: every week we broadcast ourselves on YouTube Live, with no script in our hands, and basically just talk about music for a half an hour. The only preparation (besides setting up the equipment, which has only failed us a few times) is coming in with a different musical topic each week. 

The purpose of this? You guessed it, to get more music students, and it has worked to some extent :) Mrs. Brown (a.k.a. "Missy,") also teaches piano at The Music Connection in Chico, so we are both benefitting from this. We've definitely intended to inject some humor into each podcast, and we've done eight broadcasts so far. Whether or not the humor has been effective remains to be seen :D In any case, I've attached the video of our first broadcast below.  

Our first broadcast of "Treble With Missy and Thor," 

our music podcast

Ulterior Motives?

Why yes, there are! The main one is that I hope to get enough subscribers and viewers to our YouTube channel (which is called "Treble With Missy & Thor") so that some of these same subscribers and viewers will eventually be directed to my own music-related channel ("Thorsteinn Gunter"), thereby allowing my compositions to have more exposure. That being said, I find the term "ulterior motive" to be somewhat of a misnomer because I'm very open about sharing this agenda.  

 

Regardless of how many subscribers we get (we now only have 45) I've been having so much fun with this because it's not something that requires a grueling amount of preparation, or any strenuous effort. In the mean time, I've added a new video to the music channel and thought I would share that one as well. 

"Footprints on Esterro's Sands," 

one of my originals

New Students, Upcoming Recordings, and... a Virtual Recital?

The first two items in that heading are definitely a thing, while the third one is still a "maybe," an idea that I'm floating around in my head (among so many other ideas).  Even though the number of music students decreased slightly during the onset of the Coronavirus, it has still remained pretty steady, and as of recently I gained a few more students, mainly through the vendor programs at the local charter schools in Chico. The interesting part of this (and the very unusual part of this) is that I am now teaching piano to a few students that I have literally never met in person, because they started their first lesson with me on Zoom.

Piano Lesson with Zoom 

(It's the same, I just look a little smaller :D )

As far as new recordings (aside from the most recent one above) I plan to start uploading some covers as well. I definitely plan to mix things up with regard to the types of videos I make, especially since I know people like variety. And the classical covers are definitely no secret - J.S. Bach's Gavotte in G minor, Edvard Grieg's Arietta, and Georg Benda's A minor Sonatina are among the few I plan to record. 

While I feel fairly confident about retaining the students I have now, I also know from experience that if they are not kept accountable, some may be liable to subconsciously "coast" or put in a little less effort. I know there's at least one other teacher in Chico who put together a piano recital entirely on Zoom, so I'm thinking about trying it some time in the future. It definitely has its disadvantages compared to an in-person recital, but the accountability factor that may discourage some of my students has weighed on my mind. 

The solution? Put on a virtual recital, of course! It never hurts to try new things, and this is just one of many new things I intend to do.