amy stolzenbach

My friend Jason and I teach at Experience Music Project in Seattle. A lot of people think this is a Jimi Hendrix museum, but it's a lot more. The education department runs a lot of classes and programs through out the year including their week-long Teen Artsit Workshops during the summer. I taught a one-week Beat Making class a few weeks ago. I had four incredible students who learned the program, Reason. They really blew me away with the pieces they wrote. Fearless and inventive. I gave them challenges every day like "write new music for the Matrix lobby scene shootout", "write music in 3/4 time for a circus using traditional circus themes, but with modern sounding instruments". I'll try to post some music soon.

Jason taught four Rock Band camps including a two-week Advanced Rock Band Camp that ended last Friday. I went to see their final performance and as usual I was really inspired. Three bands performed four to five songs each - originals and covers. One boy named Chandler is a not-to-distant-future indie star. He writes great songs and has a voice that ranges from Jeff Buckley falsetto to Cookie Monster screams. Really impressive! A private guitar student of mine was in one of the bands. It was great to see him stretch out and play with other people - he even played bass on a few songs.

We can learn a lot from kids if we take the time. We've forgotten how pure music can be and what it was like to step into the spotlight for the first time.... 

Spike and the Impalers played at the Tulalip Casino last month. What does this have to do with Debussy? I'm living in two worlds right now (rock and film scoring) and that beautiful summer night is where the two dimensions crossed. Don Peake sat in with us on Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On". I've got to say it was a little surreal to hear that iconic opening guitar line coming from next to me on stage, played by the man who recorded it with Marvin Gaye. I got the same feeling last year when he played Ray Charles' "Georgia" with us. In addition to being a wonderful person and a stellar studio musician (as a member of The Wrecking Crew) and arranger over the years, Don has written the scores for films like The Hills Have Eyes and The People Under the Stairs as well as scoring the main theme and episodic music for Knightrider.  

We had a lot of time to just hang out that day and at one point, I told him that he was in a unique position to offer some advice and would he mind sitting down with me a some point during the day so we could talk. After a long day including soundcheck, the show and a "meet and greet" for our fans, Don and I finally sat down at midnight to catch a late dinner. I told him that I would be studying orchestration at Berklee and that I would like to work with composers and do film scores. I asked him if he had any advice. He had many words of encouragement which meant a lot to me. We talked a lot about different composers and we talked about some of his experiences. He steered me towards learning Debussy's "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair" first. He told me to sit down at the piano and play it and with a dreamy twinkle in his eye and a sigh, he told me it would make me smile. He was right. I will never forget how much it meant to me that he stayed up until 1:00 AM to talk with me. I'd like to think I have a new friend and mentor.