Yet I saw the writing on the wall for musicians in New Mexico shortly after 2000. Streaming sites and dwindling music budgets had created damage on several levels for schools and musicians. The money and seemingly – appreciation for live music, had taken a back seat to iPod’s and streaming. Schools in NM also did not find the budgets to have music every year for students. Our local symphony declared bankruptcy and Carousel of Music was not far behind as iPod’s replaced live entertainers at every turn.
I started looking for ways to increase music appreciation in our schools starting at the elementary level. MusicMoment was created out of a need to grow the arts through simple music training in classrooms. We wanted to get the ball rolling by creating highly usable 5 minute sponge activities to give to schools. Next we would expand it by offering students affordable access to music instruction after school.
Since our beginning we have created over 1,500 music lesson videos for school students. We created SchoolBeats as a membership giving middle and high school students access to our large lesson library. Recently, we started making Essential Elements Band and Strings videos that correspond with the EE books. DeAnna, our Project Manager just completed an amazing Essential Elements Interactive Certification course for teachers and students. This course is the first of its kind and will give specific training and support to the EEi platform.
We are also moving into a distributor position to begin offering Essential Elements and other Hal Leonard book methods to schools. This will be a great fit with our EE video lesson series. Next we will add Essential Elements Musicianship and Jazz to the mix. Stay tuned for a wild ride with Sessions as we align more closely with school music programs next year.
Jim Gross (Founder – Sessions Academy)
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