Here’s a Song LACM Students and Everclear’s Art Alexakis Wrote Together

Students from Los Angeles College of Music (formerly LAMA) and rock icon Art Alexakis teamed up to create this inspiring piece — it took all of one day on The Lennon Bus at The NAMM Show to put this tune together. What do you think? Leave your feedback in the comments below.

-LACM Staff

LAMA Drum Clinic: Aaron Spears

LAMA is very excited to welcome DW Drums, Zildjian Cymbals and Vic Firth artist Aaron Spears (Usher) for a drum clinic Sunday November 10th, from 4pm to 6pm. The Grammy nominee has an action packed two hour clinic planned for students and alumni in attendance; limited seating is available for the public (first come, first served). Check out this performance of Aaron at Modern Drummer Fest.

Interested in attending? Everyone must RSVP to be admitted. Email info@lama.edu and we will email you a confirmation shortly thereafter. We’ll see you Sunday!

-LAMA Staff

Dave Martone – “Top 10 Things You Need to Be Awesome”

We are happy to introduce an exciting new learning opportunity called LAMA Online! LAMA has combined two technologies to deliver a fully interactive learning experience. In the video below, LAMA Online guitar instructor Dave Martone gives guitarists a preview of his course, “Top 10 Things You Need to Be Awesome” (we love that Parker Guitar he is playing as well).

In this course, Dave will take you through his Top 10 list of things that will teach you how to be awesome, including picking, legato, combo meal deal, expression, phrasing, fingerpicking, sweeping, hybrid picking, tapping, tone and more! You will be guided through all of these topics with multi-cam video, printed music including tabs, and backing tracks. Guitar Online Enrollment is now open for six guitar courses, beginning January 6th, 2013. Interested in taking Dave’s course? Register here.

How does LAMA Online work?

Each course features ten video lessons. At the end of each lesson you will be asked to submit a video of yourself performing the weekly assignment. You can video yourself as many times as you like, and when you record “the one,” upload it for the teacher to review. The teacher will then video himself/herself critiquing your performance. You will then receive an email in your inbox letting you know that there’s a personalized video from your teacher awaiting your review (the video exchange technology is included in the lessons). There are no programs to buy or download. It’s very easy to use: all you need is a computer with a camera and microphone.

-LAMA Staff

You’re Invited! LAMA Halloween Costume Party

Trick or Treat! Students and staff haunt the LAMA campus…

We absolutely love Halloween! Get your ghoul on at this year’s costume party, where we’ll feature live music, a DJ and of course, tons of costumes! Students, alumni, staff and their guests are required to wear a costume in order to attend.

While you are there, take a tour of our brand new LAMA North Campus. If you have an October birthday, come celebrate your day-of-birth with fellow Libras and Scorpios including LAMA staffers Wilber and Charisse!

For more information about the evening, and to register to attend, click here.

When:

Saturday October 26, 2013 from 9:00 PM – 1:00 AM PDT

Where:

LAMA North Campus (Use Del Mar entrance)

10 E. Del Mar Boulevard

Pasadena, CA 91105

-LAMA Staff

5 Musicians Who Are Fun To Follow On Twitter

Twitter!

Twitter took the entertainment world by storm when it came on-line in March 2006. While Facebook was the place to find your old high school friends and lost loves, Twitter quickly became the mouthpiece of everybody from President Clinton to Lebron James.  However, there are are some amazing musicians spreading the word on Twitter. In this list we are going to give you our 5 favorites! (In no particular order)

1. Amanda Palmer @amandapalmer

Ms. Palmer was the first person to raise a million dollars on Kickstarter. She definitely understands the power of social networking! She is a lot of fun to follow on Twitter because she cannot help but be honest.

2. ?uestlove @questlove

We spend each evening with this prolific drummer as the Max Weinberg of the Jimmy Fallon show. For that reason it is only fitting that we get his Tweets throughout the day. He has amassed a huge following by tweeting about everything from music to what they are going to play on the show at night.

3. Billy Corgan @Billy

Billy Corgan has been tweeting so long that he was able to get the username @Billy. Pretty cool huh? In addition to his duties as an alt-rock god Billy also tweets frequently about his love of professional wrestling.

4. Janelle Monáe @JanelleMonae

We had the distinct privilege to get to see Janelle Monae open for Prince at the LA Forum several years ago. She was incredible! Janelle has a great relationship with her fans and retweets them quite a bit.

5. Erykah Badu @fatbellybella

Erykah Badu has one of the most amazing voices of this generation. She is also an incredible lyricist. It is a lot of fun to get in this diva’s head with all her great tweets. It does not surprise us she has close to a million followers!

Those are our suggestions for some fun Twitter followers. Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments!

-LAMA Staff

LAMA Instructor Spotlight: Jamie Rosenn

Jamie Rosenn!

Here at LAMA it is important to us that both student and teacher are connected on the musical journey, and that the faculty play a supporting role to the student. That’s why we like to spotlight some of the instructors you may see while at LAMA. Today let’s meet Jamie Rosenn. From Jamie’s official website:

Jamie Rosenn is a guitar player committed to forging a personal sound that acknowledges the past but also points to the future. Trained at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he received a Bachelors Degree in Music, Rosenn studied with jazz luminaries Jimmy Giuffre, Ran Blake, Mick Goodrick, George Russell and Bob Moses. After completing his studies in Boston, Jamie moved to California where he attended the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Valencia. At CalArts Jamie studied with Charlie Haden, Leo Smith and Joe LaBarbera and was a featured performer and composer on the ’94 and ’95 CalArts Jazz CDs. Since receiving his Master Degree from CalArts Jamie has been an active member of the Los Angeles jazz scene. In 1996 Jamie was chosen by the United States Information Agency to be an artistic ambassador and perform in a duo that took part in a seven week tour of the Middle East and South Asia. In addition to performing, Jamie currently teaches at the Musician’s Institute, Saddleback College, the Los Angeles Music Academy, and CalState Northridge and has taught at the University of California at Los Angeles, and CalArts and Cypress College. Jamie performs as a member of the trio JoE-LeSs shOe with Jason Harnell and Matt Otto who released their self titled CD in 2007 as well as “Outsole” in 2010. Jamie also co-leads the organ trio Option 3, with Joe Bagg and Mark Ferber that released their debut CD “Points Subtracted” in early 2008.

For more info on Jamie make sure to give a visit to his website here.

-LAMA Staff

Peter Erskine App Features LAMA Drum Instructor Aaron Serfaty

New App!

We are very proud to announce LAMA drum instructor Aaron Serfaty, the go-to studio drummer for Afro Cuban and Brazilian drumming, is featured on the “Erskn Afro Cuban Essentials”, a brand new app from Peter Erskine (currently available in the App Store).

Here is how the App works:

Using the built-in mixer, the user can create their own combo: full rhythm section (trio), music-minus- piano, music-minus-bass, music-minus-drums, or solo tracks of drums-only, bass-only or piano-only PLUS any combination of congas, bongo and timbale percussion tracks. There are click-track and count-off options, too. 

This YouTube video showcases all the features of the app:

Want more from Aaron? Check out his quick tip videos from LAMA College for Music Professionals below:

-LAMA Staff

#LetsTalkMusic – LAMA Welcomes Ziggy Marley and Native Wayne Jobson

 

Students, alumni and associates are very much looking forward to the August 21st event at LAMA featuring five-time Grammy winner (and newly-awarded Emmy winner) Ziggy Marley and Grammy-winning producer Native Wayne Jobson. LAMA’s ‪#‎LetsTalkMusic‬ series is invite-only and hosted every quarter at LAMA. Jobson will interview Marley, a musician, actor, artist, activist and humanitarian, about his history in the music industry, journey as an artist, and aspirations to affect change with his music.

LAMA has also announced a new scholarship in Ziggy’s name, the Ziggy Marley Artist Scholarship. For more information, visit www.lama.edu.

-LAMA Staff

LAMA Gospel Choir Records “Roll Over Beethoven”

The choir in the studio!

You might remember an earlier blog post celebrating the LAMA partnership with The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (London, England) and Academia de Música Fermatta (Mexico City and Guadalajara; Mexico) to create the International Association of Music Colleges and Universities (IAMCU). To celebrate the launch of IAMCU, the association announced it has partnered with UNICEF for a special collaborative project to mark the 50th anniversary of the seminal album, “With the Beatles.”

Recently the LAMA Gospel Choir was in the studio recording vocals for the Beatles version of the Chuck Berry song “Roll Over Beethoven”. (Track #1 on Side #2 of the original With the Beatles vinyl) The members of the choir are:

Choir Conductor : Dawn Bishop

Sopranos : Grace Park
Dawn-Charlott Thompson

Altos : Rannveig Amundsen
Mariela Arredondo
Tshegofatso Mhlongo

Tenors : Erik Kapernick
Elliot Steinwedell
Anton Söder
Nicolas Tinguely
Jesper Windmar

We are counting down the days to hear the finished album!

-LAMA Staff

LAMA’s Guitar Department Described by Student Andres Yepez

Andres plays in an ensemble workshop with LAMA’s Sandro Feliciano (drums) and Doug Ross (bass)

Andres Yepez, like many LAMA students before him, came from Ecuador to Los Angeles to study music at LAMA. Roughly half of LAMA’s student body comes internationally to study here. Andres talks about why he chose to study guitar at LAMA and what daily life is like in the guitar department. For more information, visit http://www.lama.edu.

-LAMA Staff