Well here we go !! Flying into the new cyberspace world of internets.............................
Welcome and Greetings from Sydney based Music Educator, Composer, and Performer Rod Herbert.
Hoping this space will have something cool for everyone!
Music Educators
Conductors and Band Directors
Classroom Music Teachers
Music Students
Music listening fans
Musicians young and not so young!
Teachers in training and new teachers early in their teaching career
Record Collectors and Music Fans of the entire world of musical genres even country western and death metal!
Questions???????????????
Well,
Who am I?
What do I Do?
Why do I do this?
How do I do this!
I have been blessed working parallel as both a music teacher and performing musician since around 1989 based mostly in Sydney Australia. Since 1999 i have been teaching full time at Marist College North Shore in Sydney teaching classroom music and conducting bands and musicals.
My classroom music includes Junior mandatory music and elective classes years 9 to 12! Schools are busy busy busy and often unpredictable places!
Two mornings a week i conduct the Concert Band which also become a marching band during term 1 each year when we prepare for the annual Australian war service veterans commemorative day, ANZAC Day March. This is a wonderful event supporting our ex service people but also is the huge event featuring hundreds of Marching Bands, Pipe Band, and Drum Corps all march during the parade, featuring professional service military bands and school groups.
Each year is a great reunion meeting many of our old musician buddies from our musical past!
One afternoon a week I rehearse and conduct the Jazz Ensemble, a twenty piece big band, where we perform Jazz, Funk, Pop and Latin inspire music.
We encourage the students to start to gain confidence in improvising and also getting the rhythm section players to feel comfortable supporting the foundation layer with the correct grooves and styles.
I like to feed my musicians a steady diet of classic youtube recordings of wonderful music and watch their musical tastes and performance skills and experience expand! Very cool to have some of the guys now arranging and writing their own compositions and getting to play these new pieces in the jazz group!
Its a Gas!!!
It is also my absolute pleasure to be involved with the adjacent primary school music program.
St Mary's Primary School is a huge program including choirs, strings ensembles and concert bands of varying levels.
I conduct the Junior Beginner Concert Band and the Senior Concert Band.
I am very inspired to compose original compositions for all my groups always featuring specific musicians in my ensembles.
This is where
www.rodherbertbigsoundmusic.com comes from!
30 year of writing customised music for my students.
Stay cool more music soon
Rod Herbert