Back with in-person lessons in over a year, the natural first thing to do is play a duet! Here is a little moment we captured with Trevor and his student M.   We have really been enjoying the sounds of music in the halls and seeing how much our students have grown during our time away. It brings a lot of joy to watch students eyes light up seeing their teachers and getting to play together. At this point about a third of our students have transitioned back to in-person lessons, which has helped us navigate learning our new space at Paseo Baptist Church and work out scheduling logistics ..read more

I was talking with one of the BAM board members this week about the challenges I’m working through looking for solutions for BAM to return to in-person lessons. I mentioned to him my tendency to pick the first solution to a problem and not explore lots of options. Curiously, he pointed me to a talk on creativity by John Cleese, co-founder of Monty Python. John Cleese talked about an open and a closed mindset, the open mindset a place where new ideas are explored and a closed mindset where focus helps complete tasks. While both are important to productivity, we tend to favor the closed mindse ..read more

The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source. BAM instructor Trevor Smith explains how to add percussion and rhythm to your guitar playing through " chucking ".  Chucking is a strumming technique where open chords or single notes are alternated with dead "chucks" to create a rhythm ..read more

This is a subtitle for your new post The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source ..read more

“Why Music?” Series: Kerissa Breisch In an effort to express the many positive impacts of music education, we created a video series that delves into the minds of our wonderful BAM instructors. In “Why Music? Why BAM?”, we sit down with our instructors to ask them three questions: “what do you want for your students?” “why do you teach at BAM?” and “can you tell me a story about one of your students?”. Here, board certified music therapist and violin, piano, guitar, and ukulele instructor, Kerissa Breisch, is given the spotlight to talk about her work with BAM. Breisch discusses the relations ..read more

“Why Music?” Series: Nicholas Ferguson As a part of BAM’s “Why Music? Why BAM?” video series, we seek to gain insight into the minds and inspirations of our music teachers. We ask them each three questions: “what do you want for your students?” “why do you teach at BAM?” and “can you tell me a story about one of your students?”. In this video, BAM instructor Nicholas Ferguson sits down to talk about developing work ethic through musical practice and how music pushes the creative boundaries of his students. Learn how you can help to further music education in Kansas City’s urban core here ..read more

Learn About Musical Beat And Rhythm with BAM's Trevor Smith What is a beat? You’ve undoubtedly heard the term before, but can you describe what it really Is? In short, the beat is a measure of time that, among other things, allows musicians to identify the underlying pattern of a song. In this episode of BAM’s Master Class Series, composer and teacher, Trevor Smith, uses a universally recognized example of a beat-- the heartbeat, to help viewers understand how a beat is the “pulse” of music. Smith then goes on to explain the theory of rhythm and its relationship to a beat. He also explains th ..read more

Explore Music with Chrome's Music Lab Tumperteer, composer and BAM instructor, Nate Nall, showcases Google’s Chrome Music Lab. The free-to-access website was developed in 2016 as a contribution to Music In Our Schools Month as a way to make music exploration and education accessible to many. Watch as Nate explores the platform’s interactive experiments and learn how they can be used to demonstrate the concepts of sound, rhythm, harmony and others. You can visit Google’s Chrome Music Lab at https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/ or google “ chrome music lab ”. If your child is ready to begin ..read more

Meet The Newest Members of Our Board of Directors We are beyond excited to welcome Mishawnda Mintz and Sherman Whites to the Base Academy of Music family as our newest board members! Sherman Whites currently serves as a director in Education for the Mauriel Ewing Kauffman Foundation and also lends his time to the Kauffman Foundation’s Communications and Public Affairs team to help shape the lives of Kansas City youth through providing access to education. Mishawnda Mintz along with her husband, James, own and operate InvestMintz, a real estate and investment company that works to provide bea ..read more

Yogurtini Plaza will be donating 20% to BAM this weekend! This Saturday, September 12, head on over to Yogurtini on the Plaza in Kansas City. Grab a cool treat and tell them you are there to support BAM!  Yogurtini Plaza will be donating 20% of all sales to support music lessons in Kansas City, through Base Academy of Music. BAM Staff will be hanging out between 2pm to 4pm. If the weather permits, we may even bring a piano and play some tunes! Look forward to seeing the BAM Fam there. You can learn more at the Facebook event here . The body content of your post goes here. To edit thi ..read more