Just in case you’ve been clamoring.

Spoiler Alert: Extremely niche t-shirts available at rebelmusicteach.threadless.com

It’s no secret that I love social media. Before we moved from South Florida, I met a lovely woman on the Brightline train with whom I’d been a mutual Instagram follower for many years. It was so great to meet her and we talked for a good while. Another woman came into the conversation, and asked me, “You’re not one of those Instagram teachers, are you?” I said, “No, I don’t think so.” My lovely mutual said, “Oh, her social media is so wonderful!” It was nice to meet someone for the first time who admires what you do, even if what you do is post on social media and write blogs to a relatively small audience.

Anyway. I like being known on social media but I do not consider myself an influencer, no matter how many gothic jewelry lines message me about my “vibe.” Suffice to say, I use social media to inform myself, inform others, tell my story, and as an expressive outlet. I have been working on this blog project in real time for seven years now, but in reality, I’ve been at this work for a decade. I started a project of “popular songs that feature music theory concepts” in grad school as my Directed Independent Study. My master’s degree adviser, Dr. Fredrickson, said to me in his office, “What if you make a website?” I still hear him saying “website” in a very particularly way in my mind’s ear. Another of my closest friends (and also a cohort in that program) told me I should make a wiki. I did, and spent full nights awake in early summer 2014 trying to finish my “wiki” before I spent the rest of the summer studying in London. The wiki didn’t work as intended, but it was something. I had started to write all of these blog entries.

I was lucky enough to travel to San Francisco last week, very lucky, and got to see an old friend who I hadn’t seen in at least five years. As usual, we sat down to brunch and talked for three hours. We’ve been friends for 22 years, a number that makes me stare wide-eyed into space, but I also had news for him.

“I have a book deal,” I told him. “What? That’s amazing! What — wait — how do I get a book deal?” he answered. That was exactly the sort of reaction I’d hoped for, because although we met in marching band, we’ve talked together about being writers for as long as we’d been friends. We had always shared things we’d written with each other, either on personal websites or however we did such in 2002. Although we had gone so long without seeing each other or talking much outside of social media comments, he had to be someone I told this information to face to face. I was very glad for it.

But yes, I do have a book deal. And if you’ve been a reader of this blog for any period of time, the book will be exactly what you expect. It’ll be a collection of a lot of the things previously written here, updated & adjusted, as well as lesson plans, further suggestions for reading, and feedback based on teaching classes in such a topic (which I piloted this past spring, as well!). I am so grateful for F-Flat books, who is making this all happen, and so glad to be working with them.

Anyway. Yes. I know there are people out there who read this, and for you, I am so very thankful. It is because of you that I kept going in this project, and because of you that I’ll get to accomplish a dream of mine next year. Now it’s just a matter of writing until I go dizzy, because it’ll be that and my comps next summer.

How can you support the work I do here, as I do all my own stunts and pay for all of my own web-hosting? I always have a Ko-Fi set up, in case you are interested in contributing just for grins & giggles, but I also pulled a project out of the 2020 vault.

I played “O, Fortuna” from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana for my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students last week, and they shouted out, “That’s Star Wars!” It made me think about early in my career, when I’d play a lot of music for my band students, just because I thought they should hear it. They’d yell out the same thing, usually for a piece I’d play from a 25 Thunderous Classics compilation disc — “It’s Star Wars!” I decided that I wanted a shirt that said “It’s not Star Wars.” I was determined to make it. I then decided that maybe I should make it available for others if they want it, too. And maybe make a little off the top as well, as my salary isn’t going up much anytime soon and those student loans aren’t going to pay themselves. By the time I went to bed on Thursday night, I had a Threadless shop. And a few somewhat customizeable t-shirts you can order from there.

So if you’re in to goofy puns, teacher shirts, or deeply nerdy academic music stuff, go check out my Threadless shop. If you buy a shirt, take a picture & tag me on Instagram (@rebelmusicteach). Then, when the book comes out, I hope you’re ready for an all-out book launch promo. And you’ll have a t-shirt to celebrate it. Be sure to wear it often — we here at the Rebel Music Teacher operations believe in wearing every piece of clothing seven times or more. Maybe t-shirts and a book deal bring me closer to being an influencer, but I see myself continuing to teach and research about cool modulations for the time being.

Extremely niche t-shirts available at rebelmusicteach.threadless.com