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I am a public elementary school music teacher in Indianapolis. I also direct the children's choirs at our church. I love to play piano. I play solo piano jobs around town, and also lead a jazz trio (piano, bass, drums). I am 48 years old.
I got GarageBand in the summer of 2004, when I upgraded from my trusty indigo G3 500 mhz iMac to a 1.25 ghz eMac. The eMac is not the sexiest machine Apple makes, but it sure can do a lot. I've used many diifferent kinds of sequencers over the years (Cubasis, Yamaha XGWorks, Digital Performer), but GB is by far the most fun.
My first Mac was a 1998 PowerPC 5500/225 all-in-one computer, designed for the education market. A lot like the the iMac -- CD drive and floppy drive (and all other computer guts) in same housing as monitor. It still works great, in my daughter's bedroom. My 2001 indigo iMac also still runs great.
I have had a couple of choral pieces for children's choirs published. One was published as an octavo by Hal Leonard Publishing, and the other was published as part of anthology by LifeWay. That was about five years ago. Feeling the flush of publishing success, I sent off many other pieces in the next year or two, only to meet with polite rejection letters. After a couple of years, I stopped trying. I had visions of retiring from teaching to concentrate on getting my compositions published, but it was not to be, at least not now. Maybe someday I'll dive in again and send off some more stuff. In the meantime, producing my own jazz piano CD has been an excellent "alternate outlet" for my creative urges.
Since 1991, I have been a piano judge for the Indiana State School Music Association's yearly auditions. That has been a great experience. My hand gets tired from writing by the end of the day, but it's worth it for the kids' sakes. I try to be as positive as I can be in my comments, even when a student has a bad case of the nerves. And this judging experience has allowed me to reconnect with people that I went to music school with at Ball State many years ago (1978-82).
My wife is also an elementary music teacher in Indianapolis. We have three kids, ages 9, 13, and 15. The youngest one still takes piano lessons. The oldest one did, and begged to quit, so we gave in. He now plays in the church bell choir, which is better than nothing, I guess. He also plays baritone in the middle school band, so that's good, too. None of them likes to practice. Our middle child is now playing violin, and has violin lessons, so we let her quit piano.
Here’s my 2008 jazz piano CD, “Jazz Meets Classical!”, available on CD Baby, and the iTunes Music Store.
Here’s my 2005 jazz piano CD, available on CD Baby, and the iTunes Music Store.
Also check out my jazz piano website at www.johnstebbe.com
I got GarageBand in the summer of 2004, when I upgraded from my trusty indigo G3 500 mhz iMac to a 1.25 ghz eMac. The eMac is not the sexiest machine Apple makes, but it sure can do a lot. I've used many diifferent kinds of sequencers over the years (Cubasis, Yamaha XGWorks, Digital Performer), but GB is by far the most fun.
My first Mac was a 1998 PowerPC 5500/225 all-in-one computer, designed for the education market. A lot like the the iMac -- CD drive and floppy drive (and all other computer guts) in same housing as monitor. It still works great, in my daughter's bedroom. My 2001 indigo iMac also still runs great.
I have had a couple of choral pieces for children's choirs published. One was published as an octavo by Hal Leonard Publishing, and the other was published as part of anthology by LifeWay. That was about five years ago. Feeling the flush of publishing success, I sent off many other pieces in the next year or two, only to meet with polite rejection letters. After a couple of years, I stopped trying. I had visions of retiring from teaching to concentrate on getting my compositions published, but it was not to be, at least not now. Maybe someday I'll dive in again and send off some more stuff. In the meantime, producing my own jazz piano CD has been an excellent "alternate outlet" for my creative urges.
Since 1991, I have been a piano judge for the Indiana State School Music Association's yearly auditions. That has been a great experience. My hand gets tired from writing by the end of the day, but it's worth it for the kids' sakes. I try to be as positive as I can be in my comments, even when a student has a bad case of the nerves. And this judging experience has allowed me to reconnect with people that I went to music school with at Ball State many years ago (1978-82).
My wife is also an elementary music teacher in Indianapolis. We have three kids, ages 9, 13, and 15. The youngest one still takes piano lessons. The oldest one did, and begged to quit, so we gave in. He now plays in the church bell choir, which is better than nothing, I guess. He also plays baritone in the middle school band, so that's good, too. None of them likes to practice. Our middle child is now playing violin, and has violin lessons, so we let her quit piano.
Here’s my 2008 jazz piano CD, “Jazz Meets Classical!”, available on CD Baby, and the iTunes Music Store.
Here’s my 2005 jazz piano CD, available on CD Baby, and the iTunes Music Store.
Also check out my jazz piano website at www.johnstebbe.com
Blog 
| Smoke-free piano job | February 3, 2006 |
I can breathe!
Comments (1) | Read more »
| Restaurant piano job | January 14, 2006 |
Playing with pain
Comments (2) | Read more »
