What does music education have to offer kids, especially during the pandemic? How can parents integrate music education into the everyday lives of their kids? How can music improve the lives of music students?

I sat down with musician and music educator, Anne Weiss, to answer these questions in this week’s episode of “Why Does Music Education Matter?” During the interview, Anne talks about her connection to music, her philosophy as a music educator, and why music education is more important now than ever.

Who is Anne Weiss?

Anne is a vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist with more than five albums to her credit. She’s recorded and toured with legendary musicians like Dar Williams, Taj Mahal, and Ani Difranco.

I have been fortunate enough to study with Anne for nearly two years as a student of her class, Singing for the Vocally Challenged, at Artichoke Music. It was one of the most transformational experiences of my musical career because it unlocked my ear.

After two-years of vocal training with Anne, I could hear harmonies better, improvise more confidently, and sing-in-tune, all of which seemed impossible before my lessons with Anne.

Why Music Education is Important Full Interview Transcript with Anne Weiss

Brian Parham 0:03
Hello, my name is Brian Parham, and I am the founder of the rock dojo. And I’m so so excited to be sitting down with my good friend and Weiss. And thank you so much, and welcome to Why does music education matter? It’s so good to see you.

Anne Weiss 0:19
It is so good to see you.

Brian Parham 0:22
So I first met in probably two years ago in “Singing for the Vocally Challenged” at Artichoke Music, and I was blown away by your teaching, and I’ve had so much value studying from you. So I really wanted to get you on. So we can do this interview. And so my first question for you is, how did you get started in music?

Anne Weiss 0:45
Oh, wow, that’s a that’s actually that’s one of my favorite questions to be asked because I had a grandmother who, despite growing up extremely poor, managed to get her degree in classical piano and was a phenomenal classical pianist. And was also just like a person that you just wanted to be around whoever you were. She was elegant and hilarious and loved life and was prone to fits of giggling at any point and had is just smart and kind and loving and patient and funny, and every single thing you’d ever want to be around. And her name was Elizabeth Weiss. My middle name is Elizabeth. So my name is Elizabeth Weiss. Very proud of that connection. And she was the daughter of Jewish Russian immigrants. And, and was poor all of her life but always maintained this incredible joie de vivre and graciousness that was remarkable. And I, you know, just wanted to do anything she was doing, of course, and so I was ready for piano lessons at five. And, you know, five is you have to be really, really patient to try to teach your five-year-old, an instrument in most cases, and I was, you know, a squirrely five-year-old, like most. But that’s when she got me started. And one of the things that were really amazing for me, throughout it, but even more so looking back, besides the fact that she gave me chocolate after the end of every lesson. She always had chocolate. No, he’s had chocolate in her handbag. Never once in all of that time that she was teaching me, which was yours, right? Was she ever impatient? Did she ever say something unkind? Did she say ever say something? Was she ever externally frustrated? Or I wouldn’t even bet it was so genuine. I don’t think she was internally frustrated. Like she was a real teacher, which is somebody who enjoys helping somebody else learn, right? I mean, she really, she loved music, and she loved me. And she loved teaching it, and it was everything I needed to know as a grownup teacher, right? You need the skills, and you need the patience, and you need the care. The other thing you need is to pay attention to how a student learns best, I think. And she had all of those things. One piece of missing information when I was growing up was that nobody knew that I was visually impaired, including me. And because I wanted to please her so much because she was so loving and kind, she would, you know, put music in front of me. And she would point out all the difficult parts. And she was circle things, and she would write things. She would then want me to learn the piece, of course, and I wanted to learn the piece. And I really want to learn the piece to please her. So I would say would you play it again? And would you play it again? And would you play it again, and I’d be staring at the music thinking I was learning something from looking at that at the sheet. But actually, I was memorizing the sounds. And that’s, and that’s how I learned to play.

Brian Parham 4:15
Amazing. That’s actually something that I remember taking lessons with you is like you would listen to anything, any vocal line, anything and then just like, in real-time, it’s you’re planning it as the vocalist is singing it, you’re playing the next note perfectly in pitch on the piano, which always blew my mind. I mean, you bring up so many excellent points, and you touch on some of the things I wanted to talk to you about actually your philosophy as a teacher, but we’re going to come back to that. One thing that you mentioned, and I think is so important, you mentioned your grandmother, Elizabeth Weiss, and how she started playing piano and how she grew up poor and how you know, music even though she wasn’t wealthy throughout the music. in itself is a form of wealth. And I can tell you from my own childhood is I grew up poor, I didn’t have access to music education. It wasn’t until I was. Well, I tried picking up the guitar when I was, I don’t know, like 18 years old, I think I discovered I was in college, I broke up with my longtime girlfriend, and I watched Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and everything changed for me, and I just listened to every Pink Floyd album. And I just fell in love. Even today, I realized, Oh, my God, the sound that I’m chasing in my head is David Gilmore, the guitar player from Pink Floyd. And that’s the thing that I’m still going for. But anyway, as for what music provides kids, especially disadvantaged kids, I can’t even imagine what my life would be like today without music. The skills and that’s my big thing is the skills that music teaches, you know, the success skills that music teaches, but not even the success skills, though, but the quality of life. And that’s what I hear you saying about your grandmother?

Anne Weiss 6:01
Oh, amazing. I think about if you want to think about music as a commodity isn’t the word I’m looking for. Because I’m not, I’m not trying to monetize it. I’m trying to prioritize it. But as of as a form of connection, right? If you look at wealth as connections as a form of wealth, music is one of the things that give you the greatest amount of connection. I mean, when I was in Ethiopia, adopting my daughter, I got to reconnect with a friend from college, who is one of Ethiopia’s most famous musicians. Right? Oh, I didn’t know he was gonna be one of Ethiopia’s most famous musicians, right. But he and I used to, you know, we were connected through music at college. And then we connected through our love of nature at college and right and those that music, and then nature and then friendship. And then I was in Ethiopia with literally like, when he walked into the restaurant, everybody went quiet, and started like, internally bowing as you could see everybody was looking at him and going like. They were looking at me and thinking like, how do you know this amazing man. And not only is he one of them, but his name is also slushy demissie. Not only is he one of Ethiopia’s most famous musicians, but he took now this all ties back in. He took his love of nature. And he was like, What can I do to help Ethiopia and Ethiopia’s environment because there had been so many changes in between when he left Ethiopia when he came back, the city had grown up had been, you know, sorry, that’s very loud, excuse me. In the city he had grown up in, all the trees had been used for firewood, etc. So the streets were dirty, he started with a broom, you know, singing and a broom. And then all these kids wanted to come to help him because he was singing and a broom. And then that turned into all of Africa is paying attention to his environmental program with kids. And he is named after the most famous is called the different name. He’s named after the most famous character in one of his songs, an older man who loved the earth.

Brian Parham 8:28
Wow. Yeah. Such an incredible story.

Anne Weiss 8:33
So like, I know, so so. So there I am. I’ve arrived in Ethiopia. And all of a sudden, I’m connected to Ethiopia’s entire music scene, from this one friend, right. And, and all of a sudden, other people like, Oh, you play music? Would you like, you know, you want a gig in Ethiopia? Like, can we line you up with the game? It was, right. I mean, it’s amazing how far-reaching music and sharing music can go. And so many musicians are about to connect using music as a connection. I think the idea of sort of the snooty musician who’s all about them. That’s the sad musician. That’s the musician without self-esteem, right there trying to be above. I think that that’s much rarer than people who just they love music, and they want to get around other people in the play, and share and connect, you know,

Brian Parham 9:23
Wow, what an incredible story and what an incredible value. I hadn’t thought about that before. And that’s one of the reasons I feel so spoiled because I get to do these, do these interviews, and I get to think about things and see things in new ways. And I never thought about music as a form of wealth. Suppose you think about wealth as a form of connection. That’s such an amazing insight. And I’m going to chew on that and think about that, but that’s one thing I found in my own life and going back to my childhood is my brother actually, again, I grew up dirt poor. I didn’t play music, but my brother Was 10 years younger than me. And I started playing the guitar at like 18. And then I immediately quit because I got totally discouraged. I did have no teachers or no support, but my brother stuck with it. And he was actually an international competition when he was 12 or 13 years old with his Motionless in White, and he actually got to go out there and want to record contract and go got to go on tour with Ozzfest like the Ozzfest tour. And that just opened up every door that you can imagine. And here’s you know, a kid from a low-income family, who now has every opportunity tours all over the world, has been doing it for like 20 years now. And the same thing with me is like before I got really serious about the guitar again, it’s I was, you know, doing a job that I didn’t love, you know, that I wasn’t passionate about. Once you reconnected with music, it opened every door, and I never thought about that as a form of connection. So that’s amazing. And thank you so much. And I’m going to jump to question number two is, What instruments do you play? And how has playing music shaped your life? And I think you talked a lot about this.

Anne Weiss 11:05
I did talk a lot about this. But um, well, I’m a vocalist. And I play piano and guitar and ukulele. And then other things, I wouldn’t call it playing; I would call it futzing around. Like I can get away with sounding really good for like one or two songs. And then that’s like the range of what I do. So I don’t think the other stuff counts. But what’s really nice about playing several different instruments is I feel confident that if I wanted to learn another one, that I could, I could be like, Okay, I’m gonna apply what I know and take some lessons and look online. And, and now, you know, like, I’m interested in playing the trumpet someday. So at some point, when I have some time, hopefully, when the pandemic is over, and I have a little time, I’m going to like, take a couple of lessons on trumpet and practice a little bit and see where it goes.

Brian Parham 11:54
That’s amazing. And, and, well, you mentioned this earlier is one of the first things that you talked about. And it brings me to question number three: Can you tell us about your philosophy as music as an educator?

Anne Weiss 12:06
Yes, I can. So my philosophy is that if the student isn’t learning, it’s because the teacher has not figured out how the student learns best. So that if the student is, and I tell my students this if the student is failing or not progressing, it’s not the student’s fault. It’s the teacher’s fault. That’s part of my philosophy. And part of the reason I say that to people is I want to take the heat off of them. Because often, when people are learning, they feel self-conscious about the level that they’re at. They feel like they should be better. They feel embarrassed when they’re making mistakes. We don’t grow up in a very, like learning-friendly culture. Of some of us I feel, I think that my daughter, who’s in online kindergarten is, I can’t believe how wonderful her teacher is and how kind and non-judgmental, like, it’s a very different environment. Right. And yet, my daughter’s worried about being made fun of even though she doesn’t have that here at home, and she doesn’t have it in school. It’s just like, I think part of it is culture. And part of it is natural that not wanting to stick out negatively, right? Or in your mind thinking, Oh, I’m not good enough. So. So I don’t have a student who doesn’t give me a disclaimer before the lesson. I mean, even if they practiced every day, there’s still some way that they’re like, of course, isn’t going to be very good, because you know. And so I tell I tell people, like whatever, I think that will best set them at ease because I think that people learn the best when they feel the most comfortable. And when they’re judging themself, the least. I even have something I do with students who put themselves down all the time because I know that their brain is working against their ability to learn, where I have them set a jar with money on in reach and an empty jar. And every time they put themselves down internally or externally, they have to take a couple of coins from one jar and put them in the other jar. And then they have to give me that money. And sometimes, it cures people who have that self-critical voice when they’re trying to learn in a couple of weeks. And then, of course, I don’t tell them this, but of course, I give them their money back. But anyway, so that’s, that’s my philosophy, and sometimes it’s led me down some exciting paths. I worked with one young woman who had severe epilepsy all of her life. And so she had she was disabled, and really had a terribly hard time retaining really any information at all. So I would try to see like, what, like, what, what’s stuck at all, and what could we do to just reinforcing that every week and make it okay, that we’re reinforcing The same thing, week after week after week after week, because maybe what would take one person a day to learn or an hour to learn, it would take her three months to learn. But the point was that she wanted to learn it. So who was I to judge how fast he would stick? I wasn’t. I wasn’t going to get frustrated with that; I was just in admiration that with this disability, she would come to lessons, she would come with a big smile on her face, come with her notebook, and be like, ready to learn? And I thought, what else do you need? Besides that? That’s so great, you know? So I feel like it’s incumbent upon the teacher to figure out how the student learns best. Yeah.

Brian Parham 15:37
Thank you so much. That’s a fantastic answer. And I agree with you, you know, as an educator, I’m thinking about some of the students I have. And I, you know, I’ve interviewed a lot of different educators. And it’s so fascinating to see the different approaches, and I’ve experienced as a student, and I know, as a vocal student of yours, how singing, there’s something inherited, there’s something different with singing, I think even more so than the guitar, you know, so person, like the guitar, like, obviously, like, you know, and it could just be me, so I’m only one person, but as the guitar, I don’t, you don’t have that like, but when you go to open your voice, I remember being your student, and, you know, being so terrified of not hitting the pitch. You can hear when the pitches don’t line up. So it’s like, Ah, it’s so shocking. So, man, and I love your philosophy. Thank you so much for sharing that. And what question number four? What does music have to offer kids, especially during the pandemic? Oh, wow.

Anne Weiss 16:44
Um, I think the question would be more like, Is there anything that music wouldn’t offer kids? I mean, you know, music skills are so phenomenally transferable. They, they give you another way to connect to other people. So besides just the music part of music, which is so wonderful, satisfying, and joy provoking, and for most people, right. And just how exciting it is to learn and be able to do songs that you love. There’s been so much science behind how many parts of the brain light up at once, when you’re playing and singing, and how great it is just for development—those skills all by themselves. Are, are worth it. And then, you know, especially if you have a good teacher who’s kind to you, and who’s understanding and who’s excited about the form, right? That can lead you like, like we say, right down this path, where even if you don’t play music, professionally, you know. Maybe after work, you go to jam sessions, you develop a friendship because you’re playing music with people, you know. So, and then as kids, you know, maybe you get into kid bands, maybe you go to school rock, maybe you go to rock dojo, maybe you go to you know, just your friend’s house, you like startup you know, a thing, maybe you have, maybe you get into a doo-wop group, maybe music leads you into dance because you love rhythm so much. And then rhythm leads you to want to learn drums, and the drums lead us. I mean, it’s like, it’s the great portal to everything to me.

Brian Parham 18:28
And you know, and the thing is, as a student of yours, I remember how good singing feels. You leave, and that’s something that I haven’t touched on is. It’s like when I do yoga in the morning after a good stretch in yoga, you feel so loose and so vibrant, while singing does the same thing. Your soul expands.

Anne Weiss 18:50
I agree with you. Yep. You know, there’s actually something about the physical vibration of singing that I haven’t read any of the studies. But there’s also the sort of the studies about that about how soothing that is. There’s a reason that people sing to kids, and that babies make lots of noise and lots of sounds and start to sing and start to hum and, you know, all of those things. It without this the study stuff behind it. I can tell you; it’s good for your soul. That’s whether you whether you’re on key or you’re off-key. It’s why people sing in the shower. It’s why people say when they’re happy is, you know, it’s why people sing at all events right at funerals at weddings at right. It’s an exceptional thing that humans do. Right and that physical vibration in your body. It’s really quite an amazing thing.

Brian Parham 19:37
Wow. So next question, How can parents integrate music education into the everyday lives of their children?

Anne Weiss 19:47
God, that’s it. It’s it, especially with a pandemic is I think it’s extra tough. I’m very grateful to schools with school programs, school programs like Rock Dojo and Rock Dojo at Artichoke Music, like Rock Dojo. All kinds of programs have been going up until the pandemic and are still going in their own way. When music is built into the schools, I think that’s so important. As you know, my six-year-old has, you know, all of a half-hour of music a week online. And of course, she’s getting music all day long because I’m teaching here at home, and she’s listening to me. She arrived with her own natural gifts around music. But, you know, as a result of being around all this, right, she has her pitches, excellent, she can already sing harmony. She, you know, she can pick up on the piano, she can write, she learned, she’s got a great sense of humor. At six, she’s mostly playing The Addams Family. Like anything funny that she can remember, she goes and tries to pick it up. Anyway, I think that being around it, right, gives kids a leg up to more kinds of music and more kinds of skills. So if parents can manage to get into a program, you know, a group program if they don’t have a lot of money, a school program, which is free, something like other programs around the city offer low-cost class classes. And the thing is to try to find something where your kid is excited to go back, like maybe the first few times, and you’re not sure. But you want to find something that your kid is excited about. Normally, kids will like grownups feel shy, and maybe a little subconscious, maybe a little awkward, maybe frustrated, if it’s not at the right level for them. You want it to be something where they’re really experiencing a lot of success. So that they want to continue, they’re excited to see their teacher, they’re like their teacher, they’re comfortable with their teacher or teachers. They like the songs, and they like the music. They want so that, you know, kids are so busy, I can’t believe my, my students, my young students, their school schedules are like they’re there. I’m amazed that they show up to class online. I’m like, Wow, good for you. And they have a hard time finding time to practice. So I say, look, five minutes a day, let’s go for five minutes a day. Your folks will say to you dinner is in 10 minutes, why don’t you want to go practice, right, the setup to set up some little schedule, often five minutes turns into 10 minutes. And that turns into 20 minutes in 30 minutes, right? Leave your ukulele out on your bed, leave your guitar hanging up on your wall, don’t put it in the case, right? Find ways to grab it and play little music in between things. It’ll make your day better. And usually, if they follow that, it leads to better and better and more and more playing better skills and more enjoyment. And

Brian Parham 23:00
Absolutely, I couldn’t agree more. For any student at any age getting started, the number one thing they can do to be successful at music is to build the habit. Building the habit, just like you said, ties it to another habit that you do every day once you can do that. And if you can get that five, we all know that five minutes is gonna turn to 10 minutes, even 10 minutes every day over the course of a year, it leads to profound results.

Anne Weiss 23:27
It really does.

Brian Parham 23:29
But we also know that the 10 minutes because whatever you get better at becomes more fun. And so by doing it for 10 minutes a day, you’re going to get better at it, you’re going to have more fun, and that’s going to lead to more time. And so that’s why I think this is my philosophy as an educator. The number one thing for a student to do to be successful is to build that practice habit and attach it to another habit that they do daily. And that’s really yeah, I couldn’t agree with you more in, so what skills should every musician focus on developing? Ah,

Anne Weiss 24:11
You know, pitch and rhythm are some of my highest I think a from my way of teaching, I tend to teach chords first. I know not everybody does this. But it’s so a kid can be a kid or an adult can sit down and sing a song second or third lesson. Right? If they want to do that, that the satisfaction of like, Man, I’m already playing and singing a song. Right? That’s really important for the musical styles that I teach, especially now if you’re looking at classical music, if you’re looking at jazz right, then I think you Things like scales will be essential. Although often, in my experience, that’s not the most exciting thing to start with. But since that’s not my focus, other teachers might have more exciting ways to jump on that bandwagon. And then what I try to do is build theory in from an action perspective, like, so you’ve learned your major chords, you’ve learned your minor chords, what’s the difference between a major chord and a minor chord? Well, to learn that, we might have to learn something about a scale. Right? So that might be a couple of lessons. Oh, we’ve learned a scale. So what’s the first, third, and fifth note of that scale? Right? It’s building, just adding a little theory pack so that it’s not intimidating. But so that a student starts having the language, and they’re not stopped or intimidated later on. When they sit down with a group, and somebody’s like, okay, we’re going into the flat seven, or, right, or we’re in the pentatonic, like, you know, since they’re taking lessons anyway, I want them to have a purchase. So they can move forward in any direction.

Brian Parham 26:12
That’s something I remember at Artichoke Music. It was one of the first times I understand the major scale so well, but you literally saying it and walk through the steps. And it was like, for the first time, I can see the pitch as I heard the pitch. And this is like when I was really getting kids like, there also is a physical connection that happens when you sing with pitch. And so and so when you match those pitches for the first time, and then just seeing you’re walking your feet. So this is a way that you were like, visually demonstrating, you know, music theory and tying it to the song that we were learning. And then when you did the half step, it was like, you saw the half step. And then you did a small step at your foot. And it’s like, it was like, Oh, that was the perfect visual representation.

Anne Weiss 26:59
That’s great.

Brian Parham 26:59
Yeah. I’ll never forget, that was a potent moment, where you can, like, feel and see and hear the major scale. So it was like, you know, getting the information from like, multiple viewpoints. Yeah.

Anne Weiss 27:16
Yep. That’s what I try to do. Because everybody learns differently, right? Some people are visual, some people are, you know, auditory. I’m a kinetic learner and an auditory learner. I am not visual. Because I have visual problems, it’s never gonna work for me. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t teach people who are visual learners, right. I can give them the material. I can teach them the skills. Yeah,

Brian Parham 27:35
Fantastic. Are there any questions I haven’t asked you about music education that I should have?

Anne Weiss 27:42
I think you’ve been pretty thorough. I mean, I, the day after tomorrow, wake up and be like another, maybe another one more motivation for parents. I am one of the best multitaskers I know. You’re, you take it to another level because you multitask and you’re disciplined all at the same time? And you’re super nice. Like you’re like, I don’t know, you like it another level.

Brian Parham 28:16
But I paid you to say that.

Anne Weiss 28:20
He just slipped right through the internet, or the internet? Well, yeah, it was a $1 bill, and he just slipped it through the internet.

Anne Weiss 28:31
What I was gonna say is, I’m really, really great at multitasking without it being very stressful. And I really believe that that’s because I learned music from a young age. Because when you, for instance, when you’re learning piano, your fingers, all your fingers have to move independently. Right, your brain has to direct all of your fingers, right? You have to do rhythm at the same time. That’s another part of your brain that has to work. I was singing, and I was trying to read. Most people are reading something. Alright, so your eyes are working, your sense of pitches working, your write your kinetic, your visual, your auditory, like every part of you is working at the same time and learning how to do things in concert, so to speak. And I think that that is amazing for having lots of skills for in lots of other departments of your life going forward. Even if you don’t end up pursuing music, it may help you in all kinds of ways you don’t even know. In other artistic OR, or NOT artistic pursuits.

Brian Parham 29:35
Yeah. So maybe that’s why I feel so good about connection. I feel so blessed to sit down right there now on Zoom and have this conversation with you. And it’s something I hadn’t considered, you know, the multitasking element of music, and I guess we do, we really do live in an age where you have to be able to, I mean, we have so much come at us at one time. And I’ve never considered that as such, you brought up so many, you know, things that I’m going to sit down after this and really think about, you know, he talks about music as almost a form of wealth in the sense of wealth as a connection. You know you talked about, you know, the benefits of the brain. And, and this last part about music has multitasking from on a personal level. But you know, what I would say about music, and if I were asked that question, is the ability to sit your butt down, I think, who’s the famous producer that did like Michael Jackson? And oh, yeah, I know, I know. Our

Anne Weiss 30:41
money for it. So hey, I’m so sorry. Let me check. So speaking of multitasking, today is Wednesday. I’m so sorry. Just very briefly, oh, we’re fine. Okay, great. Okay, good.

Brian Parham 30:57
Keep going. You know what, and I think that’s actually the perfect place. I was gonna say the butt power, the ability to sit down. For however long it takes I that’s the number one thing that music has taught me from the business standpoint, I’m a very particular guy like I do business, and I make music. And those are the two things I do. And there’s so much crossover, though. And the skills that I learned in music are the only things that make me do. They have no other skills in business, but I got both power and power. What Quincy Jones talks about is your ability to sit down and do the task. Whether you want to do it or not is irrelevant in business. It’s like whether you want to do relevance, right. I don’t want to do most of the stuff I have to do. But I know it’s the stuff that I need to do. And so I think that music gives us that focus, that ability to dial in. But what’s fascinating what you’re saying, is it another element to it? It’s actually the ability to multitask, the ability to juggle maybe, you know. I saw this as a definition of intelligence once it’s like your ability to like, basically, deal with multiple views of one subject simultaneously.

Anne Weiss 32:06
Yeah, that’s right. Yep, that’s right. You know, there’s one, I’ll have to add one thing that might be the most important thing that I don’t know how much I focused on it in this interview, but I think every musician who, who travels this path, right? It’s actually that ultimately, all these things that we’re doing come from that Zen moment that you get when you are in music, and you are gone. You have gone into this place. That is phenomenal. And, and altering and deep and magical and wonderful. That is often visited as a child, but hard to reach as an adult if you don’t have a path end, right. And I feel like for me, right, that connection is part of it. But the music itself going into that place. It’s like without that; I wouldn’t; it would be like not having food or water, but delicious food and great water, or friendship, right. It’s something that makes life phenomenal. And brings joy, and I feel like we are in a world that is so in need of joy and the direction of joy and the motivation of joy. And I feel like you know, for me anyway, that business doesn’t do that. But music, right? Yeah. Do you need it? Most people, right? Music does that. Right? And it and it’s the motivation, and it’s the connector. So I’ll end my thoughts on that. I think

Brian Parham 33:47
Yeah, beautiful, beautiful. And I cannot forget to ask you. So where can people go to learn more about your work?

Anne Weiss 33:54
Okay. So my website is www dot Anne weiss.com, spelled AnneWeiss.com. And unfortunately, you will see that I’m not gigging at the moment, like almost everybody else. But I will be again, that will be happening, but I am teaching online. And I am teaching group classes through artichoke music still. And I’m doing some coaching of various kinds for people for various musical pursuits. And I’ll return to producing, which I love doing. Quincy and I are like that. No, just kidding. Of course, he influenced everybody. I do. Um, and then I, you know, I’ll go back to touring and performing, and we’ll see what if there’s, you know, involved as backing singer or she’ll be my drummer or something will happen, I’m sure along with the slides. They’ll be a little Mother mother-daughter team in some way. So boy,

Brian Parham 34:58
She’s gonna rule the musical world in 10 years.

Anne Weiss 35:04
I think so yeah.

Brian Parham 35:07
Watch out. Yeah. Anyways, I was hoping you could stick around for one second after I hit the record button to stop the record button but thank you so much for your time.

Anne Weiss 35:16
It was a pleasure.

Brian Parham 35:18
So once again, that’s AnneWeiss.com, and I’ll make sure that I put that into the description really high up there so people can learn more about your work. This has been absolutely incredible. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this today.

Anne Weiss 35:34
It’s always a pleasure. Always pleasure talking with you.

Past Interviews About The Benefits of Music Education

If you enjoyed this interview, don’t forget to check out some of the past episodes of “Why Does Music Education Matter?” If you’re new to this series, you may want to start with my interview with J. Stuart Fessant, a lifelong jazz musician and public school music teacher.

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