“… When samurai warriors train to perfect a deadly technique with the sword, they come to understand the fleetingness of life. This is why master samurai speak of wielding a “life-giving sword…

Understand and respect the depth of your instrument’s power. The guitar has the capacity to save lives; it has given many a desperate person reason to go on. Use it’s power wisely.”

- Philip Toshio Sudo, “Zen Guitar”

We used to have a local monthly student open mic at a music store I teach at. Students were encouraged to form bands and perform in front of their peers and teachers. The open mic grew, and due to the event’s popularity, the students were limited to two or three songs.

As my students’ bands stayed together and continued practicing, their set lists grew. Several bands eventually had set lists that were 45 minutes or more. These bands needed to be challenged. I started taking a few select bands to a restaurant in Northern Virginia to play at open mic events, and mix with adults. This got me thinking about the kids playing shows in better venues. With those experiences in mind, I decided to create a “Kids Rock” program, a program to get youngsters gigging in better venues.

Starting and running Kids Rock was a real learning experience for both the kids and myself. The kids learned a lot about professionalism and what it takes to play gigs. They also learned how much work it takes to do a show, and that doing a show means more than just learning the tunes. They became interested in related topics like live sound, recording, and photographing live music.  I was surprised at how many kids would work hard on their craft, with more professionalism, gratitude, and dedication than some adults I have dealt with. As a result, I have had some great shows playing with some amazing young players.

Of course, Kids Rock wasn’t for everyone. Some bands didn’t fit the available venues, and at other times there were no available venues. Sometimes the bands weren’t interested in pursuing things at the level of a Kids Rock show. After all, the average ten year old will set up their guitar gear, and then immediately search for a location to go skateboarding. This obviously isn’t appropriate in a professional gigging environment. Sometimes, the experiences were a little too real.  We’d arrive, set up our gear, and then play for a crowd of ten people because the event we booked into had a poor turnout.  Adults can process this kind of situation fairly well; “it was a bad day, no big deal.”  The average ten year old who has practiced three months for this one upcoming show will process the situation as “this sucks!” and quit.

So I needed another forum that was open for all ages and levels of dedication.  And I also wanted the kids to be playing to consistently large crowds.  I also wanted the events to somehow be more satisfying and  more meaningful than just playing another gig.

I had started attending a local annual concert event, called Santa Jam, organized by bassist John Perry. (More info at www.santajam.org.) Santa Jam is an annual charity event to raise money for homeless women, children, and victims of domestic violence. The money is donated to shelters in Northern Virginia. This event really resonated with me, as I had my own period of homelessness after leaving an unhealthy relationship. I asked John if I could borrow the idea and use it with kids. He gave me his blessing, and wished me luck.

Two years after the first Kids Rock show, I had a much clearer vision of what I wanted.  Sudo’s imagery of the “life giving sword” melded with my experiences at Santa Jam, my personal experience with homelessness, and a desire to “do more” than just play gigs with the kids.  The Kids Rock program gently evolved into Kids Jamming For Kids.  There are two goals of Kids Jamming For Kids. The musical goal is to allow a wide variety of bands to showcase in a concert environment, regardless of experience or age level. The second goal was to direct all that musical energy toward the goal of giving back to the community.  To teach students that they each carry a “life giving sword”.

So far, the response to Kids Jamming For Kids has been stellar. Our first show of this type was in March of 2008, and we donated 240 pounds of food to the Fredericksburg Food Bank. The hall was packed for the entire three-hour show. Our second show raised $764 for Guitars Not Guns, a group that helps at risk kids by supplying guitars and lessons. (Head to www.guitarsnotguns.org/virginia.html for more info).  KJFK raised enough to send 15 children through the Guitars Not Guns program. We also raised 109 pounds of food for the local Food Bank.

The third KJFK show was in September 2008.   KJFK was invited to perform as part of “Rev Your Engines” a charity event in Northern Virginia.  One of the most popular KJFK bands, “The Red Light Effect”,  showed up and put on a great show for event attendees.  The entire event raised $4000 for Stop the Silence, an organization that works to fight childhood sexual abuse.

Our most recent show was in Dec. of 2009. That event raised $1,861 for Guitars not Guns.  We had over 211 pounds of food donated for the Fredericksburg Food Bank. The hall was packed for the entire three-hour show.  We raffled off a donated Epiphone SG electric guitar and a donated DiPinto Belvedere Deluxe Bass as part of the fundraiser.

Over time, Kids Jamming For Kids has begun inspiring other events.   I would write up KJFK post show reports in my  Myspace blog.  (Find KJFK online at www.myspace.com/kjfk or at www.myspace.com/ladybassmusic.)  Through Myspace and my blog, Carol Moxley found me and interviewed me for her blog.  As a result of that experience, she organized “Kids Jammin’ For Jessie” in Fort Worth, TX.  The event raised money for the Hemispherectomy Foundation.  The lineup of performers  included Carol’s band (Heredity), her daughter’s band (Red Tape Window) and Daze Off.

My students benefit on many levels, however their immediate concerns are usually doing a good show, running sound, and being the best musicians they can be. I think the message of service to the community becomes apparent when the performers see the donations that come in.  Every student, even the smallest and the youngest, understand they all   carry a “life giving sword”.

“The virtuoso players are the ones who rise above technical mastery and exhibit true virtue in every note they play – honest, integrity, charity, gratitude, compassion. To them, music becomes more than a personal release or ecstasy. It serves to create harmony in the broadest sense of the word. These players are the true guitar heroes…” -Philip Toshio Sudo, “Zen Guitar”

Dr. Foley, I forgot my notebook again. Can you just email the lesson notes to me so I can read them on my phone when I practice?

Often students arrive without their notebook, still expecting lesson notes to magically appear. If you’re able to use a laptop with an internet connection, it’s a snap to use Music Teacher’s Helper to type lesson notes that can be sent to the student and/or parent the minute they leave.  It’s relatively easy to wire your home studio with a reliable internet connection. However, many institutional and corporate music teachers work in studios without the benefits of ethernet or wifi connections. What to do?

I was surprised to recently discover that many of the basic functions of Music Teacher’s Helper (ie. adding and reconciling lessons) also work on a Blackberry smart phone! Here’s how to do it:

1. Download Opera Mini on your phone. Most phone carriers will equip Blackberrys with their own proprietary mobile browsers, often of dubious quality. Opera Mini renders sites more reliably, and often with greater speed than the carriers’ default browsers.

2. Once you’ve downloaded Opera Mini, go to Tools > Settings and enable Mobile View. This will compress sites, optimizing them for viewing on a mobile device.

3. Log in to Music Teachers Helper and away you go!

Be warned that much it might be best to only use basic features of MTH on a Blackberry. I’ve successfully checked my schedule, added and reconciled lessons – you probably won’t want to invoice students or change around your website unless you’re on a proper computer.  If you’re interested in fooling around with Opera Mini to see what it can do with MTH before trying it out on your phone, check out the Opera Mini 4.2 Simulator.

It was an interesting experience teaching a lesson while texting lesson notes at the same time. And although I can probably create handwritten notes a bit quicker and imaginatively than texted ones, the ones created on my Blackberry might just be a little more legible.

I grew up in the southern part of the US, and Black History Month was always a very important time in our schools. Because of this, I grew up singing and playing many important songs from the pre-civil war era as well as the jazz age. I’ve compiled a list of songs you might want to consider teaching your kids this month, in honor of this special time:

Spirituals

“Follow the Drinking Gourd” (also presents an opportunity to teach about music’s role in social change)

“Go Down, Moses”

“We Shall Overcome”

“Eyes on the Prize”

“Mary, Don’t You Weep”

Jazz

“Strange Fruit”

“Bye Bye Blackbird”

“Lullaby of Birdland”

Modern

“What’s Going On?”

“Redemption Song”

“Lift Every Voice and Sing”

As I ponder my blog entry today, I’m in the process of scheduling new monthly jam sessions for my students!

In the past, as a summer workshop, Keyboard Jam proved to be very successful in stretching the students abilities, as well as giving them experience and enthusiasm for playing with other musicians! Have you read Nate Shaw’s two most recent articles on this very blog site? (If not, I hope that you will! I have added the links at the bottom of this article!)  Nate has some great ideas that I am definitely going to implement into my studio jam sessions, private lessons and recitals!

All of my students will be invited (pianists, singer, other instrumentalists). As the jam sessions become a huge hit, I will use them as an incentive, and extend invitation first to top practicers, best scales for the month, etc. All of the students will have fun creating music together, and learning how musicians work and play together. It works best to have separate sessions if you have a  large variance in ages and level of students. We will use the grand piano, a few keyboards, hand drums, shakers, my electric bass, and any other instruments that show up with the students.  There are so many different directions a class like this can take, but here’s a session plan that I have found to work extremely well!  Adapt  this activity to your situation! It may sound advanced, but even beginners can do it with simple songs like Twinkle Little Star!:

• Get all the keyboards and other instruments set up and plugged in (you might ask students with their own gear to arrive early enough to get set up!). Ice breaker game (I like to use the Name/Rhythm Game or Rhythm Telephone. See earlier blog for ideas:   http://www.musicteachershelper.com/blog/rhythm-rings/#more-876)

• Put on a previously chosen musical selection for listening. Pass out a prepared chord chart.  (Make one, or search online…you can find some free, or go to MusicNotes.com and chose chord chart, in the key that matches your recording!) Choose a selection  in a easily accessible key for the group and with limited chord changes. Have the students on keyboards or pitched instruments review playing the chords, or just the roots of the chords.

• Start the recording. As the music begins, have the students close their eyes and tap along quietly to the beat, until they’ve had a chance to get the feel of the music. See Nate’s second article for more specifics on “reverence for the groove”.  Now they may play along quietly,  with blocked chords or just roots.

• Ask the group to identify specific instrumental or vocal parts in the recording.  After assigning each participant a part (i.e. rock organ, bass guitar, rhythm guitar, piano, synthesizer pad, etc.), start the recording again, having everyone listen specifically for their part, and how it functions in the ensemble (rhythm, melody, chords, arpeggios, fills, etc.) This is something that can be discussed with the entire group, as you can later have the students rotate and try all of the different parts!

• Give everyone a few minutes to find appropriate setting on their instruments (we primarily have keyboards, with a couple of rhythm people and maybe a guitar).  Let them experiment with assimilating a similar sound/style to the recorded example. (Head phones are recommended for this step!) At this point, I will go around the studio and help each one with some demonstration. Simplify parts to the level of each individual student.

• When each participant has found their sound and groove , demonstrate a sample of each musical part for the entire group.

• Now it’s time to JAM! Explain that each musician needs to play just loud enough to hear themselves and to be able to hear the whole ensemble! Start the recording, and everybody plays along!  If time allows, or at the next session after all have had a chance to practice their parts, try to put it all together without the recording playing!

Keyboard players make themselves more a valuable asset to a group if they are able to play, or at least understand, all of the parts in the band or ensemble! Singers and other instrumentalists appreciate becoming more well rounded musicians as participants in these jam sessions. Give it a try!

Now, please go and read Nate Shaw’s inspiring articles, which offer excellent ideas for creating some awesome performance opportunities using the “gig” idea: http://www.musicteachershelper.com/blog/a-different-kind-of-recital/#more-1069 and very fun and practical ways to incorporate the ensemble experience into practicing: http://www.musicteachershelper.com/blog/how-to-prepare-a-different-kind-of-recital/#more-1215

Thanks for reading! Please be sure to share your thoughts on this topic!

We’re working hard right now to bring you some awesome improvements to Music Teacher’s Helper, including a brand new graphics design, and several features that we know you’ll love. The new design will look more more up to date than our current site, and will also make the program easier to use, especially for those just starting out.

We’re also giving you a brand new calendar, with a week and day view that actually show the duration of tevents visually (like Google calendar or Outlook), along with the ability to e-mail all students on a given day. These improvements and much more aren’t quite ready yet, but we’re getting closer and will keep you posted to let you know when they’re done.

Here are the recent changes, mostly minor bug fixes, that we have already launched (not related to the new design):

• Feature: Added better validation to the Student Registration page (on your studio website), and username availability checking.
• Feature: File Area is now sortable, on the page where you upload the files.
• Feature: Families Owing Report now sorted by last name.
• BugFix: Student List Excel Export was missing a column.
  
• BugFix: Currency symbols showing properly on PDF invoices.
• BugFix: Invoices were sometimes pulling the monthly lesson rate as the per lesson rate, for teachers charging monthly.
• BugFix: The issue some teachers were experiencing with creating pdf invoices is now fixed.
• BugFix: Student Registration Forms now checks for available usernames properly (once again).

Working on 'groove' with my students

Last month I discussed a different kind of recital (I call it a gig) I have implemented for my students. It takes place at a jazz club. Uses professional musicians to back the students, young and old. And is very casual for both family and students. See the previous entry for more info on that. This month I wanted to discuss how I prepare my students for this type of show.

I teach from the very beginning a reverence for the groove. Whether it’s a classical piece or a blues or even just the simplest beginning 4 measure ‘song.,’ I approach all music with the idea that rhythm and pulse…ie. Groove..is essential. Way before I discuss any musical terms, note names, technique, etc. my students are playing rhythm games. My belief is that all music flows at its base level from a pulse and students need to be aware of this from the beginning. So, the gig creates a real opportunity for them to share that groove with other musicians. But in order for them to feel ready to play with other live musicians, I need to simulate the experience in the studio.

Step one is being sure to approach every piece as a rhythmic adventure well before any mention of performing it with other musicians. Being precise about pitches comes later. Discussing musical nuances comes later. Dynamics come later. Here are different steps/activities I do:

1. Transcribe the rhythm of the piece (or a portion of it) onto a dry erase board. We sit together and each do our own transcription discussing the groups of rhythms and how we might count them.
2. Play and count the whole rhythm (or just a measure….whatever is the right amount to digest) on a hand drum or drum set. Or you can clap it, though I love to accessorize whenever possible. In this case, I explain that the piano is really a percussion instrument at heart and playing a drum helps re-enforce that notion.
3. The student will then sit at the piano while I stay behind the drum set.  The student can start by just playing the rhythm on any notes (of their choice) while I play a groove on the drums. I am now letting them show me they have digested the rhythm and I am acting as a thinly veiled metronome. Making a mess of the pitches is fine.
4. At this point we may move to the computer where I have composed a ‘play along’ track in Logic or Garage band. The ‘play along’ will consist of me playing the piece (on a MIDI piano), possibly a second piano accompaniment, a bass part, and a drum track. If it’s a baroque piece I might do a simple orchestration with strings or woodwinds. If it’s going to be a reggae feel, I might add MIDI guitar parts, etc. The possibilities are endless. And your MIDI sequencing chops don’t need to be very advanced at all.  With loop libraries available today, your sequencing can be limited to just playing the piano parts and bass parts.
5. The student and I listen to the piece with the sheet music in hand. I ask the student to point at the notes and begin singing the melody along with the play along track. Eventually, I mute the melody and we continue singing along with the accompaniment portion of the play along track. The student could also go back to just clapping the melody as well. Here is where pitch begins to matter, though. I try to keep my students singing the melody as close to what’s written as possible.
6. By dropping different parts in and out, ie. Muting the bass part or the drums, the student begins to understand the concept of playing with multiple musicians. I am always referring to the bass player or the drummer that will be on the gig. I am not referring to the computer. The student doesn’t need to know that it is a sequenced MIDI part. Let them believe they are hearing what the bass player is actually going to play.
7. Finally, I have the student sit at the piano (we take a moment to find the hand position, etc.) and wear headphones while they attempt to play along with the recording. I always keep the melody in their headphones to start and then slowly fade it out. Soon the student is only playing with the bass player and drummer. They love it. The headphones can be problematic because they can’t hear themselves well, but they love that they feel as though they are in a recoding studio.
8. The final step is to send them home with a burned CD of the play along track. I always include one version with me playing the melody and one version with just the accompaniment. Lately I have also been including multiple versions at different tempos, again with and without the melody.

I am a firm believer in using the technology to help students in their preparation for performance. But the end goal is always the same, to encourage the communal aspect of music, ie. working towards a gig where they will be fortunate enough make music with others. Students that play with other musicians and play with them often (I book three gigs per year for my students) are, in my experience, far more likely to make music a part of their life for the long haul.  And that is my mission as a teacher.

When I first started using Music Teacher’s Helper, I was surprised at the number of parents who commented on how much they valued the weekly feedback (despite the fact that I had been sending lesson notes home in a notebook for years prior!). I suppose the ease and immediacy of an email is decidedly better than relying on the parent to find & read the student’s notebook on a weekly basis.

As a teacher, I enjoy having a record of a student’s progress (and occasionally lack of progress). Having a record of lesson notes allows you to show the student that they have been dragging their feet a little on that one piece (should it really take 6 lessons to learn the exposition?), or that they have worked diligently and consistently to make a marked improvement in only a few short weeks.

For the student, I like to use the lesson notes for positive feedback and to highlight the most important concepts that they should remember from their lesson. I keep the notes brief to ensure that they are read and often provide more detail on the music (for example I might have put a general reminder about dynamics in the lesson notes, but on their music I have circled the relevant places that need attention). Depending on the age of the student, I also like to choose one or two main things that the student should focus on each week. I find that giving the student too many things to concentrate on often distils their focus. So this week they might be concentrating on refining their pedalling technique, even though there is some clumsy phrasing going on also. Let’s fix the pedalling first, and once that is happening automatically we can concentrate on the phrasing.

A great way to get students thinking is to ask them in the last minute of the lesson what they think needs to be put in the lesson notes. This reinforces the important points of the lesson in the students mind, and helps the teacher to know if there is something the student doesn’t understand. Always check that the student knows how to fix something (not merely that it needs fixing).

If you are struggling for something to write in your lesson notes I find the following template very useful –

1. What has (or hasn’t) the student achieved since the previous lesson?
2. What is their attitude to the goals set the previous week (diligent & hard-working or lazy & unmotivated)?
3. What is the aim for this week and what steps need to be taken for the student to achieve this?

If you have specific ways that you use the Lesson Notes feature in Music Teacher’s Helper please share your ideas with the teaching community in the comments section below.

Even so, the way that I teach these students is different from the way I teach my “older” students (14-years old & up), largely because of how their brain functions.  The analytical skills and the ability to dissociate yourself from your sound are not present in the pre-pubescent brain.  My teaching style is generally VERY technically based.  I strongly believe that my students need to know exactly why we’re doing certain exercises: how the exercise is affecting the voice, what physical action is occurring in the larynx, what the result “should” be.

In a young student, they just can’t think quite that analytically.  Instead, I talk in terms of a “tool-box” where we’ll take certain thoughts and make that a tool for adjusting the voice.  One “tool” is the thought of the breath as a stream upon which the voice floats like a leaf, without disturbing the flow.  The pedagogical thought behind this is breath engagement and freedom of the larynx so that the chords may freely vibrate.  At this age, that’s not something they need to know (information overload!).  But, they know that by thinking this thought, the voice moves more easily.

Another thing I do is I will ask in each lesson about something they did in the past week.  I will then make up a vocalise using the words supplied.  For example, when asked what their favorite part of Thanksgiving was, a student replied, “The gravy.”  We then sang “groovy gravy, groovy gravy, groovy gravy, groovy gravy, groo—vy gra—vy.” (5_4_3_2_123454321)  The breath flowed, the [gr] combination allowed the sound to come forward in the mouth, helping to make the [u] more focused, and the [vi] sound of the “-vy” combination kept the sound forward with the fricative and the [i] vowel stayed free & easy, instead of getting wide & tight (as is frequently the case with young singers).  Now, I’M thinking all these things, but the student is just really enjoying herself.

I also try to make things as silly as possible.  I’M always thinking very analytically and trying to get certain pedagogical points across to the student, but  in singers of this age, FUN is the key.  If we make it silly (and make it okay to be silly in the studio), then they are more willing to explore various vocalizations and be unafraid to make “bad” sound when approaching new aspects of the voice.

So, I highly recommend having a sound pedagogical basis, but putting the exercises in terms of “tools” (and identifying 2-3 uses for each of the tools, so the student can apply it on their own) and being VERY silly.  In this way, the student becomes unafraid of exploring unused portions of the voice as well as learning pedagogy “on the sly.”  The student will be able to problem-solve on their own by opening up their tool-box, without knowing that they’re analyzing their voice and applying technique to their sound.

I LOVE teaching young students, and the main reason I WILL take them so early is to help them form a strong foundation so that they don’t end up sounding like a bad version of “Annie” (shouting instead of singing).  Building the voice is my job.  I want all of my students to be “that old singer” who is singing beautifully, well into their 70’s or 80’s, no matter WHAT they do with music during their lifetime.

What are some approaches you use in the studio with young students?  Do you teach a pedagogy-based technique?  How much do you feel your students should know about how/why the voice works?  What is the minimum age you’ll teach (if any)?

.                *******************************

To follow this story, you should first read Janina’s story (#9), if you haven’t already.  Below are a few scenarios that might result from what happened in that story.  Read them and tell us what you think you might do in these situations!

…OK, so you let Janina participate in the recital.  Her sudden keen interest and responsiveness and determination to learn the tune in the lesson convinced you to give her some more rope and see what she can do.

You explained verbally and by email to her and her mother how the recital works.  You do not have a lot of time between students to explain verbally, and you never know how carefully people read emails.  In this case, you explain that the recital will involves mostly beginners of varying levels, all playing together, rather than by themselves.  They will play a number of tunes all in a medley, one after the other, with students joining in on the tunes they know, and listening to others continuing with the ones they don’t.  The final tunes in the medley are the most basic tunes so that everyone can end up playing together.  Janina’s new tune comes last.

Before the actual performance, you start with a runthrough to get everyone a little more comfortable.  They arrange themselves on the stage, and play through all the tunes, so they can see how it feels to play from where they choose to stand or sit, and how it feels to have everyone playing together.  It’s all very informal and fun.

Most everyone starts playing together, and then a few more advanced players continue with a few more challenging tunes, then others join in as they are able, until all are playing the last couple of tunes together for a big finish.

Scenario #1 is the good one!  Feel free to make a comment on this one, but it’s not a “what would you do” situation because we’d all like it to be this way:  Janina gets up and plays (whether solo in a traditional recital, or in the group situation as described here), gets through it, feels pleased she has dared and succeeded, and gives both herself and you an accomplishment to build upon.

The next three scenarios aren’t so perfect.  Let’s start where we left off, beginning the runthrough:

At the runthrough, out in front, standing proudly, Janina is beaming.  She waits patiently through a few tunes.  Then she begins to realize that she won’t be playing for a little while.  Her proud stance crumples a bit.  You chat with her briefly as you can while still trying to direct and help the others.  You encourage her to wait for her tune.  Eventually you invite her to sit on the edge of the stage with some others, in case she feels too much in the spotlight.  One purpose of the runthrough, after all, is to have people settle into a relatively comfortable spot.

OK, it’s done.  Everyone seemed to get through it fine.  Nobody was perfect but they’re all in the same boat, and with the added piano accompaniment, it all sounded good, and everyone’s happy…except, you notice, Janina.  She tried to play along with her new tune when it came up, but it’s a new situation, playing with others, and not quite the same tempo she did at home.

She has dashed off to her mother.

Scenario #2: You find Janina being comforted by her mother, and her mother is seeking your help to make Janina more comfortable with the situation.  You know that in the big group, nobody can really single her playing (or her mistakes) out, so in the roughly 8 minutes you have to talk to her and a few others, you have to concisely help her.  Many possibilities go through your mind.

What would you do?

Scenario #3: You have to handle a number of students between the runthrough and the recital performance, but you want to make sure to chat with Janina and her mother to sort out how she should stand and make sure she understands what to expect.

As you approach, you can see Janina huddling with her mother, and her mother is looking at you with a look that might be a “how dare you put my daughter in this situation” type of look, but until you talk with them, you can’t be sure.

What would you do?

Scenario #4: You have to handle a number of other students between runthrough and recital, and by the time you try to find Janina, you can’t.  She has run to her mother and they have left the hall, without stopping to speak with you.  Her next lesson is scheduled for 3 days from now.

What would you do?

When creating lesson notes each week, I always try to touch on something positive that happened in the lesson. Sometimes that may be as small as “Nice job being on time three weeks in a row!” or as large as “Great improvement! You are on to a new level!” I also have my students keep a “Voice Notebook” that I write in, as well as they write in.

Here are a few of my comments from past lesson notes:

• Great lesson this week! Remember to work on (maintaining your legato on mm 8-15 ) while practicing this week.
• What improvement at your lesson this week! Try incorporating a (lift into your phrase endings, delaying the pitched consonant at the end of the words in the first verse) like we discussed while practicing this week.
• Nice job on ________at your lesson this week. Try practicing more ________ so that you can find more success at your next lesson.
• Way to go remembering your theory book! Remember to finish Lesson 3 and to look for those terms in your new piece when practicing this week.

As Ed Pearlman recommended in his blog on lesson notes, I keep my lesson notes very short and progress-based so that they are read and not ignored as more information to sort through!