School Bullying: Hit 'Em Where It Hurts!Written by Paula McCoach
School Bullies: Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts! by Paula McCoach http://www.bullyzapper.comSchool bullies never seem to stop! Sometimes you have to "hit ‘em where it hurts" as we say! So you have made a dent in bullying at your school! Congrats. But, you still have a hard core of 5-10% of bullies that you are trying to reach. Most schools have special events. One effective way to subdue bullies for a short time at least is to bar them from special events if their bullying behavior does not improve. Field trips are a common event. Bullies love field trips because there is unstructured time where they can do their thing. Bullies can be easily eliminated from field trips or, worse yet, their parents can be required to attend trip with them. And, oftentimes their parents bully them! Bullies should be removed from special assemblies, especially end-of-the year assemblies that are fun and rewarding for students. I feel that in this situation, students who have earned awards and behaved well all year, deserve a nice assembly where bullies are not harassing them. Bullies should not be allowed to attend Field Day where students are celebrating end of year and having fun. Again, this is an unstructured situation where they can do some damage, and other kids deserve to have some fun and celebrate.
| | Guitar Playing - Technique vs. Feeling - What's important?Written by Edward D Cupler
For many people, when they hear word technique applied to guitar playing, it brings to mind someone spending long hours practicing scales and chords, getting their fingers to work like precision machines that play each note perfectly without fail. With no more feeling than someone doing calculus.
On other hand, when word feeling is applied, people might think of a smoke filled room in which every face has a story to be told, and guitar is a means of extracting every pent up emotion in room. The MC is an old blues man that has felt every hardship life has to offer and he now turns pain into musical notes that cut deep into soul of every person in room.
So what's important? Both! I'm not saying that everyone needs to have technical ability of a Malmsteen, nor do I think that everyone should be filled with blues like a Stevie Ray Vaughan. I do however think that a guitarist should have technical ability to play however they feel. Technique and feeling are both important and neither should be ignored. Listening to Malmsteen, you can easily feel intense emotion in every note. His playing isn't just a blaze of notes; it's sound of someone who has mastered technique to point where he doesn't have to think about it. His playing has become free of constraints and limitations allowing emotion to create music. By same token, listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan you hear all feeling you would expect from a great blues player, but Vaughan also had great technique that makes this possible. Without great technique his playing couldn't flow effortlessly and his playing would become choppy and restrained. Like Malmsteen, Vaughan's technique allowed his guitar playing to become free of constraints and limitations, allowing emotion to take precedence in creation of his music.
So how do you learn this? Well, if you're alive there will always be something to stir up some passion in you. Injustice, religion, love, hate, movies, books someone else's music. History gives us thousands of years worth of great stories and literature to draw from. The news we hear every day can be enough to get us worked up. All you need to do is harness these feelings and let them become a part of your music. This is where your technique must get to point that you're not thinking about scales, modes, and chord theory or alternate picking styles and bending each note with perfect pitch. This is where you must draw a distinct difference between practicing
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