Above: My Grandparents, Felicetta (b. July 10, 1885) and Michele Colaianni (b. Aug 23, 1883). Their journey came through Ellis Island, to America from Bari, Italy in 1911. They are registered through the USA Immigration Office.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This site is dedicated to ALL teachers, all over the world.
I, Ted Meyers, want to thank everyone, anyone, and, anything, for the enlightenment given to me, by you, as your student. Simply stated, without your teachings, this incredible segment of my life, may not have ever taken place. Thank you!
During our last summer vacation in Savanah GA, we stopped to get this photo taken by a nice person, after watching me struggle with the "one armed" photo... she stepped up and took an awesome pic of my wife Jill and I. Thank you complete innocent by-passer!
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Apr. 9, 2013
Today I got an email reply from, my hero, Rob Davidson (Rob Davidson is a music and editorial portrait photographer based in New York City, photographed me, and, my Ella P. Stewart Academy for Girls 6th grade guitar class on May 2, 2012) giving me permission to "share" his stuff. My email to Rob (my hero) was a note from me stating how much I liked his posting on the "Insidious Tomatoes" Blog. ... in short... I offered him a copy of our TPS ROCKS! DVD, when completed. I concluded by acknowledging how much I respect his "professional work ethics" by mentioning.... "I hope you are doing well, I know you are very,very, busy, so... keep up the great work you are doing: for music, for the people who teach it, for the people who perform it, and, above all... for the people who listen to the products you, and people like me, help to produce. Thank you Rob"!
Below, in part, was his reply to me...
"Hey Ted!
Thanks so much for the nice comment over on Insidious Tomatoes and thanks for sharing the link. Please share away! I appreciate it very much. I'd love to see the finished TPS ROCKS! DVD when you have it! .../ /... Thanks for the encouragement. I'm pretty road weary right now from a heavy travel season and it helps pick me back up to be reminded that the work matters and does make a difference.
Thanks so much for all of your support and for reading the photograph blog!
Be well!
Rob"
...and I say ... Rob, You are "my hero" and, a thousand times...Thank You! These are a few sites where you can see the work I have done.
http://insidioustomatoes.com/tag/rob-davidson/
http://insidioustomatoes.com/guitar-world-project-launches/#
http://insidioustomatoes.com/rob-davidson/#prettyPhoto
http://robdavidsonphotography.com/ted-meyers-toledo-public-schools/
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
At a TPS Board meeting:
to debut our TPS ROCKS! DVD.
March is: "Music In Our Schools" Month March 8, 2013
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
March is: "Music In Our Schools" Month March 8, 2013
As part of our district-wide approach to show Toledo, Ohio what Toledo Public Schools Music Students can do... We are making a music video: TPS ROCKS!: The DVD!
There are video demos on my SuperTmeyers YouTube account: www.youtube.com/user/SuperTmeyers
...you can see these three videos. I had a blast making them.
TPS ROCKS! performed by Ted Meyers/ Words by: Christine Gulvas and Robyn Hage/ Melody by: Devin Frank
Teachers needed something to show the students ASAP. We had a piano version and we needed a rock version. The first recorded video (1:51sec.) was a power chord version of our theme song with vocals. Then we needed a second video (2:50sec) with an accompaniment only, for the students to sing/rap along with. The third video (1:46sec) was a photo montage I labelled as... "The Making of the Music Video: Take One." Since my students were first to tape, I wanted to show other school teachers/students what happened during our music video shoot.
FYI:
This school year we have been blessed with YouTube's "CLEANVIDEOSEARCH site, and, YouTube has become the TPS ROCKS! team's main "go-to" resource maker, however, it can be tricky trying to make it accessible for other TPS ROCKS! team recipients. It takes some tweeking, but works.
Once the TPS ROCKS! music video is completed, we hope to sell copies and use the funds for future Fine Arts endeavors.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Feb 27, 2013 "All 6 of Us"
This link is Rob Davidson's PhotoBlog page that includes all six of us
guitar teachers who were involved in his Guitar World/VH1 Save the Music Foundation Project.
http://robdavidsonphotography.com/projects/guitar-world-2/
http://www.guitarworld.com/vh1-save-music-effective-strategy-teaching-young-beginners-joy-playing-guitar
http://www.vh1savethemusic.org/
http://robdavidsonphotography.com/projects/guitar-world-2/
...for Rob's page with my story click on: Ted Meyers, Toledo Public Schools
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
On this day: Feb. 25, 2013 - Rob Davidson sent me this email (below) stating that my article had gone public! Thanks Rob, indeed, it looks absolutely amazing!!! This is so cool!...
Hi everyone, Guitar World just posted Ted's article this morning - looks amazing! Great work, Ted!
VH1 Save the Music: An Effective Strategy for Teaching Young Beginners the Joy of Playing Guitar, Posted 02/25/2013 at 6:14am | by Ted Meyers Check here for his article.
I'll keep you posted as articles are released. Please start spreading the word.
Thanks so much to Damian and Jimmy at Guitar World!
Rob
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Well, there you have it. I can't believe my eyes! I want to thank VH1 Save the music's Rob Davidson / Chiho Okuizumi, Guitar World's Jimmy Brown / Damian Fanelli, Toledo Public school's Patty Mazur, Stewart's staff, and, all my great students at Ella P. Stewart Academy for Girls. I want to personally dedicate this article to my mother, Marie Eva Colaianni-Meyers, who would sing to me when I was very young. I remember looking up at her while she washed dishes and I would always tell her... "mommy, you have a beautiful voice" ...and she would smile, and, continued singing. She was my first exposure to beautiful music. Thank you mom, I love you, and, I miss you... very very much! And, to my sons, Nick and Brandon, and to my loving wife Jill, who insists that I am very talented and that I deserve this, Thank you Jill!
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Okay... it's Feb. 20, 2013. And here's the best news I've heard yet regarding my Guitar World Magazine article. I got this yesterday evening (2.19.2013) from Rob Davidson. Back on May 2, 2012, Rob, and Chiho Okuizumi, represented GWM and VH1. It looks like Jimmy Brown and Damian Fanelli contacted Rod Davidson and this project is finally taking off. My thanks to all three, Jimmy, Damian, and, Rob. Good job guys!! I promise to attach the link as soon as I get it!!!
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Hey Ted! 2.19.2013
It has been a very long time. Please accept my most sincere apologies for all of the delays.
Thank you again for your partnership on our Guitar World project this past spring. I'm writing with some news! Guitar World decided that the best avenue for publishing your columns would be on their website. They think that people looking for the sorts of lessons that you were asked to write are going to their site, so they think this will provide the largest readership. They will push traffic to the site, Save The Music will push traffic to the site and, of course, if you can help push people that way it would be wonderful.
We are just about ready to release these things into the wild. We have all of the text and examples ready to go. I have provided Guitar World with the photos that we made, too. So, starting very soon, Guitar World will publish one article per week for 6 weeks. They are planning to release them in this order:
Ted Meyers
David Haiman
Mark Hale
Richard Giannotti
Matt Blake
Joe Egan
Please let me know what questions you have.
Thank you again! I had a blast working with you.
Very best,
Rob
Rob Davidson
Director of Programs and Policy
VH1 Save The Music Foundation
1515 Broadway, 20th Floor
New York, NY 10036
phone: 212-846-4534 | fax: 212-846-1827
[email protected] www.vh1savethemusic.org
Please follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/vh1savethemusic and on Twitter @vh1savethemusic
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Hey Ted! 2.19.2013
It has been a very long time. Please accept my most sincere apologies for all of the delays.
Thank you again for your partnership on our Guitar World project this past spring. I'm writing with some news! Guitar World decided that the best avenue for publishing your columns would be on their website. They think that people looking for the sorts of lessons that you were asked to write are going to their site, so they think this will provide the largest readership. They will push traffic to the site, Save The Music will push traffic to the site and, of course, if you can help push people that way it would be wonderful.
We are just about ready to release these things into the wild. We have all of the text and examples ready to go. I have provided Guitar World with the photos that we made, too. So, starting very soon, Guitar World will publish one article per week for 6 weeks. They are planning to release them in this order:
Ted Meyers
David Haiman
Mark Hale
Richard Giannotti
Matt Blake
Joe Egan
Please let me know what questions you have.
Thank you again! I had a blast working with you.
Very best,
Rob
Rob Davidson
Director of Programs and Policy
VH1 Save The Music Foundation
1515 Broadway, 20th Floor
New York, NY 10036
phone: 212-846-4534 | fax: 212-846-1827
[email protected] www.vh1savethemusic.org
Please follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/vh1savethemusic and on Twitter @vh1savethemusic
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
In December 2012, I spoke on the phone with Guitar World Magazine's Jimmy Brown (Senior Music Editor) regarding my article for a future Guitar World Magazine publication. With Jimmy's incredible editing, he reshaped and molded my article and turned my rock into an awesome diamond. Jimmy stated that my article is among a total of six fellow American "music teachers" articles throughout the United States. The original intentions, of the six stories, were to publish them monthly in Guitar World Magazine. Mr. Brown mentioned that each teachers' article would be printed and presented on a "one-article-per month" format, and to run consecutively. This sounded great! From his brilliant and quick witted editor-like mind, laughingly, Jimmy suggested calling the articles "The American Music Teacher's Round Table of 6." They even considered flying all six of us to New York for a photo shoot/interview. Unfortunately, they decided to nix the flight/hotel/car idea, due to costs.
After receiving, and editing, all six stories last December, Mr. Brown, reluctantly, mentioned that they were unable to publish them in their magazine. However, the stories would be featured on their GWM website and become a "web-blast" which would also include something for VH1 Save the Music Foundation's website. To accomplish this task, Jimmy felt it would be better to give the project to an advertising expert ...and the 6 story/articles were turned over to Guitar World Magazine's Damian Fanelli. Mr. Brown asked Mr. Fanelli to incorporate The VH1 Save the Music Foundation with Guitar World Magazine for optimum web-blast/press for both facilities. Guitar World's original idea was to support music education with an intention to offer more entry level guitar education on their web page. Save the Music's Rob Davidson joined the brigade to highlight public school guitar teachers that have received a grant of instruments from the foundation. Jimmy Brown told me that he would gladly keep me posted on Damian Fanelli's proposed progress. More to come, I hope, soon. Thanks for your patience!
*****************************************************************************************************************************************
Feb 4, 2013: Here is my email letter to Jimmy Brown and his reply...
Hello Jimmy, I am emailing you in regards to our conversation in Dec. Our subject was about Damian Fanelli taking over for the "6 music teacher" stories/articles, with myself included, and having him incorporate Guitar World Magazine AND VH1 Save the Music Foundation. Any new news?
Ted Meyers, Toledo OH
**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Hi Ted,
Nice to hear from you, amigo. Happy new year. I hope 2013 has gotten off to a good start for you. No complaints here.
I'll follow up with Damian to see what's holding up the columns being posted. I know they're trying to "monetize" it somehow and get some advertising sponsorship. I assume that's the thing that has been holding it up. I'll let you know as soon as I find out anything. So sorry to keep you (and your fans) waiting!
Best,
Jimmy
In December 2012, I spoke on the phone with Guitar World Magazine's Jimmy Brown (Senior Music Editor) regarding my article for a future Guitar World Magazine publication. With Jimmy's incredible editing, he reshaped and molded my article and turned my rock into an awesome diamond. Jimmy stated that my article is among a total of six fellow American "music teachers" articles throughout the United States. The original intentions, of the six stories, were to publish them monthly in Guitar World Magazine. Mr. Brown mentioned that each teachers' article would be printed and presented on a "one-article-per month" format, and to run consecutively. This sounded great! From his brilliant and quick witted editor-like mind, laughingly, Jimmy suggested calling the articles "The American Music Teacher's Round Table of 6." They even considered flying all six of us to New York for a photo shoot/interview. Unfortunately, they decided to nix the flight/hotel/car idea, due to costs.
After receiving, and editing, all six stories last December, Mr. Brown, reluctantly, mentioned that they were unable to publish them in their magazine. However, the stories would be featured on their GWM website and become a "web-blast" which would also include something for VH1 Save the Music Foundation's website. To accomplish this task, Jimmy felt it would be better to give the project to an advertising expert ...and the 6 story/articles were turned over to Guitar World Magazine's Damian Fanelli. Mr. Brown asked Mr. Fanelli to incorporate The VH1 Save the Music Foundation with Guitar World Magazine for optimum web-blast/press for both facilities. Guitar World's original idea was to support music education with an intention to offer more entry level guitar education on their web page. Save the Music's Rob Davidson joined the brigade to highlight public school guitar teachers that have received a grant of instruments from the foundation. Jimmy Brown told me that he would gladly keep me posted on Damian Fanelli's proposed progress. More to come, I hope, soon. Thanks for your patience!
*****************************************************************************************************************************************
Feb 4, 2013: Here is my email letter to Jimmy Brown and his reply...
Hello Jimmy, I am emailing you in regards to our conversation in Dec. Our subject was about Damian Fanelli taking over for the "6 music teacher" stories/articles, with myself included, and having him incorporate Guitar World Magazine AND VH1 Save the Music Foundation. Any new news?
Ted Meyers, Toledo OH
**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Hi Ted,
Nice to hear from you, amigo. Happy new year. I hope 2013 has gotten off to a good start for you. No complaints here.
I'll follow up with Damian to see what's holding up the columns being posted. I know they're trying to "monetize" it somehow and get some advertising sponsorship. I assume that's the thing that has been holding it up. I'll let you know as soon as I find out anything. So sorry to keep you (and your fans) waiting!
Best,
Jimmy
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
http://www.tft250.org/Toledo%20Reads/Toledo%20ReadsMay.pdf
====================================================
http://www.toledoblade.com/Education/2012/05/03/Stewart-Academy-s-girls-are-rock-stars-for-VH1.html
==================================================
Photo taken by: Mrs. Kathy Williams, Stewart school secretary
From L to R:
Chiho Okuizumi - VH1 Save the Music Foundation Grantee Supervisor and Compliance Manager
Ted Meyers - Toledo Public Schools Music Teacher at Ella P. Stewart Academy for Girls, Toledo, Ohio U.S.A.
Rob Davidson - VH1 Save the Music Foundation Program Director and Guitar World Magazine Photojournalist
Click on link below to see Rob Davidson's Photo Shoot on May 2, 2012, Guitar World Magazine / Save the Music VH1:
http://robdavidson.photoshelter.com/gallery/Stewart-Academy-Toledo/G00000rd3zNRzA0M
====================================================
http://www.13abc.com/story/18064906/stewart-academy-for-girls-go-national
(if not led to this news video, copy and paste on 13ABC search box)
====================================================
This was me, back in the 80's. Started off as a bass player. Pictured is my 1st real Bass, a Fender Maple Precision Bass. I removed the plastic pick-guard because I used to jump around like a crazy rock star, and my lead cord "jack" kept breaking the plastic guard. So, I put a stop to that and installed a hand-made aluminum pick guard, and it never happened again. I was able to run AND jump higher. But then my cords didn't last as long. This was before I knew about "wireless" equipment. We were a house band in Berkey, Ohio... and the audiences loved to watch me go nuts. Anyway... we were called "GLASSROCKS" ..."Glass" ... because Toledo is known for being "The Glass Capitol of the World" and "Rocks" well, do I need to say? Yup, me: on my Fender Maple P-bass, Chris Welch - lead guitar, Larry Sullivan - Drums, Susie D - lead vocals, and, Jeff Penney (RIP) - lead guitar.
Poison Frogs from 7734: Me- on bass, Ken Beck- drums (his basement), Lon Stender- Lead/Rhythm Guitar, and, Dave Rahman- Lead/Rhythm Guitar. All of us sang lead/backup. We were rehearsing to play a wedding reception at the Toledo Zoo @1990-ish. We had to have set a record with the longest version of BTO's "Takin' care of Business" ... 15 min. What a blast!!
I want to thank Lon Stender, for teaching me the ropes on bass. I owe him plenty for leading me in the right direction. Thanks Lon for everything, especially for being a great friend, to this day.
I want to thank Lon Stender, for teaching me the ropes on bass. I owe him plenty for leading me in the right direction. Thanks Lon for everything, especially for being a great friend, to this day.
====================================================
The Hitmen: Our band's name, theoretically speaking, we attempted to play only the hits, and, we were all men. Me on bass (btw: I played on my Kramer-8 string bass with 4 regular tuned bass strings and 4 guitar strings, tuned near the end of the bass (not pictured). Joe Beuhler- drums, Mark Ulinski- Lead Vocals/ Rhythm Guitar, and, Pat West- Lead Guitar. @ 1992-ish
=================================================== =
My wife snapped this pic while we vacationed in Denver/Golden, Colorado. @ June, 2012.
...but of course, that's me on the Double Bass! The flute was a little off key. If my sister Felicia was playing flute, she would be right on target!
...but of course, that's me on the Double Bass! The flute was a little off key. If my sister Felicia was playing flute, she would be right on target!
====================================================
Here I am at the University of Toledo's Performing Arts stage, with my accompanist Echo Tan. I wrote the cadenza for this recital. Also Yong Sue, (inset photo) accompanied me on many other pieces. We were standing in front of our Mu Phi Epsilon bulletin board in the lobby at the University of Toledo Dept of Music. I was Mu Phi president at the time. Special thanks to my string bass instructor Derek Weller, without him, this may not have ever been accomplished.
====================================================
Here are some of the tools for my trade, a.k.a. my toys.....
I traded my Fender Maple body/neck Precision Bass for this Fender Acoustic from Pete @ Penguin Music. I wrote most of my originals using this guitar. I installed an awesome removable DeYarmond Sound hole pick-up. I needed it to be heard in the Nursing Home gigs. (seriously, I played the Nursing Home circuit while attending Univ of Toledo)