"They were all terrible sight readers in (Duke Ellington's) band. Ellington's sidemen didn't learn Ellington's music by reading it. They got it by playing every night." Billy May, jazz arranger Q: "How did you learn to play the saxophone?" Lester Young: "Just picked up the m-----f---er and started playing it " "A lot of the boys didn't read music, but they had a good mind-- we called it a good ear. All we wanted to know was how did it sound... wasn't nothing written down." Louis Armstrong Many of the greatest musicians of the last hundred years learned music "outside of the academy: " with little or no formal training, musicians like John Lennon, Merle Haggard, Burt Bacharach, Paul Simon, and others became greater than many musicians who took lessons their whole lives. How did these and other non-traditionally trained musicians learn music? Are there common ways that non-traditionally-trained musicians follow to become proficient as players, singers and composers in spite of their lack of formal training? And can those ways be formalized into a musical pedagogy that could, in fact, be a more effective method of mentoring musicians than the traditional "academic" approach of lessons, theory and study? In A Musical Way, Max Harrick Shenk explores the ways that we learn music in spite of formal training, reflecting on his own experiences as a listener, songwriter and musician, and drawing on the experiences of musicians who not only learned music without lessons or schooling, but often didn't even realize that they were learning. Shenk takes those experiences and proposes a "musical way" that a teacher could use to help a musically-interested student express his or her musical ideas, without getting hung up or stuck on technique, theory or an uninteresting, uninspiring repertoire. "I realized I was free to play music any way I wanted to," he writes about one of the many breakthrough moments in his own informal musical education. Fostering and encouraging that freedom in students is Shenk's "musical way." Interwoven with quotes, anecdotes and even excerpts from Shenk's own fiction, A Musical Way will help listeners, players and teachers understand the ways that we learn music, and inspire and encourage them to not only teach others, but to make music of their own.

15 year old softball pitcher (and Beach Boys fan) Margo LeDoux has a crush on Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, and wants to meet him. Her boyfriend Scott doesn't like the idea, but Margo sends Denny a letter anyway, and when she finally gets an autographed record back from her heartthrob ("He wrote 'Love Dennis Wilson' on the label. LOVE ") she also finally gets up the nerve to break up with Scott, who, it appears, is getting a little too close with his neighbor and best friend, Annie. Meanwhile, Margo's friend (and our narrator) Brian Pressley and his grlfriend, Christy Kelly, are trying to arrange a "meeting" of their own. They're taking steps toward going all the way, steps that get interrupted when Christy takes off on an unplanned trip to DC with her big sister Kathy. The girls get grounded with the prom coming up, but Kathy's got bigger problems: she's apparently pregnant. This doesn't stop Christy from asking Brian if they can set a date to go all the way: June 18th, her birthday. Margo's catcher, Tara, and Brian's buddy Marty are also neighbors and friends, both of whom have always had crushes on Margo. When Margo invites her archrival pitcher Tammy to a softball team cookout, Tara spends the evening sitting by the fire talking to her. "It's a good thing they didn't meet before the playoffs," Margo says. "Tara might've thrown the game." Now it's prom weekend. Who's meeting whom? Where? When? How? And why? The answers are in BOOK SEVEN of MEETING DENNIS WILSON. Book Seven is the final installment in this series.

In the first three books of Meeting Dennis Wilson, we meet the characters: 16-year-old Margo LeDoux, who has a crush on Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, and who decides that she's going to try to meet him... the narrator, Brian Pressley, Margo's best friend, and his girlfriend, Christy Kelly, who decide they don't want to go ALL the way, but just "some of the way..". Margo's boyfriend Scott, who declares that Margo "better not send" a letter to Dennis Wilson "or else." ("Or else what, Scott? What?")... Margo's catcher Tara Longbaugh, who might have a connection that can get Margo closer to Denny... Marty Morone, Brian's best guy friend, who has a Margo crush and a Beatles obsession... and Christy's big sister Kathy, whose romance with Marty's brother Davy has cooled considerably. So what happens when Christy and Kathy get back from their trip to Washington? Was Christy really mad at Brian, or was it all in his imagination? What does Scott's best friend Annie think of the way he's treating Margo... and what does she think of Brian? Who finally confesses their longtime crush to Margo? What does Margo say in response? And how could her reaction not only hurt her chances at a softball championship, but at her chances of Meeting Dennis Wilson? The answers (and more questions, of course ) are between the covers of BOOK FOUR...

In book one of Meeting Dennis Wilson, we met the three main characters: 16-year-old Margo LeDoux, who has a crush on Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, and who decides that she's going to try to meet him... the narrator, Brian Pressley, Margo's best friend, and his girlfriend, Christy Kelly, who decide they don't want to go ALL the way, but just "some of the way..". and Margo's boyfriend Scott, who declares that Margo "better not send" a letter to Dennis Wilson "or else." ("Or else what, Scott? What?") In book two, the plot thickens as we meet Margo's softball catcher Tara Longbaugh, whose nickname around school is "Tara Fawcett-Majors," and who hangs around Margo like a puppy dog... Brian's best friend Marty Morone, a shy kid who's obsessed with the Beatles and has a crush on Margo... and Kathy Kelly, Christy's 18-year-old sister, who's got a bad case of senioritis and a boyfriend whom she can't decide whether to take to the prom or never ever see again. As Margo asked in book one, "Brian, how do we put UP with all these people?" Find out in Book Two of MEETING DENNIS WILSON.

15-year-old Margo LeDoux has a crush on Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, but her boyfriend Scott doesn't want her to meet him... meanwhile, Margo's catcher (Tara Longbaugh) has a crush of her own: on the (very) uninterested Margo Then there's our narrator (Brian Pressley) and his girlfriend Christy Kelly: they're "taking steps" toward going all the way, steps that get nterrupted when Christy and her big sister Kathy make a trip to DC to see their dad, U.S. Senator Tom Kelly... which gets the girls grounded with the prom coming up. Christy tries to sweettalk her mom into letting her go anyway, but when she loses her bra in a rainy makeout session with Brian, she just gets FURTHER grounded Meanwhile, Margo gets a letter and a record in the mail from Dennis Wilson ("He wrote 'Love Dennis Wilson' on the label. LOVE, Bri LOVE ") and not only beats her archrival Tammy Montgomery in the District softball tourney, but introduces Tammy to Brian and invites her to a team cookout after the game "His girlfriend's GROUNDED, Tammy " Margo calls after her. "Why'd you tell her that?" Brian asks. "Ahhhh, she won't come," Margo says. Does Tammy come to the cookout? Who goes home with whom when the coals cool? And who comes late to the party with not one, but two pieces of bad news? The answers are in BOOK SIX of MEETING DENNIS WILSON.

15-year-old Margo LeDoux has a crush on Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, and her boyfriend Scott doesn't want her to meet him. Margo says (and Scott's friend Annie agrees) that Scott is "throwing a fit," but the upshot is, they're not together... meanwhile, Margo's softball catcher, Tara Longbaugh, has a connection that might help a meeting take place-- Tara's mom knows Dennis' brother Carl-- but now it turns out that Tara has a crush of her own: on the (very) uninterested Margo "When I say 'I love you, '" Margo tells Tara, "I don't mean I'm into THAT." Margo insists she didn't mean to hurt Tara, but when she reaches out to Tara, Tara tells Margo to "leave me alone " Will Tara's distance hurt Margo's chances at meeting her dream Beach Boy? Worse, with Tara behind the plate catching for Margo, what will happen when Quaker Valley enters the District softball tournament? Meanwhile, Margo's best girlfriend Christy and her boyfriend Brian (our narrator) are "taking steps" toward going all the way, steps that get interrupted when Christy and her big sister Kathy make an unplanned weekend trip to Washington DC to see their dad, U.S. Senator Tom Kelly... a trip that makes them miss two school days AND gets them both in hot water. "Mom just sees me as the accomplice," Christy says. "Kath is in REAL trouble." Still, Christy's grounded with the prom approaching, and so she and Brian need to sneak steps when they can... including some rainy after-school steps that end up getting Christy in even bigger trouble than before Unrequited love... friends who want more than friendship... groundings and detention... a makeout session in a dark auditorium and an unintentionally see-through t-shirt... and a package in the mail, postmarked CALIFORNIA. All of that and more is in Book Five of MEETING DENNIS WILSON

In books one and two of Meeting Dennis Wilson, we met the characters: 16-year-old Margo LeDoux, who has a crush on Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, and who decides that she's going to try to meet him... the narrator, Brian Pressley, Margo's best friend, and his girlfriend, Christy Kelly, who decide they don't want to go ALL the way, but just "some of the way..". Margo's boyfriend Scott, who declares that Margo "better not send" a letter to Dennis Wilson "or else." ("Or else what, Scott? What?")... Margo's catcher Tara Longbaugh, who might have a connection that can get Margo closer to Denny... Marty Morone, Brian's best guy friend, who has a Margo crush and a Beatles obsession... and Christy's big sister Kathy, whose romance with Marty's brother Davy has cooled considerably. Book three raises a lot of questions: why do Christy and Kathy decide to run off to Washington DC for a weekend? How did Jeff "P.A." Shannon, "the most annoying guy in school," find out Christy's bra size? Why does Brian think the best reaction to this is to hide in the drum room reading PLAYBOY? And speaking of hiding, who's avoiding who: Margo or Scott? Some of the answers--but mostly questions-- are in MEETING DENNIS WILSON BOOK THREE. This is the third of seven installments of MEETING DENNIS WILSON. Books 4-7 will be published through the summer and fall of 2013, with a hardcover edition gathering all seven books at year's end.

MEETING DENNIS WILSON follows the exploits of sixteen-year-old Margo LeDoux, who has a crush on the Beach Boys' drummer and decides she's going to meet him... if only sigh it was that easy Her best friend Brian and best girlfriend Christy both support her, but they've got problems and wishes of their own... meanwhile, her boyfriend Scott is against it ("I'm not having you running off and being some groupie "). What's a girl with a crush (or obsession) to do? Find out in MEETING DENNIS WILSON This is book one of a serialized novel. Seven books will be published during 2013 in both softcover and Kindle editions, with all seven books to be collected in a limited edition hardcover eventually.