Bill Locklear Custom Music LLC

This is very interesting reading, especially those of us at "a certain age 😀 "

How Music Can Prevent Cognitive Decline - Neuroscience News Listening to or practicing music had positive implications on cognitive decline in older adults by stimulating the production of gray matter in key brain areas, a new study reveals.

Due to many requests I have decided to offer private lessons on flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, f horn, trombone and tuba. For more information please follow this link:

Music Lessons

"A Praetorius Hymn" is now available. Contact Bill to order.

Friends and colleagues:
Recently I posted a video on Facebook of the premiere performance of one of my new works, "A Praetorius Hymn," dedicated to and conducted by my friend Dr. David Gregory in his final concert with the Georgia Wind Symphony.

You can view the video at https://www.facebook.com/bill.locklear.3/posts/10211919446164265

The response has been overwhelmingly positive! Thank you for the wonderful comments and encouragement for this piece. A sampling of these comments includes:

“Bill, this is gorgeous! This has to be one of the finest of your charts ever.” - Jim Knight
“Bravo to the work and performance! What a fabulous tribute to such an inspiring legacy.” - David Vandewalker
“Really a wonderful arrangement. I'd love to do it on our Hendersonville Community Band Christmas concert.“ - Winford Franklin

Here is what David himself has to say about the piece:
“Bill has great respect for beautiful melody, both original and borrowed, and his treatment of that material through his skilled understanding of writing for wind band instruments has given us yet another "gem” for our concert band repertoire.

I firmly believe “Praetorius Hymn” is a composition that will provide great musical enjoyment and rewards for many. It should be part of band libraries across America.”

This will be a sought-after-piece but will likely be 7-10 months before it will be available through the publisher. Until then, and to meet the request for immediate delivery, I am making this piece is available through self-publishing.

The details are as follows:
$85 - Includes a set of parts and score delivered in PDF
format within 48 business hours of payment
$105 - Includes printed parts and score delivered to you via
USPS within 10 business days

Contact me to order "A Praetorius Hymn” at [email protected]

Robinson Meyer recently wrote in The Atlantic, “when written music succeeds, you enter a single life-world designed by the composer and awakened by the performers.” I look forward to hearing of all the musical groups giving life to this piece over the coming years.

Best Regards,

Bill Locklear, Owner Bill Locklear Custom Music

This is a very important and extremely well thought out presentation. Take a few minutes and explore this one.

The Role of the Concert Band in the Total Band Program The concert band is the foundation and centerpiece of the scholastic band program. The instrumental music curriculum – its scope, sequence, and s...

a noteworthy comic

"The conductor must not only make his orchestra play - he must make them want to play. He must exalt them, lift them, start their adrenaline pouring, either by pleading or demanding or raging. But however he does it, he must make them love the music as he loves it. It is not so much a matter of imposing his will on them like a dictator; it is more like projecting his feelings around so that they reach the last man in the 2nd violin section. And when this happens - when everybody shares his feelings, when 100 men are sharing the same feelings, exactly, simultaneously, responding as one to each rise and fall of the music, to each point of arrival and departure, to when all that is happening then there is a human identity of feeling that has no equal elsewhere." -Leonard ("Omnibus Presents: The Art of Conducting",December 4, 1955)

This excerpt from a recent comment by my extrordinarily wise wife Dora bears repeating:
"Music isn't primarily competition....it's collaboration - collaboration of instruments, of skill, of emotion, of direction...and especially of the breath." To this I can only add a heart-felt amen.

Kim Shuttlesworth was my partner adjudicator in sight reading for the South Carolina Band Directors Association northwest regional Concert Performance Assessment last week. She is the director at James Bowie HS in Austin Texas and an outstanding young adjudicator and teacher. It was a pleasure to work with and get to know her.

As an adjudicator as well as a listener it has ALWAYS been about the musicality. This past week I have heard over 60 high school bands perform music ranging from very easy to unthinkably difficult. The best, most enjoyable music I heard was played with sensitivity, style and grace, totally irrespective of the difficulty. I marvel at what the incredibly talented young people in these bands can accomplish. It's no wonder the All-State audition material has to be rewritten regularly to allow for how well they play. Still, though, the musicality of the organizations is what makes me judge bands all week then hurry to another high school auditorium in another state to listen to more bands. It is not the desire to hear who can play the most notes. It's melody, harmony, style and sensitivity that feed my soul and makes young musicians aspire to heights that as yet are not yet even imagined.

And thus, he broughteth the funk.

Yes!

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