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Teaching the Science of Sound Amplification Through Les Paul, The Beatles, and the Grateful Dead
Wednesday, October 2, 2024 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EDT
Presented by Bill Carbone, Executive Director, TeachRock; Anthony Coscia, Owner, Coscia Guitars; Richard Pechner, Photographer, Pechner Productions; and Gina Machado, Director of Programs and Partnerships, TeachRock
Sponsored by TeachRock with Support from The Les Paul Foundation
Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.
What is a PA system? How does it work? In this edWebinar, we explore amplification from Les Paul’s early experiments to The Beatles’ struggles to be heard and ultimately consider why we should thank the tinkering scientists of the 1960s and 70s Grateful Dead entourage for many of the standard elements of how we experience live music today.
TeachRock’s Bill Carbone and Gina Machado are joined by photographer Richard Pechner and craftsman Anthony Coscia, builder of the internationally acclaimed Wall of Sound replica. Anthony’s work brings rich context and history to TeachRock’s resources.
Viewers explore hands-on science lessons that help students define and demonstrate sound through interactive activities, as well as identify the basic components of a PA system by assembling a working loudspeaker. They also discover effective techniques for teaching the history of amplification and leave with engaging, ready-to-use lessons from TeachRock’s free resources.
This recorded edWebinar is of interest to K-12 teachers, librarians, and school leaders.
This edWebinar is brought to you by the Les Paul Foundation.
View all of the recent TeachRock edWebinars.
About the Presenters
Bill Carbone brings decades of experience as a researcher, teacher, journalist, and musician to his role as Executive Director of TeachRock.org. Bill joined TeachRock in 2016—just in time to create the PBS Soundbreaking and Beatles curriculum collections almost single-handedly during his first year. Since then, he’s helped expand the organization, reaching 10,000 teachers face to face on Stevie Van Zandt’s 2018-19 Teacher Solidarity Tour, leaning into distance learning and a 400% increase in usership during the pandemic, and establishing a school partnership team that brings TeachRock’s open educational resources to life in classrooms.
Bill earned degrees from New England Conservatory of Music in jazz performance and Wesleyan University in ethnomusicology, and has an ongoing career as a rock, jazz, and reggae drummer and percussionist. He has taught classes in music history, ethnomusicology, and percussion at Central Connecticut State and Wesleyan Universities. His dream for TeachRock is to provide every student with a class that makes adults wish they could go back to school too.
Anthony A. Coscia is a luthier and craftsman based in Southbury, CT. He builds musical instruments and speaker cabinets that embrace the construction methods and design aesthetics more common in the 1970s, drawing inspiration from Doug Irwin and Alembic. In 2020, he embarked on a journey to recreate the Grateful Dead’s legendary Wall of Sound. The project has received international attention and is a unique blend of science, creativity, and history. Anthony holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Richie Pechner is a renowned photographer and former roadie who worked closely with the Grateful Dead on the iconic Wall of Sound, contributing to its design, construction, and staging. His expertise in capturing live music moments has produced some of the most remarkable images of that era. One of his notable photographs of the Wall of Sound was shot during a sound check, where the house lights created a daylight-like clarity, making the image stand out for its extreme detail. Richie’s unique perspective as both a photographer and a roadie offers a behind-the-scenes look at the world of music, making his work a vital part of rock history.
Gina Machado is the Director of Programs and Partnerships at TeachRock. Beginning her career as a classroom teacher in The Bronx, New York, she now designs arts-integrated education materials for TeachRock and leads professional development sessions across the United States, working alongside teachers to implement the TeachRock curriculum. An educator at heart, Gina’s true passion lies in creating new and innovative ways to reach students of all levels, always aiming to foster the student-teacher relationship.
Join the Inspire Learning & Engagement community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.
Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.
Launched by Stevie Van Zandt and the Founders Board of Bono, Jackson Browne, Martin Scorsese, and Bruce Springsteen, TeachRock.org provides free, standards-aligned resources that use music to help K-12 students succeed in science, math, social studies, language arts, and more.
The Les Paul Foundation inspires innovative and creative thinking by sharing the legacy of Les Paul through support of music education, recording, innovation, and medical research related to hearing. It’s also a great resource for anyone wanting to learn more about the Wizard of Waukesha.
