[Tango-L] Bandoneon Scholarship Fund/Tax Deductible Donations

[Leopoldo Betrico]

Hello Ben,

I must congratulate you on devising such an ingenious scheme to make money under the guise of charity. It's quite impressive. This is under the assumption that the scholarship donations will go directly to you (as the "teacher" in this case would be youself, right?)

In regards to the tangojam project, I applaud your effort. But it doesn´t seem like any transcriptions were done. All of the available songs seem to be taken from the already available sheet music library from www.todotango.com It seems like just copying & paste the melody from these available sheet music and only adding chord names to the already available piano score. You are just making it easier to read for people who prefer lead sheet forms, it seems, which is fine but if you claim transciption, it would be nice to see some. 

I wonder if the donations would go further to an already well progressed project. Ignacio Varchausky has started a tango preservation project through Tangovia www.tangovia.org many years ago. It is well organised and well run and has demonstrated great results. It includes an archive of original tango arrangements (full orchestral, solo bandoneon, etc), a digital audio archive, a complete discography, and much more. Basically, everything you are trying to accomplish. But they are already well on their way, so why reinvent the wheel?

You can read and hear more about Ignacio's effort on Keith Elshaw's website, where there are audio clips of his interviews with Keith. http://www.totango.net/  I'm just wondering if the donations would go further there...

My last comment is in regards to the bandoneon solo archive. Most of the arrangements are the same digital files that were made available by other people. The only difference seems to be that you added your "tangojam" watermark on top of them. Why is the watermark necessary when it was made by other people? And even if you scanned in an arrangement, and it is not your own arrangement, is the watermark necessary? It seems like you're claiming digital property or at least advertisement from other people's work...

Just curious and wanted to raise awareness as well.

Regards,
Leopoldo



----- Original Message ----
From: Ben Bogart <ben at benbogart.com>
To: tango-l at mit.edu
Sent: Wed, December 30, 2009 9:56:28 PM
Subject: [Tango-L] Bandoneon Scholarship Fund/Tax Deductible Donations

**Bandoneon Scholarship Fund/Tax Deductible Donations to the Tango Jam
Project.**

Tango Jam And Ko-Arts are working to help ensure the growth of tango
from the music side of things by providing access to information about
the music in various ways.  You'll find nearly all of aspects of the
project important for tango-l members.  Our plans include a tango
lyrics wiki, free online discographies, learning resources for
musicians, and now the Bandoneon Scholarship Fund to help ensure the
future of Tango music.  But to make it all happen we need your
support.

--

TangoJam and Ko-Arts would like to invite you to make an end of year
Tax Deductible Donation to the new Bandoneon Scholarship fund and the
Tango Jam Project. Donate at www.tangojam.com .  Your donation, no
matter what size, will help!

We're proud to announce a partnership between Ko-Arts, a non-profit
community arts organization, and TangoJam.com to support our mutual
mission to make tango music and educational resources available
musicians worldwide, and this year to create the Bandoneon Scholarship
Fund. As an important part of this agreement Ko-Arts will be accepting
Tax-Deductible donations on the project's behalf.

The Bandoneon Scholarship Fund will provide the opportunity to study
bandoneon with a professional Bandoneonista (in person or by video
conference) to a promising student who would not otherwise be able to
afford lessons. The details and application process will be announced
once the capitol is raised and the funding campaign has ended. The
award will be given to the student selected from applications by
review board of tango musicians.

In addition we are raising funding for:

* Transcription and engraving hours for work towards TangoJam's
mission to creating a free and comprehensive online tango real book
with all recorded traditional tangos.
* Programming and Data Entry hours for complete discographies of major
tango orchestras prior to 1955.
* Expansion of the Bandoneon Solo Archive by acquisition and
digitization of bandoneón solo arrangements.  (available in the
downloads section)
* Creation and distribution of new resources for learning to play
tango on the violin, bass, piano, guitar, and bandoneón.  (some
available in the downloads section)
* The creation of a searchable, editable, tango lyrics wiki.
* And eventually full orchestral transcriptions of classic tangos.

We are also looking for volunteers, especially with the following skills:
* Entering and formatting music in Sibelius
* Media Wiki administration
* Php Programming
* Joomla component creation

Please support the Bandoneon Scholarship Fund and the Ko-Arts/TangoJam
mission by making a tax deductible donation through the
www.TangoJam.com website today. We appreciate your support.

¡Play Tango Music!

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