How to Spookify Your Songs for Halloween
Halloween means spooky songs and music of the macabre. Learn how to add the special scary touches to make your own music suitably terrifying…
Marisa Balistreri
Marisa Balistreri is a native of Madison, Wisconsin who has been involved in music somewhere, somehow her whole life. From piano and violin training to becoming a classically trained singer, her varied career as a professional musician ranges from musical theatre to opera to jazz.
Marisa Balistreri received her B.A. from the University Wisconsin-Madison in Theatre and Drama and Psychology, and her A.R.C.T Diploma in Vocal Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada.
Trained in Italy in the traditional Italian method of singing, she has sung with The Rome Opera, The Cairo Opera Company and on Holland America Line as an opera singer.
Always eager to expand her musical knowledge, Marisa enjoys the challenge of learning new styles and genres of music. She is currently transitioning from opera to jazz and sings in a duo with Stefan Hall.
Learn more about Marisa:
Posts by Marisa Balistreri
Making Music Real, Hearing Harmony, and Ghoulish Games
The best 3 scale steps to hear chord progressions, make online lessons work, fun and scary music games, a music ed revolution, and meet our Content Editor.
Halloween Music Activities for Your Ghouls and Goblins
Halloween is a great time to teach young musicians ear training skills. Here are some top resources to help you do it in spooky style.
Stringed Beauty, a Major Minor Second, and Tone Quality
The Lydian takes on the major scale. The beauty of strings, listen, sing, and audiate your way to musicality. Make your 21st-century music career relevant.
Improve Your Musicality with Audiation
Audiation is a powerful musical skill that lets you imagine music in your head with rich, vivid detail, and relate it directly to notes on the page or music you hear in the real world.
Lydian Mode, A New Genre, Rhythm Upgrades, and the Metronome Reinvented
Instruments build the soul and inspire a new genre. Make sense of rhythm with simple listening skills and new tech. Move over, C Major: here comes F Lydian!
How to Hone Your Sense of Rhythm
Rhythm is an often-overlooked area of ear training but you can sharpen up your sense of rhythm with exercises and habits like these.
Hearing Harmony, Teaching Guitar, Tension and Release with Chord Progressions
When we listen actively, harmony, melody, scales—everything from guitar fretboards to cruise ship career opportunities—reveal their secrets for us to use.
Hearing Harmonies with Active Listening
Music is rich with harmonies. Learning to hear harmonies deepens your appreciation of music and helps you as a singer, composer, or any kind of musician.
Cruise Ship Musician’s Survival Guide: Part 2
Want to travel the world on a cruise ship, play music and make lots of money? It’s not all fun in the sun! Know what you’re getting into before you board.
Math Rock, Musicpreneurship, Free Rhythm and Creative Composing
Break free! From rhythm and meter, music industry “rules”, classical composing constraints and your own isolation when learning music solo. Find out how.
Compose Creatively by Breaking the Rules
Composing music classically restricts your creativity. In the modern age, there are many ways to create your own new sounds, as Adam Scott Neal reveals.
