Hi all,
I am one of the EIS teachers. I've had a quick read of the last couple of pages and I'd like to clear up a few things.
First, EIS has no marketing strategy. A few of us help Lilith, Lyle Murphy's daughter and owner of the course, as she preserves the course and continues how her father taught which is one on one. We are are making strides in evolving the course but everyone involved is a working musician on top of being a teacher. So, we are very slow moving. We do not advertise. Everything has been word of mouth and goes by merit of success however it is measured.
Second, we are all very accessible. Anyone can contact us through the website. We have Q&A sessions or "interviews" with any perspective serious student before they sign up for lessons. We usually do two, they are one on one with different teachers, and often run an hour. We don't get paid for this either. We attempt to answer every question we can before someones pay ANY money. So, we are not as secretive or monetarily greedy as has been imagined. We aren't subscription based, pay to play, or any other high pressure sales organization and we teachers are ultimately accountable. We just don't hand you these "secret" texts (guarded by unicorns on Mount Olympus) and collect money.
Third, Lyle Murphy designed the course for the "working musician" in mind. There are ways to look at that statement. Some could say the course is for someone established musically. Some would say it means the course is efficient so that one can maintain their career (whatever it may be) and still progress their abilities via the course. Others could say it's just a no nonsense approach to creating and understand music. All of these would be true.
Fourth - style, arranging, and orchestration. Lyle Murphy composed music in his style in his stylistic era. So, he sounds a lot like what we call "jazz"...obviously. BUT he was influenced and studied ALL music. He LOVED Stravinsky among others. The Equal Interval System course reflects this. One of his master strokes is that he teaches no style or references traditional repertoire. The course encourages your style and can be applied to any genre of music. On the subject of arranging, he was a great and "in demand" arranger in his day, Murphy often uses the model of his era but stresses that everything is a matter of form...whatever that form may be is the composers choosing but it has to be there. What could be more empowering! Finally, orchestration is a part of the course that is WAY deeper than that section appears to be. Best of all, on the surface, it's seems pretty basic and one can do a solid orchestration while working through it. Is it THE comprehensive final word on orchestration... NO... and there never will be one because throughout history composers are always looking for new sounds and instruments.
For anyone reading forums and suffering through threads like this about EIS, consider this: almost everyone who has really studied the course, and especially graduates, praise the course. Almost anyone who trashes the course knows nothing of the course. Teachers are a necessity as we often customize, prepare supplemental material, or do extra things to help a student understand because no two students are the same. That's why teachers are selected since, our goal is to maintain Lyle Murphy's standard. Teaching requires something more than just being a graduate and we are devoted to our students.
As a group, EIS has created a new website
https://equalintervalsystem.com. We aren't pros at this sort of thing so be gentle and we will improve. Ha! But we are trying to be even more accessible. We have a blog and will be putting neat stuff in there which we will cross post on VI. There is info on the site that explains some things for anyone who wants to read it. One fun thing I would like to share is a video we just put together containing audio of Lyle "Spud" Murphy reading the Foreword of the course to his student James Venable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_L._Venable
Jim is a GREAT composer, EIS teacher, and person. He has composed the score for many movies and TV shows. It's a neat snapshot in time since it was Jim's first lesson captured on a cassette tape. Spud explains things pretty plainly here. We will post a transcript soon.
The video can be found here:
Finally, someone wrote "Can anybody name a culturally significant piece of music written using this "system"?" All I can say is I can't think of anything more culturally significant to me and my family than being able to compose and provide an income for my family as a composer and musician. I'm not going to get into a "my system is better than your system" discussion since it is just plain silly. I'm thankful for every opportunity that comes my way and for what I learned and continue to learn studying EIS...
...and I absolutely love to help and watch an EIS student grow as they study the course.
Thanks,
Matt
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