Article from the Star News

Locals combine talents to produce instructional DVDs

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By Tena Lee

Staff Writer

Those who pick up a musical instrument for the first time often have little trouble finding an eager instructor to teach them the basics. However, once a budding musician moves past the basics and on to perfecting his or her musical prowess, finding a musical mentor becomes more difficult.

Two longtime Hendersonville residents – one an internationally renowned musician, the other a local pioneer in video technology – have created a series of instructional DVDs for that advanced student.

Contemporary jazz artist Jerry Tachoir and videographer Jon Mir had always seen each other as they videotaped performances of their daughters, who were both members of Hendersonville High School's dance team, the Golden Girls.

“Jon had pioneered video editing on the computer in our area,” said Tachoir.

Mir, who has worked with the Oak Ridge Boys in various positions including his current position of executive vice president of Oak Ridge Boys, Inc., has put together the United Way's “Just Say No” program video as well as several for the Golden Girls.

Tachoir said that he watched one of the tapes Mir had assembled on the computer.

“That piqued my curiosity,” said Tachoir, “And we agreed that it would be nice to put this together.”

Mir, who has been a recording studio engineer, disc jockey, and held several other positions in the technical and musical fields, agreed to record and edit the instructional sessions. Tachoir said he started the Master Study Series in 1982, but after paying as much as $600 an hour for editing alone, the project was placed on the back burner.

“We put out one video and found it to be cost prohibitive to continue that route,” he said. He said that today's DVD technology has made the project both financially feasible and more user-friendly.

“This allowed us to put together projects and do the editing in-house,” said Tachoir.

On the VHS format, students always have to fast forward and rewind to get to a certain section, the musician noted. With the DVD format, chapter menus are created.

“This media holds itself well in terms of keeping up and working at one's own pace,” said Tachoir.

“These are for serious students and adults who want to perfect their skills ,” said Tachoir's wife Marlene. Marlene is featured on one of four of the educational DVDs instructing students in two hand chord voicings on the piano.

“It's an intense one-hour lesson with a lot of knowledge,” said Marlene Tachoir.

Other performers in the series are Jerry Tachoir, on the vibraphone; Van Manakas on jazz guitar and Roy Vogt – an instructor at Belmont University – on electric bass.

While actual filming of the DVDs took four to five hours, editing comprised 20 hours over a week or so time period. Add to that the audio sweetening, menu production, and creating the DVD interface and artwork and each video represents around 100 hours of work, according to Tachoir and Mir.

“We really try to strive for perfection,” said Jerry Tachoir.

“This is really cutting edge,” he added. “From an educational point of view, this is such a slick way of doing it.” For more information about the Master Study Series, go to www.masterstudyseries.com.

Originally published Wednesday, November 12, 2003