11/29 - Don't Get Around Much Anymore

Hey. I haven't done this in a while. Not consistently like I should be, anyways.

Over Thanksgiving break I saw my family, which was really nice. My brother Max forgot my name only once and Todd got out of doing work only once, which is pretty unusual for the both of them. I got to do a lot of cool things, eat a lot of good food, and return with clean laundry and groceries. Hooray!

But now that I'm back, it's really crunch time. After my bad lesson on Monday, I had to make sure I wouldn't have another one. So I practiced for two hours Sunday and at least two more today and got things more solid, and it paid off. He said he saw drastic improvement, which is always nice to hear, but I still have quite a ways to go. So we'll see how things go.

Today in Jazz Records we talked about awesome jazz singers, which was pretty sweet. We've covered Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, Billy Eckstein, Diana Krall, Natalie Cole, Patti Austin, Diane Schuur, and Joe Williams. They're all pretty great, and you should listen to all of them, but especially these three:



My teacher told us today that Nature Boy was written by some homeless man that lived underneath the Hollywood sign. He would go down to Capitol Records every day and try to hand his lead sheet out to people to see if they would record it, but no one did until Nat King Cole came along. Since he could sing and play piano, he could arrange it and make something of it, and so he did, and everyone loved it.

Nat and the homeless guy were flown out to New York once for a show, and they put them in the Ritz-Carlton. But the homeless guy just slept in Central Park, just because he wanted to.



That's a tasty combo of my favorite a cappella jazz group with a pretty awesome singer. She has a record with the WDR Big Band, I think I talked about them, right? They're the ones who get payed to rehearse and rehearse, and they don't have to play shows, so they can just rehearse all the time. They're from Germany. Germany isn't in a trillion dollar deficit and can afford to sponsor music programs in their country. Just saying, America.

Anyways, look up "For Ella", Patti Austin with the WDR Big Band. It's very nice.



Squirrel Nut Zippers is definitely my favorite band of the week. It's kind of depressing that I'm discovering them now, now that they're on like their third wind. But they still rock, a whole lot.

I had a very good day. I hope you did too.

Also, check out that map --------------> I'm digging this sudden wave of foreign attention. ...haha.

M

11/25 - Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for my family for supporting me and paying for school and doing everything they possibly could to make my dreams come true.

I'm thankful for my girlfriend, Zoe, sometimes for keeping my head above water, sometimes for keeping my head out of the clouds, but always for keeping me close to her heart and helping me do whatever I think I can do. I hope I do the same thing for her.

I'm thankful for all of my relatives that I've seen and those that I'm yet to see this break, for feeding me excessively and caring for me graciously. I'm really going to miss all of the breakfasts and card playing and turkey dinners when I wake up at Bruce on Monday.

I'm thankful for all of my friends, whether I'll be seeing them next week, over break, or not until a long time from now, because just by meeting me and saying hi, you've made my day a little brighter, and you've probably helped me out and made my life easier.

I'm thankful that my professors know what they're doing and aren't jerks about teaching, and thankful that the janitor at Bruce cleans the bathrooms (thank goodness), and thankful for all of the people at UNT that make my experience better because of their time and effort.

I'm thankful for all of the people that brought food to the tables I've eaten at, heated the buildings I've lived in, and provided entertainment to get me through the day. I am nourished and healthy and sane. Good work, team.

I'm thankful for all of the people that read this blog; whether I know you personally or you just happened upon this little site by chance, it's very nice of you to take a little time out of your hectic day and read a little bit about my hectic day. I think it's pretty cool that we can care about people we haven't even met. But that's just me.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for helping me out.

M

11/22 - A Bad Day.

Today I had a bad day.

I thought I was going to get up at 7, work out to wake up, eat a good breakfast and go to class awake. But I got up at 8, didn't eat much, and half slept through Jazz Records.

My friend reminded me of the Music History paper that I had forgotten to do, due last night... oops.

We had a quiz in Aural Skills that I completely forgot about, so I b.s.ed it and did okay. But it wasn't fun disappointing my teacher.

I caught a break in Percussion Methods, and Paul Rennick came in and talked about marching percussion, which was really informative and he's a pretty nice dude.

But then I didn't have Singers, which was kind of a bummer. So I went to practice, and I memorized the little etudes I had to memorize. All was for naught, but I'll get to that eventually.

Watched Family Guy and American Dad, but they were kinda disappointing. I can't remember why.

Checked the mail. Got a good letter :)

And then I went to practice more before my lesson, but all of the marimbas were taken, so I just played my music on piano.

At my lesson, I made it through an etude without being to heavily criticized, but halfway through the second one I lost my place and Jake started fixing my technique, again. I can't understand why it isn't sticking, but it's not, and it's frustrating. We barely made it through that etude and didn't really accomplish anything in 35 minutes, 5 minutes too many.

But I did cuss a few times and act really unprofessionally, which he said I shouldn't do, even though he wasn't a professor. It wasn't respectful, and I didn't know what I was doing and I was a disappointment all around.

Didn't eat dinner, didn't feel like it. Went to a good concert but I couldn't find it in me to ask Mark Ford for some technique help. And now I'm just moping.

If I could have a week where I could commit to just focusing on mallet technique, I would definitely use it. But I can't do that. I'm away from a mallet instrument almost the rest of the week, and I have classes and family things to attend to, and other homework to do, and things to study for and sleep to get, maybe.

And, on top of that, I don't know that I could make myself practice the whole time. I can barely get myself to the gym for a half an hour every day. I don't practice every day, and it's not that I have better things to do; I sit around at watch a lot of Hulu and spend way too much time on Facebook and generally do a lot of nothing. I wish I could fix my work ethic. It'll take some time.

M

11/18 - Percussion, day four

My family is coming to see me! I could not be more excited... that I don't have to drive down to Texas again. Haha. I love you guys.

We'll discuss the last group of percussion instruments today. Let me know if you think you know an instrument that doesn't fit in these categories.

The group we haven't discussed is the largest, by far, the idiophones. Idiophones are instruments that vibrate throughout the whole body, not by use of a membrane or a string.

Idiophones can be split up into six nifty categories:

- Concussion instruments: sound is produced when a pair is struck together and both vibrate
ex. Crash cymbals, slapstick, castanets, claves
- Percussion instruments: sound is produced when something vibrates after being struck by something else.
ex. triangle, woodblock, all mallet instruments, cymbals, steel drums, udu, bells, ghatam, brake drum, etc.
- Rattle instruments: they're shaken. Simple.
Flex-a-tone, tambourine (sometimes), maracas, rainstick, shakers, vibraslap.
- Scraper instruments: they're scraped. Also simple.
Guiro, washboard....
- Plucked instruments: a flexible "tongue" that is inside or a part of the instrument is plucked.
Jew's harp, kalimba, music box, mbira, marimbula.
- Friction instruments: anything rubbed to create sound and vibration.
Nail violin, singing bowl, saw, glass harp (singing glasses).

There's one exception that I've heard of, the wobble board, which is directly flexed. It was used in Shakespeare's staged plays to imitate thunder, and today people use them as effects. They aren't sold commercially though, you have to make your own.

I guess I haven't really gone over how to actually play any of them, have I?

I apologize. It's a lot easier to teach with pictures, or in real life.

If you want, you can yell at me to teach you how to play something and I'll spend a day on that. I think I'd enjoy that, actually.

Tomorrow, I have classes, and departmental (hooray.), and then clean and get ready for family and concert! Should be an awesome Friday for me.

I hope it's pretty awesome for you too.

M

11/17 - Percussion, day three

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

It's getting pretty chilly in Denton, even for a Colorado kid. It's the wind, I tell you. It's hard to ride a bike these days.

Let's get started with membranophones, since there are a lot of them.

Membranophones are typically drums. Typically. Kazoos are also membranophones, but also aerophones, since air resonates the membrane. But I'm pretty sure everything else is a drum.

There are plenty of different types of drums. I'll try to cover all of the bases:

In the tubular drums category, there are:
- Cylindrical drums, with non-sloping edges and usually two heads. Think bass drum, snare drum, toms.

And yes, I'm subconsciously obligated to support Dynasty as a UNT student.

- Conical drums, like this timbal baiano:

- Barrel drums, like this bendre from the Mossi people of Burkina Faso:

- Hourglass drums, like this talking drum:

- Goblet drums, like this darabukka:

- Footed drums, which are really just any drums held up from the ground by the feet:

- Long drums, which is any drum that's just really, uh, long. No that's what she said jokes, please.

Can't find a picture. Dangit.

There are also...
- Kettle drums, which include the timpani but also the tabla... (think about it)
- Frame drums, like the tambourine, kanjira, and bohdran.
- Friction drums, like the lion's roar and the thunder sheet, though I guess the last one isn't a drum.

All of these instruments are played either with sticks or hands, sometimes both, except the lion's roar.

Lion's roar is played by rubbing a cloth down a string connected to the drumhead to create friction, vibrating the string, vibrating the drumhead. It's pretty cool.

There are a whole lot of different instruments to learn, each with different techniques and standard patterns and genres and sounds, some of them taking a lifetime to master. I hope I can at least play them all, even if I don't achieve mastery.

That's all for today. I'll write a lot tomorrow, we have a lot of ground to cover.

M

11/16 - Percussion, day two

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Chordophones aren't really split into any categories. They don't need to be.

Chordophones, percussion instruments or not, are stringed instruments, bowed, plucked or struck. Since we're drummers and we hit things, we prefer them struck.

Percussionists don't generally have to play these instruments, because they're either very similar to or are a piano. Or dulcimer, which is kinda weird and usually pretty rare.

Hammered dulcimer is played with two "sticks", that are shaped kind of a like a shepherd's crook. Each note resonates on two strings, and notes can be played on both sides of the bridge in the middle. If you're interested, youtube it. I'm short on time and studying for a test, so I can't search around for a good hammered dulcimer video.

But, keep in mind, the hammered dulcimer isn't the same as the dulcimer. Dulcimers have frets and are played like a steel, lap guitar. They're sometimes called the "mountain dulcimer." I've had the pleasure of playing both of them.

Pianos are pretty common. I suppose you know what a piano is.

Harpsichords are similar to pianos but instead of the hammer striking the string(s), like a piano, the strings are plucked, which gives it that halfway in between piano and guitar sound.

The celesta is another similar instrument, but its hammers strike metal bars, usually steel, that hang over resonators, producing a sound very similar to bells or a high vibraphone. It's usually more of an effect instrument than a solo instrument, and it's most famous for its part in "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" in Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite."

That's really all I've got in terms of chordophones.

I'm studying for a Jazz Records test tomorrow, so I'll show you some awesome bits from that class. Perhaps a top three or five.

I like Buddy Rich a lot.



But he's much more a of a big band guy than a quintet guy. Especially with Thelonious, Dizzy, and Charlie Parker, he sounds a little out of place. Sorry Buddy.



This is what happens when you leave timpani in the studio. Max Roach adds one to his drums.



My family is coming on Friday! I'm excited.

M

11/15 - Percussion, day one

I've decided that I'm doing another themed week, since I didn't have anything really interesting happen today. This week is going to be based on percussion instruments, percussive history, and possibly how to play stuff. We'll see.

Percussive instruments can be divided a few different ways...

By methods of sound production, there are four categories:

- Idiophones: instruments that produce sounds through the vibration of the entire instrument:
Guiro, singing bowls, all cymbals, all mallet instruments, triangle, woodblock, etc.
- Membranophones: most instruments commonly known as drums, sound produced on a membrane:
Snare and bass drum, tom-toms, timpani, congas, djembe, lion's roar, wind machine, etc.
- Chordophones: stringed instruments that are struck:
Hammered dulcimer, harpsichord, celesta, technically piano I guess.
- Aerophone: Wind instruments played by percussionists:
Bird, slide, and samba whistle, police siren, didgeridoo, etc.

There's another way of classification, whether or not it has a definite pitch:

Yes: mallets, timpani, tabla/mridangam, steel drums, crotales, etc.
No: tam-tam, anvil, castanets, bass drum, whip, cymbals, rainstick, etc.

There are a couple other classifications that I don't really care for; the "common knowledge" division (whether you'd think of it as a common percussion instrument) or the "common or ethnic" division.

Let's talk about aerophones today.

There are two classes of aerophone, split by whether the air producing the sound is contained in the instrument or not. This separates didgeridoos from bullroarers, both of which are used by the Aborigines for communication, incidentally.

Here's a bullroarer:



I guess you all know what a didgeridoo sounds like, but youtube it if you don't. They're cool. I can kinda play it, but I can't circular breathe yet, so.

Most of the aerophones are used for effects. Bird whistles create nature sounds, and samba whistles, motor horns and sirens create some interesting city effects. They're really only called for in more contemporary orchestral literature or weird percussion ensemble stuff. But they're valid nonetheless.

I'm writing this week mostly to see all of the cool stuff I get to play. Sure, I don't have to know how to play all of it, but it's certainly to my advantage if I can.

I'm off to go practice my bullroarer skills.

M

11/11 - The Rundown

I don't really have a thesis statement for how my day went. I apologize.

But I can explain how my day went with props. Decent trade? I think so.

In music history, we talked about opera. Well... the teacher did. And my friend Eric and I wrote a chorale. But then she started playing Don Giovanni, my favorite opera, so I watched. You can watch too!



I love that song so much.

Then I had a "test" in theory that took literally ten minutes.

Ate lunch, took a nap, worked on drum corps exercises almost the rest of the day.

Side note - I'm auditioning for Troopers and Blue Knights if I can find the time to get to the audition camps. Hopefully I can. But it means taking my finals early, during jury week, and that will be a major pain.

I can't legally show you the Troopers exercises I have to learn, but they're silly. If I have more time tomorrow, I'll write out bits and pieces (legally) and show them to you. But the Blue Knights exercises are free, and they are here:

http://www.bknights.org/bknights.org/membership/bkdbc/download/percussion/BK2011QuadAudition.pdf

They're not too difficult. They have a thing for 5s, which I can handle. The last page, the timing exercises are like the beat displacement things we've been doing in South Indian ensemble, kinda.

Now I just have to get to the auditions.

And then I went to the Jazz Repertory Ensemble concert, they played "A Night in Tunisia," one of my favorites:



It was a good day.

I'll talk more tomorrow. Have a good Friday.

M

11/10 - The Return of South Indian Day

Today in South Indian we talked about koraippu, or the trading off that happens between musicians.

But first, a little exercise.

4s are takadimi, 5s are takatakita, 6s are takitatakita, and 7s are takadimitakita, but when you get in to the weird parts, it's ta ka, ta ka da, ta ki ta ta, or ta ka di mi ta.

I like this one. It focuses on being able to play something on any subdivision of the beat, and that's what I need.

Okay, so, koraippu. I guess the best way to explain it is to give you some examples. But, generally, they start with a decent-sized phrase, say 4 bars or so, and do call and response. It's like a game; the first musician tries to play something too hard to follow, and the second tries to play it back. The phrases are cut in half over time, from 4 bars to 2 to 1 to 2 beats to 1 beat to as small as possible.

The koraippu is usually followed by a riff that both of them know (because they've been playing their whole lives), and then end with a korwai.

This first example is Harishankar on kanjira and Karaikudi Mani on mridangam. The kanjira solo is mostly 5lets and the mridangam solo is mostly triplets, if that makes things any clearer.



I can't tell if the video is off just a little bit, or if some of them aren't very good at counting. But the two playing are excellent.



That's the same dude, Harishankar, on kanjira. I can't find any of the videos that really showed the koraippu.

If I've ever shown you music before on youtube, chances are you've seen this:



But it's a perfect example of the whole trading off and trying to play impossible things to mess each other up concept.

That's all I've got today for S. Indian things.

It's kinda weird around here since half the percussion studio is in Indianapolis. But now I have more practice room time, which means I've almost learned all of that transcription from a couple days ago, and I finished writing my marimba solo piece! Yay! Over two years, took you long enough, inspiration.

But I'm glad I finished it. Once I can play it, it'll be up here.

M

11/9 - How awesome Jose Aponte is

So Jose Aponte is the king of all things Latin here at UNT's School of Music, at least percussion-wise. He leads the two Afro-Cuban Ensembles, the Brazilian ensemble, and the Latin Jazz Ensemble. He doesn't talk much, but when he does, it's either funny or really cool. That's enough background.

Today, at Voertman Hall at 8 pm, there was a concert featuring all three (or four) of Jose's ensembles. They were excellent.

The concert started with Afro-Cuban ensemble. They played a song with the beginners, then kicked them off until their last song (of four). The Advanced ensemble had six or seven players and Jose, and when they played with the new kids they were 14 or 15? It's kinda hard to remember.

I snagged a program so I could find the songs they played and show them to you!





Then Brazilian Ensemble came onstage and played a couple tunes. Brazilian Ensemble has a rhythm section, at least they did at this concert, and my Jazz Singers "teacher" Kathryn sang vocals. Brazilian music has a more obvious beat to dance to than the Afro-Cuban stuff (just listen to the big, boomy surdo), but it's all dance music.





But that last one ^ didn't have full orchestra. Just people playing loudly on drums and rhythm section.

And then the party really started, if it hadn't already started (it had).
Latin Jazz came on stage and totally rocked the house.

Latin Jazz Ensemble is alto, tenor, and bari, 3 trumpets, 2 bones, rhythm section (incl. drum set), congas, bongos, timbales, etc., and Jose, who does whatever the heck he wants to.

I can't find much of the music because most of it was original, but they did cover this song:



It was kinda like that but more brass power. Excellent.

Don't worry if you didn't really get this. Hopefully I'm in one of these ensembles next semester and I'll tell you all about it.

M

11/8 - A Little Bonus!

Tonight, instead of doing my theory homework (yet), I finished transcribing a solo. I'd been playing bits and pieces of it on marimba for a while, but I really needed the complete version to get the right feel for it. And I did. It took a lot of plays, and some battles with patience, but here it is:

Throw Down Your Heart (Bonus Reprise)
from "Throw Down Your Heart - Tales of the Acoustic Planet vol. 3, the Africa Sessions"
written and performed by Bela Fleck, transcribed by yours truly.

I'm going to go work on it right now!

Good luck!

M

11/8 - What I Learned from Ed Soph

Ed Soph came in to my Percussion Methods class the other day to talk about drum set.

The first thing he talked about was the drum set's history. The drum set really first originated when the Ludwig brothers invented the bass drum pedal; before that, there was a snare and toms guy and a cymbals and bass drum guy. But, because of this new invention, the bass drum guy was out of luck, and the snare guy had to learn some coordination.

The first "beat" on the drum set was the New Orleans groove, four on the bass drum, keeping time, and a press roll with accents playing something similar to a bossa nova pattern. Cymbals were only used for fills. If you listen to any really early swing, you'll hear it.

Now, before the hi hat was invented, there was a low boy. It sat 8 inches above the ground, and was just to keep 2 and 4. But once the hi hat became popular, the right hand played the swing pattern on the hi hat, four on the bass drum, and accents or 2 and 4 on the snare drum.

Then, Mr. Avedis Zildjian, the one who really brought their company to fame, started making bigger cymbals (only like 13 inches, but still, not splash cymbals anymore). The drummers started to keep the swing pattern on the "ride" cymbal, and 2 and four with the hi hat, so keeping four on the bass drum wasn't really necessary, instead it started being used for big accents and with cymbals. The snare did it's same old job.

Once the hard boppers came along, drummers started getting a little more creative, and put the hi hat in places where it had never been before, on offbeats, in fills, etc. The ride pattern didn't have to stay constant, and the snare and bass hits got a little weirder too. Hard bop was a creative time.

And now we're at this modern phase where everything is possible and so it all kind of blends together. He didn't explain this part very well.

He said we should all probably listen to Warren "Baby" Dodds, the original of the originals. Here's some audio:



We came up with a list of things that are important to drummers all around:
- Time. Keep it well. None of this matters if you don't have time.
- Dynamics
- Phrasing (yes, we can phrase)
- Form, like don't change cymbals in the middle of a phrase.
- Sound, getting exactly the ones you want.
- Touch
- Technique, not that there is a specific good one, but know which one to use in a certain situation.
- Balance, within the drum set and within the ensemble
- Interpretation, how much you're copying from things you've heard, and how much is original.
- Style, knowing which things are crucial and which are flexible.
- Motion. If you're tense, your playing sounds tense, if you're fluid, you sound fluid.
- Improvisation. Know when, have a reason why, and know how to play what you're trying to.
- Imagination, really key since it's one of the only things keeping us from being replaced by machines.
- Listening. This one is really key.

I'm starting to like this guy. He has some pretty thick either sarcasm or lack of emotion to get through, but he's a legit person once you get through it.

Oh, and he said some cool things that I just had to write down.

"There's always going to be something that taunts you, but that's okay, because life would be boring if you knew everything."

"It's not that you can't do it because it's hard, you can't do it because it's new."

M

11/5 - Crunch Time.

I'd like to start this blog by talking to my mother for a little bit.

Dear Mom,
We can't both be M when we post stuff on here. That's confusing. It looks like I'm talking to myself.
I do appreciate the comments though :)
Love, Mason.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about things that really matter.

Today I couldn't force myself to get up at 8 because a certain roommate of mine's chest cold kept both of us awake until 3. I got up at 9:40, went to aural skills, took a shower, and was then ready to start my day.

So, sure, slow start. I'll take that.

But once I got to Jazz Singers, I was on my game. Didn't miss a cut off more than once, sight read like a boss and even plugged cords in quickly. I was in the zone.

And I had to be in the zone, because I was in lessons mode already. I had a lesson on Wednesday as a make-up for Monday, a lesson Thursday, and two lessons (well, that was the plan, anyways) today. So, after Singers, I ate some quick lunch and got to work. Since everyone else was at departmental (I already told you my policy about not going to class), I got to use the five octave marimba to practice on, from 1:30 to 3. I worked on my solo, spent some time on my method books, and sight read a little, and was totally ready for my lesson at 3.

And it was a good lesson. My solo was better, the method book things were good, and I wasn't too shabby sight reading. I had things to work on but not so many things that it's just a bummer.

From there, at 3:30 I went home and wrote a little bit until 4, and then practiced snare stuff for an hour until my lesson at 5. Everything was solid, even the rudimental stuff, which is my kryptonite. I would've rocked the house, but Jayce got stuck in traffic and we'll have to reschedule. Bummer.

But I didn't feel like I was out of energy, somehow. After 2 1/2 hours of almost constant practice and more than 3 hours of constant playing, I still had something in me to keep being productive. So I wrote a letter, registered for all of my classes, and organized my iTunes, all before eating dinner.

Today I learned that I really can be productive, and that I shine best under pressure. It took the fire of two lessons in two hours under my butt to get me practicing a lot, but I did practice, and it did sound pretty great. Playing well and being productive made me feel good, so I kept being productive.

If you've got the energy, use it. If you have things to do, do them. If you have the opportunity, seize it.

Here's my class schedule, by the way:

I don't know how much of that you can read, so I'll put it up here.
MWF:
- Piano III 10 am
- Intro to Composition 11 am
- Singers? noon
MW, not friday:
- English. Hooray. 1:30 pm
- African Ensemble 3 pm
- Brazilian Ensemble 4 pm
TR:
- Poli Sci 9:30 am
- Steel Band 8 pm
- Jazz Lecture at 2 pm on Tuesdays
- Gamelan at 6 on Tuesdays

- Departmental is at 1 on Fridays
- I don't know if I can be in Advanced S. Indian Ensemble yet.
- I don't know which Jazz Singers or Concert Band or Jazz Lab I'm in yet, if any.
- All of this may change if I become a Jazz Studies major.

So. A very tentative schedule, but an awesome one nonetheless.

Have a good weekend!

M

11/4 - Throwing out the 12 tone scale

Today at the Wind Symphony concert, they played a piece called Apotheosis of This Earth, written by Karel Husa. It's a tale of destruction and demise for the Earth, prophecy-style. It's very dark, chaotic, and seemingly random. It's like Stravinksy on acid.

If that doesn't sound cool enough for you, they use a whole bunch of microtones, most noticeably in the first movement, but they're really all through the piece. I found a link on Youtube for free and I'll put it up here.



Holy crap it's a lot cooler with choir.

It got me thinking about true dissonance again. Not leading tone to tonic dissonance from theory, for the old folks. Real, headache-inducing, makes you cringe tension only caused by playing notes within a few hertz of each other.

It's much more of a modern thing, and I can't really decide if it's a result of equal temperament tuning, how everyone tunes to a440 nowadays so it's easier to write and play intentionally, or if it was considered too disgusting or sacrilegious back in the Classical and Romantic days. I'm leaning towards the former.

Either way, it's pretty freaking cool. I just thought you should know.

If we can get tension out of a fully diminished chord, and feel so relieved after its resolution, imagine how much more tension and how much more release we could experience from cluster chords and microtones! It's like the Saw series versus some creepy thriller that feels like it goes on forever and finally gets happy at the end. Like Signs. I definitely prefer Signs. Or Red Dragon, or The Village.

Not much to talk about today. I'll talk more tomorrow if things go my way.

M

11/3 - Not South Indian Day

Let's take this post to explain why sometimes it is a good thing to ditch class.

Today, I had a make-up mallet lesson at 6:30, and I knew South Indian wouldn't get out until 7, and I didn't know if Sriji was even going to be there. So I decided I would spend that class time practicing my mallet stuff so I could rock my lesson, instead of going to class worrying and then leaving halfway through. I did rock my lesson, but I have another one Friday, and another Monday.

The reason I have so many make-up lessons is either health related, not my fault, or conflicting with a rehearsal. I couldn't make it to a snare lesson once because I had rehearsal for vocal forum with Jeremy the day before we had to perform, and the rehearsal ran over. I wasn't angry. I knew I was still spending my time well, probably doing something more important at the time.

Sometimes I don't go to Intro to Jazz Records. It's a 9:00 class and it's kind of difficult to make it to on Mondays especially when your roommate is a night owl and has the sniffles. But I always get the notes from someone else and I'm on a mission to get every CD we listen to in class from the library. So I'll know all of the music.

I'm a college student. I'm supposed to be making decisions about what to do with my time. I think it's interesting that I can handle the times when I have too much going on better than the times when I have nothing going on; usually when I'm not busy I'm watching Youtube videos or eating something, or sitting outside talking. It's up to me to decide what to do when, and if a class gets in the way of something that's more important at that time, don't go to class, especially when the other thing is urgent or if you have friends in your classes that take thorough notes (which is always the case).

Hm. Wednesday. No cool songs or anything today. Unless....

Here's the marimba solo I'm working on: Prelude from Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. It's played by Friedrich Guida.



Happy Thursday!

Mmmmmmmmmm

11/2 - Embrace the Unexpected

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: If you're going to make it doing one thing and one thing only, you'd be very, very good at it and willing to commit your life to it.

For the rest of us, don't get stuck doing one thing. Knowing how do everything and knowing where to start and how to approach things you're clueless about is a pretty big asset.

Let's approach this from a musical perspective, and start with some wonderful examples. A dude I know, Drew, a sax player, rocks at alto and bari, I don't know how his tenor skills are but I bet they're pretty good too. But he's also a boss at clarinet and flute, and he sings in Singers 1. I don't know exactly how he got to be in the ensembles he got to be in, but he probably got into the Jazz Repertory because he can play those woodwinds because clarinet and flute were used a lot in early swing jazz, and he probably got into Singers because he has another musical perspective with which to approach things. I don't know what lab band he's in, but I'm sure the alto and tenor chairs are a lot more competitive than the bari spots. Regardless, nice job Drew.

I know for a fact that to be accepted to the school of music at UNT as a sax player, you have to be able to hold your own on alto, tenor, and bari. This is a pretty smart move because it promotes well-roundedness and makes a student's musical ability easier to examine, because, personally, it's a lot more impressive to see a pretty great all around sax player who switches all the time than an amazing alto player. It shows me that they have the ability to turn their mind upside down and switch trains of thought really quickly. Nice.

I don't think there are very many other instruments here that require doubling or well-roundedness to get into the music school. Sure, you have to be able to sight read on snare and mallets, and play a mallet solo and a different solo, but if you got lucky, you could probably get in without touching timpani or bells or maracas or a drum set, even, in your entire life, and I feel like there are some people that are that way.

Once you get into school though, it's a whole different story.

The drum set players are struggling in their mallet lessons, the vocal jazz majors are complaining through their classical voice lessons (which is probably at least a little true, since they don't have any male vocal jazz majors, I guess they have one or two), the low brass players are cringing while writing in treble clef, and everyone else is slowly but surely making their way through two full years of piano class. In the college of music, almost the whole first year focuses on diversity. We take theory, aural skills, piano, music history, classical lessons, and some of us take some crazy ethnic ensemble, and for the general population, most of the subject material in those classes is uncharted territory. But the professors and T.A.'s know that spreading the students out evenly will in time mold a better player, and result in a more successful career and a happier life.

Two out of two of the people living in my room are struggling through sonatas right now, whether they're being used in classical lessons or my mallet lessons, and they're both things that we're not the cat's pajamas at. I'm sure the exact same thing is happening to every freshman all over campus.

So don't feel bad if you feel like you're spread out thin or being stretched too far. That's what college is about, and come senior year you'll be the best at everything. Or something like that.

This has something to do with my day, I sweat. The UNT Percussion Ensemble, our top percussion ensemble, had a concert today. The UNT Percussion Ensemble is the cream of the crop at embracing the unexpected and being well-rounded. Let me explain.
- Fanfare for a New Audience, David Skidmore. Basically two sets of crotales, two chimes per player (not sets, just individual chimes), and a lot of toms.
- Imaginary Landscape No. 2, John Cage. If the composer didn't give away how wacky this piece was going to be, they played tuned tin cans, a lion's roar (legit percussion instrument), slinky, and my mallet teacher played a conch shell. We'll add it to the list of the pretty awesome things he's done.
- Pythagoras and the Four Hammers, Andrew Thomas. A song about when Pythagoras was wandering through a forest and heard a blacksmith forging with some hammers and how that explained to him what music was. Best part: it's standard percussion literature.
- Vous avez du feu?, Emmanuel Sejourne. A piece for four players, each holding a lighter in each hand. I'll put a video up if I can find one, it's awesome.
- A Ceiling Full of Stars, Blake Tyson. Finally, a piece that non-percussionists would recognize as music. Lots of mallet instruments with bells and triangles to sound like stars, which was pretty effective.
- Rounders, Michael Burritt. I didn't stay for this one, but it looked like it was going to be solo marimba with lots of bass drums and tom toms. I was scared.

Not only do the players in the ensemble have to be prepared to play different instruments and objects, they have to be prepared to play different genres, in different formations, in different time signatures and with crazy mallet setups. Not only was I impressed by the sheer madness, which is typical, but the music really did sound good. Good job, you guys.

I think I'm ditching South Indian tomorrow because I have a lesson that I need to practice for. It's rained all day today and I didn't want to walk down to the practice rooms in the rain, not because I didn't want to get wet, but I didn't want wet mallets. Ew.

Here's that video:



Have a good Wednesday!

M

11/1 - Brass Band Concert

Sorry I didn't update on Friday. I was taking care of a drunk friend. Everyone but me had a pretty craaaazy Halloween weekend. But I had a hangover-less weekend.

Happy November, by the way. It's nice in Texas, it's hoodie weather, and not big poofy jacket weather like it is in New York (pobre Zoe) or I think Colorado right now. I don't know about CO.

I haven't told you much about Brass Band, have I? We're going to fix that.

Brass Band meets on Mondays and Wednesdays at 2:15 in the orchestra hall in the music building. It's kind of a bad location, for two reasons; they don't keep a lot of percussion equipment up there, and it's a pain in the butt to move everything you need to play either up a staircase or in a slowwww elevator.

Now, when I say they don't keep a lot of stuff up there, I mean they keep a bass drum with no stand, mismatched timpani, three snare drums but no stand (?), chimes missing a wheel, an old kevlar xylophone, some cheap crash cymbals, and a gong on a bad stand. It's pretty sad.

So in the final weeks of rehearsal before the concert, I'd get there at 1:45, start hauling bells, vibes, 5 toms and stands, drum set, suspended cymbals and stands, bongos and stands, field drum and two stands, shaker, maracas, bell tree, claves, guiro, and big mallets (i'm probably forgetting something too) up the elevator or stairs. I had to get the key to get to most of it at 2, so that kinda kept us from being on time. So by the time we really got set up, it was 2:30 and they were halfway through the first song.

Also, because of this class I've purchased a tambourine and two triangles, which cost a total of way more money than I wanted to spend.

Complaints aside, it's a lot of fun. We play some loud and crazy music, I play a whole lot of instruments, and no piccolos! I'm not taking it back, I really do hate piccolos. I play with Jordan, a 4 semester vet, and Taylor and Jeremy, two freshman roommates. They're kinda funny.

I arrived to set up for my 7:30 concert at 5:30 today, because we all knew that it'd take a while to move all of our crap and make it look nice before our mini rehearsal at 6:30. Aside from my little break before the concert and playing drumset, I stood up for like 4 hours. I need a nap.

Or sleep.

We started with a little overture, I played tambourine and triangle. Still can't play thumb rolls, but my fancy new triangle sounds pretty.
Then we played a Rossini overture and a British march about a Russian, I played snare on both.
Played a lengthy, strenuous piece before intermission. I played timpani, and I was pretty glad I had gauges. Tell me if you don't know what gauges are and I'll fill you in. Lots of tuning and a fun tom-tom part in the middle.
After intermission we played another long, difficult piece, again on timpani. Oh and I played some vibes. But this one was definitely cooler because I had a timpani solo and I used extra hard mallets.
Then I played maracas and toms on Postcards from Mexico. There's a drunken section in the middle and it was really hard to keep myself from doing a dance to it. Hardly even a dance.
We played a Gordon Goodwin arrangement of a Cole Porter song, and I played drumset, without any toms and on a concert snare drum. Awesome. It was fun, and I did pretty well.
We finished with Pines of Rome, and I nailed all my gong parts. Except I might have played ffff instead of fff. Sorry.

So, overall it went pretty well. I usually don't remember much that happened in a performance, maybe because I'm concentrating on playing, but the gong hit in the beginning of Pines of Rome was perfect. I remember smiling really big and forgetting to count my rest.

That's how brass band goes. I can't tell if I want to do it again next semester. Perhaps. If I can get us some better equipment, then definitely.

M