12/14 - General Update

Hey everyone. I haven't put anything up here for a while. This is partially due to slacking, but I've been pretty busy practicing, performing, teaching, studying, and all sorts of other stuff that hopefully I can write about here, if I can remember all of it.

In an online, informal way, this will kind of end up being like a christmas card.

In November, I attended an audition camp for the Santa Clara Vanguard. I went in hopes that I could play timpani, but would have been fine with a mallet spot even though my mallet chops aren't great. Over the course of the weekend, I split my time playing vibraphone and timpani, and had a great timpani audition. If all goes well in January, I should be playing timpani for the Santa Clara Vanguard this summer.

I've started to advertise myself as a private lessons teacher, and after putting up a bunch of fliers and printing business cards, I found my first student. The pay isn't much, and it's not a lot of work, but it makes me happy knowing that I'm contributing to someone's education and helping them do something that makes them happy. He's a quick learner and memorizes things pretty quickly, so I'm looking forward to all of our lessons in the future and whatever he becomes as a result of his practice and hard work.

In two days, I will have taken all of my finals and passed all of my classes. I've learned about the general acoustic properties of musical instruments. I've discovered the music cultures of various parts of Africa, India, Indonesia, Tuva, and the Navajo people. For my juries, I blazed my way through Tony Williams' drumming on Miles Davis' "Seven Steps to Heaven" and learned Astral Dance, a pretty difficult marimba solo; I'm proud of what I got done in a short amount of time, but I'll definitely need to keep working on them. I performed with a lot of talented people, playing all kinds of different music, and had a lot of fun doing it.

Next semester, I'll be taking lessons with Paul Rennick, caption head at the Santa Clara Vanguard, winner of multiple DCI percussion caption titles, percussion composer/arranger and performer; and Ryan Kilgore, Bluecoats pit tech, winner of international marimba competitions, etc. That should be very demanding and rewarding.

I'm also taking some interesting classes next semester. Mr. Rennick teaches a Percussion Arranging class every spring semester, and I'm signed up to take it, which should be incredible. I'm taking a class on the music of Frank Zappa with the head of the composition department; it's only offered every other year, so I'm extremely fortunate to be able to take it. I'll be working hard over break to see if I can test out of Jazz Keyboard Skills, Jazz Fundamentals II and Jazz Aural Skills. I'm excited to be in South Indian Ensemble again, but upset that my schedule won't allow me to be in Jazz Singers or Brazilian this semester. I'm in a late English class on Tuesdays, and I'm taking the last levels of Theory, Aural Skills, and Piano. I should be very busy, but that's how I work best anyways.

My band, Señor Fín, played a bunch of fun shows this semester, at house shows, pizza shops, smaller clubs, and tonight, we'll be playing at Dan's SilverLeaf, where all of the big acts that come to Denton come to perform, including Pat Martino, Jeff Coffin, Bill Frisell, the Decemberists, and all of the big local acts. We're in the process of recording tunes that we've grown really comfortable playing, with some new gear and software, and we're always looking for more opportunities to spread our name around and to make music for people that want to listen.

There are some other little things, but nothing that seems to be too important at the moment.

I've done a lot of great things, and been through some times that helped me grow. I've been to new places and met new people, and I've become even more aware of how great it is to have a place to call home and people that you can call friends. I had a great semester, and I'm looking forward to another great one after I come back from winter break.

Regarding the future:

If I don't have very much time to write, kinda how the last half of this semester was, I might use this blog to post videos I found informative, cool songs or interesting composers and musicians. If I did that, I would write less, but probably post more frequently.

I'll put up some things that I thought were awesome this semester as a little sampler.

Have a great break.

M

10/23 - Minimalism

Usually this is a music blog, but I will take this post to talk about a subject that includes music, even though that's not its main focus.

I used to collect everything when I was a kid. I would keep all of my A papers, and all of the little things I wrote, and even recently, I kept all of the letters anyone wrote, concerts I went to, and things I did, and proudly displayed them for anyone who wanted to see.

These things showed how awesome I was, and gave my life meaning; I was worth something because I saw the Who live, or went to Patrick Roy's 1,000th game, or got a letter from the coolest teacher ever on my birthday, or was accepted by the Berklee School of Music. I could pull out things from when I was a little kid when I was feeling down and see not only how cool I was back then, but how much better I am at stuff now, which is definitely uplifting.

Popular society nowadays is very materialistic. People buy nice cars that aren't necessary for their lifestyle, or houses that are beyond necessary. I don't really have to explain it, I'm sure, but it makes me sad to think that there are people that go out and spend a bunch of money just because it makes them feel good.

I have decided to start passively rebelling against that whole notion, since it is one of my least favorite notions. I have been considering it for a while, but today I cleaned out my room... well, started to anyways. So far, I have taken down most of the things from my wall and filed it away, put ads up on Craigslist for things I don't need (don't worry Mom and Dad, only reasonable offers), and already have a clothes hamper full of clothes to give away or resale.

I guess the rebelling against materialism thing is cool, but for me it's not really all about being angry about something, it's quite the opposite actually. If I have less stuff, I have less stuff to worry about, less stuff taking up space, less things I can't find, and less eyesores to keep in my room.

I will have a couple of complications though. Percussionists, and timpanists in general, are pretty notorious for hoarding mallets, drums, music, etc. So I won't keep myself from having proper equipment, since it's my job, but I won't keep things that I don't have a use for either.

I'm also a student, so I have to keep plenty of papers and notebooks and things, and it can get pretty cluttered sometimes. I haven't had a desk since I've moved in, so I work on my bed or the couch in the living room, and the surrounding areas get pretty disastrous after a few days, but I'm getting better at it.

Soon, I will take to the kitchen to get rid of extra utensils, dishes, and things, because the fewer kitchen things you have, the better you are at washing them. And I'll do my best with the rest of the house without making everyone else weirded out by not having art and decorations and stuff in them.

M

10/11 - Today in Ethno

Pretty cool, right?

Yup. We watched West African videos all day, and even though I was pretty sleepy, I stayed awake and loved every minute of class today.

That's Bassekou Kouyate, one of the finest ngoni players in West Africa. Ngoni, as well as akonting and and instrument called xalam, are all multi-stringed instruments that are thought to be predecessors of the American banjo. Music really makes its way around the world.

A few of you might know of my admiration of Bela Fleck, the banjo player; he started as a bluegrass guy, and made his way over to the funky side of things, started his own group called the Flecktones, and has played with Victor Wooten, Chris Thile, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, Tony Trischka and all sorts of cool people. He's one of my favorite musicians of all time.

Not only is he an outstanding player, but he appealed to my ethnomusicologist side by going to Africa and producing a documentary called "Throw Down Your Heart." His mission was to find the roots of the banjo, and on his way he jams with all sorts of African musicians... mothers at work, a blind kalimba player, an ensemble centered around a huge marimba built into the ground, and some ensembles that had ngoni and akonting in them, and, well, they were very similar.

In Mali, and West Africa in general, there are musicians called griots, that are almost always families, where the tradition of music is passed down from generation to generation. In the past, griots would accompany higher, warrior-class families, and the two were inseperable; every emperor or warrior family must have a griot, and every griot must have an emperor. So they were pretty high-class, and for good reason, because the griot were not only musicians, but they were poets, translators, spokesmen, and storytellers too.

These griots produced some pretty amazing musicians, on all sorts of interesting instruments, and I'd like to share a couple with you.



Toumani Diabate is playing an instrument called the kora, which is pretty similar to a harp. It has 21 strings that can be tuned by sliding the rings around the "neck" higher and lower. It is played with two fingers on each hand, the thumb of the left hand for the bass, the thumb of the right for the melody, and the two index fingers for improvisation. Good kora players should be able to carry the bass line and the melody while improvising on top of that, and I think that's amazing.

I talked about the gyil much earlier in this blog, but that specific instrument falls in the balafon category of idiophones. Balafons are similar to marimbas, but the resonators are made with gourds, and the gourds have spider's eggs attached to them.



Notice that it doesn't have any accidentals, which would make playing easier, but in relation to a western mallet instrument, it's backwards. The higher notes are on the left side, perhaps to give the bass line more importance? I really don't know. What amazes me is the speed of some of his runs and his ability to keep two different rhythms and ideas going at the same time so fluidly.

Let's not about the spider's eggs, either. They produce a rattle in the resonators that is characteristic of African sound. The keyboard instruments do it, kora usually have beads attached to the strings to make them rattle and buzz, and some African influenced musicians have found ways to get the buzz in their sound:



There is a very strong vocal tradition in West Africa, as there is in all of Africa, and my favorite African singer is Oumou Sangare, who was in Bela's documentary:



West African vocal music is interspersed with plain-spoken thoughts, ideas, or messages a musician would like to add to a song. A singer could say that they are happy that they are singing today, or make a dedication, or state their opinion about politics in any song, and it would be just fine. I like that.

This is the best example I've shown you that has a hint of Islamic music culture in it, and there's a reason why. Spain, Morocco and much of West Africa was influenced by Islam much earlier than it was influenced by Christianity, and there's been enough time for Islamic music traditions to work their way into West African music. Notice in Ms. Sangare's singing and in the vocals of the Ngoni Ba, there are ornaments and melisma that are very reminiscent of Islamic prayer chant, and the kora and balafon have found ways to add these ornaments into their music as well. The Islam-influenced music accompanies danced celebrating Islamic gods, and West Africans often read the Qu'ran. That's definitely not what I thought of when I first heard anything about West Africa.

I want to make all of these instruments. I'm going to look into how much it would cost to find the parts.

M

An Excerpt from John Cage's "Composition in Retrospect"

NONINTENTION (THE ACCEPTANCE OF SILENCE) LEADING TO NATURE; RENUNCIATION OF CONTROL; LET SOUNDS BE SOUNDS.


EACH ACTIVITY IS CENTERED IN ITSELF, I.E., COMPOSITION, PERFORMANCE, AND LISTENING ARE DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES.


(MUSIC IS) INSTANTANEOUS AND UNPREDICTABLE; NOTHING IS ACCOMPLISHED BY WRITING, HEARING, OR PLAYING A PIECE OF MUSIC; OUR EARS ARE NOW IN EXCELLENT CONDITION.



A NEED FOR POETRY.

JOYCE: "COMEDY IS THE GREATEST OF ARTS BECAUSE THE JOY OF COMEDY IS FREEST FROM DESIRE AND LOATHING."

AFFIRMATION OF LIFE.


PURPOSEFUL PURPOSELESSNESS.


ART = IMITATION OF NATURE IN HER MANNER OF OPERATION.


COEXISTENCE OF DISSIMILARS; MULTIPLICITY; PLURALITY OF CENTERS; "SPLIT THE STICK, AND THERE IS JESUS."



ANONYMITY OR SELFLESSNESS OF WORK (I.E., NOT SELF-EXPRESSION).

A WORK SHOULD INCLUDE ITS ENVIRONMENT, IS ALWAYS EXPERIMENTAL (UNKNOWN IN ADVANCE).


FLUENT, PREGNANT, RELATED, OBSCURE (NATURE OF SOUND).



EMPTY MIND.



NO IDEAS OF ORDER.


NO BEGINNING, MIDDLE, OR END (PROCESS, NOT OBJECT).


UNIMPEDEDNESS AND INTERPENETRATION; NO CAUSE AND EFFECT.


INDETERMINACY.



OPPOSITES = PARTS OF ONENESS.



TO THICKEN THE PLOT (RAMAKRISHNA); HIS ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: WHY, IF GOD IS GOOD, IS THERE EVIL IN THE WORLD?



AVENTURE (NEWNESS) NECESSARY TO CREATIVE ACTION.



THE MIND IS DISCIPLINED (BODY TOO), THE HEART TURNS QUICKLY FROM FEAR TOWARDS LOVE (ECKHART).



ANYTHING CAN FOLLOW ANYTHING ELSE (PROVIDING NOTHING IS TAKEN AS THE BASIS).



INFLUENCE DERIVES FROM ONE S OWN WORK (NOT FROM OUTSIDE IT).



CHANCE OPERATIONS ARE A USEFUL MEANS; MOKSHA.



BEING LED BY A PERSON, NOT A BOOK; ARTHA.



LOVE.



RIGHT AND WRONG.



NON-MEASURED TIME.



PROCESS INSTEAD OF OBJECT.



AMERICA HAS A CLIMATE FOR EXPERIMENTATION.



WORLD IS ONE WORLD.



HISTORY IS THE STORY OF ORIGINAL ACTIONS.



MOVE FROM ZERO.



ALL AUDIBLE PHENOMENA = MATERIAL FOR MUSIC.



IMPOSSIBILITY OF ERRORLESS WORK.



SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER (CREATION, PRESERVATION, DESTRUCTION, QUIESCENCE).



POSSIBILITY OF HELPING BY DOING NOTHING.



MUSIC IS NOT MUSIC UNTIL IT IS HEARD.



MUSIC AND DANCE TOGETHER (AND THEN OTHER TOGETHERS).


MEN ARE MEN; MOUNTAINS ARE MOUNTAINS BEFORE STUDYING ZEN. WHILE STUDYING ZEN, THINGS BECOME CONFUSED. AFTER STUDYING ZEN, MEN ARE MEN; MOUNTAINS ARE MOUNTAINS. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEFORE AND AFTER? NO DIFFERENCE. JUST THE FEET ARE A LITTLE OFF THE GROUND (SUZUKI).



IF STRUCTURE, RHYTHMIC STRUCTURE.



BOREDOM PLUS ATTENTION = BECOMING INTERESTED.



PRINCIPLE UNDERLYING ALL OF THE SOLUTIONS = QUESTION WE ASK.


ACTIVITY, NOT COMMUNICATION.



THE NINE PERMANENT EMOTIONS (THE HEROIC, THE MIRTHFUL, THE WONDROUS, THE EROTIC; TRANQUILLITY; SORROW, FEAR, ANGER, THE ODIOUS).



THE PRACTICALITY OF CHANGING SOCIETY DERIVES FROM THE POSSIBILITY OF CHANGING THE MIND.



THE GIVER OF GIFTS (RETURNING TO THE VILLAGE HAVING EXPERIENCED NO-MINDEDNESS).



STUDYING BEING INTERRUPTED.



NOTHING-IN-BETWEEN.



OBJECT IS FACT NOT SYMBOL (NO IDEAS).



POETRY IS HAVING NOTHING TO SAY AND SAYING IT; WE POSSESS NOTHING.



UNCERTAINTY OF FUTURE.



NOISES (UNDERDOG); CHANGING MUSIC AND SOCIETY.



NOT WORKING = KNOWING. WORKING = NOT KNOWING.



DISTRUST OF EFFECTIVENESS OF EDUCATION.



HCE (here comes everybody)

IT IS, IS CAUSE FOR JOY.

EARTH HAS NO ESCAPE FROM HEAVEN (ECKHART).

10/3 - I'm composing again!

So it's a new month, and this weekend I found some inspiration to do more things than I usually do, which is really awesome. I cleaned all sorts of dishes, and decorated my room a little bit, and didn't sleep all day. But most importantly, I came up with some new musical ideas, and I'm pretty excited about them.

Yesterday I was reading all of John Cage's writings when I found a journal that he wrote a year before he died in 1992. It contains a list of blurbs and thoughts about music, quotes from authors and philosophers, and simple ideas. I tried all day Sunday to think of ways to communicate each line correctly through music, probably a multi-percussion set-up that includes marimba, maybe another keyboard instrument and then a bunch of percussive noises, none of which really need to be any specific sound. I'll post the list in a separate post.

I had a dream last night where everyone I knew "sent" me a sound and I could just pull it out of the sky and put wherever I wanted it to be, and I could use all of my friends sounds and make something awesome out of them. So I asked a bunch of people to send me their favorite sound, and you can too, if you want; just record something and email it to mklynass93@aol.com. Please, keep it short, clean, and simple, but I would love your input.

Snarky Puppy is playing here in Denton tonight, and I am very excited.

M

8/28 - Learning from other instruments

I play a whole lot of drums in my school week. I play concert stuff in Brass Band and Percussion Group, big ol' surdo in Brazilian, set in South Indian, lessons on mallets and set, practicing mallets and set, and playing with Senor Fin. Almost all of my technical musical adventures are focused on one "instrument," and I believe that can be a detriment to my musicality.

Sometimes, when it's late at night and Ronan and Jesse and Jesse and I are getting ready for bed (or I am, at least), we hang out in Ronan's room for a little bit and someone puts on some tunes. Today, we listened to Bon Iver, one of Jesse Miller and Ronan's favorite songwriter type musicians:



He does some neat electronic stuff and a lot of good old folky guitar and voice singer/songwriter stuff, and I like it a lot.

One of my favorite things about living in a house full of musicians is that my music and everyone's else music is enjoyed by everyone else, especially in this house. Ronan listens to a lot of jazz that I should be listening to, and Jesse Miller knows a lot of great lyricists and folk songsmiths, and Jesse B. knows where the funk lives and who makes the beats. And everything they play, I always feel like I should listen to that artist more, even though I don't have the time to. I never have the time to.

Not only do we share the things we listen to, but every once in a while we share the things we read or experience, and it's becoming more common with social networking. I can post an article that I liked and 100 of my friends could see it, and it would affect at least a few of them; in the same thought, I'll click on almost a dozen links people have recommended every time I'm online, and I've come to know who to trust for good things and what kind of things certain people will put up. It's kinda cool.

I have a book checked out from the library, "Confronting Silence," by Toru Takemitsu. None of the others have had a chance to read it, but I like his ideas a lot. I'll force it on Ronan some time.

Ronan has a bunch of guitar books, kinda like how I have a bunch of drum books. He steals mine every once in a while just because it's good to know what the drummer's doing in a jazz set; it's good to know what a drummer's doing in every setting, and it's good to know what everyone is doing in every setting. But he uses one of my styles books to see what the drummer plays in a samba, or what the bassist plays in a merengue, and what he should try to add or when he should back off. He's a smart dude.

So, in return, I stole one of his guitar books. I haven't figured out what a bunch of scales and chord progressions to solo over will do for me as a set player (sure, I'll use them for other mediums), but the back section of this book, "The Advancing Guitarist" by Mick Goodrick, has good blurbs of information and thoughts about music, similar to Takemitsu's book. He has a list of "short subjects," and I'd like to share a few with you:

Control usually involves slowing down
No single approach seems to work all the time
To keep learning: aim at always being a beginner
Students often ask me, "Should I do A or B?" Most of the time, I ask them, "Why not do both?"
Remember, music is (basically) a communal sport
No one is better at exactly what your'e doing than you. Also, no one is worse at it.
Don't try to make a study of your own individuality. Make studies of everyone else's.
Notes are clever ways of getting from one silence to another
Music is like life on a small scale, Life is like music on a large scale.

All of those things can pertain to any musician, playing any instrument in any genre anywhere in the world, and even though there are a few strict guitar things in this section, most of it could be useful to every musician. You know when someone is beyond a "drummer" or a "guitarist" when they know the universal laws that pertain to everyone singing or playing, that's when you know they're a musician.

That's what I hope to be.

9/27 - Denton

There are some cool groups or people coming out of Denton, and just in case anyone with some power ever reads this, these people are who I would recommend for whatever you can throw at them.

http://www.facebook.com/SundressNation

We played a show on Thursday with Sundress, a poppy psychedelic band from UNT. They're on tour right now, making their way from here to New York and back down through Denton all the the way up to Seattle, and hopefully they'll be playing for some pretty good crowds. They've played at plenty of music festivals and are only getting bigger.

http://www.facebook.com/royrobertsonmusic

At that same show, we played with a trio that goes under the name of their lead singer, Roy Robertson. They've put out one record already and are working on another one, and have been written up in a couple of places and have been featured in "A Small, Good Thing," which Senor Fin is hoping to be a part of soon. Here's a cool video:

http://www.facebook.com/SmallGoodThing

A Small, Good Thing is one of my favorite things going on here in Denton. A few friends host a band, and the band plays in a house show setting, and then they have a conversation and interview over dinner, freshly prepared. They record the whole thing and make a mini-series out of the collection of bands they host. I'm looking forward to going to their next event, and I love this idea.

I'm friends with a couple other bands, and the Jesses and Ronan know lots of people, so I'll put their links here, in case you want to check them out.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Young-and-Brave/123002405920
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Retro-Run/190480367630113
http://www.facebook.com/twoknights?sk=info
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpoOky-Folk/109370762642

M

9/22

This is a piece called "It Is Time," written by Steve Mackey. So Percussion, the performers in this video, played it when they came to UNT as well, and it was awesome.

Today won't really have a theme, I don't think, I'll probably just show and tell about a bunch of cool stuff I learned... which is the theme for this blog anyways, I guess.

Did you know that there are 6 unidentified, unexplained sounds recorded in the waters of the ocean? One of them was recorded at the exact same time with the exact same frequencies in two places over 5,000 miles apart, which means that no animal (that we know of...) could have produced it, and it's probably even too large of a sound to be caused by anything we have made. Weird stuff.

In my Acoustics class, we were assigned a group project, in which we were to record 5 objects producing sounds, and produce "musique concrete," which, to my understanding, is electronic music made with acoustic samples and sounds. So I made this:

TTV (concrete remix) by mason-lynass

Which is based off of this:



I'm playing two shows with Senor Fin, one tonight and one tomorrow, both at J&J's. We're playing with Sundress, a pretty legit Denton band, tonight before they go on tour to the East and West Coasts... all over the place, really. And then Friday we're headlining with some of our friends. Should be awesome.

http://www.strandbeest.com/index.php One of the coolest ideas I've seen in a long time.

I've been all over craigslist recently trying to find cheap cymbals or cool things to hit, but I guess it's all for naught since I don't have any income. I'm trying to get a job delivering food on my bike, but so far, no dice.

This week, I wrote some electro music, and some drumline cadences, and part-wrote for theory, and wrote a tune, and arranged Debussy. Pretty composition heavy, which is a little abnormal, but great in phases.

I don't have much to say, I just feel kinda bad for not saying anything recently.

M

9/16 - Ed Soph Lecture

This happened at Departmental today:



M

9/15 - Tension and Release

Have you ever sat in a left turn lane and noticed that your turn signal doesn't match the turn signal of the person in front of you? I guess I might be a little OCD, but doesn't it kind of make you feel good whenever they line up, even if it's fleeting?

Well, that video is like that feeling, but how I would guess taking a psychedelic drug feels like, and then turning it into music. It's quite a trip.

That piece was written by Conlon Nancarrow, a young jazz trumpeter turned composer whose ideas were beyond the performance level of any human being that ever existed and will probably ever exist. His works were originally attempted by performers, but their inability to meet the technical demands forced him to switch to player piano and some other, more mechanical mediums.

Both voices play a cycle of 54 notes, and once they reach the end, they start over again. The first voice starts at a rate of 37 notes a second, while the second starts at a mere 3.5 per second. As the piece develops, each voice slows down or speeds up until the two line up for a split second, and then the second voice careens off into mind-blowing oblivion.

The best part, for me at least, is when it all finally lines up, and you can see it; there's a little tick mark on the edges of the scroll about halfway through the piece. That moment is when all of the tension, which is built up through the fury of notes in the upper range, slowing down over time and meeting the lower voice in one, or maybe two unison notes, that moment is when the tension releases. That release and that feeling is one of my favorite things about music.

Hopefully I don't always start with the most extreme example in these posts. But this is what attracted my attention. All of his player piano studies sound like noise at first listen, and it takes quite a bit of analysis to understand what is going on.

This feeling of tension and release happens all the time in music, whether you realize it or not. Certain chords lead to other chords because of the notes that make up the chords, and some chords fit better with others because they have a better resolution. Symphonies usually have a long cadence of tonic and dominant chords back to back to back in succession because they indicate finality; after all of the development, something so straightforward signals the end of the tension, the release. And diminished chords work so well because they are composed of minor 3rds, and those minor 3rds can not only lead to many different chords, but any resolution from a cluster of minor 3rds will sound easier on the classically trained ears, since, under common practice, it can't get any worse.

Since I'm a percussionist, though, I'm a little more comfortable with the idea of rhythmic tension and release, and that's not something that a lot of musicians are accustomed to. The ethnic ensembles I've been a part of have been big on this idea, too, and I think those ensembles have been what have really caught my interest.

In South Indian Ensemble, and in Indian music in general, the main goals of the percussionist are to accompany the soloist while proving your mental and physical ability by playing complex patterns, seemingly ignoring metrical structure, but always landing on the downbeat, like a game. If you'll recall some posts from last year, these patterns are called tihai, and extended tihai are called korwai, and patterns to finish an extended musical phrase are called mora. Indian percussionists use tihai, korwai and mora in their accompaniment similar to a harmonic cadence in Western classical music; to show the end of a small phrase, to start a new musical idea or, with a larger pattern, to show the end of a movement or improvisatory period. I'm just starting to dip my toes into the ocean of patterns that have appeared over the centuries of Indian music, and it's already a quite confusing at times.

Since there was a larger percussion section in African Ensemble, the rhythmic tension and release had to be less complicated, but it was definitely still there. African music is full of polyrhythms, and a few of the pieces we did had one section playing a pattern in 4 over a different section's pattern in 3, while the drums played splits around both of those ideas, and Gideon was soloing (in rhythms that have meaning in the Ewe culture, remember) on top of that. Sometimes it was easy to get lost in the middle of a measure, but everything would line up on the downbeat, and if you could find that, you could get back in time.

Here's an example:
    

4s:        1          2          3         4          5         6
3s:        1       2       3      4       5      6       7       8
bell:      x    x    x         x    x    x         x    x x    x         ||
Shaker: x       x       x      x       x      x       x       x       o||
kagan:     x x     xx    xx    x x    x x   x x     x x            ||
kidi:      x x x x            x x x x            x x x x             o||
Sogo:               x x x x            x x x x             x x x x   ||

The bell pattern consists of 4 sixteenth notes, while the shaker pattern is made up of 3. The kagan plays offbeats of the shaker pattern, while the kidi and sogo trade beats of the 4 pattern. They line up after 6 fours, or 8 threes, or 24 sixteenth notes.

Some of the other pieces were in 4/4, but the bell pattern wouldn't always fall on the beat; instead it would work it's way around it, creating tension, and when it did land on the beat, on 1, of course, the tension would release.

That idea was carried over to Cuba and Puerto Rico as a result of the slave trade. When the Spanish brought African slaves, they also brought African music. The bossa nova pattern (x--x--x---x--x--), the samba (x-x--x-x-x--x-x-), the cascara (x-x-xx-xx-xx-x-x), and plenty of other patterns came about as a way of creating tension and release. To sound "Latin," you could get away with playing mostly on the beat for a measure, playing mostly off the beat for a measure, and ending the two bar phrase back on the beat. I know, that's pretty basic, but I'm just trying to illustrate a concept.

One of the biggest things that impresses me about the world of music is how cultures from completely different areas of the world can come up with the same musical concepts and apply them in completely different ways. And I've only just hit the tip of the iceberg.

M

9/12 - Not Composing

As a percussion performance major in today's world, it's kind of hard not to like percussionist and composer Steve Reich; he's written works for So Percussion, the Kronos Quartet, Amadinda (I think?), has had his pieces performed all over the world and really is one of the keystones of recent percussion literature.

I'm usually a fan of his work, but on NPR music the other day, the article on his piece "WTC 9/11" and on the "First Listen" segment of the same piece, I started questioning his composition, which is something you should always do. Never take anyone's work as immediately good and valid, because it well might not be; just because it's published and one person or group of people could come together to perform it doesn't mean that you as a listener shouldn't question its musicality, it's merit as a work of art, or the opinions of the performers. I had done that with Mr. Reich like I had done with everyone else at the start, and I guess he passed a 'test' in my mind, whenever I hear enough good, out of habit I take for granted that everything else is good. I shouldn't do that. Plenty of people are in the music scene for the business much less than they are the music, and it isn't rare to see a good, honest album followed by a couple of half-baked ones.

And I'm not calling this piece half-baked, it certainly isn't. There are some interesting new compositional ideas that I liked, and it took him quite a while and I actually didn't even mind the music.

What felt off to me was, should any or every event be composed for, whether it's very good, very bad, or somewhere in the middle?

I don't know that I am the most valid person to sum up the emotions of 9/11, not only because there are so many but because, well, when it happened, I was 8, and I had just woken up when my mom called me in to her room to watch tv, which was certainly unusual on a school day. It seems a little weird to think about now, but I probably wasn't shocked or disturbed to the magnitude that you would think a kid would be, because I didn't really understand the situation. I was probably still curious about why I wasn't at school yet, and why I got to watch tv early in the morning.

To me, though, the nation, especially those personally affected, feel grieved, lost, defenseless, heartbroken and even angry, and that's a cocktail of emotions that I haven't felt yet and hopefully don't ever have to. There are pieces written to speak out against powerful dictators and mighty kings, war cries and uplifting songs of national pride, and tragedies that tell of lost love, but I don't think this situation quite falls into any of those categories. We were attacked by a handful of people, and it is absurd to say that that handful, though lethal and powerful in their own right, could have or ever had the upper hand in this fight. Any works written would not be to speak out against an oppressor, or to unite a nation against some seemingly unconquerable foe; no, we are not oppressed, and they are not unconquerable, just tragically and sporadically chaotic, at least to us, and a little difficult to track down.

The music itself sounds to me like the soundtrack to a news article, and not a grandiose or passionate symphony that used to portray the emotions of Shostakovich or Mahler. There are voices, describing the events, saying things they remembered, what they were doing or how the helped, and there are Reich-esque, minimalist string parts. This, to me at least, didn't capture the sentiments of anyone, not any of the people speaking, not even Mr. Reich himself, not that I can ever know for sure.

What do you think? Are some events, like 9/11, the Russian hockey team plane crash, or, on the flip side, the end of a long war, a great sporting triumph, or the fall of an evil dictator, able to be composed for without being programmatic and quirky instead of the art that they're supposed to be?

I'm still not sure on this subject yet. I do love thinking about music though.

M

9/9

Well, I had an eventful week. By the time Friday rolls around, I'm pretty worn out, with early classes every day and such. But I made it, and took a pretty sweet nap, so here I am to tell you about what I did.

Tuesday was pretty easy. My classes were fine. In Ethno, we watched a documentary called "Genghis Blues." Basically, a blues singer, Paul Pena, heard throat singing on his radio and took seven years to get pretty great at it, and then went to Kyzyl and participated in the International Throat Singing Contest and Festival, and sang some blues with his awesome kargyraa. I can't really find any good videos or links really quickly, but you should check him (and the film) out. It was pretty cool.

I learned that Paul Pena was the man who wrote and originally performed "Jet Airliner," that Steve Miller Band tune. Mom, tell Dad for me.

Then I had my first drumset lesson with Mike Drake, and he seems to be a little strict, but that's probably for the better. I have three books to work out of, and another little packet Ed Soph wrote, and I have to play a transcription of a standard for my solo on my jury. If you have any ideas of cool tunes to transcribe, let me know.

Since I didn't want to miss my first drumset lesson, I missed a physics lab that I signed up for before I knew what time my lesson was, and I couldn't change it. So I'll have to make it up some time.

It felt like Wednesday took forever. I love Dworak, our theory professor, especially compared to past professors, but his tone of voice and the material almost put me to sleep every single 8 am class. Okay, sometimes it's not even almost. It just does.

I wasn't feeling so hot that day, so I skipped physics. Don't tell anyone. I didn't miss anything, he doesn't take attendance and I read the stuff online to catch me up. I did go to Singers though, which is going a little rough right now, but it always turns out fine. Sectionals on Tuesday will be interesting.

Then I went to Percussion Group, and we ran through our quartet piece, "The Doomsday Machine," on practice pads to make sure we were getting rhythms. Here's a pretty good recording:



I'm playing the timpani, cans, log drum and china cymbal part. I'm looking forward to it.

Then I went straight to Brass Band, and sight-read for two hours. The percussion is better this semester, but that means everyone feels less obligated to play easy parts. So we nose goes a lot.

Then I took all the equipment back downstairs and played surdo and tambourim in Brazilian. It's a little shaky right now, like singers, but I have faith that we'll find a groove sooner or later.

Later that night was the first South Indian rehearsal, and I was pretty intimidated. I had to hurry and set up a cymbal, a bass drum and a snare, and then play all sorts of crazy rhythms on my improvised kit. It was a whole different world of playing, and I'm pretty excited to see what this will do for the rest of my playing. It seems to be a little more chops oriented, and I'm not very choppy, so it'll be a great workout, at least.

Thursday was kinda the same as Tuesday. We started Native American music, and even though Native American and Tuvan people are pretty similar, I can't really say the same for their music. Their songs used a lot of vocal pulsing, and somehow the vocals were at a different tempo than the drums? I don't really understand it yet, maybe I will in the future.

And then I practiced a lot, and took a nap, and practiced some more. I went to Sukhothai with Ronan, and ate some lo mein, and it was delicious. Thinking about it makes me wish I had the money to go get some.

Today I took a Theory quiz, which may or may not have gone well, and did very little in Physics (again). We only sang for a half an hour in Singers today so that Emily could talk to the rhythm section. The grad students played in Departmental today, and I may have finally found a marimba solo that I like. I took two videos, and they'll be up either tonight or tomorrow. We'll see.

After Departmenal, I rocked my Early Barrier, and came home and celebrated with some ice cream and a nap. I'm exhausted by Friday, remember? And I've played some drums and jammed with my roommates and blogged a little bit. Something might happen tonight, I have no idea.

I have a couple of shows coming up, and I'll try to find out when all of my UNT concerts are. I will post them here:
mklmusic.weebly.com

Thanks for caring about what I do and reading what I have to say, even if I don't know who you are.

M

9/5 - Glenn Kotche

Glenn Kotche is a beast.



I think I'll transcribe this this semester, and possibly play it on my senior recital.

That would be ridiculous.

M

9/4

It's hard to believe that we are already two thirds of the way through this year. It's kind of scary.

Usually my posts try to have some continuity to them or even have a title, but a lot of things have happened this week and I'm in no state of mind to try to organize them... ha.

I had my first lesson on Friday, and I thought it went pretty well. I'm studying mallets with John O'Neal, a Doctoral candidate. He studied at the University of Kansas and Florida State University for his Bachelor's and Master's, and then took 5 years off to practice and take orchestra auditions. But now he's here at UNT and, so far, I'm glad I'm studying with him. From what I can tell, he has lots of experience and some different, useful ways of thinking about technique (which I could really use some help with, not gonna lie).

I guess that's really one of my favorite things about the University. We have excellent faculty, and excellent TAs and TFs, and if you don't like the way one person teaches or how they play, then you'll probably find five or six other cats that have new methods and ideas that you haven't come across yet. And I'm pretty sure it's that way in every department, maybe not with the faculty, but there are enough good players here with diverse influences and wide areas of expertise that, if you really try, you won't walk away wishing you could have gotten more.

My drumset lessons are with Mike Drake, and I don't know too much about him. I know that he gigs a whole lot in the jazz scene and wherever he can find work, I guess. I'm excited to have a drumset lesson, and I know it'll be a good experience because I don't think Ed Soph would bring anything but a good influence here to UNT.

I've been searching around the internet in my free time for new music, and I've been tracing artists I already really enjoy and following them around to see who they like to play with. I found that two of my favorite people, Bela Fleck and Chris Thile, not only played together, but covered Radiohead:




I also really like this. There won't be anything new from TTA, but this was some of the last of what was released, and I must say I wish this wasn't the end of it.




Love it when things like that happen.

My performance opportunities will be the most stressful thing about this semester, and I think that's the way it's supposed to be. Hopefully I'll have enough time to work on my solo stuff, my Singers parts, Percussion group chops, Brass Band literature, and Brazilian beats and still keep up with my school work. I'll make it work, somehow.

Hope everyone's having a good Labor Day, and I hope everyone had an awesome summer, because I sure did.

M

8/30

It is Tuesday, and I have had two days of all of my classes. I'm pretty sure they are all going to be great.

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I begrudgingly wake up at 7 to get to Theory by 8, but we're covering a lot of cool material and it seems to me that the professor knows what he's doing this time around. Then I have Physics of Sound at 10, which might live up to how cool it sounds, but I can't really tell yet. I'm excited for the knowledge, but not excited for the lab. And after lunch I go to Singers II, which should great, par for the course.

Tuesdays and Thursdays, I wake up in the same state of mind at the same time to get to Piano at 8, which should be a breeze. The teacher is really sweet and she manages class time well but I can progress faster than she can teach the whole class. Then I have Aural Skills, which will probably also be easy and with a cool professor, and after that is my Ethno class, Music Cultures of the World. Not only is the professor one of my favorite professors in 3 semesters of school, but we're covering a lot of stuff that I already understand... throat singing, Ewe people and African music, Gamelan... should be excellent.

Mondays and Wednesdays after Singers I go straight to Percussion Ensemble for an hour, then take some equipment upstairs to Brass Band for two hours, then bring it back and hang out with Jose Aponte in Brazilian Ensemble. It'll be pretty stressful having rehearsal from 12 to 5 two days a week, but it's soooo much better than a desk job.

Wednesdays I have South Indian Ensemble, and I would tell you how that is but it hasn't met yet. So more on that... Thursday? Remember, Mondays and Wednesdays are pretty busy.

I have one lesson on Friday afternoon, and the other one hasn't been scheduled yet. Looks like lots of class time, but hopefully a lot of time to do homework, practice, transcribe, jam, and maybe a little down time just for sanity's sake.

If anyone knows a good marimba solo, I need one for lessons. I'm pretty picky when it comes to a good mallet solo, but I'm always up to listen to new material.

Hope you're having a good semester/life
M

8/26

Today I learned to never trust a landlord.

If you have seen my house (or, just trust me on this), you would know that what we were paying yesterday was still too much. But now we have to pay utilities... well, in someone else's mind, we were always going to, but no one told us. So now this situation is a huge rip-off.

I have never personally hated on something on this blog before, and this is an excellent opportunity to do so, but there may be consequences involved that I don't want to add on to this mess I already have. Let me just say that so far, this whole leasing experience has been awful, and if it wouldn't look terrible on my credit score, I would probably back out; I'm paying way too much for a little room, air conditioning (maybe?), a broken water heater, leaky faucets, beat up walls and old appliances.

If you're not in my situation, here are some things you should do before leasing:

1. Read your lease.
2. Read it again. You skipped it, right?
3. If your agent seems shady, uninformed, or unavailable, find someone else.
4. Make sure you know what you're responsible for before you become responsible for it.
5. Walk-through your property with your agent to see if anything isn't how it should be before you can't contact him.
6. Read the lease again. Make sure you have a copy on you.

Not musical information, but still very necessary.

M

8/14 - New Semester

Hey everyone, welcome back!

I heard from my mother that my Granddad Andy really missed reading this when I left for Blue Knights last semester, so this post (and all of the others, really) are dedicated to him.

This summer was probably one of the best things that has happened in all of my 18 years of my life so far, and the experience of DCI and the Blue Knights organization will probably turn out to be one of the best and most influential experiences of my entire life. I would just like to start with that.

It did seem a little tedious in the beginning. All days seemed like they took forever... I had to drive to and from rehearsal for weeks at a time, I learned my part pretty quickly and then spent a lot of time sitting around while the keyboards cleaned, and I probably had a different attitude then than I did now. Because I should have known that it was only going to get worse.

Tour started and it was a little rough at first. Food truck grub was decent at best in the beginning, I didn't get much sleep and rehearsal in the heat was awful. But, fortunately, I got lucky and adapted pretty quickly. Eventually, I was pretty content with peanut butter and jelly every once in a while, I got up as soon as the drum majors woke us up, and I realized that my job wasn't nearly as hard as carrying 5th bass or a tuba.

We performed at some pretty awesome places, including the Alamodome, the Georgia Dome, the Stanford Cardinal Stadium, Olympic Stadium in Salt Lake City, Mile High and Lucas Oil, and the only thing cooler than playing in the stadium was to see all of the people fill them up, and realizing that all of those people were there to support us, and to see how awesome we were. I was never nervous for a performance, and I never felt like I should have been.

Let's see. My book was pretty hard, I had a lot of fun. I don't know if any other corps would write a book like our Pit Instructor, Dan, would. And I know for a fact that I won't ever flourish in a Scottish Pipe Band that can shake a stick at our drumline. As an ensemble, we were something special, and it will only get better next year.

This activity prepared me for my real life in a lot more ways than I expected coming into it. I knew I would come out a better player, sure. But as a result of getting up on time everyday, I'll probably get up on time for all of my 8 am's (ugh). As a result of eating whatever I was given, I'll feel a little better about not eating Mom and Dad's home cooking everyday. And as a result of being around the same people everyday, I absorbed some of their best qualities and hopefully I've become a better person.

If I have the opportunity to come back next year and play for the Blue Knights, I most certainly will. The only looming issue is a financial one, and it will probably bug me until after all of the camps. As much as  I love having money, I always, always feel terrible asking for it, especially if it's unlikely that it won't be repaid.

And that's what I did this summer in my world of music. Sure, I guess I worked on orchestra excerpts for like two hours and listened to crappy pop music, but the real story was drum corps, and it was the bomb.

Granddad, this semester, I'm playing in South Indian Ensemble, hanging out with a bunch of people that know what they're talking about and have a lot of cool stories and ideas. And I promise I'll tell you all about everything that I can remember.

M

5/11 - More So Percussion

This is a repost from a blog run by the Adam Sliwinski, one of the members of So Percussion. I liked it a lot.



Here's his blog:



10 thoughts about improvisation:



1) Do no harm.



2) If you aren't feeling anything to add, either shut up or do something you never could have imagined yourself doing in that situation. Be bold - change the music, or don't.



3) Whatever you do, do it forcefully. Fully commit to every gesture you make.



4) Note about #3 - forcefully does not necessarily mean loudly. If you stop playing altogether that can be the most aggressive act imaginable. It all depends on context and intent.



5) When you are playing, cultivate a total disregard for what others might think of what you are playing. In fact, disregard what you might think about it. Later on, if at all, is the time for such thoughts.



6) Think like a composer: own all the music, not only what you play but what others play. Do not separate what is "yours" based on something so trivial as who is physically playing it. If you are improvising, you are playing all the music.



7) Never ever (almost never ever) imitate - it's the cheapest form of communication. If you must respond, respond on a parallel plane. Remember, "interaction" is overrated.



8) Don't try too hard. Don't try to make things "work." We aren't trying to make chairs. Human beings are complicated, and so is their art. They, and it, often don't "work." Especially don't try and play music. If it sounds like music, it probably isn't.



9) Don't practice something on your own and then insert it into an improvisation - this means you almost certainly have not been listening.



10) Beware of "strategies." Strategies are for golfers and hedge fund managers and are useless if you want to get to something authentic. Because what, in the end, are you trying to do, other than take what is in your insides and compare it with and connect it to all the other insides? Strategies, techniques, etc are all false choices. You might get oohs and ahhs, but you will not have an epiphany. Trust me, the epiphany lasts a lot longer.



and one more, the most important:



11) In the heat of battle, ignore 1-10.



-Bobby Previte







Friday, December 31, 2010

John Cage's "Some Rules for Teachers and Students"

RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.



RULE TWO: General duties of a student - pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.



RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher - pull everything out of your students.



RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.



RULE FIVE: be self-disciplined - this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.



RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There's no win and no fail, there's only make.



RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It's the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.



RULE EIGHT: Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes.



RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.



RULE TEN: "We're breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities." (John Cage)



HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything - it might come in handy later.







© John Cage Trust

5/4 - What I'll Do Soon

This semester was cool and all, but hopefully this summer and next semester will top it.

This summer, I'm playing timpani with the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps. We tour all over the United States (except for like Montana and some of New England, unfortunately) for two months this summer and we've been working on music and the show in general since December. I'm equally excited and nervous, but it should be a blast, and I'll come back with a sweet tan, mad timpani chops, hopefully a sweet bod, and little energy left to start school.



But, I will start school, and it'll be a lot of fun.

Next semester, I'm signed up for Brazilian and Afro-Cuban Ensembles, which I'm really looking forward to. Jose Aponte seems like a funny, sweet dude who really knows what he's doing, and it should be a blast.

Oh, and I'm doing advanced South Indian next semester. Since Colin Hinton is going to Brooklyn to make a name for himself, hopefully I can play set in there a little bit, but I'm really just excited to play anything in there. I missed having my mind blown weekly and Sriji's accent this semester.

If you don't know who Colin is, by the way, you should look him up. He's a really creative, funny drummer with some crazy rhythmic chops in general, and if you're in NY you should help him get a gig. Thanks for the help, Colin.



I might be in an intro to Ethnomusicology class, but I can't remember. I really would like to dip my foot in that pool, since it was something I was considering as a major (even if I never got around to it). It's something I've always been interested in, so hopefully it will be enlightening but not overpowering.

Next semester I'm taking mallet lessons with Ryan Kilgore and drumset lessons with Henry Okstel. I've heard excellent things about both of them, and I'm excited for a new perspective on my mallet technique and for some real insight on my jazz stuff. Hopefully I don't have to change too much...?

I should still be in Singers next semester, and I would like to be in a percussion ensemble again. I also might be in a concert band or orchestra, since I'm doing those auditions, and I'll also audition for the jazz bands to hopefully make it into one of those labs. If all goes well, I'll be super busy with labs, which is the best kind of super busy.

I filled out a volunteer form for KNTU, the UNT radio station. They have student djs for the majority of their content, and I've always wanted to host something like that. I would probably have to listen to more jazz to be a jazz dj, but I'm open to whatever they want me to host.

I will probably be in a house next semester with the Senor Fin folks, which is, for the most part, really exciting. I guess I never realized that I would be 18 years old and looking for my own place, but it's pretty exhilarating. When I get back in the fall, I'll have my own room, and my own place to send mail and park my bike and call home.

Well. I guess that's all I've got for right now. I'm going to go practice.

5/4 - What I've Done So Far

Today I had two classes. That's it. No African, no study groups, no rehearsals. I still have practicing for my jury on Friday and some studying for finals to do, but other than that, I'm free. It's starting to feel like the end of the semester, and I like that a lot.

Not that I haven't done some cool things this semester. Let's see...

In Composition I learned about modes, atonality, polytonality, microtonality, serialism and all sorts of cool devices to possibly include in my music. But the real lesson was this: find things that sound good and use them, and if it doesn't sound good to you, don't do it. We've learned about all sorts of awesome music and it's changed me a lot. This was probably my most significant class this semester.

I had African and Gamelan, and those were a cultural learning experience both musically and, well, culturally. African was a lot of fun, sometimes surprisingly complex, but it was also interesting and pretty cool to see how laid-back Gideon was and how the class and the ensemble functioned as a community, just like it would in real life. Gamelan wasn't as much as a cultural eye-opener since Ed isn't from Java, but the music was really entertaining and as the class got to know each other better, we sounded better as a performing group.

Singers was a lot of fun. Even with a different rhythm section, we sounded pretty solid. I should have things we recorded up here soon.

Scarborough Fair by mason-lynass

My little percussion ensemble was a lot of fun too. I thought it was cool how different groups of people, whether it was my Sharpened Stick group, or the whole ensemble, or even the difference between this and Singers... we all had different things to listen to, and valued certain aspects more than others. I grew as a player and a team member this semester, thank goodness.

My lessons were really good this semester. Last semester, not gonna lie, I didn't take them as seriously as I should. But as soon as I was a disappointment to Christopher Deane, one of the nicest, most plain-spoken and knowledgeable people I've ever met, it really hit me that my lessons are what I need to focus on most if I'm going to be a good performer and a musician in general. And so I spent more time practicing and listening, and so far it's paid off, since I passed my timpani jury. We'll see about mallets... I'm a little more nervous for that, but hopefully it will go well.

And Senor Fin has really picked up this semester. We've played lots of free shows in houses and bars and on roofs and all sorts of cool places, and it's a lot of fun for me even if we don't get paid. Sometimes we did get paid, and even when it wasn't much, it was cool to be a professional musician finally, and it meant a lot for people to appreciate what you do so much that they'll pay you to keep doing it. That's pretty sweet.

We're recording this week and next week, and hopefully we'll have some cool stuff put up while I'm on tour. We recorded one of our newer songs yesterday, and I'm responsible for drum parts, snapping, some background vocals, piano, and throat singing. It should be pretty sweet after Jesse's done mixing it. I'll put it up here.

New Song!!

Contented Slumbers by mason-lynass

It's nice to look back on all of the stuff I've done, all of the hours I've been awake when I should have been asleep, and all of the extra rehearsal and practice time and see how much it's done for me.

M

4/28 - Absence

My biggest problem recently is recognizing that something is important, sometimes critical, before it slips away or becomes unavailable.

I have been blessed by being born into a pretty well-off family. But there is nothing I hate more than asking for money. Today, I sold some cds and books to buy a snare drum head, and spent my monthly 50 bucks on a bass drum head. They were important, and I thought about my decision; it wasn't like I bought them on impulse. But I will have to make some sacrifices, not do laundry and eat cafeteria food until I'm done with the semester, and it will be tough for me. In this situation, I look back at the times where I spent my money on food, going to concerts, and buying music, and I wonder if I made the right decisions. Probably not.

Recently, I realized that losing a friend means more than finding someone else to pass time with. Sometimes, losing a friends means losing other friends, and I may have lost my place in a community. I lost a lot more than just a person when I lost my friend, and as I recollect, I wish I hadn't been such a fool and taken anyone for granted.

In other ways, absence can be a good thing. I burned another bridge, and though it may not have been the best thing to do for the both of us, it was the best thing to do for me, and it was the best thing to do for the other person. And in burning that bridge, a weight has been lifted, and I feel a little lighter.

Absence can be musical, or not musical. Just as sound is powerful, the absence of sound is also powerful, and neither is more important because they depend on each other for their worth. It would be terrible if everything made noise all the time, and it would be just as terrible if nothing made noise ever.

In another sense, just as intention is powerful, the absence of intention is also powerful. Sounds created intentionally are usually meant to mean specific things, and these things can be important and interesting. But some sounds are made unintentionally or unconsciously, and these sounds are also important and interesting, in a different sense. There is a difference between actions made consciously and actions made subconsciously, and, to me at least, it is intriguing, and I would like to understand why there is a difference.

In another sense, just as the desire to find meaning is powerful, the absence of the desire to find meaning is also powerful. Pieces can seem to mean more if it is understood that they were composed about a certain subject matter, or ambient noise is sometimes more comforting if whatever is producing the noise is known. But there are some things that are beautiful because they don't mean anything, and there are some events that happen just because they happen. It is beautiful for anything to be happening at all.

"If you listen to Beethoven or Mozart you see that they are always the same. But if you listen to traffic, you see that it is always different."



M

4/25 - Marimba Quartet

In the past few days I've taken charge and stared at this computer screen writing my final project for my composition class. It has surprised me in how simple (and somehow complex) something can be while still sounding... well, like all kinds of things.

Here's my piece:

Marimba Quartet (2011) - Mason Lynass

Marimba Quartet - Mason Lynass by mason-lynass

There are some secrets:

Marimba II:

The first section, which starts at measure 5, is an isorhythm with a 5-note color and a 2-note (3+2) talea. When the start of the color meets the start of the talea the first time, it doesn’t line up with the bar line; this phrase repeats 5 times to fill 25 bars evenly and end on a downbeat with the rest of the ensemble.

In the second section, Marimbas III and IV play 5 (3+2) and 7 (4+3) patterns, respectively. Marimbas I and II play the spaces where neither pattern plays a note, but Marimba II leaves out every second, fourth, sixth and seventh note, creating another 7 pattern, while Marimba one plays a 5 pattern. It’s confusing and doesn’t have a clear pattern like the first section does.

The third section utilizes the gap pattern from the second section and combines the rhythm with the color from the beginning isorhythm, but in smaller intervals over time. In the beginning and end of the section, this voice’s purpose is to carry the melody, and in the middle, it provides dissonance and pull to the closing tonal area.

Marimba III:

This voice, with Marimba IV, provides the melody in the opening and closing sections. Note the patterns in the opening:

(3-2) / (3-3-2) / (3-3-3-2) / (3-3-3-3-2)(3-3-3-2)(3-3-2)(3-2)

and the closing:

(2-3-3-3-3) / (2-2-3-3-3-3) / (2-2-2-3-3-3-3) / (2-2-2-2-3-3-3-3)

In the opening, these patterns repeat until Marimba IV catches up, and as soon as their connection is evident, they stop. In the closing, Marimbas III and IV start at the same time, but the pattern Marimba 4 plays forces it to wither away quicker. Since Marimbas III and IV are working together as a melody, notes do not change pitch unless both voices strike a note at the same time, and at such an occasion, the duration of the note struck determines the interval leaped.

            A 7 (4+3) pattern is played in the middle section, with pitches changing to create intended tonality (or lack thereof).

Marimba IV:

            This voice, with Marimba III, provides the melody in the opening and closing section. Only the first beat and third beat of every 3/4 bar Marimba III are performed by Marimba IV, creating varying dissonance and contrast, and allowing for a confluence in the opening and a digression in the closing. It may help to see the patterns of Marimba III above.

Since Marimbas III and IV are working together as a melody, notes do not change pitch unless both voices strike a note at the same time, and at such an occasion, the duration of the note struck determines the interval leaped.

A 5 (3+2) pattern is played in the middle section, with pitches changing to create intended tonality (or lack thereof).

That's from my liner notes. I can't tell you about any specifics, or someone might steal it.

This is so cool!

Let me know what you think, I would love to hear your opinion.

Thanks,

M

4/20 - Dorm Life

This isn't necessarily something that I learned today... it's a collection of things that I've learned all of this year.

Things you should know about dorm life:

- Bathe, wash your clothes, take out the trash and wash your dishes.
- Just because you don't have to have a clean room anymore, you shouldn't leave it a mess. Sometimes it's legitimately harder to deal with, especially my room.
- Eat dorm food whenever you can.
- You don't realize how weird it is to live on less cash until you have to.
- Go to all of the free shows, events, or places where food is present.
- Stay organized. Things get lost easily in a little room.
- Be courteous, not just to your roommate, but also to the people in your hall. Being loud at night or practicing early in the morning isn't cool, you wouldn't want someone else to keep you from sleep.
- Drink or smoke somewhere else.
- Meet the people that live in your hall. In my situation, we all like jazz, and since jazz has a strong sense of community, meeting hallmates is a pretty easy way to make connections. You never know when they'll come in handy.
- Don't get distracted. Whatever you went to college for, you probably didn't go to play pool, watch TV, or play ping pong all day.
- Wash your sheets. The ladies dig it.
- Try not to take extra-long showers, puke all over toilets or make a mess, especially on weekends.
- Try to keep yourself from hitting the snooze button a lot. If that happens and you're rooming with me, I'll just turn it off.
- Go to class.

That's about all I've got.

Oh. I bought a timpani solo today, Stanley Leonard's "Forms". If anyone can find a recording online, let me know, I haven't had any luck.

M

4/11

Momma called me out for not writing very much anymore, so I guess I can conjure something up.

Let's see...

I guess this will just be one of those posts where I fill you in on everything that's happening in my life, as much as I dislike those.

Senor Fin is slowly becoming a force here in Denton. We played at Hailey's, a cool joint where Snarky Puppy always plays when they come, on Wednesday, and we played a house party on Saturday. We're playing again this thursday and on Monday the 25th.

www.facebook.com/senorfin

I sang with Singers Friday Night, and that went really well. Our last concert is Sunday the 1st of May as a part of Denton Arts and Jazz Festival:

http://www.dentonjazzfest.com/

All of the lab bands, Latin Jazz, all of the Singers groups, Jazz Repertory, the two guitar ensembles, African and Steel Band are playing, and that's just on one stage. Brave Combo will be there, and so will Marvin Stamm, Fred Hamilton's group, and a whole ensemble made up of UNT Faculty. Every time I think about it I get more excited.

Unfortunately, Blue Knights camp is the same weekend, and since I wouldn't be in good standing in my classes if I missed this concert, I'm staying home.

Timpani lessons are good, mallet lessons are good. Here's the piece I'm learning for mallets:



It's a little fast, but still pretty darn good.

Hm.. we're learning about twelve-tone matrices in composition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-tone_technique

It's pretty complicated and I don't fully understand it yet.

I think that's all I've got. Have a good day.

M

4/1 - Kojiro Umezaki and Unity Through Music

I hope everyone's having a good April Fool's Day. I couldn't think of anything, but I've seen some pretty funny stuff, including Lone Star Percussion "Sight-Reading Mallets" (designed by Innovative, the mallets scan the music and play it back automatically), and Governor Hickenlooper appointing Michael Scott of Dunder Mifflin Paper the new Paper Distribution Manager at the Colorado State Capitol.

On Wednesday, a shakuhachi player named Kojiro Umezaki gave a presentation at MusicNow, which is part of my composition class. He's probably most famous for playing in the Silk Road Ensemble, which is coordinated and led by the famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma. He played some shakuhachi on Wednesday, but the focus of his presentation was interacting with the audience not only in a musical performance, but in the compositional process as well.

He started with a work called "In C," composed by Terry Riley. I'll put up the music here:

The idea is to start on number one, with whatever instrument you're playing, and to move on whenever you feel like moving on. Ideally, all of the musicians stay within three sections of the average so the piece doesn't drag on or blend themes that weren't intended to be mixed, since similar numbers share similar ideas.

He and some of his colleagues took this idea to a whole new level. They created an app for iPhone that plays "In C," with buttons to move on, slow down or speed up your tempo, change your instrument, jump octaves, even play with the timbre. This allows for multiple things that Terry Riley could have never done with his acoustic version:
     - Performances don't have to be planned, or even rehearsed.
     - Performers need not be musicians, just slightly knowledgeable with an iPhone.
     - Performers don't need to stay for the whole piece, or start with the rest of the ensemble.

They ran into a couple of dilemmas as they were writing the program:
     First of all, should performers be able to play every note, or just move onto the next loop? They decided that in order to maintain the integrity of the original piece and to avoid potential saboteurs who would play wrong notes on purpose, they made a button to move onto another loop.
     They also discovered that it was challenging to hear what you personally were contributing to the ensemble. The original app was configured with four speakers, so that you could adjust your sound to which speaker you were closest to and the speaker would act as a monitor; in the future they're toying with using headphones as an in-earmonitor.
     And the last problem, which changes the perspective of music for a lot of people, was: how do first-time users learn the system quickly enough to perform on their first go, and can people that don't have iPhones (Android and others coming soon) contribute? They included a simple set of instructions with the app, and put hints and a status feature into the app so you can monitor your own performance, and they brought additional devices with them to their premiere concert so that strangers curious and daring enough to want to perform can easily do so.

They premiered it in a little strip in between some busy streets in New York City as part of a festival called Make Music New York in June of last year:



This idea is pretty revolutionary for a few reasons. With this piece and this app, anyone can venture onto this performance, download the app and join in; all of a sudden it's easy to become an equally important part of a musical performance as anyone in the rest of the ensemble, even if you've never touched a musical instrument before. Anyone can do it, given you have a device compatible to the app, and if there are extra devices, then literally anyone could perform. They're also working on syncing it to wifi so that, potentially, you wouldn't even have to be in the same place as the other performers. One performance could feature people from all over the world, with varying musical backgrounds and from all walks of life. This app and this idea might be the start of something really big.

Umezaki's colleague at UC-Irvine, Chris Lavender, is developing an app to be used with a piece he's composing called "Fourth Wall," and it's meant to incorporate the audience in the performance not as the sole performer, but alongside trained musicians playing something composed. That sounds pretty darn cool as well.

I contacted Umezaki yesterday because I didn't take notes and I wanted to see his slideshow so I could learn more about it, and he was very courteous and let me access the document so I could sum it up for anyone who knows me. I hope he's okay with my own summary of the slideshow, and I hope I'm allowed to put it up here. I think it's one of the coolest ideas I've come across in a long time, and I'll be spreading the word to anyone who'll listen to me.

M