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Happy March everyone!

I dig March.

This blog is going to be short, because I'm in the middle of homework, and it is getting pretty late.

Today I actively participated in Theory, and had another good lesson with Christopher Deane. We discussed rolls for the majority of the time, and why you roll with your hands apart as opposed to keeping them in like a regular stroke (because you get less articulation near the edge, and you don't have to move your arms back and forth if you just move your hands apart), and why we measure the roll and how important it is to focus on the attack, the sustain AND the release. There's a whole lot to think about in this game.

After that I went to lecture, and the guest today was Darcy James Argue. He's a composer, mostly for his big band, but he was initially an indie rock/small group jazz guy, and he stuck his foot in the metaphorical water after Bob Brookmeyer told him he should study with him and write more big band stuff. After he got his bachelor's at McGill in Montreal, he got Master's at the New England Conservatory, and after that he commuted from Boston to New York every Tuesday on a ten dollar round trip Chinatown bus, that supposedly frequently had engine explosions and accidents, but was really cheap and convenient.

Eventually he got together a group of people that just liked to read new charts and play music, even if they weren't getting paid, and he formed his band. The band just put out an album on a mainly classical label, but after some research they knew that it was their best option because this label would give them 80% of sales, and only license their record for 4 years instead of keeping it forever. Most labels only give 10-12% of sales, supposedly. That's frightening.

Part of how he got his name out in the world was by blogging, mostly about the shows that he went to go see. People found him because of his reviews, and spread the word around, and since they read his blog once, they knew his name and went to his show. It was kind of inspirational to me, for this.

I also liked the attitude he claims New Yorkers have. When he put his band together, he flat out told them that they wouldn't be getting paid a dime, but some people still showed up; even if they weren't getting anything financially, they were becoming better musicians, and getting their name around town and having a good time. I like that attitude, and I wish I could think like that more often. It would be useful during two and a half hour church services.

After the lecture I had Senor Fin rehearsal, and after that I should have gone to Gamelan, but I had to do my composition project, so I did about half of that before practicing my Percussion Group material for two hours, and hopefully I'll do a little better tomorrow than in previous rehearsals.

But, alas, it's 11:15 and I still have comp stuff to do, and some aural skills, and more comp stuff to do, and maybe I'll finish before the sun rises and I have a big Wednesday.

I guess that's college?

In these situations, I remind myself how fortunate I am to be studying something I enjoy, and how lucky I am that I wasn't forced to be a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer by my parents. Because if I were staying up all night over physics homework, or an anatomy paper or studying for a silly law test. I would be miserable.

M