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