9/2 - The Santa Clara Vanguard

If you know me in person, or have somehow read about me somewhere, you probably know that I played timpani with the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps this summer. I would just like to ramble for a little bit about how it was one of the best things I've ever done.

First of all, I got much better at timpani. Don't let that orchestra audition fool you; even if I didn't win the spot or anything, I still played the excerpts better than I would have before this summer, and I was still nervous and messed up a couple times. I was placed in an environment where my fellow members and I could improve beyond our wildest dreams, and I did. I could have never imagined that I would write parts in places where I didn't have notes because I was bored (the staff didn't always care for that). Before this summer, I would have never seen myself walking bass lines to exercises, or playing scales and chromatic licks faster than my brain could think, or improvising difficult with decent success on an instrument that isn't really made for tonal improvisation. And I won the individual competition for timpani... with a 98... just by playing a medley of Rush tunes I listened to as a kid. I really should be learning that getting really good at something simply means devoting all of your time and energy to it, not just wanting to be good at it.

That's enough bragging for quite some time.

Like I mentioned before, I was surrounded by great people. All of the staff got along, which is a first in my experience, and not only were they all excellent at their instrument-specific teaching jobs, but they encouraged us to get as much as we can out of ourselves, and pushed us to improve when we couldn't do it ourselves. They were fun, and nice, and funny, and great listeners, and I respect all of them a lot. The members were the best group of people I've ever been a part of. I haven't ever felt a drive and a passion for success and quality like what I felt at Santa Clara, but that drive didn't turn them into jerks either; they were usually really nice people, with interesting real lives and ideas and stories, and they were a great group of people to be around. And the volunteers were wonderful; the food was good, they were always really sweet to me, and they cared so much about us that it always put a smile on my face. If it wasn't for all of the amazing people I was around this summer, I wouldn't have enjoyed my time nearly as much as I did.

I also got to travel the country, sleep in a pretty nice bus, play great instruments (thanks, sponsors), and get a nice tan from being outside all the time. All that was pretty nice.

But the real reason people march drum corps because they want to grow. Most people only expect to grow musically, and everyone does, whether they want to or not; you can't fight progress when you're playing your instrument for ten hours every day for three months. Some people only grow musically though, and they're missing out on what I think is the coolest part of marching: the development of self-awareness, independence, and character.

As a timpanist, I didn't really have a section. Sure, I was a big part of the pit, but even the pit splits into sections, and when they would rehearse as sub-sections, I would have to find something to do. I really enjoyed this time, because I could use it for a variety of different things I needed to work on. Sometimes, if I needed to work on a part, or I wanted to play something crazy for an exercise, I could sit by myself and practice; all of my improvement was dependent on my energy output towards practice, and not anyone else's help or lack of contribution. Other times, if it was really hot or I was feeling weird, I could sit down and think about whatever was on my mind. I made a detailed set of goals for this semester and how to achieve them, a lengthy list of life goals and things I want to do before I get old and die, and just thought about who I am and how lucky I am to be in the position I'm in in my life. These little bits of time where I was on my own helped me figure out how to organize my life, and hold myself responsible for my successes and failures, and not rely on anyone but myself.

Those aspects mean the most to me, because I feel like those were my biggest issues before this summer. But as the summer went on, I also started to be more selfless, look out for other people, and help whenever I could. I tried not to complain about anything, and eventually there wasn't anything I could find to complain about. I learned not to take anyone for granted, that almost everyone is pretty cool and nice, and I shouldn't be so shy, so I slowly met more and more people as the summer went on. I was always happy, even if it was raining, or we had a weird show, or the food was bad, because I knew I could count on myself to be happy; even if I was really bummed, I had friends that could cheer me up, and if that didn't work, I would eventually remember that nothing is really a big deal unless you make it one.

This was the best summer I've had so far. If you're in a position where you can march, I definitely recommend that you march with the red and green. If you're not in that position, hopefully I inspired you to make the most of whatever you have, and to grow and become something amazing. And hopefully I can remember all of the things I did and all of the lessons I learned for a long, long time.

M

8/31 - School.

So far, school is going well. I only have two real classes, Jazz History and Behavioral Analysis. I'll have to see what the psych class is really about, but I'm enjoying the jazz class so far. Both of them will be a lot of work, but that's fine with me.

My lessons count for twice as much credit now, which is wonderful; in my freshman and sophomore year, I would have to spend much more time on my theory and aural skills classes because they were worth more credit, even though I really came to school to get good at playing my instruments. This semester, and in the next semesters, my lessons are worth more, which makes me feel better about spending more time on them.

I'm studying marimba with Mark Ford this semester. I'm really excited, because he's one of the best people in the world at what he does, and he's one of the faculty that really draws attention to this university and music program. He's a really busy guy, and sometimes he confuses his students a little bit, but so far he seems like he's really into teaching and helping all of his students make the most of their semester. I'm working on Eric Sammut's "Cameleon," and looking for a couple other solos to play, along with the typical curriculum, which isn't really a big deal.

My other lessons are for drumset with Henry Okstel. I was originally taking lessons with Ed Soph this semester, but there are so many jazz students taking drumset this semester that he was fully booked. It was kind of a bummer, but I'll still work just as hard. The curriculum doesn't look very difficult and I'm planning on doing a bunch of transcriptions this semester, to slowly make progress and work towards my goal of making a lab band and being a decent drum set player.

Other than that, I'm playing in a percussion ensemble that's going to PASIC, possibly a concert band at some time in the day, possibly a Jazz Singers group, and playing drums in South Indian ensemble, which is always pretty mind-blowing and fun. My schedule doesn't look very full, but I'm hoping that I can work and teach a little more this semester and start trying to make a living for myself. And in my free time, I'll practice.

While I was gone this summer, I missed out on a lot of new music. One of my favorites I've found from this summer is the new Dirty Projectors album, "Swing Lo Magellan." It's great.



M

8/29 - Welcome back.

I've been inactive for quite a while. Sometimes parts of my life get stale, and so I don't do them for a little bit. Then it's usually refreshing to pick it back up. That's how I am with composing, and being proactive (ha.) and singing sometimes. Not that I don't enjoy them, it's just that sometimes they're overwhelming or I get distracted.

Now, I feel like I actually have something I could talk about. My life is a new kind of interesting, I guess.

This summer I marched with the Santa Clara Vanguard. It was the best summer I've ever had. Maybe I'll make a post about it. I'm back at UNT for classes, and I'm looking forward to them.

Today was the first day of school. I had one real person class: Jazz History. It sounds like it's going to be really fun; the professor's a nice guy, it's over a subject I really enjoy, and there isn't a whole of busy work, or a textbook. Hopefully, I'll just listen to a bunch of jazz while reading about jazz. Swingin.

I had my last auditions today, out of a pretty busy audition week, to say the least. Today I auditioned for which Concert Band I'll be in (hooray!) and which vocal jazz group I'll be in. I thought they both went significantly better than my other auditions, and I'll hear back about what I made really soon.

The other auditions were kind of a mess though. My first audition was the first round of concert band auditions. I hadn't played my marimba solo for three months, and I was nervous because I knew I didn't know it like I should. Instead of pumping myself up to see if maybe instinct would kick in and I would remember it, I got shaky and thought too much and couldn't remember... any of it. I just stopped after the first long phrase of the piece, because I knew it certainly wasn't going to get any better. Then I played the snare drum piece pretty well and sight-read in the wrong key.

Not even an hour after that was my jazz lab band audition. I kind of knew I wasn't as prepared as possible for it, since I couldn't practice at all this summer, but I had worked for a week or so, and I felt more confident than previous lab band auditions. I was the first auditionee, and I sat down and read the first chart pretty well, with a little logistical error, no problem. The second chart was the kicker, though, a fast samba, maybe not fast for some people, but too fast for me. I couldn't solo in the solo breaks, couldn't catch the hits in time, and was generally a mess. The third chart wasn't so bad, but I was still dealing with how bad the chart before it was.

Yesterday I had my orchestra audition. I woke up at eight, got to school at nine, had a little meeting, and waited. I sat and read through music, sang the excerpts in my head, went on a walk, got lunch, tried to take my mind off of the audition, and did everything I could do, really, before I auditioned. And even then, I still had extra time on my hands. My time finally came around five hours after I arrived, and, except for a minor slip up on the first little piece, I thought I did pretty well, about as well as I was expecting myself to, definitely in contention for... well, something. But the scores didn't reflect that, and I got dead last.

Those first three auditions are all different situations. In the first audition, for concert band, I knew I was going to do poorly, knew I played badly afterwards, and in the end, didn't end up in a good place. For the jazz audition, I was feeling good, but didn't play as well as I hoped, and didn't make a callback. In my orchestra audition, I felt great before, played as good as I could have hoped, and placed pretty badly.

There's something to learn from all of these situations, I think.

First of all, don't come in to an audition knowing that you're unprepared. Ever. That's something I definitely should have known anyways. And then, if you are, either play some head games with yourself and figure out a way to be confident, or, if it's bad enough, don't audition.

In the second situation, there isn't really too much to do but keep working. I'm not too upset with the results; realistically, I don't think I would go see a band with me drumming in it yet. So I'll keep reading and working on my chops and coordination and balance and time etc. etc.

The orchestra audition is the most concerning to me. What's the difference between what I heard and what they heard? Are my ears not good enough? Am I playing some weird rhythm sometimes and not even realizing it? I'm not upset at the panel or anything, because I definitely wasn't the best person at the audition, but I'm just curious to find out what the difference was between myself and the guys that got the job, because I couldn't tell a huge difference from my perspective. And that's kind of upsetting, to feel like you did well, but the people that really matter don't.

Anyways, sometimes life is a bummer. Sometimes you spend so much time focusing on one specific thing that everything else in life falls apart a little bit. But I'll get back on my feet, and find other cool crap to do besides play in orchestra and lab bands.

I'm taking lessons with Mark Ford and Henry Okstel this semester. I'm really excited to take lessons with Professor Ford, partially because he knows what he's doing, and partially because maybe the fact that he knows what he's doing will motivate me to be on my game. I'm really excited to be taking drumset again because I can practice in solitude again, and playing set makes me happy.

There's some other cool stuff going on but I can't put it all in one post! Besides, I have to go to bed, I have things to do in the morning.

M

3/7 - Update

It's been quite a while since I've updated this.

I have another busy semester this spring, but it's a lot of fun.

I'm taking lessons with Paul Rennick and Ryan Kilgore.
Paul is trying to teach me not to let go of the stick so much; that sometimes rebound isn't necessary and control is a better option. I don't really have too much to do with him this semester, but he's helping me with my technique and he always has cool stuff to say.
Ryan and I are mostly working on solo literature, which I've recently realized that I don't enjoy as much as I think most percussionists do here. I guess playing marimba has always been something that I've enjoyed doing, but has never felt like something I could do professionally, especially as a soloist; I think I would be fine in an ensemble setting, and wouldn't have trouble playing a part, but marimba has gotten a little stale for me as a solo instrument. Nevertheless, we're playing "Rotation IV" (Eric Sammut), which is a wonderful piece, one of my favorites, and Keiko Abe's "Wind Sketch."

Recently some people have asked me if I played something or was playing something because it was popular, or because a lot of people had played it before. That seems like a silly reason to play something, to me. If everyone was playing only Bach chorales, I would not only play Bach chorales. If everyone was playing the Rotations, I would still play the Rotations. My choices of what I like to play as a soloist aren't dependent on what anyone else likes to play. I play it because I like the piece, it sounds good to me, and I could make music with it. Not much more to it than that.

It feels kind of nice to not be working on barrier material very much. In the past, I've really stressed about it, and thought it was so important that I spent most of my time on it. I played through it all the time, but that wasn't necessarily the right approach. Paul has taught me the right way to look at the books I need to pass this semester, and even though I haven't played them in a while, I still feel more confident about them than I used to. I'll still practice them a lot before I have to perform them though, don't worry.

I'm also practicing a lot of drum set, because I think I want to be a Jazz Studies major. As a performance major right now, I like playing in classical ensembles and playing timpani, but I don't like playing so much marimba, and I don't like being in concert band. In my opinion, there is hardly any job market for marimba players, and focusing more on drum set would be much more practical. I would also like to learn how to improvise, and be musical on the spot, and there is almost none of that as a performance major.

If I was a Jazz Studies major, I would be playing in a lab band, and I would have a practice room where I could play drums whenever I wanted to and not bother anyone. I would be taking Improv, and Jazz Arranging, which I think is very cool, and I would be playing with friends and playing a whole lot of shows, which is one of the things in my life that I like the most. I would be focusing on a more practical instrument, and networking with people and performing in a real-life setting.

So I told Ed Soph, UNT drum set professor and awesome drummer/thinker/person in general, that I was interested in being a Jazz Studies major on Friday, and he told me to come play for him on Tuesday, which was 4 days to be prepared. Except I was gone all weekend (we'll get to that later), and busy Monday night (we'll also get to that later), so I didn't really have any time to prepare. So I just came in, dressed up a little, and hoped for the best.

As I sat down, he asked me some questions.

What are my strengths and weeknesses?
Strengths: Funky stuff, keeping time.
Weeknesses: Latin things, hi-hat integration.

How do I know I keep good time?
Practicing with a metronome, practicing with recordings.

There was another question, but I forgot. I was nervous, okay?

He said that my strengths and weaknesses were too focused on drumming, and not enough about general musicianship. He said that my first goal should be to make music, and then to play drums; music is the art, drums are the tool. I should be focusing on things like dynamics, phrasing, tone, and balance.

Then we played Joy Spring, but just the melody, on just the snare drum. I was a little awkward at first. He then asked if I was thinking of anyone playing it in my head, and told me to think of the way Clifford played it. I was a little less awkward, and I got even better when I started singing Clifford's interpretation while I was playing it. And then we played time, and he told me my ride hand was too loud, which kind of makes sense, since I'm right-handed.

I have a lot to work on, but he offered to teach me lessons in the fall, and if all went well, then I could be a Jazz Studies major next spring. That seems like a long time from now at first, and it still does to me. I don't mind if I'm in school for a while though. As long as I'm not breaking the bank and I'm not bored, I'll be alright here. I like it here. People are good here, there is a lot of music.

I'm playing in Concert Band, South Indian Ensemble, the 12:00 Percussion Players, singing in Singers III, and sight-reading three days a week in Paul's Arranging class. I'm also arranging in that class, performing with Arthur Barrow and Tommy Mars in a band in the class on Frank Zappa I'm in, and playing in an ensemble led by performance artist Nick Cave. I'm pretty busy.

Outside of school, I'm playing timpani for the Santa Clara Vanguard. Our show is "Music for the Starry Night," and we're playing "Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine," "Hymn to a Blue Hour," "Mars," and "Jupiter." I love the music, the horns already sound great, and Paul always writes great drum parts. I go to California every once in a while to rehearse with them, and I'll be busy with them all summer starting the 19th or 20th of May, all the way up to the second week of August.

I'm also in a band called Señor Fín, and we're pretty cool. We're playing more shows than usual recently, which makes me pretty happy, and we're working on recording an album or an EP or what not. We're playing a free show this Sunday, maybe a show on the 14th, and probably a few more shows soon, I'm not really the one who keeps track of these things. But we play cool music and I really like playing with those dudes.

There's a music festival called 35 Denton rolling in to town this weekend. I love lots of music, and I'm kinda bummed that I can't go to anything this summer, so I'm going to make the most of this event.

I also saw Radiohead for my birthday, and they were pretty great.

I'm also teaching a little bit, and managing a website, and some other smaller things. They don't really matter very much.

So yep, that's a summary of two months into about a half an hour of distracted writing. Makes me want to do more with my life so I have to spend more time writing about it when I chose to write about it.

M

1/6 - Transcriptions

Hey. I said I would put up transcriptions that I did last semester or have done over break, so here they are!

This first one is a tune called "Everyplace is a House," by Maps and Atlases.




The drummer, Chris Hainey, plays very actively, and plays a lot of different things at the same time. Sometimes he's sporadic, and sometimes he's inventive, but he sounds great whatever he's doing, and he's probably one of my favorite indie drummers right now.

everyplace





After the Maps and Atlases song, I decided to challenge myself. The band The Number 12 Looks Like You is about as math-metal as you can get (well, could, they're not a thing anymore). This song, "Imagine Nation Express," was always my favorite and confused me the most, so I sat down for a day and wrote it out. It's even weirder than I expected.



I don't know if all of the time signatures are correct, I couldn't hear some parts of it, and the fivelets are probably not even close to correct, but I think I got pretty close. And if I can't even hear it, how can someone play it? Metal drummers blow my mind in a completely different way than other drummers do.

imaginenex





This one is Tony Williams drumming on Miles Davis' "Seven Steps to Heaven." I played it for my drumset jury this semester.




I like the way Tony's time feels, and he opened up my playing with his interesting comping ideas. It was a little fast for me, but I put a lot of effort into it, and I'm glad I chose this one.

Sevensteps


That's all of the drum charts I have so far. I'll put up a few others later.

M

1/6/2012 - Break

It's still winter break for me, and I've had a pretty productive one so far. Aside from seeing all of my friends back home and going to do fun things I was missing out on in Texas, I've worked on my musical stuff, whether that's practicing, composing, transcribing, or just studying things. I made a schedule at the beginning of break, and I haven't stuck to it very well, but I've still been working on the things I would like to get done before I go back to school.

Here's a little sampler of what I've been up to, I'll put everything in separate posts so they don't take up so much space:

I set up a bandcamp account, because it has a really accessible design and layout, it's free and I can put everything I make in one place. If you're curious, check mine out:

http://masonlynass.bandcamp.com/

I haven't been composing very much at home, but I did finish an arrangement of a traditional Javanese Gamelan tune:



And an arrangement of one of my favorite pieces of classical music (and there's a lot of classical music), 1812 Overture:



I'm pretty proud of that last one. The drum parts were pretty fun to write.

Let's see... I've been working on some transcriptions, mostly just for fun. I played Tony Williams' time on Miles Davis' "Seven Steps to Heaven," I've finished writing out tunes by Maps and Atlases and The Number 12 Looks Like You, and I'm working on Jack DeJohnette's time on a recording of Chet Baker playing "Autumn Leaves." I'll put those up separately.

I'm almost finished with a simple piece called "Opening (from Glassworks)," written by Philip Glass. Hopefully I can record it and put it up here, and I'd like to play it on departmental when I get back to Denton.

Other than that, I've just been playing drums, finding good new music, and making shirts:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.337718482904839.94366.201132159896806&type=1

That's what I've been up to. Hopefully you're having a good break, or a nice warm winter, anyways.

M

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