For those of you who want to eventually end up in professional recording of music, here’s a nugget of advice you’ll probably never use:

When recording a funk sousaphone, have the player check the felts in the valves so you don’t hear them clicking on the solo passages:

Example tune: Dead Dog in the Street by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band

[ Published ( Read more... )

It’s interesting that the whole “evil union” thing is making airplay right now. It’s an easy political “evil other” to play up and blame on ills. The history of labor in the US is it’s own amazing corner, but nothing in the current discussion is really getting to anything accurately.

It reminds me about a thought point, because this year I joined a ( Read more... )

I had no idea how much down time I needed. This Christmas break has been wonderful. I’ve been a bit of an antisocial lump, but oh man, has it been so nice.

I’ve got some stuff to post, but in the mean time, something cool: A TED talk on how people aren’t tone deaf and understanding classical music. Such a wonderful lecture:

Click to view

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So this weekend I played the Nutcracker. There were a lot of notes. And a lot of the time I got both the right pitch and played it in the right place. Playing the Nutcracker is somewhat of a major milestone for me, but for a reason that’s hard to explain. Let me first, tell you about the job that is impossible to get:

In every professional symphony ( Read more... )

8th grade final exam, circa 1895:

http://people.moreheadstate.edu/fs/w.willis/eighthgrade.html

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Here are the upcoming concerts if you’d like to catch me playing some seasonal music:

What: The Ohlone Christmas Extravaganza
When: 2pm Sat, Dec 11
Where: Smith Center on the Ohlone College campus in Fremont, CA
Who: The Mission Peak Brass Band, the Ohlone Wind Orchestra, the Ohlone Community Band, and the Ohlone Tuba Ensemble.
Price: $15 for adults ( Read more... )

This year, I was invited to play the Nutcracker over in Livermore. I don’t get to play enough in orchestras, and I’ve never played the Nutcracker before, so I pounced on the opportunity.

Because it is a seasonal thing, and there are probably 20 or so performances, the various clarinet players opt to “rotate” parts to keep from getting bored. There ( Read more... )

Did you see that retro TV car commercial that was all art deco? Or the more recent Hyundai commercial that has a video mix of a couple recording a christmas tune?

The duo is Pomplamoose. The’ve been doing this on youtube for a bit. Everything you see is what is making the music, and everything making music is seen in the video. They only manipulate ( Read more... )

Thanks to all of your for your wonderful and kind thoughts about the wedding. It has been a blast so far.

Work has had me busy, and I’ll post more soon.

In the mean time, thanks!

[ Published from Notes and accidentals. You can comment here or there. ]

So you might have seen on Sue’s journal or my journal an hint of a surprise or cool upcoming project. Now that the right people have been notified personally, we can post more.

Most of you know Sue and I are a couple. Several years ago, before Christmas, I asked Sue for her hand in marriage. Five moves later, we took a serious look at when and ( Read more... )