so it's been brought to my attention that i owe you guys some points. so here's the current standing:
josh h. - 7 points
angie h. - 1 point
if i'm missing anyone, tell me which post of mine you earned points on and i'll look it up and update.
and now an opportunity for more points...
i was making breakfast this morning and read on the orange juice bottle that i was drinking "100% pure squeezed orange juice....from concentrate." "what the frick does that mean?" i asked myself. 2 points goes to the person that can tell me what that means. if you don't know, i'll give you 1 point for making a humorous attempt at explaining it.
and, incase neither of those opportunities excite you, i'll give you 1 point if you can tell me which dominant functioning chord has scale degree 4 in the bass. you'll earn one more point if you can tell me which chord it most commonly resolves to. c'mon joe, i know you know this one.
well, that's gonna be it for this post.
love,
james
Monday, January 29, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
yeah...i know....
....it's been too long since i've updated. sorry.
so i'm in the 2nd week of my sophomore year of my masters degree. here's how the semester looks.
monday:
8a late music history review
9a aural theory review
1:30p lesson with Lenthe
6:30p masterclass
tuesday:
8a aural theory drill
2:30p band rehearsal (yep, i said band, i'll explain below)
wednesday:
8a late music history review
9a aural theory review
2:30p band
4p orchestral rep section with colin & Lenthe
thursday:
8a aural theory drill
2:30p band rehearsal
friday:
8a late music history review
9a aural theory review
2:30p band
inbetween all of that is practicing, going to the gym, eating, sleeping, and, oh yeah....studying.
so far i haven't missed a single 8am class, which is more than i can say for last semester. our music history teacher is, to put it nicely, hard to follow at times. she's a very nice lady, but at 8 o'clock in the morning, the 500+ "ums" and "uhhs" i endure distract the learning just a lil bit. i try to spend class making note cards for the upcoming quizzes and tests. it worked for the first one because i got a 30/29. i could have gotten a 31/29 but somehow missed out on a point somewhere in bs-ing of pergolesi's "la serva padrona." (3 points for the person who can remember what that opera is about.)
aural theory is pretty kick awesome, believe it or not. the teacher is really cool and good at what he does. dare i say he's dr. smith good. if you know who dr. smith is you get a point too. i'm actually surprised at how well i can hear things now. i never used to be this good at aural theory but it's coming quite easily now. i'm pretty sure that if i took that entrance exam today i'd pass with flying colors, just based on what i've brushed up on in these two weeks. it's okay that i didn't pass, however, because i'm actually enjoying this class...which is more than i can say for almost everyone else in there.
so i mentioned above that i'm playing in a band. i also mentioned nothing of an orchestra. that's because i completely blew my audition and did not place in an orchestra this semester. that's the bad news. the good news is that i'm so incredibly motivated to practice right now that my face feels like it's going to fall off at the end of everyday. honestly, a fire has been lit under my ass and i almost feel that same motivation i felt when i was a freshman at eau claire. those of you who knew me then know what i'm talking about. i don't think yardlebot (damn i miss sean solberg) will come back in full force, but i'm definitely back to the grind.
ok, so colin is watching family guy in the other room and i'm havin' a hard time concentrating on what i'm writing. i also have an aural theory quiz tomorrow at 8a and should try to get some rest. sorry for the lack of an interesting update. i'll do better next time.
love,
james
so i'm in the 2nd week of my sophomore year of my masters degree. here's how the semester looks.
monday:
8a late music history review
9a aural theory review
1:30p lesson with Lenthe
6:30p masterclass
tuesday:
8a aural theory drill
2:30p band rehearsal (yep, i said band, i'll explain below)
wednesday:
8a late music history review
9a aural theory review
2:30p band
4p orchestral rep section with colin & Lenthe
thursday:
8a aural theory drill
2:30p band rehearsal
friday:
8a late music history review
9a aural theory review
2:30p band
inbetween all of that is practicing, going to the gym, eating, sleeping, and, oh yeah....studying.
so far i haven't missed a single 8am class, which is more than i can say for last semester. our music history teacher is, to put it nicely, hard to follow at times. she's a very nice lady, but at 8 o'clock in the morning, the 500+ "ums" and "uhhs" i endure distract the learning just a lil bit. i try to spend class making note cards for the upcoming quizzes and tests. it worked for the first one because i got a 30/29. i could have gotten a 31/29 but somehow missed out on a point somewhere in bs-ing of pergolesi's "la serva padrona." (3 points for the person who can remember what that opera is about.)
aural theory is pretty kick awesome, believe it or not. the teacher is really cool and good at what he does. dare i say he's dr. smith good. if you know who dr. smith is you get a point too. i'm actually surprised at how well i can hear things now. i never used to be this good at aural theory but it's coming quite easily now. i'm pretty sure that if i took that entrance exam today i'd pass with flying colors, just based on what i've brushed up on in these two weeks. it's okay that i didn't pass, however, because i'm actually enjoying this class...which is more than i can say for almost everyone else in there.
so i mentioned above that i'm playing in a band. i also mentioned nothing of an orchestra. that's because i completely blew my audition and did not place in an orchestra this semester. that's the bad news. the good news is that i'm so incredibly motivated to practice right now that my face feels like it's going to fall off at the end of everyday. honestly, a fire has been lit under my ass and i almost feel that same motivation i felt when i was a freshman at eau claire. those of you who knew me then know what i'm talking about. i don't think yardlebot (damn i miss sean solberg) will come back in full force, but i'm definitely back to the grind.
ok, so colin is watching family guy in the other room and i'm havin' a hard time concentrating on what i'm writing. i also have an aural theory quiz tomorrow at 8a and should try to get some rest. sorry for the lack of an interesting update. i'll do better next time.
love,
james
Friday, January 05, 2007
good stuff
so i'm on page 41 of The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success
and i must admit, this book is pretty damn sweet. below is an excerpt that has had me thinking all day long. check it out;
"Imagine that five years have passed and your life is now perfect in every respect. Imagine that all your goals have been achieved, all your problems have been solved, and you are living the life of your dreams.
Imagine that your income, bank account, relationships, family life, health, work, and career are ideal in every way. What would they look like? What would you be doing? Who would you be with? Who would you no longer be with? How much would you be earning? What sort of lifestyle and family would you have? What kind of home, car, clothes, and level of physical fitness would you have?
Describe your future vision for yourself in complete detail by writing out everything you could ever imagine wanting to have on your Dream List"
there's a similar excerpt that asks the question "What would you most want to do if you absolutely could not fail?"
well, i think i'm gonna leave it at that for now. i may try to answer some of those questions for myself in the next post, which may be fun to read ;-)
had a great time seein' all you eau clairians the last couple weeks. you guys really are super.
love,
james
and i must admit, this book is pretty damn sweet. below is an excerpt that has had me thinking all day long. check it out;"Imagine that five years have passed and your life is now perfect in every respect. Imagine that all your goals have been achieved, all your problems have been solved, and you are living the life of your dreams.
Imagine that your income, bank account, relationships, family life, health, work, and career are ideal in every way. What would they look like? What would you be doing? Who would you be with? Who would you no longer be with? How much would you be earning? What sort of lifestyle and family would you have? What kind of home, car, clothes, and level of physical fitness would you have?
Describe your future vision for yourself in complete detail by writing out everything you could ever imagine wanting to have on your Dream List"
there's a similar excerpt that asks the question "What would you most want to do if you absolutely could not fail?"
well, i think i'm gonna leave it at that for now. i may try to answer some of those questions for myself in the next post, which may be fun to read ;-)
had a great time seein' all you eau clairians the last couple weeks. you guys really are super.
love,
james
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
breaking news
colin gilliland has sex with monkeys for money. he's a monkey hooker.
just thought yall should know...
love,
james
just thought yall should know...
love,
james
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
do your chains hang low?
although my education in pop culture is pretty much limited to what i hear playing at the gym, i gotta say, this chains hang low song is pretty friggen amazing. i don't know who does it, and frankly, i don't care, but i definitely almost dropped a large amount of weight on my face when that song came on because i was laughing so hard. anyways...
so, the end is nearing. my freshman year of my masters degree is almost complete. freshman year you ask? yeah... colin and i decided that since we're here for 4 semesters we'll be referring to each semester as a year. next semester we'll be sophomores.
freshman year was good to me overall, with a few exceptions here and there. i definitely didn't drink enough, so that's going on the to do list for next year for sure. i guess i'll also make an attempt at refining my studying skills as well next year. my grades are fine but i think they could be better and i could be less stressed if i didn't procrasitinate so much on my studying. i think that's gonna happen to a certain degree in your 7th year of school (5.5 at eau claire, .5 in eau claire but not technically in school, this being my 7th). there will be no thought of continuing straight into a doctorate degree when i'm done here. right now my thoughts are nyc or cruise ship, neither of which involve music history tests. those thoughts could change though. i've been giving some serious thought to going into the ultimate frisbee profession. i'm really good so i'm sure i could lead my team to a victory in the championship game and secure a nike sponsorship. after signing my deal with nike i'll naturally get my own daytime talk show and start my own line of clothing and wristwatches...yeah...wristwatches will be good, considering i don't wear one... that's it! i'll invent a wristwatch that will be surgically installed into your wrist. it'll have music, internet, cell phone capabilities, and ofcourse it will have the awesome power of lady attracting. the ladies will be all about my new watch. i'm gonna be a bazillamillionaire! that's right, a bazillamillionaire. you do the math.
ok, i think i'm gonna practice now...
peace,
j-bonethuginharmony
so, the end is nearing. my freshman year of my masters degree is almost complete. freshman year you ask? yeah... colin and i decided that since we're here for 4 semesters we'll be referring to each semester as a year. next semester we'll be sophomores.
freshman year was good to me overall, with a few exceptions here and there. i definitely didn't drink enough, so that's going on the to do list for next year for sure. i guess i'll also make an attempt at refining my studying skills as well next year. my grades are fine but i think they could be better and i could be less stressed if i didn't procrasitinate so much on my studying. i think that's gonna happen to a certain degree in your 7th year of school (5.5 at eau claire, .5 in eau claire but not technically in school, this being my 7th). there will be no thought of continuing straight into a doctorate degree when i'm done here. right now my thoughts are nyc or cruise ship, neither of which involve music history tests. those thoughts could change though. i've been giving some serious thought to going into the ultimate frisbee profession. i'm really good so i'm sure i could lead my team to a victory in the championship game and secure a nike sponsorship. after signing my deal with nike i'll naturally get my own daytime talk show and start my own line of clothing and wristwatches...yeah...wristwatches will be good, considering i don't wear one... that's it! i'll invent a wristwatch that will be surgically installed into your wrist. it'll have music, internet, cell phone capabilities, and ofcourse it will have the awesome power of lady attracting. the ladies will be all about my new watch. i'm gonna be a bazillamillionaire! that's right, a bazillamillionaire. you do the math.
ok, i think i'm gonna practice now...
peace,
j-bonethuginharmony
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
alliwannadoishavesomefun
sewiously. i don't wanna study for any more friggen quizzes or tests. i'd much rather drink. or play trombone. or drink, strip down to my boxers, and run around the sorority (sp?) houses playing bach cello suites. that oughta impress the ladies right? i think so. i'm pretty sure they'd all wanna make out with me after hearing a sexy sarabande played on bass trombone. then i'd be all like, "ladies, ladies, please. one at a time." no....wait, more like "ladies, three at a time." yeah. girls love bach.
speaking of bach and girls...do you guys know about this Voyager Golden Record that was launched into space in 1977? i learned about this in my music history class today and had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing too loudly. so here's the story...
once upon a time some nerds were having a party. well, one of the nerds had a brother who was a pot smokin' hippie and he invited all of his hippie pot smokin' friends over. so they're smokin' pot and watching star trek and they get this idea that they're going to make a record, out of gold (that's so it lasts a bazillion years), and put different recordings on it and launch it into space in the hopes that an alien happens to stumble upon it.
i've just got one question...how is the alien going to play this record if he doesn't friggen have a friggen record player? stupid hippies.
man, i wonder what it would have been like to live in a time when our country was launching gold plated records containing the music of bach into outer space for ET to find 40,000+ years from now. we should probably launch britney spears into outer space for the aliens to play with.
well, i think i've wasted enough of your time. oh, and hayley, if you had a porn name it'd probably be "princess randomness." ps- david bowie is stupid.
i'm going to bed now.
love,
james
speaking of bach and girls...do you guys know about this Voyager Golden Record that was launched into space in 1977? i learned about this in my music history class today and had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing too loudly. so here's the story...
once upon a time some nerds were having a party. well, one of the nerds had a brother who was a pot smokin' hippie and he invited all of his hippie pot smokin' friends over. so they're smokin' pot and watching star trek and they get this idea that they're going to make a record, out of gold (that's so it lasts a bazillion years), and put different recordings on it and launch it into space in the hopes that an alien happens to stumble upon it.
i've just got one question...how is the alien going to play this record if he doesn't friggen have a friggen record player? stupid hippies.
man, i wonder what it would have been like to live in a time when our country was launching gold plated records containing the music of bach into outer space for ET to find 40,000+ years from now. we should probably launch britney spears into outer space for the aliens to play with.
well, i think i've wasted enough of your time. oh, and hayley, if you had a porn name it'd probably be "princess randomness." ps- david bowie is stupid.
i'm going to bed now.
love,
james
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Sunday, November 19, 2006
an open letter to my playing
we've been at this for a good 13 years now. it's time you shape up and start sounding a little more professional. i've had enough of this amateur bullhonkey.
breathing, i don't understand why you think it's okay to not move the air around in a manner that is appropriate to operate the trombone. we've done excersises for years to train you, but you still don't get it. it's easy. really. just friggen inhale in a full relaxed manner and blow it out in the same way. you don't need to get the shoulders or the throat involved in all of this. leave em alone!
what are you laughing at slide technique? you think this is funny? well, i think it's funny that you can't consistently move to and from 5th position accurately. i also think it's funny that when you move from 4th to 1st with 2nd in between, you split the difference and instead of playing a true 2nd position you end up somewhere between 2nd and 3rd. that kind of sound might be acceptable if i was a euphonium player (sorry...) but it's not gonna cut it here. moron.
and tone quality, you're the stupidest of em all. just because i feel like playing in the upper register doesn't mean you can just fly out the window like breathing does. you two are like bonnie and clyde...constantly robbing me of sounding half way decent. well, i've had enough. when i decide to play above a b-flat, i expect you to stick around and do some work. no more clenching and tightening up of the sound. nope, you gotta stay just as pretty and free as the low register.
you all friggen suck and i expect you to friggen get your act together asap.
love,
james
breathing, i don't understand why you think it's okay to not move the air around in a manner that is appropriate to operate the trombone. we've done excersises for years to train you, but you still don't get it. it's easy. really. just friggen inhale in a full relaxed manner and blow it out in the same way. you don't need to get the shoulders or the throat involved in all of this. leave em alone!
what are you laughing at slide technique? you think this is funny? well, i think it's funny that you can't consistently move to and from 5th position accurately. i also think it's funny that when you move from 4th to 1st with 2nd in between, you split the difference and instead of playing a true 2nd position you end up somewhere between 2nd and 3rd. that kind of sound might be acceptable if i was a euphonium player (sorry...) but it's not gonna cut it here. moron.
and tone quality, you're the stupidest of em all. just because i feel like playing in the upper register doesn't mean you can just fly out the window like breathing does. you two are like bonnie and clyde...constantly robbing me of sounding half way decent. well, i've had enough. when i decide to play above a b-flat, i expect you to stick around and do some work. no more clenching and tightening up of the sound. nope, you gotta stay just as pretty and free as the low register.
you all friggen suck and i expect you to friggen get your act together asap.
love,
james
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
do you know who i am?
i don't know how to put this, but....i'm kind of a big deal. people know me.
hey, check it out, it's 1:11am. make a wish!
so my last post was kinda fun eh? who needs drugs when you can just deprive yourself of sleep and achieve the same effect? seriously though, those hershey bars are amazing.
today has been a strange day. i stayed up all night studying for my music history quiz because i can no longer afford to get anything less than an A+++++++ on any of the next quizzes or exams. i think it worked out for me on this quiz because i think i got one tiny little thing wrong that will be countered by my answering the extra credit question correctly.
so anyways, i went to bed at 5am, slept for an hour, got up at 6, studied for another hour, then got ready and went to take the quiz at 8. i remember finishing my quiz then the next thing i knew i woke up in my bed. i definitely don't remember walking home or anything...it freaked me out a little. i almost thought that maybe i had dreamt about taking the quiz and that i had slept in or something. luckily that was not the case. colin told me that i was definitely there.
i woke up around noon and got a call from andrew dzuik telling me that ProWinds, the music store here in town, would be calling me for an interview. they did and i interviewed for a job at 4, which they offered to me and i accepted. basically i'll be listing stuff for them on ebay and potentially doing some work with their website. it's a great position for me because i get to work my own hours and do a lot of it from home. money is good and having an employee discount at a great music store will be a nice benefit too. i need a new straight mute real bad.
so after all that nonsense i rehearsed for a buddy's recital at 7, then went and heard the top orchestra here play mahler 6. they sounded amazing. by far the best concert i've heard here so far. the horns were a little weak, but other than that, it was badass. on my way to finding the second tier balcony i wandered into the dance dept. area. i found myself in a hallway with about 20 dancers (they must have been having some kind of audition) lining the walls. they all looked at me like i was from another planet. i certainly felt like i had entered another world (anyone ever wander up to the third floor of the art wing at haas? you'll know what i'm talking about...). as i turned around i over heard two guys talking and one of them said to the other, with quite a lisp, "i know, right?" ahh stereotypes...
i dunno, maybe it doesn't sound like too weird of a day, but with the unusual sleeping, it seemed funky to me.
i have a job? that's weird.
also, i'm sad that i can't make the pilgrimage to eau claire for the bone dinner. i have an opera performance on friday night but it's one of those things that just hasn't sunken in yet....i'm in denial i guess. sad. i mean.....rage.
that's all i got.
love (kill pandas),
james
hey, check it out, it's 1:11am. make a wish!
so my last post was kinda fun eh? who needs drugs when you can just deprive yourself of sleep and achieve the same effect? seriously though, those hershey bars are amazing.
today has been a strange day. i stayed up all night studying for my music history quiz because i can no longer afford to get anything less than an A+++++++ on any of the next quizzes or exams. i think it worked out for me on this quiz because i think i got one tiny little thing wrong that will be countered by my answering the extra credit question correctly.
so anyways, i went to bed at 5am, slept for an hour, got up at 6, studied for another hour, then got ready and went to take the quiz at 8. i remember finishing my quiz then the next thing i knew i woke up in my bed. i definitely don't remember walking home or anything...it freaked me out a little. i almost thought that maybe i had dreamt about taking the quiz and that i had slept in or something. luckily that was not the case. colin told me that i was definitely there.
i woke up around noon and got a call from andrew dzuik telling me that ProWinds, the music store here in town, would be calling me for an interview. they did and i interviewed for a job at 4, which they offered to me and i accepted. basically i'll be listing stuff for them on ebay and potentially doing some work with their website. it's a great position for me because i get to work my own hours and do a lot of it from home. money is good and having an employee discount at a great music store will be a nice benefit too. i need a new straight mute real bad.
so after all that nonsense i rehearsed for a buddy's recital at 7, then went and heard the top orchestra here play mahler 6. they sounded amazing. by far the best concert i've heard here so far. the horns were a little weak, but other than that, it was badass. on my way to finding the second tier balcony i wandered into the dance dept. area. i found myself in a hallway with about 20 dancers (they must have been having some kind of audition) lining the walls. they all looked at me like i was from another planet. i certainly felt like i had entered another world (anyone ever wander up to the third floor of the art wing at haas? you'll know what i'm talking about...). as i turned around i over heard two guys talking and one of them said to the other, with quite a lisp, "i know, right?" ahh stereotypes...
i dunno, maybe it doesn't sound like too weird of a day, but with the unusual sleeping, it seemed funky to me.
i have a job? that's weird.
also, i'm sad that i can't make the pilgrimage to eau claire for the bone dinner. i have an opera performance on friday night but it's one of those things that just hasn't sunken in yet....i'm in denial i guess. sad. i mean.....rage.
that's all i got.
love (kill pandas),
james
Sunday, November 12, 2006
don't act like you're not impressed
i just sneezed...it felt pretty amazing too. colin told me once that most normal people, when they sneeze, they sneeze twice. for some reason, i don't. i just sneeze once and that's it. damn. i guess that means i'm not a normal sneezer.
so i got a text message from a friend yesterday asking me if i would like to arm wrestle life. i'm pretty sure i can kick life's ass, so i say "bring it." no really, i've been going to the gym a lot lately and i'm pretty sure life would end up in the hospital with nothing less than a broken leg and a black eye, courtesy of the kick-punch special deluxe, if it tried to start sh*t with me. yeah, i'm a badass...
so anyways, i'm not exactly sure why i'm writing here right now. i'm actually really tired and somewhat delirious, and my bed is literally a foot away. it's telling me that i have class in 6 hours and that i should lie down on it and go to sleep. i wish it'd stop talking to me because it's really startin' to friggen creep me out.
well, you're pwobably lookin' to hear about something relevant so here goes....
i miss eau claire.
i miss my dog.
classes are hard.
bass trombone playing needs a jumpstart currently.
colin is still alive and same as always.
there is a girl in oklahoma city that i have familiar relations with and i miss her too.
i'm still looking for a coffee shop around here even though i don't like coffee.
i recently discovered the hershey chocolate bar that has peanut butter inside.
not much else has relevance at the moment. you may think it's sad, but i'm a simpleton so i'm happy.
i hope you're all happy too.
love,
james
so i got a text message from a friend yesterday asking me if i would like to arm wrestle life. i'm pretty sure i can kick life's ass, so i say "bring it." no really, i've been going to the gym a lot lately and i'm pretty sure life would end up in the hospital with nothing less than a broken leg and a black eye, courtesy of the kick-punch special deluxe, if it tried to start sh*t with me. yeah, i'm a badass...
so anyways, i'm not exactly sure why i'm writing here right now. i'm actually really tired and somewhat delirious, and my bed is literally a foot away. it's telling me that i have class in 6 hours and that i should lie down on it and go to sleep. i wish it'd stop talking to me because it's really startin' to friggen creep me out.
well, you're pwobably lookin' to hear about something relevant so here goes....
i miss eau claire.
i miss my dog.
classes are hard.
bass trombone playing needs a jumpstart currently.
colin is still alive and same as always.
there is a girl in oklahoma city that i have familiar relations with and i miss her too.
i'm still looking for a coffee shop around here even though i don't like coffee.
i recently discovered the hershey chocolate bar that has peanut butter inside.
not much else has relevance at the moment. you may think it's sad, but i'm a simpleton so i'm happy.
i hope you're all happy too.
love,
james
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
response from dad
When we went to the Boundary Waters 3 weeks ago, we considered mounting machine guns on our canoes to combat terrorism. What better way to sneak into the US than through the BWCA? We decided not to do that based on portaging the machine guns and ammo.
It has been a topic of news lately here in Duluth. To me, it seems a bit far fetched to reason that this training is necessary. We’d be much more vulnerable to a lake contamination. You can’t sink an ore boat or freighter with a machine gun. Just can’t make a big enough hole if you know what I mean.
I’d be looking for what is getting slid through the senate while this is getting all of the attention. A sportsman cannot use lead shot over a waterway in MN or WI now. It has to be steel shot. They’d be breaking the law by using lead.
I’m pretty sure nobody is going to get shot out of the water in Lake Superior any time soon.
Thanks for staying abreast of the news. It’s what keeps people accountable.
ok, i'll just move on from this topic now. dad pretty much said what i was thinking.
love,
james
It has been a topic of news lately here in Duluth. To me, it seems a bit far fetched to reason that this training is necessary. We’d be much more vulnerable to a lake contamination. You can’t sink an ore boat or freighter with a machine gun. Just can’t make a big enough hole if you know what I mean.
I’d be looking for what is getting slid through the senate while this is getting all of the attention. A sportsman cannot use lead shot over a waterway in MN or WI now. It has to be steel shot. They’d be breaking the law by using lead.
I’m pretty sure nobody is going to get shot out of the water in Lake Superior any time soon.
Thanks for staying abreast of the news. It’s what keeps people accountable.
ok, i'll just move on from this topic now. dad pretty much said what i was thinking.
love,
james
Monday, October 16, 2006
Hokay.......
in an effort to be connected to the world (since we don't have tv) i've been reading my news from the new york times and came across this article. i may not have cared so much if i didn't grow up in duluth. i simply cannot imagine being down on that lakewalk walking my dog while hearing machine gun fire across the water...
i've posted a link to the article below. since i believe you have to register on the site to view it, i'm going to cut and paste as well. my next post will probably be a good ol' fashioned rant about this article. well, it'll probably be more like a mockery, which should be a little more entertaining.
U.S. Firing Plans for Great Lakes Raise Concerns
GRAND HAVEN, Mich., Oct. 10 — Even in autumn, the cold, silent expanse of Lake Michigan defines this town, where pleasure boats glide into harbor, fishermen wait patiently for salmon and tourists peer up at the lighthouse.
But the United States Coast Guard has a new mission for the waters off of these quiet shores. For the first time, Coast Guard officials want to mount machine guns routinely on their cutters and small boats here and around all five of the Great Lakes as part of a program addressing the threats of terrorism after Sept. 11.
And, for the first time in memory, Coast Guard members plan to use a stretch of water at least five miles off this Michigan shore — and 33 other offshore spots near cities like Cleveland; Rochester; Milwaukee; Duluth, Minn.; and Gary, Ind. — as permanent, live fire shooting zones for training on their new 7.62 mm weapons, which can blast as many as 650 rounds a minute and send fire more than 4,000 yards.
The notion is so unusual that it prompted United States diplomats to negotiate with Canadian authorities in order to agree that it would not violate a 189-year-old treaty, signed after the War of 1812, limiting arms on the Great Lakes.
Many here in Grand Haven, a town whose history is so lovingly intertwined with the Coast Guard that it holds an annual festival celebrating the service branch, say they think of Coast Guard members mainly as the rugged sailors who race off to search for and save troubled boaters. But even here, in a town that calls itself “Coast Guard City U.S.A.,” some say the thought of members firing machine guns anywhere near these waters strikes them as dangerous to ordinary boaters, potentially damaging to the Great Lakes’ ecosystem and, frankly, a somewhat surprising place to be bracing for terrorists.
“You know exactly what’s going to happen with this,” said Bob Foster, 58, who said he spends every chance he gets on the waters here. “Some boater is going to inadvertently drive through the live fire zone and get blown out of the water.”
Carole Loftis, the owner of Snug Harbor, a popular restaurant with windows on the water, said that although she certainly carried concerns, like most Americans, about terrorism, drunken boating seemed a more frequent threat around here. “This seems a little like overkill,” Ms. Loftis said of the shooting plans.
Despite complaints from some charter boat captains, environmental groups and city leaders around the Great Lakes, the Coast Guard defended the need to mount M-240B machine guns on its boats and to test fire them two or three times a year in “safety zones,” about 70 square miles each.
“The Coast Guard has looked at an increased terrorist threat since 2001,” Rear Adm. John E. Crowley Jr., commander of the Coast Guard district that oversees the Great Lakes, said in a telephone interview. “I don’t know when or if something might happen on the Great Lakes, but I don’t want to learn the hard way.”
Some members of the Coast Guard assigned to law enforcement duties always carried weapons, but most of those were personal semiautomatic pistols. Since the arrival of the boat-mounted machine guns, the Coast Guard has conducted 24 training sessions on the lakes this year, although it has halted the exercises temporarily after news of the program seeped out last month and, with it, a barrage of objection.
“When I heard, I thought it was something from The Onion newspaper or an Internet hoax,” said Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia, Ontario, which sits beside Lake Huron, where 6 of the 34 live fire zones are planned. “This whole thing was done way below the radar.”
The Coast Guard’s plans for permanent training zones were published in the Federal Register on Aug. 1, along with the promise of a month for public comment, but city leaders and ordinary boaters said that most of them never came across the document and that the authorities failed to provide them with any other notice of live fire plans — a fact that left some saying they felt as though the Coast Guard, now part of the Department of Homeland Security, was trying quietly to slip the whole weapons program past them.
Herb Bergson, the mayor of Duluth, got a telephone call in September from a resident who said she was listening to her marine scanner, heard talk of shooting on Lake Superior and wanted the mayor to explain what was going on.
“I didn’t know what to tell her,” Mr. Bergson said. “I was caught just flat-footed. No one told me, and they should have.”
Coast Guard leaders — who have since announced nine public meetings in Great Lakes cities, starting Monday, and have extended until Nov. 13 the period for people to weigh in on the idea — acknowledge that they initially failed to publicize the weapons training program. “I’ve got no good answer for that,” said Lt. j.g. Ryan Barone, a spokesman.
But the plans themselves, which ultimately would mean machine guns mounted on the vessels of more than 50 Coast Guard units throughout the Great Lakes, were carefully conceived, Lieutenant Barone said. Information about the proposal and scheduled public meetings is at uscgd9safetyzones.com.
All of the proposed firing zones sit at least five nautical miles from shores and from Canadian waters, as well as far from commercial shipping lanes and sensitive marine areas, Lieutenant Barone said. During the training days, when Coast Guard gunners will shoot at floating foam buoys, other boaters will be notified on marine radio frequencies, he said, and every test will include a designated safety observer.
Admiral Crowley said, “I don’t feel there’s a risk to anyone out there.”
Around the Great Lakes, some people said they were supportive of the presence of machine guns and the planned tests. The risks of terrorism, they said, cannot be underestimated — even in small towns, even in the Upper Midwest. And as with extra airport safety measures, they said, the live fire tests may be inconvenient but they are needed.
Several ferry operators in Michigan, who carry cars and passengers across Lake Michigan, said they were satisfied that their customers would be safe. Ken Alvey, president of the Lake Erie Marine Trades Association, which represents some 80 marine businesses, said he was comfortable knowing that the Coast Guard members would practice on their new weapons.
“To say we don’t have to worry about our open border with Canada would be foolish,” Mr. Alvey said. “You never know what avenue terrorists will take.”
But others, especially recreational boaters and professional fishing guides, said they were worried. Though most emphasized their support and gratitude to the Coast Guard, they said they did not even listen to their radios much anymore (unless a storm is rolling in) and could miss warnings altogether.
Ron Mihevc, who takes customers fishing out of the harbor at Waukegan, Ill., said he feared that the planned firing zone near Waukegan sits “right in the middle” of a prime fishing spot that draws scores of fishermen. Kelly J. Campise, another Waukegan boat captain, said fishermen already were carrying their clients many miles into Lake Michigan in search of salmon and trout at great fuel expense; going still further away to avoid the firing zones would cost still more, he said.
An 89-page environmental study, commissioned by federal authorities, concluded that rounds left in the lakes from the Coast Guard exercises would cause no harm, but Hugh McDiarmid Jr., a spokesman for the Michigan Environmental Council, said a “fuller environmental risk assessment,” given the lead content of the rounds in particular, was needed.
For years, Coast Guard boats have been armed, and training has been conducted off of the coasts of this country, said Brad J. Kieserman, chief of the operations law group at Coast Guard headquarters.
On the Great Lakes, weapons training by military branches like the Navy has also occurred in years gone by, dating back to World War I and World War II. But in keeping with a treaty known as Rush-Bagot from 1817, Coast Guard vessels on the Great Lakes have historically not included naval armaments.
But in 2003, federal authorities sought an understanding with their Canadian counterparts about Rush-Bagot in preparation for mounting machine guns on cutters so that the Coast Guard could “prevent terrorists or others engaged in criminal activities from crossing the United States-Canadian boundary by water,” according to documents from the exchange between the two countries.
In recent days, though, some Canadian mayors, who said they had not heard of the plans until this fall, have objected vehemently. David Miller, the mayor of Toronto, said he worried about practical, safety aspects of the weapons plan and about the environment, but also about the precedent set for the lakes’ more than 94,000 square miles of water.
“Our treaty had always said that the Great Lakes will not be militarized,” Mr. Miller said. “And in effect, this remilitarizes them in the name of a threat from 9/11.”
my next post should be fun :-)
love,
james
i've posted a link to the article below. since i believe you have to register on the site to view it, i'm going to cut and paste as well. my next post will probably be a good ol' fashioned rant about this article. well, it'll probably be more like a mockery, which should be a little more entertaining.
U.S. Firing Plans for Great Lakes Raise Concerns
GRAND HAVEN, Mich., Oct. 10 — Even in autumn, the cold, silent expanse of Lake Michigan defines this town, where pleasure boats glide into harbor, fishermen wait patiently for salmon and tourists peer up at the lighthouse.
But the United States Coast Guard has a new mission for the waters off of these quiet shores. For the first time, Coast Guard officials want to mount machine guns routinely on their cutters and small boats here and around all five of the Great Lakes as part of a program addressing the threats of terrorism after Sept. 11.
And, for the first time in memory, Coast Guard members plan to use a stretch of water at least five miles off this Michigan shore — and 33 other offshore spots near cities like Cleveland; Rochester; Milwaukee; Duluth, Minn.; and Gary, Ind. — as permanent, live fire shooting zones for training on their new 7.62 mm weapons, which can blast as many as 650 rounds a minute and send fire more than 4,000 yards.
The notion is so unusual that it prompted United States diplomats to negotiate with Canadian authorities in order to agree that it would not violate a 189-year-old treaty, signed after the War of 1812, limiting arms on the Great Lakes.
Many here in Grand Haven, a town whose history is so lovingly intertwined with the Coast Guard that it holds an annual festival celebrating the service branch, say they think of Coast Guard members mainly as the rugged sailors who race off to search for and save troubled boaters. But even here, in a town that calls itself “Coast Guard City U.S.A.,” some say the thought of members firing machine guns anywhere near these waters strikes them as dangerous to ordinary boaters, potentially damaging to the Great Lakes’ ecosystem and, frankly, a somewhat surprising place to be bracing for terrorists.
“You know exactly what’s going to happen with this,” said Bob Foster, 58, who said he spends every chance he gets on the waters here. “Some boater is going to inadvertently drive through the live fire zone and get blown out of the water.”
Carole Loftis, the owner of Snug Harbor, a popular restaurant with windows on the water, said that although she certainly carried concerns, like most Americans, about terrorism, drunken boating seemed a more frequent threat around here. “This seems a little like overkill,” Ms. Loftis said of the shooting plans.
Despite complaints from some charter boat captains, environmental groups and city leaders around the Great Lakes, the Coast Guard defended the need to mount M-240B machine guns on its boats and to test fire them two or three times a year in “safety zones,” about 70 square miles each.
“The Coast Guard has looked at an increased terrorist threat since 2001,” Rear Adm. John E. Crowley Jr., commander of the Coast Guard district that oversees the Great Lakes, said in a telephone interview. “I don’t know when or if something might happen on the Great Lakes, but I don’t want to learn the hard way.”
Some members of the Coast Guard assigned to law enforcement duties always carried weapons, but most of those were personal semiautomatic pistols. Since the arrival of the boat-mounted machine guns, the Coast Guard has conducted 24 training sessions on the lakes this year, although it has halted the exercises temporarily after news of the program seeped out last month and, with it, a barrage of objection.
“When I heard, I thought it was something from The Onion newspaper or an Internet hoax,” said Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia, Ontario, which sits beside Lake Huron, where 6 of the 34 live fire zones are planned. “This whole thing was done way below the radar.”
The Coast Guard’s plans for permanent training zones were published in the Federal Register on Aug. 1, along with the promise of a month for public comment, but city leaders and ordinary boaters said that most of them never came across the document and that the authorities failed to provide them with any other notice of live fire plans — a fact that left some saying they felt as though the Coast Guard, now part of the Department of Homeland Security, was trying quietly to slip the whole weapons program past them.
Herb Bergson, the mayor of Duluth, got a telephone call in September from a resident who said she was listening to her marine scanner, heard talk of shooting on Lake Superior and wanted the mayor to explain what was going on.
“I didn’t know what to tell her,” Mr. Bergson said. “I was caught just flat-footed. No one told me, and they should have.”
Coast Guard leaders — who have since announced nine public meetings in Great Lakes cities, starting Monday, and have extended until Nov. 13 the period for people to weigh in on the idea — acknowledge that they initially failed to publicize the weapons training program. “I’ve got no good answer for that,” said Lt. j.g. Ryan Barone, a spokesman.
But the plans themselves, which ultimately would mean machine guns mounted on the vessels of more than 50 Coast Guard units throughout the Great Lakes, were carefully conceived, Lieutenant Barone said. Information about the proposal and scheduled public meetings is at uscgd9safetyzones.com.
All of the proposed firing zones sit at least five nautical miles from shores and from Canadian waters, as well as far from commercial shipping lanes and sensitive marine areas, Lieutenant Barone said. During the training days, when Coast Guard gunners will shoot at floating foam buoys, other boaters will be notified on marine radio frequencies, he said, and every test will include a designated safety observer.
Admiral Crowley said, “I don’t feel there’s a risk to anyone out there.”
Around the Great Lakes, some people said they were supportive of the presence of machine guns and the planned tests. The risks of terrorism, they said, cannot be underestimated — even in small towns, even in the Upper Midwest. And as with extra airport safety measures, they said, the live fire tests may be inconvenient but they are needed.
Several ferry operators in Michigan, who carry cars and passengers across Lake Michigan, said they were satisfied that their customers would be safe. Ken Alvey, president of the Lake Erie Marine Trades Association, which represents some 80 marine businesses, said he was comfortable knowing that the Coast Guard members would practice on their new weapons.
“To say we don’t have to worry about our open border with Canada would be foolish,” Mr. Alvey said. “You never know what avenue terrorists will take.”
But others, especially recreational boaters and professional fishing guides, said they were worried. Though most emphasized their support and gratitude to the Coast Guard, they said they did not even listen to their radios much anymore (unless a storm is rolling in) and could miss warnings altogether.
Ron Mihevc, who takes customers fishing out of the harbor at Waukegan, Ill., said he feared that the planned firing zone near Waukegan sits “right in the middle” of a prime fishing spot that draws scores of fishermen. Kelly J. Campise, another Waukegan boat captain, said fishermen already were carrying their clients many miles into Lake Michigan in search of salmon and trout at great fuel expense; going still further away to avoid the firing zones would cost still more, he said.
An 89-page environmental study, commissioned by federal authorities, concluded that rounds left in the lakes from the Coast Guard exercises would cause no harm, but Hugh McDiarmid Jr., a spokesman for the Michigan Environmental Council, said a “fuller environmental risk assessment,” given the lead content of the rounds in particular, was needed.
For years, Coast Guard boats have been armed, and training has been conducted off of the coasts of this country, said Brad J. Kieserman, chief of the operations law group at Coast Guard headquarters.
On the Great Lakes, weapons training by military branches like the Navy has also occurred in years gone by, dating back to World War I and World War II. But in keeping with a treaty known as Rush-Bagot from 1817, Coast Guard vessels on the Great Lakes have historically not included naval armaments.
But in 2003, federal authorities sought an understanding with their Canadian counterparts about Rush-Bagot in preparation for mounting machine guns on cutters so that the Coast Guard could “prevent terrorists or others engaged in criminal activities from crossing the United States-Canadian boundary by water,” according to documents from the exchange between the two countries.
In recent days, though, some Canadian mayors, who said they had not heard of the plans until this fall, have objected vehemently. David Miller, the mayor of Toronto, said he worried about practical, safety aspects of the weapons plan and about the environment, but also about the precedent set for the lakes’ more than 94,000 square miles of water.
“Our treaty had always said that the Great Lakes will not be militarized,” Mr. Miller said. “And in effect, this remilitarizes them in the name of a threat from 9/11.”
my next post should be fun :-)
love,
james
Friday, October 13, 2006
the yardley taylor project (might be a long one)
well, here it is. i've had a few days to digest (and drink...) my coaching with mr. taylor and now i'm ready to spew my thoughts on it.
first, for those who don't know who dave taylor is, he's one of the world's finest bass trombonists. if you understand the above title at all you can probably skip over this paragraph. others may want to continue reading... so, he lives in new york city and has quite an extensive resume. he's played with everyone from leopold stowkoski (sp?....conducted the american symphony orchestra) to blood, sweat, and tears. he played with duke ellington (not the ghost band...), quincy jones, mel lewis - thad jones band, etc, etc, etc... these days he's mostly known for his career as a solo and chamber musician. most consider his music of choice "contemporary" but he hates that label so i'll try not to use it too much. he's befriended many composers and has over 100 commisioned works. i think he has about 10 albums under his name. he's an eccentric artist in the most stereotypical use of the word and his weapon of choice happens to be the bass trombone. ok, enough background, on to my experience...
so it's wednesday night and almost all of the trombone students (i think about 40...), the 3 professors, and some other, i assume, brass players are gathered in one of the 4th floor large ensemble rehearsal rooms for a masterclass with dave taylor. he starts in typical fashion by introducing himself and blah blah and suddenly begins to play (and sing) this piece of music. i think it was something based on a schubert song...i'll have to go back and listen to my recording. he gets done and talks a little more. then, he looks at me and says "i see you're holding a bass trombone, would you like to come up and play for us now." i was one of 3 students on the docket to play and i kind of expected to be first so i wasn't caught off guard too much. so, i stand up in front of everyone and announce the piece i'm about to play, "variations on palestrina's 'dona nobis pacem'" ok, so, i may have been a little nervous because he immediately called me out for mumbling and asked me to repeat the title of the piece. this time, i spoke up and tried to speak more clearly. to my surprise, i failed, because he asked me again to repeat. now i'm feeling a little awkward but i try again....not happening. after he asks me to repeat the title a 4th time (keep in mind the audience i'm standing in front of) i start to wonder what is happening...what am i pronouncing wrong? finally, he lets me off the hook and is happy with my pronunciation of the title. hokay....time to play trombone now.
now, the good thing is that i'm not as shaken as i would have been a week or so previous. about twice a week since i've gotten here i've had to stand up and play in front of people and the nerves are slowly going away. i tried to get it in my head, real quick before anything negative could enter, that this isn't a big deal, i'll most likely still be alive after it's all over, and everyone wants to hear me play well. the first half goes pretty well. 2nd half was a grind as i got tired and lost a little concentration. it was one of the few times i've played through the entire piece, so, keeping that in mind, i wasn't too disappointed with my performance. little did i know, that that performance was going to be the least stressful 4 minutes of the next hour i was to endure.
i was relieved to hear the first thing he said to me was "you have a beautiful sound." i smiled and said "thank you." after that, he proceeded to put me on the spot with his every question. it went something like this;
taylor - do you like this piece?
me - yes
taylor - why?
me - it's a beautiful melody
taylor - why is it beautiful and what are you doing to communicate that beauty?
me - (staring blankly at my stand) well, it's tonal which is pleasing to my ears, the phrases are easy to understand...i guess i'm just trying to sing through my horn...
taylor - why are playing this piece?
me - well, i heard it on doug yeo's cd and kind of fell in love with it. also, it's a required solo for the ita competition.
taylor - (nodding his head as if the competition is the only reason i'm playing this) i would never play this music
me - yeah, well, i would never play anything you like (ok, i wish i would have said this, but i didn't. it occured to me later that this would have been an uproaringly funny response and would have completely eased the extreme amount of tension that was building in the room)
ok, hopefully that little transcript gives you an idea of the kinds of questions he was asking me. they may not seem too "ball busting" but i certainly felt as if i was being "called out" in front of quite a lot of people...trombone players and professors. i didn't mind so much because i should have good answers to those questions. i certainly wasn't upset. it was just taking a toll on my nerves i suppose.
after that little exchange he asked me to play some things over again in different ways. once again i found myself trying really hard to figure out exactly what he wanted from me. one of the things he asked me to do was play the first statement of the melody in a stylistically acceptable way but completely different from what was on the page... i really didn't know what to do so i kinda just made up some different articulations. another thing he asked me to do was play all of the 8th notes as written, but to do something with the other notes. well, dona nobis is a pretty simple melody so really all i had left to work with were a couple quarter notes and a couple half notes. i think i ended up just holding them longer or something. i don't exactly remember (need to go back and listen...) while feeling awkward once again, he finally explained what he was trying to get me to do. he wanted me to play this piece in a way that was "natural" to me and not the way it has been written by someone else, for someone else. i really liked this concept, however, i felt pretty natural playing it the way i had been before. it was also interesting to me that he was able to tell me to play it different but in my own way....he wouldn't tell me how to play it because then i would just be playing it his way...which is what he was trying to get me away from doing. although i love this concept, i think it may have been better understood if i had been playing a different piece, like a concerto, instead of a hymn. maybe not....
he then went on to make the point that we should be playing music we love and if we don't, the truth of the music will never be revealed. it's kind of an artsy deep thing to say, and i'm not able to put it in his exact words, but it made sense to me. it's obvious the he is 100% into the music he plays. you can tell by watching him, listening to him, and by the sheer fact that you HAVE to love that kind of music to make your living off of it. he believes that the audience can hear when you're telling the truth and when you're lying (in this case, lying is playing something you're not totally "diggin' on"). he talked about his first recital (he was 40) in which he played technically quite poorly when the whole audience rose to their feet immediately after he was done for a standing ovation. he said he was quite embarassed about it for many years to come but made the point that the audience reacted to the "truth" in his playing. i guess it's something that you'll either believe or not believe...but i believed what he was saying.
so here's my question...how do you perform a piece of music "truthfully?" afterall, music is a form of communication and when we communicate we have the option of being truthful or lying.
here's my answer, and i hope to hear what others think about this. i think what i have to do is know a piece so well that i can justify playing it my own way. who wrote the piece? who did he write it for? why did he write if for that person? why did that person agree to play the composer's music? etc, etc, etc....the list of questions could be endless. but, i think when you truly know the answers to all those questions, you can begin to approach whatever it is you're working on from your own perspective. first, though you need to have A perspective. i also think that part two of the answer is you need to love what you're working on. it may be technically difficult, or maybe boring in a couple spots, but you need to find something about it you really love and care about it. those two things, i think, are what seperate an inspired performance from one that is just technically acceptable.
ok, so, once again, those are my thoughts. take em, leave em, respond to em, do what you will. either way, thanks for reading.
love,
james
first, for those who don't know who dave taylor is, he's one of the world's finest bass trombonists. if you understand the above title at all you can probably skip over this paragraph. others may want to continue reading... so, he lives in new york city and has quite an extensive resume. he's played with everyone from leopold stowkoski (sp?....conducted the american symphony orchestra) to blood, sweat, and tears. he played with duke ellington (not the ghost band...), quincy jones, mel lewis - thad jones band, etc, etc, etc... these days he's mostly known for his career as a solo and chamber musician. most consider his music of choice "contemporary" but he hates that label so i'll try not to use it too much. he's befriended many composers and has over 100 commisioned works. i think he has about 10 albums under his name. he's an eccentric artist in the most stereotypical use of the word and his weapon of choice happens to be the bass trombone. ok, enough background, on to my experience...
so it's wednesday night and almost all of the trombone students (i think about 40...), the 3 professors, and some other, i assume, brass players are gathered in one of the 4th floor large ensemble rehearsal rooms for a masterclass with dave taylor. he starts in typical fashion by introducing himself and blah blah and suddenly begins to play (and sing) this piece of music. i think it was something based on a schubert song...i'll have to go back and listen to my recording. he gets done and talks a little more. then, he looks at me and says "i see you're holding a bass trombone, would you like to come up and play for us now." i was one of 3 students on the docket to play and i kind of expected to be first so i wasn't caught off guard too much. so, i stand up in front of everyone and announce the piece i'm about to play, "variations on palestrina's 'dona nobis pacem'" ok, so, i may have been a little nervous because he immediately called me out for mumbling and asked me to repeat the title of the piece. this time, i spoke up and tried to speak more clearly. to my surprise, i failed, because he asked me again to repeat. now i'm feeling a little awkward but i try again....not happening. after he asks me to repeat the title a 4th time (keep in mind the audience i'm standing in front of) i start to wonder what is happening...what am i pronouncing wrong? finally, he lets me off the hook and is happy with my pronunciation of the title. hokay....time to play trombone now.
now, the good thing is that i'm not as shaken as i would have been a week or so previous. about twice a week since i've gotten here i've had to stand up and play in front of people and the nerves are slowly going away. i tried to get it in my head, real quick before anything negative could enter, that this isn't a big deal, i'll most likely still be alive after it's all over, and everyone wants to hear me play well. the first half goes pretty well. 2nd half was a grind as i got tired and lost a little concentration. it was one of the few times i've played through the entire piece, so, keeping that in mind, i wasn't too disappointed with my performance. little did i know, that that performance was going to be the least stressful 4 minutes of the next hour i was to endure.
i was relieved to hear the first thing he said to me was "you have a beautiful sound." i smiled and said "thank you." after that, he proceeded to put me on the spot with his every question. it went something like this;
taylor - do you like this piece?
me - yes
taylor - why?
me - it's a beautiful melody
taylor - why is it beautiful and what are you doing to communicate that beauty?
me - (staring blankly at my stand) well, it's tonal which is pleasing to my ears, the phrases are easy to understand...i guess i'm just trying to sing through my horn...
taylor - why are playing this piece?
me - well, i heard it on doug yeo's cd and kind of fell in love with it. also, it's a required solo for the ita competition.
taylor - (nodding his head as if the competition is the only reason i'm playing this) i would never play this music
me - yeah, well, i would never play anything you like (ok, i wish i would have said this, but i didn't. it occured to me later that this would have been an uproaringly funny response and would have completely eased the extreme amount of tension that was building in the room)
ok, hopefully that little transcript gives you an idea of the kinds of questions he was asking me. they may not seem too "ball busting" but i certainly felt as if i was being "called out" in front of quite a lot of people...trombone players and professors. i didn't mind so much because i should have good answers to those questions. i certainly wasn't upset. it was just taking a toll on my nerves i suppose.
after that little exchange he asked me to play some things over again in different ways. once again i found myself trying really hard to figure out exactly what he wanted from me. one of the things he asked me to do was play the first statement of the melody in a stylistically acceptable way but completely different from what was on the page... i really didn't know what to do so i kinda just made up some different articulations. another thing he asked me to do was play all of the 8th notes as written, but to do something with the other notes. well, dona nobis is a pretty simple melody so really all i had left to work with were a couple quarter notes and a couple half notes. i think i ended up just holding them longer or something. i don't exactly remember (need to go back and listen...) while feeling awkward once again, he finally explained what he was trying to get me to do. he wanted me to play this piece in a way that was "natural" to me and not the way it has been written by someone else, for someone else. i really liked this concept, however, i felt pretty natural playing it the way i had been before. it was also interesting to me that he was able to tell me to play it different but in my own way....he wouldn't tell me how to play it because then i would just be playing it his way...which is what he was trying to get me away from doing. although i love this concept, i think it may have been better understood if i had been playing a different piece, like a concerto, instead of a hymn. maybe not....
he then went on to make the point that we should be playing music we love and if we don't, the truth of the music will never be revealed. it's kind of an artsy deep thing to say, and i'm not able to put it in his exact words, but it made sense to me. it's obvious the he is 100% into the music he plays. you can tell by watching him, listening to him, and by the sheer fact that you HAVE to love that kind of music to make your living off of it. he believes that the audience can hear when you're telling the truth and when you're lying (in this case, lying is playing something you're not totally "diggin' on"). he talked about his first recital (he was 40) in which he played technically quite poorly when the whole audience rose to their feet immediately after he was done for a standing ovation. he said he was quite embarassed about it for many years to come but made the point that the audience reacted to the "truth" in his playing. i guess it's something that you'll either believe or not believe...but i believed what he was saying.
so here's my question...how do you perform a piece of music "truthfully?" afterall, music is a form of communication and when we communicate we have the option of being truthful or lying.
here's my answer, and i hope to hear what others think about this. i think what i have to do is know a piece so well that i can justify playing it my own way. who wrote the piece? who did he write it for? why did he write if for that person? why did that person agree to play the composer's music? etc, etc, etc....the list of questions could be endless. but, i think when you truly know the answers to all those questions, you can begin to approach whatever it is you're working on from your own perspective. first, though you need to have A perspective. i also think that part two of the answer is you need to love what you're working on. it may be technically difficult, or maybe boring in a couple spots, but you need to find something about it you really love and care about it. those two things, i think, are what seperate an inspired performance from one that is just technically acceptable.
ok, so, once again, those are my thoughts. take em, leave em, respond to em, do what you will. either way, thanks for reading.
love,
james
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
my masterclass coaching with dave taylor
my next post will be about my masterclass coaching with dave taylor.
right now, however, i'm gonna have a few...
love,
james
right now, however, i'm gonna have a few...
love,
james
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Baca baca boof!
the title actually isn't in reference to the king of jazz, mr. baca. although i miss him quite a lot, it's in reference to how my orchestra conductor used to sing different rhythms to the orchestra. we just finished our second concert of the season last sunday and i think it went pretty well. the conductor was mark gibson, who teaches at the cincinatti conservatory....yeah, he travelled back and forth for our rehearsals... he was a pretty intense conductor, well, atleast from my limited experience with conductors. if the orchestra was not ready in time it was never a small thing, but instead a very serious offense, which oddly enough, i came to appreciate. the man heard every single detail and every single mistake, even if it was the 100th chair violin using a different bowing. i think what impressed me more, though, was the way he didn't take ownership over the orchestra. he constantly reminded us that he wasn't rehearsing for his sake, but for our own. if we didn't feel like something needed to be rehearsed (and he would ask constantly), he wouldn't rehearse us on it. likewise, if we thought we needed to do something over again, he'd let us do it. pretty cool i thought. so far my orchestra experience here has been awesome and i can't wait for the next concert.
so now a little follow up to my last post.
i'm coming to the realization that things are what they are and that the only thing i have control over are my opinions of them. sometimes i just shouldn't form opinions on things. i'll try to explain.... it's a fact that i've come into a routine of getting to the gym, doing well in classes, and improving on the trombone. it was my opinion that this meant i was getting stuck in a rut and becoming somewhat "bored." i think it had something to do with "reporting" to my friends and family how i'm doing here in indiana. if i talked to my mom, a friend from eau claire, and wrote an e-mail to a buddy from high school all in one day telling them what i'm up to, it seemed to me that things were becoming quite routine and boring here. i simply formed a false opinion.
on the other hand, i'm starting to go explore a little more to break up some of the monotony. last weekend i randomly decided to go checkout a local restaurant at 10 o'clock at night. i discovered some huge music festival that was happening downtown and just roamed around for a while. it was refreshing. i'm also looking for a couple good coffee shops around here where i can go to do homework. although i didn't frequent racy's and the acoustic until my last couple months in eau claire, i miss those places a lot. i also miss the bistro and obviously the joynt. i need to find some similar places around here to get away from the apartment and the music building.
ok, so those are some thoughts for ya...
now for something fun. i laughed myself into tears watching this clip the first time i saw it. 5 points if you can identify what the bunny is singing. 2 points for composer, 2 points for genre, and 1 point for the date it was written. it's music history time!
thanks for readin'
james
so now a little follow up to my last post.
i'm coming to the realization that things are what they are and that the only thing i have control over are my opinions of them. sometimes i just shouldn't form opinions on things. i'll try to explain.... it's a fact that i've come into a routine of getting to the gym, doing well in classes, and improving on the trombone. it was my opinion that this meant i was getting stuck in a rut and becoming somewhat "bored." i think it had something to do with "reporting" to my friends and family how i'm doing here in indiana. if i talked to my mom, a friend from eau claire, and wrote an e-mail to a buddy from high school all in one day telling them what i'm up to, it seemed to me that things were becoming quite routine and boring here. i simply formed a false opinion.
on the other hand, i'm starting to go explore a little more to break up some of the monotony. last weekend i randomly decided to go checkout a local restaurant at 10 o'clock at night. i discovered some huge music festival that was happening downtown and just roamed around for a while. it was refreshing. i'm also looking for a couple good coffee shops around here where i can go to do homework. although i didn't frequent racy's and the acoustic until my last couple months in eau claire, i miss those places a lot. i also miss the bistro and obviously the joynt. i need to find some similar places around here to get away from the apartment and the music building.
ok, so those are some thoughts for ya...
now for something fun. i laughed myself into tears watching this clip the first time i saw it. 5 points if you can identify what the bunny is singing. 2 points for composer, 2 points for genre, and 1 point for the date it was written. it's music history time!
thanks for readin'
james
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
it really is about the journey
so here i am, in my 5th week of graduate school, and i'm feelin' pretty burned out. don't worry, this post won't get depressing, i promise.
when i first got here, i had a few goals that i was looking forward to tackling and some things i was pretty optimistic about. i was coming off of a summer where i had been very dedicated about working out and i knew that once i got to school and quit playing 7 shows a day outside in the heat, followed by staying up till 2+ am in the morning, i would most likely start to make some nice gains. (ok, i know some of you laugh at me trying to gain weight, but others of you know it's mildly important to me). sure enough, i've put on some weight and am about to reach my goal. (to spare myself the embarrassment, i won't tell you what that goal is. you can probably guess anyways.) now that i'm so close, however, i'm losing the motivation. instead of eating first thing when i get up in the morning, or right before i go to bed, i make some excuse like, "it won't kill me to miss this meal just once."
and of course, the same thing is beginning to happen with my playing. in my first few weeks, i was really struggling to play with a good orchestral bass trombone sound. my high range/endurance was basically non-existent despite the fact that i played tenor all summer long out at dorney. i was EXTREMELY motivated to get it back and worked patiently and diligently to do so. this last monday (2 days ago) my teacher gave me a huge compliment in my lesson. he said something like "james, i'm starting to hear glimpses of the bass trombone player you're going to be someday." ok, so, maybe it doesn't really sound like a compliment to you, but trust me on this, it's the closest i've come to one in my lessons thus far and it was right after i got done playing something that i thought came out pretty well. also, in studio class the week before, i was able to shake my nerves for the first time while playing in front of people at this school. it was a huge relief for me.
one last thing before i move on. when i first accepted here and began to tell everyone, i was told how difficult of an academic school this would be. i was nervous about this not because i'm not smart (well, i am a trombone player...) but because i knew that i have problems sometimes getting homework done. so, i told myself i was going to stay on top of it from the very beginning. so far i have and i've gotten nothing less than a B+ on the many quizzes and tests i've had so far.
so now, here i am, somewhat "satisfied" with how i've been handling everything and i'm beginning to lose steam. i slept in and didn't go to my music history class this morning. it took me about an hour to eat something after i did finally get up. i have a theory assignment due tomorrow that i haven't started yet and i haven't played a note yet today. granted, i'm going to get all this stuff done and it's going to be fine. i'm not writing to complain about all the stuff i have to do. that would be pathetic.
what is interesting to me though is that i'm happy with how i've been handling this experience so far, but i'm now becoming bored with it. i used to be proud that i was able to get up and go to the gym before my 8am class and now it just sort of seems routine and ordinary. same with everything else. i know it's cliche to say that i'm stuck in a rut, but it's sort of what it feels like.
so now i ask myself what the heck i'm going to do about it...
i don't exactly know the answer, but the obvious thing to do seems to be to set some new goals that, in order to meet them, require i continue to do what i was doing those first few weeks. the playing thing is simple. i need to find some auditions and go to town with the goal of winning one. as for putting on weight and working out, my goal will be to weigh 10 lbs more than the goal i'm about to reach. as for the school thing, i'm not sure. i'm thinking about setting up some kind of thing where i reward myself with something silly for getting an A or getting my homework done in a timely fashion. i'll take suggestions on that one.
well, i guess i'm done writing about that for a while. i'm sure i'll be keeping you up to date on how it's going.
and in case you're not sick of reading yet here are some things that are coming up that i'm excited about.
sunday - schumann 3 concert
next week thursday - dave taylor is here
last weekend of october - one of my new favorite persons is coming to visit (she's a girl!)
ok, really, i'm done now. i could continue on and tell you about colin and mine's first big 10 sporting event experience at the indiana vs. wis game last weekend, but i just need to get away from the computer for a little bit. maybe i'll come back later in the day and write about it. no promises though.
love,
james
when i first got here, i had a few goals that i was looking forward to tackling and some things i was pretty optimistic about. i was coming off of a summer where i had been very dedicated about working out and i knew that once i got to school and quit playing 7 shows a day outside in the heat, followed by staying up till 2+ am in the morning, i would most likely start to make some nice gains. (ok, i know some of you laugh at me trying to gain weight, but others of you know it's mildly important to me). sure enough, i've put on some weight and am about to reach my goal. (to spare myself the embarrassment, i won't tell you what that goal is. you can probably guess anyways.) now that i'm so close, however, i'm losing the motivation. instead of eating first thing when i get up in the morning, or right before i go to bed, i make some excuse like, "it won't kill me to miss this meal just once."
and of course, the same thing is beginning to happen with my playing. in my first few weeks, i was really struggling to play with a good orchestral bass trombone sound. my high range/endurance was basically non-existent despite the fact that i played tenor all summer long out at dorney. i was EXTREMELY motivated to get it back and worked patiently and diligently to do so. this last monday (2 days ago) my teacher gave me a huge compliment in my lesson. he said something like "james, i'm starting to hear glimpses of the bass trombone player you're going to be someday." ok, so, maybe it doesn't really sound like a compliment to you, but trust me on this, it's the closest i've come to one in my lessons thus far and it was right after i got done playing something that i thought came out pretty well. also, in studio class the week before, i was able to shake my nerves for the first time while playing in front of people at this school. it was a huge relief for me.
one last thing before i move on. when i first accepted here and began to tell everyone, i was told how difficult of an academic school this would be. i was nervous about this not because i'm not smart (well, i am a trombone player...) but because i knew that i have problems sometimes getting homework done. so, i told myself i was going to stay on top of it from the very beginning. so far i have and i've gotten nothing less than a B+ on the many quizzes and tests i've had so far.
so now, here i am, somewhat "satisfied" with how i've been handling everything and i'm beginning to lose steam. i slept in and didn't go to my music history class this morning. it took me about an hour to eat something after i did finally get up. i have a theory assignment due tomorrow that i haven't started yet and i haven't played a note yet today. granted, i'm going to get all this stuff done and it's going to be fine. i'm not writing to complain about all the stuff i have to do. that would be pathetic.
what is interesting to me though is that i'm happy with how i've been handling this experience so far, but i'm now becoming bored with it. i used to be proud that i was able to get up and go to the gym before my 8am class and now it just sort of seems routine and ordinary. same with everything else. i know it's cliche to say that i'm stuck in a rut, but it's sort of what it feels like.
so now i ask myself what the heck i'm going to do about it...
i don't exactly know the answer, but the obvious thing to do seems to be to set some new goals that, in order to meet them, require i continue to do what i was doing those first few weeks. the playing thing is simple. i need to find some auditions and go to town with the goal of winning one. as for putting on weight and working out, my goal will be to weigh 10 lbs more than the goal i'm about to reach. as for the school thing, i'm not sure. i'm thinking about setting up some kind of thing where i reward myself with something silly for getting an A or getting my homework done in a timely fashion. i'll take suggestions on that one.
well, i guess i'm done writing about that for a while. i'm sure i'll be keeping you up to date on how it's going.
and in case you're not sick of reading yet here are some things that are coming up that i'm excited about.
sunday - schumann 3 concert
next week thursday - dave taylor is here
last weekend of october - one of my new favorite persons is coming to visit (she's a girl!)
ok, really, i'm done now. i could continue on and tell you about colin and mine's first big 10 sporting event experience at the indiana vs. wis game last weekend, but i just need to get away from the computer for a little bit. maybe i'll come back later in the day and write about it. no promises though.
love,
james
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Friday, September 22, 2006
i like my burgers medium well please
ok, it's time for a good ol' fashioned rant. i just got back from my 8am music history class and i got a few words to say about the behavior of some of my peers at this "prestigous" university.
1. turn off your friggen cell phones! you're a graduate student right? you want to be here, studying what you love and so do the people around you right? so turn the damn thing off. and maybe, just maybe, if some other unfortunate person's cell phone happens to ring before yours does, maybe double check to make sure that yours is off so that you don't become douchebag numero dos. oh yeah, and if two cell phones go off before yours does, and then yours rings, well, guess what, you're an idiot and deserve to be pantsed in front of the entire class. one last thing before i move on, if your ring happens to be 'when the saints go marching in' please refrain from being a tool and saying 'it's jesus calling' jesus wouldn't call you at 8am while you're in your music history class. he's smarter than that. you're not, but jesus is. he would 'want' you to turn your %)(*@)#( cell phone off.
2. maybe the last class before an exam isn't the best time to be doing crossword puzzles. no, i can think of a better time to figure out what 3 across is. here's a hint; it probably has nothing to do with machaut or motets. don't worry though, i'm sure you'll do great on the test.
honestly, the tromone players here kick my ass, but the people in these classes are nothing short of priceless. it's worse than high school. i just hope they have their spatulas ready...
1. turn off your friggen cell phones! you're a graduate student right? you want to be here, studying what you love and so do the people around you right? so turn the damn thing off. and maybe, just maybe, if some other unfortunate person's cell phone happens to ring before yours does, maybe double check to make sure that yours is off so that you don't become douchebag numero dos. oh yeah, and if two cell phones go off before yours does, and then yours rings, well, guess what, you're an idiot and deserve to be pantsed in front of the entire class. one last thing before i move on, if your ring happens to be 'when the saints go marching in' please refrain from being a tool and saying 'it's jesus calling' jesus wouldn't call you at 8am while you're in your music history class. he's smarter than that. you're not, but jesus is. he would 'want' you to turn your %)(*@)#( cell phone off.
2. maybe the last class before an exam isn't the best time to be doing crossword puzzles. no, i can think of a better time to figure out what 3 across is. here's a hint; it probably has nothing to do with machaut or motets. don't worry though, i'm sure you'll do great on the test.
honestly, the tromone players here kick my ass, but the people in these classes are nothing short of priceless. it's worse than high school. i just hope they have their spatulas ready...
Friday, September 08, 2006
i gotta admit
i'm pretty impressed that anyone still reads this. after that long of a haitus (sp?), i was sure no one would be back. makes me realize how lucky i am to have friends that genuinely care...
k, sorry bout that, didn't mean to get all touchy feely on ya (leave it alone andrei...)
so here's a quick update;
all the trombone stuff is working itself out. i'm being patient with it and it's starting to pay off. one of the things i'm doing is playing a lot of air trombone where i just blow air through the horn instead of playing actual notes. so if something isn't working, i use all the right positions and articulation but instead of tone it's all air. i guess it just teaches my body how easy it should feel when i actually play. so then when i go to actually play the passage, my body seems to remember some of what i just taught it to do. yeah, it sounds silly but i'm writing about it because maybe someday i can come back and read this when things get funky again.
trombone stuff aside i'm doing well. i miss eau claire and all my friends and family but i'm slowing starting to meet new people and feel at home here. ultimate frisbee is helping with that side of things. i've been uber disciplined with my diet and working out, with the exception of going to qdoba too often with colin. we can't help it, it's just too good. i think we might have to sign up for their "frequent biter" card...
well, that's all i have time for right now. frisbee is starting...
take care,
james
k, sorry bout that, didn't mean to get all touchy feely on ya (leave it alone andrei...)
so here's a quick update;
all the trombone stuff is working itself out. i'm being patient with it and it's starting to pay off. one of the things i'm doing is playing a lot of air trombone where i just blow air through the horn instead of playing actual notes. so if something isn't working, i use all the right positions and articulation but instead of tone it's all air. i guess it just teaches my body how easy it should feel when i actually play. so then when i go to actually play the passage, my body seems to remember some of what i just taught it to do. yeah, it sounds silly but i'm writing about it because maybe someday i can come back and read this when things get funky again.
trombone stuff aside i'm doing well. i miss eau claire and all my friends and family but i'm slowing starting to meet new people and feel at home here. ultimate frisbee is helping with that side of things. i've been uber disciplined with my diet and working out, with the exception of going to qdoba too often with colin. we can't help it, it's just too good. i think we might have to sign up for their "frequent biter" card...
well, that's all i have time for right now. frisbee is starting...
take care,
james
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