Writing Season and Ginastera

Often I think I've done a good job of keeping up with this blog, but I'm usually just kidding myself. So, here's my attempt at trying to look like I care about maintaining this thing.

Part of the reason that writing a blog post hasn't been on my brain is that it is summer now and therefore it's "writing season." Now, if you're a teacher and you enjoy at least June and July off, you do things with your summer like take long trips, get caught up on reading or even take a second job to earn a little extra cash.

Well, I do those things too. For instance, I take a second job during the summer. Now granted, I'm the boss and I do my job in my pajamas (a lot!), but it's still income and it's still work. I write marching band music. Until this year, it's just been for percussion, but now I'm taking jobs writing for the wind players. It's been quite a blessing, but it's also been very busy! I'm not going to complain at all though!

I'm also getting caught up reading. Slowly (and I do mean slowly), I'm re-reading the Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Kayla and I read this about five years ago and got on board with Dave's plan, but I've just realized that I could use an opportunity to re-read what he wrote and to hopefully reenergize our efforts to be financially free. This side business is helping up do that by bringing in extra income.

And as for travel, well we are headed to Tulsa next week to see my parents, my brother and sister in law and their twin daughters as well as their new addition, Caleb! I'm very excited. Caleb was born in May (which is an impossible time for us to travel), so we won't have seen him until this trip. We were also supposed to have gone to another family reunion, but that was cancelled.

One other thing I've been trying to do is broaden my musical foundation. This came in the form of 75 free downloads from eMusic, I guess, for just being a great guy... Anyhow, I immediately downloaded the new White Rabbits album, "It's Frightening." I like it a lot, but sort of have to be in a particular mood for it. The sort of mood that says I want to listen to Coldplay or Radiohead but also break stuff... So, the best I can do is put it on when I mow the lawn. That's destructive in a way!

Also downloaded were two albums by The Bad Plus that I had let get away from me: Prog and For All I Care w/ Wendy Lewis. I love The Bad Plus -- they make me feel like I am simultaneously thumbing my nose at the jazz community, but also renewing my subscription to Down Beat...

And finally, I've downloaded the complete piano works of Alberto Ginastera. I'm not much of a piano music guy, but I can listen to this all day. He covers a wide variety of moods and styles. At times he is downright rhythmic and modern (like Stravinsky meets Van Cliburn) but other times he is melancholy and introspective. Right now I am infatuated with his Suite De Danzaz Criollas (Suite of Argentine Rural Dances). Within this five movement work, Ginastera goes from tonal, to wild and uninhibited. In fact, I'm amazed at how broadly he writes yet retaining a common theme that ties everything together.

Well, that better be all for now. Who are you listening to?

The Kitchen

The kitchen floor was started yesterday and the workers are coming back today to finish the job. Should be pretty exciting to have new flooring in nearly all of the house!

Work on Randall's opener continues. Good stuff. Challenging, too!

iPhone fixed, new carpet installed, a little more writing

After three hours on the phone with Apple technical support, we finally got the problem solved. The support guy wasn't completely sure why I was having the problem I was having, but just had me completely uninstall iTunes, then re-install it. For some reason this worked. That was a huge waste of time to have to go through all of the previous steps for something as simple as, wipe the program off, restart your computer and reload, but at the end of all of that I was just glad that it was working again. 

We had new carpet installed yesterday. Because the only carpeted areas in the house are the three bedrooms and the hallway connecting them, we had to put the house in complete turmoil to get everything moved out of those rooms. At one point, it looked like our house was a dollhouse that had been picked up in such a way that all of the stuff from those bedrooms just "fell" into the living room and the kitchen. At another point, every shoe we own and both large beds were littered throughout the kitchen! 

So, what do you do when you are prepping the house the night before, then realize you have just shut down your entire house from normal living? Well, you go to a hotel, that's what! After everything was moved out of those rooms, we loaded up the family and went to the Holiday Inn for the night. Highlight: swimming. Lowlight: the kids didn't want to go to sleep; Grant was up every two hours like clockwork.

But it all worked out and we have new carpet in our house. Now that she's seen it in place and has had a chance to walk around on it barefoot (some sort of carpet litmus test for her), Kayla doesn't really like the new carpet all that much. The main thing is that this carpet sits lower to the ground. So where we weren't able to paint the baseboards because the old carpet was in the way, is now exposed. A pain in the you-know-where, but totally fixable.

We also switched the kid's rooms around and rearranged our master bedroom. In a way, it feels like a new house. Then I walked into the office this morning...

I have one piece for band that I am trying desperately to finish but it seems like each idea that I come up with is really good. Only, really good for another piece; not the one I'm working on. I'm trying to look on the bright side, at least I'll have some ideas for another piece somewhere down the line. As it stands though, I've added two new files to my documents: Failed Band Piece 1 and Failed Band Piece 2. 

One thing that can be said about becoming a composer: you handle dissappointment and rejection better than you ever have because you are getting a lot more of it these days! So, when an idea totally doesn't work and you have to scrap it, you just look for the silver lining. And when a piece is rejected by a publisher (as one was this week), you just shop it to the next publisher. 

And life goes on... Cue "Obladi, Oblada." 

iPhone Madness!

Sometime on Saturday, my iTunes started issuing an error message: "Your computer is no longer authorized to blah, blah, something about your iPhone, yada, yada, you pretty much suck at life and need to reauthorize your computer." So, I'd try doing that, but would just get an endless loop of these messages. Then sometime on Sunday, I tried de-authorizing the account and that was, well, pretty stupid, because all of the apps on my phone stopped working. 

There's nothing like having some small electronic device ruin your day. You never realize how much you use something like the apps on your iPhone until you can't use one. It's like showing up to work and the internet is down. It's not that your life revolves around the internet, but you start to suddenly realize that you use it way more than you ever dreamed of. And it's not like your job relies on the internet, but you just use it so much, that you feel like you are rendered useless. 

I feel pretty useless right now. 

So far, I've been on the phone with Apple Technical Support for an hour and a half. I've done everything they've asked (authorize, deauthorize, sign in, sign out of iTunes about 12 times) and to no avail. I'm actually on my second technical support guy. The first one lasted most of that time, but then I guess he called in the 'big guns' and now Dave is handling my call. I've been on hold most of that time and what I'm picturing is a guy sitting in a cubicle thumbing through a three inch thick binder looking for every possible topic and trouble-shooting guide to figure out what's going on. 

Now that we've disconnected our home phone (to save on the money we are now giving Apple/AT&T through the purchase and plans for two iPhones), I'm doing all of this on my iPhone, which means the minutes I'm using to be on hold with these guys is going to end up really costing me. Wait! I have tons of rollover minutes... Shwew! That should help. But still, I feel a little violated knowing that I'm paying for this whole transaction. I mean, the "on-hold" music isn't that great and most of the time it sounds like you are driving through a thunderstorm while listening to AM radio. And it's that funky "Apple music" you hear on the commercials that's supposed to make you think that they are totally cooler than you, so if you wanted to try to catch up with them a little you'd buy that music and listen to it.

Sort of like (or very much like) Starbuck's. Let's be honest here, I've bought into the craze, the hype, and the advertising is definitely working. 

Contest looms...

I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I tend to get very singularly minded. And when something like band contest is on the horizon, it is really difficult for me to focus my energies on anything else.

For instance, I'm working on a new band piece that I'm hoping will be a Grade 3. Well, with band contest hanging over my head, everything I'm trying to write sounds like my contest selections! And if I have some success straying from that, then they turn into the contest selections for our Junior High!

So, in about a month, I should have a new piece of music, but I gotta tell you, I'm a little worried that it's going to sound a bit like a medley: "The Hosts of Ghost Fleet, Scarborough Fair Variations Freedom March."

Or... "Polka and Trombone King from the opera Incantation and Dance."

Argh!!!

Home again... Enjoying Spring Break

We took our Spring Trip with the band last week and it was amazing! The trip was so well planned and the kids were so well-behaved that the whole thing went off without a hitch.

We went to Universal Studios, Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Hollywood Blvd and the Historic Gaslamp District in downtown San Diego. The first three days we stayed in Anaheim and the last two we stayed in San Diego.

The highlight of the trip for me was the "recording session" we did backstage at Disney. As part of their "Magic Music Days," Disney has set up a recording experience for students to get an idea of what it's like to record music for film. I found it to be fascinating and many of the students said they learned a lot and had a good time, too.

This is not your average "perform-at-Disney-World-and-no-one-except-your-parents-and-sponsors-will-pay-attention" events. (I made a point of watching a beginner band from Tuscon, Arizona -- Gridley MS? -- they played a ton of music and I thought it was super-cool for their director to take them out into public in that fragile first year. It's also good for me to hear bands outside of Texas as it's easy to get desensitized to hearing only our brand of band. But, I digress...) The benefit behind doing a session like the one we did is that the students got to work with an actual session conductor/arranger/composer. 

I love hearing composers and arrangers talk about music -- they are much more constructive than they are analytical. Directors who haven't written or arranged much look at music like they were taught to in college: by dissecting the music and assessing all of the parts individually. Composers/arrangers tend to look at the music by seeing how all of the parts fit together. I guess you could say that a person with little writing experience looks at the puzzle pieces individually and the composer/arranger looks at how they form the puzzle. 

(While I am far from any sort of arrival as a composer, I have noticed that I am starting to teach more like a writer than as a technician. I'm not sure if my students are any better for it, but I think they understand the form and big-picture better with that focus.) 

That particular session was very sight-reading based and I think that is something our students needed to have. I have maintained that a musician finds music more enjoyable when they can just sit down and play. If every time a student gets a new piece of music they have to be taught every note and nuance, I doubt that's as much fun. As my reading skills increase, so does my enjoyment of the experience. After all, better reading makes music seem more effortless. And who likes to have to work at something?!?

Because blogger is free and therefore not terribly powerful, I am not going to post any pictures of my trip here. Instead, I am going to post some links from my Facebook photo albums so you can view them at your own leisure.

Now, with only a few days left of the break, I have to finish my last stock marching band arrangement and continue work on my new Grade 3-ish band work that is to be premiered by the Town & Gown Band in June.

Here are the links (they are reverse chronological order, so if you want to see them in order, start with Album Five):

Album One

Album Two

Album Three

Album Four

Album Five

Upcoming Performances

Tonight is the Randall Percussion Ensemble Concert. I doubt that if you are reading this that you'll be able to attend. You might be reading this well past our March 10th concert date, too!

But if you go, you'll hear (among other pieces) Ku-ka Ilimoku by Christopher Rouse, Stompin' Grounds by Bela Fleck, a transcription of the first movement from Mendelssohn's Fourth Symphony by moi', and Suite for Solo Drumset by David Mancini.

The students have really been working hard; I expect this will be our best concert to date!

Now on to those things that I've written that are getting performed:

Amazing Grace for solo vibraphone is finally getting its premiere! A college student in Kentucky emailed me to find out my birth year so he could put it on his program. He mentioned that he's playing Amazing Grace so I emailed him back to tell him that, to my knowledge, he's the first one to perform it. Somewhere between 15 and 25 copies have been sold since it was first published back in 2006, but this is the only known performance of it. (If you performed it and are reading this, send me an email!).

The story on that one is that I received it as a commission for a student who was preparing a senior recital at Texas Tech University. For some reason unknown to me, the piece was not programmed on his recital. I've speculated that it was too hard for the time frame given to work it up and perform it. I've tried to play it before and I have to tell you, it really gives me a run for my money! At one time I thought I would premiere it, but I just wasn't able to get it worked up in time. What's more likely is that my ability as a solo vibraphonist is slipping, slipping away...

Anyhow, there is another performance expected of Heroes of Old, Men of Renown sometime this May. I won't reveal any details now (don't want to jinx myself...), but when this is confirmed and I have a date and more details, I'll share them here.

Also, starting next week (spring break, baby!), I am going to finish work on a Grade 3 piece for band that I've been sketcing here and there for a couple of years. There are two different sketches that I think should work well together. The first is minimalistic, quick and ryhthmic and the other is slower, contrasting and lyrical. If all goes well, the slower sketch should serve as a good contrasting middle section to the minimalist part. (Who's been listening to Steve Reich and John Adams lately? Hmmm.... I'll give you three guesses....)

The last piece mentioned will be premiered again by the Town & Gown Band under the direction of Dr. Gary Garner. Very exciting!

Last but not least, I wrote a little Grade 1.5 march for our second junior high band to play at UIL contest. I got to hear twelve measures of it yesterday and I think it's going to be a good, little piece for their April 15th contest!

As of now, there is no title, so if you've ever wanted to name a piece of music, here's your chance!

"Paramount Park" wins the ATSSB Composition Contest

Hey, so this is kinda old news by now. But, my little grade 2 piece "Paramount Park" won the first composition contest sponsored by the Association of Texas Small School Bands. This is quite the honor for me. It's my first award of any sort for writing and in a way I think that's validation that I'm doing some things right.

It's pretty easy to get discouraged when you factor in all of the great living composers out there (and well, all the hacks who still get work, too). And, it's pretty easy to start to think, "well, maybe I'm one of those hacks, who doesn't get work." Yeah, that could be a problem!

And marching band commissions don't count. Which, on a side note, my wind arranging business has blossomed and at present I will be writing five shows next year in addition to my (what I can only assume...) full slate of percussion arranging. This is really good news. And in one case specifically, the ATSSB contest helped bring about one of the wind arranging gigs.

So, while marching band commissions don't count, but pay the bills, put food on the table and insures that we buy a Route 44 something from Sonic every once in a while, they have their positives, too.

And, well, think of all of the famous living composers who started out writing for marching band... Well, go ahead... think of a few.

Okay, then. Think of one.

Not even one?

Oh brother... Well, there has to be a first, right?!?

TMEA, Part 2

So MUCH of TMEA is about the food you can eat on the Riverwalk. Last night, Valentine's Day, we couldn't get in at any of the usual places, so we wandered down the river a ways. Finally, we found a restaurant I had never been to before that didn't have a ridiculous wait time: Rita's on the Riverwalk.

We didn't order food, just appetizers: nachos and riverwalk queso. I have to admit, the queso was crazy-good. It came with tortillas and those were hands-down, the second best tortillas I've ever had (first place will always go to Amarillo-favorite, Oscar's Burritos).

Here's a picture of the queso bowl. Good Eats!

On Friday, I ate with the staff from Joshua HS. We ate at the restaurant in the Rivercenter hotel. I can't remember what the name of the place was, but the buffet was pretty amazing. Here's the dessert pic first.

And, here's some pretty awesome chicken with all of the trimming... There's a salad on there somewhere. And rice. Yes, I can at least identify healthy foods and occasionally put them on my plate. 

This is a pretty sore subject among some of my coworkers:

When we checked in on Wednesday, the women could get into their room immediately, but us guys would have to wait until the actual check-in time before another room would be available. So, after a late lunch, we came back only to find that no rooms were available again. Being that my singular purpose on the Wednesday of TMEA is to judge All-State Auditions, I was starting to get "antsy." I was in a T-shirt and jeans with about 45 minutes before the judge's meeting -- I really prefer to dress nicely for that audition, for some reason. So, I mentioned to the front desk clerk that I had a meeting to be in and that I needed to have ironed my clothes and changed and given myself time to get to the convention center. 

So, after a little checking around, she was able to get cleared to give us a suite! Suddenly our $200 a night double was picking up a $1200 a night room! Although, I have to admit that I didn't think our room was all that spectacular. It did, however, provide a pretty cool view of the downtown area.

Our room was on the 9th floor of the Emily Morgan and it overlooked the Alamo. Here's the back.

It was foggy the morning I took these pictures. It adds a nice effect to the photos... (This is the Hilton Palacio de Rio -- thanks to Rosetta Stone I know that means "Palace of the River.")

And here's a shot taken towards the Convention Center. In the foreground is the tan Crockett Hotel. To the left and tallest is the Marriott RiverCenter Hotel, followed right by the new Grand Hyatt then then I'm pretty sure that that is the original Hyatt.

Here's another pic of the Alamo grounds. We cut through the back gate a few times to avoid having to go all the way around it!

On Saturday morning, there was a crew of drummers, buglers and period soldiers doing some sort of reenactment. 

All in all, a great trip! 

TMEA 09, Part One

So, it takes flying to San Antonio to have enough time and motivation to write a blog. That's pretty lame. But, this is seriously on my to-do list for today. This will be the first in two installments of my TMEA blogs. (And because Blogger was being really dumb the other day, I will be writing both blogs while I'm sitting in the San Antonio airport on the way home from TMEA...)



Here's our pit stop in Dallas enjoying psuedo-mexican food. Hey, it's Chili's... It's not the Riverwalk.














Here's our All-Stater, Mitra. She's originally from Iran. So, suffice to say, she's logged more airline miles than ANY of us combined! Man, what a clarinet player -- this girl knows her stuff.














When we got off the plane in Dallas, the first thing we saw were two vending machines for something I'd never really suspect would go in a vending machine: Rosetta Stone Language Software (which from personal experience I can attest Rosetta Stone being muy bien' for learning how to speak espanol...)











Then next to it was an iPod vending machine. You could buy virtually any iPod you wanted -- sans iPhones -- but there was plenty to choose from. iCan't imagine there being much being sold in the way of iTouches there, but iDid see a lot of accessories that you could (or iCould) buy: earbuds and holsters, etc. iThought it was quite a neat thing to see, but nothing iD'd probably ever find myself buying. But, iDigress....

Here's another picture iTook.

From there, we had an uneventful flight to San Antonio. The only other thing worth mentioning is that from Amarillo to San Antonio, we shared both flights with the basketball team from Oklahoma Panhandle St. Univ. These guys were living the life: you would have thought that they played basketball at an actual NCAA school. These guys really knew how to wear all of their clothing loose and listen to their mp3 players beyond a safe decibel limit.

It's also worth noting that there was a very large percentage of music educators on our flight. So, had there been a terrible accident, the future of both music education and Division Four college basketball was doomed.

New Videos on YouTube

I should actually sit down sometime and write a real blog, but this quick post will have to work for now.

I've posted two more videos up on YouTube. The first one is a sort of "video yearbook" of our trip to PASIC. The second is a slideshow of Christmas spent with my side of the family.

There are two others in the works: one for Christmas with Kayla's side of the family and one of my granddad's 90th birthday party. 

Then, I should probably sit down and try to write something. My writing has been pretty much non-existent. This has been a crazy, but productive fall. And thus far, this new semester has been hectic with a lot of playing and, of course, organizing the percussion for the All-Region Bands. Geez, it's any wonder I write anything!

Anyhow, it's past my bed time and my staying up late has been wrecking my days, so.... Good night!