New Blog Location

Yo. No one reads this thing anyways. Am I right? (If a tree falls in the forest...)

Anyhow, I'm "moving" the blog to www.ericrathmusic.com where no one will read it there, either.

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!

Drumline Performs at PASIC

This post is WAY over due, but given how quickly the second half of either semester goes and how hectic the holidays can get, I am just now getting to this.

So, the Randall Drumline performed at PASIC in November. This was an incredible experience and I hope these students will not soon forget it. And, I hope that, one day, they'll appreciate the magnitude of what they accomplished by doing this.

I'm pretty sure there was some other video of our performance taken, but the video I have (taken on my camera -- so not all that great) is posted on YouTube. Here's the link.

Also, junior Josh Dolezal performed a tenor solo and I have a video of that.

It was an awesome weekend and, more importantly, an awesome semester of preparation for such a big performance. I'm so proud of the students for their attitudes and work ethic. Definitely a highlight of my career!

Computer Crash (bitter sweet)

Here's another timed post entry -- it's the only way I'm going to guarantee to not put way too much time into these things... Five minutes; ready, go!

So, about three weeks ago (maybe four by now), I got up to do some email, drink some coffee and waste time on Facebook. After trying to access Internet Explorer, I got the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death!"

This is the one that looks as if Microsoft's technology has suddenly jumped backwards fifteen years into MS-DOS. And the message? That basically, you are screwed.

So, knowing people personally who work on computers has turned out to be a really good thing. My friend Brandon took a look at my computer and called me about three hours later:

Me: What's the damage?

Brandon: The good news or the bad news?

Me: The bad...

Brandon: Your computer can't be brought back to life, you are going to need to buy a new one.

Me: Geez... What's the good news???

Brandon: I didn't lose any of your files off of your computer. I had 100% recovery on your hard drive.

Now, that is good news, because every picture of our children is on that hard drive and all of my music is there and all of my compositions and Sibelius Scores... It could have been messy if it was all missing. But alas, Brandon did a miracle on my hard drive. So, the remains of my computer is the external hard drive case he sold me that holds the "brain in a glass jar" of what was once my old computer.

Why is this bitter sweet? Because, tomorrow I am ordering my first Mac. I am officially done with Microsoft and with Dell. I am very excited about getting my first over-sized screen with my new iMac!

And... ding. That's time.

Warning: full-on political post!

I am giving myself five minutes to write this blog.

Ready to time me? (yep, I know it doesn't work that way)

Here.

I.

Go:

We are hosting a drumline contest at the school on Saturday. We have some really fine drumlines participating, but there are not as many drumlines participating as I would like. I'm still trying to figure this one out. It's a good contest that is hopefully not a "scary" environment for an inexperienced drumline... I just don't know.

The election is really ramping up. The debate last night was a real snooze-fest. Geez, I thought I would fall asleep when either guy would talk. And let's be honest, I've got my guy picked out already, the sign is literally in the yard and I thought he was just as boring as the other guy.

Which really just opens another wound: Sarah Palin. Here: I'm going to say it.

I like her.

I think the Saturday Night Live spoofs are hilarious (and pretty much dead on), but that doesn't bother me.

Here's the problem we have as a nation with someone like Sarah Palin (and why it causes such a problem when you are trying to pick two people to run for president): she's really down to earth. The problem with that, is the appeal of her being so down to earth, is the reason half the country hates her.

I like her because I could imagine that what she lacks in experience she would make up in good ol' determination. I truly think her heart is in the right place.

But this is why the other half of the country can't stand her. They want someone slick and polished and someone not like them. But the fact of the matter is that normal people don't end up running for president, only career politicians do.

Barack Obama? Career politician. Seriously, this guy has been in a national office for something like 143 days before he started his presidential campaign... The only other person with that kind of experience to ambition ratio is... well, Hillary Clinton.

John McCain? He's been in the Senate since I was in diapers. And not disposable diapers, mind you: straight-up late 70's, early 80's cloth diapers. This guys has been waiting for his chance at the presidency for a long time. When it didn't happen in 2000, couldn't you just imagine the GOP backroom pulling him aside and saying, "hey John, it's your turn next time."

The more I follow politics, the more I'm convinced this sort of "inside machine" thing is taking place, turning all of the wheels, telling the public what to think and basically how to vote.

DING! There's the timer. No time to proofread. But who are we kidding, no one reads this blog anyways. It's just a catharsis. A catharsis about the guy who's sign is in my yard who still bores me and appears only slightly less ingenuous than the other guy.

Grant Eats Cereal!

This is my first attempt at editing a video and posting it to Youtube. I know it's not much (thanks, Windows Movie Maker), but it is a chance for you to see how Grant is doing!

Here's a link to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feR-cvmYOR8

I hope you like it!

Jump 'N' Jive

So, one of Regan's little friends, Sadie, had a birthday party at this place called Jump 'N' Jive. This is a place where "inflatables" apparently go to die a slow death. If you are unsure as to what an inflatable is, take a look here. And here's another picture for you to look at.

You get what I'm describing, right? We live across the street from a park and when the weather gets moderately decent, all the rich kids rent these things then invite their friends to eat hot dogs, bounce around for a few hours and inevitably vomit inside the inflatable.

Sounds fun, no?

Anyhow, we got really excited about getting to go to J 'N' J because it gave us something to do on a Saturday, and we would never have thought about doing something like this on our own unless Rachel, Sadie's mother, hadn't won this birthday party.

Disclaimer: I'm already over my quota on run-on sentences, so you are just going to have to forget that I got an english minor in college, and forgive the endless streams of thoughts that reside in on sentence. (Geez. I just read that. And well, I ought to be shot.)

What I did not know about this place is that parents are encouraged to get right in there with their kids and play along. As a matter of fact, I don't know what I was expecting my two year old daughter to do without a little coaxing from her father! So, we kicked off our shoes, and went to the first slide we saw -- which was, no lie -- two stories tall.

There was no way either one of us was going to make it all the up this thing.

The incline alone was enough to render me useless, but Regan with a smaller frame might have had a chance if there had been adequate footing and hand-holds. There weren't. And that's why I said this is the place where inflatables go to die. These have to be the ones that have been retired by some self-respecting inflatable-for-rent company.

Well, Regan and I got most of the way up before we found that getting the rest of the way would be impossible. But, lo and behold, another dad and three kids were making the climb behind us. What to do, what to do? The other dad was very encouraging (I must have had a look of trepidation or retreat on my face), because he instructed me to hand down Regan. So, as I did, I lost my footing and took myself and Regan down the long line of kids and their poor, unsuspecting father.

What happened next, I sware, happened in slow motion: Regan and I slipped. I'm pretty sure that my sock foot ended up in the jaw of the dad behind me and Regan and I took out every single person on the slide. It happened in slow motion, with the sound of bowling pins being knocked over and Adagio for Strings being piped over the sound system.

But we landed safely. Granted, I was about two or three breaths away from actually needing medical attention, but we landed safely and soundly.

Then Regan ran to the next inflatable. Then another. Then another. She was unphased by the experience and realized that she might really enjoy these after all!

We thought that she would have a good nap that afternoon because she had spent so much energy -- and she did -- but I was the one who really needed a nap. No kidding, for several days afterwards, parts of my body ached that I wasn't aware could ache...

Really and truly, after that first, ill-fated event, the rest of the day was a lot of fun. Regan and I played as if I were a two year old right there with her. Kayla and I took turns playing with Regan and watching Grant. And, just like it was when I was going to birthday partys at Regan's age, those two hours went by as fast as any two hours I've ever lived.

We had a great day. Embarassing moments and all!

School Starts

School started a couple of weeks ago. This is always a time of adjustment and that adjustment usually takes me three or four weeks to complete. I don't really quit working over the summer. Granted, the work is for myself in the form of freelance writing, but it's still 8 or 10 hour days. And those days are here in my home office.

So, the biggest adjustment I face is that I have to wear professional clothing and I have to take that 8, 10 or 12 hours a day to a different location: the school(s).

Okay, that's not true. The biggest adjustment I face is that, during the summer, I get to be home pretty much all day with my family. Yes, a lot of that time I am locked away in the office hacking out someone's flam tap/flam accent, turns into a flam drag, finishes with a double stroke roll based over triplets phrase for the snare feature in their show, but when it's lunch time, I get to be 'daddy.' When the kids wake up from the naps I put them down for, I'm there. I'm there at 3:50 in the afternoon when we decide we can load the whole family up in the minivan and still make it to Sonic by the end of Happy Hour.

Bottom line: when school starts, I stop seeing my family. And I hate it.

So, when I have a rough day, or have a stressful encounter with a parent, can't have a reasonable conversation with a coach or can't seem to get some chunk of music to sound just right, it opens up that wound that I'm not there in the safety net that my family creates.

I like teaching band. I'm passionate about writing music. But, I love my family. And band directing is hard because of the sheer lack of family time I get, especially during marching season.

An anecdote:

This summer, my now almost six-month old son, Grant, learned how to roll over from his back to his stomach. This is pretty big stuff in the world of baby development. The first time he did it, I was there! It was way cool and I can't believe that music and fireworks didn't immediately start right afterward! Heck, Kayla wasn't in the room, so this is one of those really rare opportunities that I would see something like this before she would (major bragging rights, by the way...).

Well, the next bit of development is that Grant started to get up on his knees and start to rock back and forth a little. That has been cool to watch him do, too. Couple that with the fact that he can now sit-up on his own, and this has been a pretty cool thing to witness.

What's so hard to cope with is, now that school has started, I am very much less likely to see Grant start to really crawl. I have pretty much seen everything up to this point, from the moment it started, but with this, I am anticipating (but somewhat also dreading) the inevitable phone call I will get from Kayla. "Grant just started crawling for real, on his own!"

Now, I'm not stupid, and I know that I'm not the first person who has had to tackle this difficult balance between work and home, but it's just all so real now, and no longer so hypothetical. I know that you have to learn to strike symmetry between the time you spend at your job and the time you spend with your family. But, from previous experience, finding that symmetry is a never-ending pursuit.

So, here's to another year of having lunch with my family in the teacher's lounge and seeing them for a few minutes in the third quarter of a football game. And here's another year of telling a student I'll get something ready/together/done for them, then blowing it off because I am taking Regan to the store. And, not being as prepared for rehearsal or the week because the kids are dressed in Dallas Cowboys outfits and time must stand still for the game!

If there's a solution; I haven't found it. But, I'll keep looking.

Heroes of Old... Get's another performance!

This one time at band camp...

Sorry, I can't help myself!

So, this one time at West Texas A&M University Band Camp, July 2008, "Heroes of Old, Men of Renown" got another performance. The group was the HS Concert Band (smack-dab in the middle: the third band of five) and it was conducted by Brian Collins (HBD at Midland HS) and David Wright (HBD at Randall HS, and my boss, colleague, friend, bridge partner and fishing buddy). David chose "Heroes" to be one of his two pieces to conduct.

Of course, this is as much a friend doing another friend a favor, but it was still cool to hear another group tackle this piece. And since I also teach at that camp, I got to be literally down the hall to hear snippets of rehearsal.

On a side note, I may have mentioned this in my AXIOM blog, but I cannot tell you how cool it is to be casually walking down the hall and hear something you wrote being played from a distance. One of the times that happened, I had this thought: "That's pretty cool, whatever that is. Oh wait! I wrote that!" My disclaimer on that is that I was hearing the trombones working on something on their own in their Brass/Percussion rehearsal so I didn't register right away. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

At the end of two of the full ensemble rehearsals, I got to stick my head in and listen to the rehearsal. The first day, I took some pictures and spoke to the band about the piece and what the title means and how the title has nothing to do with the piece (at least in concept), yada, yada. (Hey, I know it's not impressive. I don't have this whole "composer addressing the ensemble" thing working for me!)

Like I said, I took some pictures, and while they aren't as cool as John Mackey's blog pictures -- there are no high quality pictures here nor has any exotic food been photographed in extreme zoom! -- they are pictures nonetheless. And every picture needs a caption...


Two of the three trumpets are Randall HS kids. How's that third trumpet part, Kayla and Patrick? Lots of kickslide -- I hope you have that working properly!


Summer from Randall counts rests diligently. Have I mentioned how this is a piece for horn players!? I can't believe she even had any rests to count in the first place? By the way, nice job of not making eye contact here...
This is David conducting. I'm not sure what's happening in this photo, but I think it's a Rule #2 from Dr. Garner's four big conducting rules. David appears to be conducting the Rule #2 in both hands. Hey, whatever works for ya'.

Brian Collins is clearly not sure why I took his picture. Neither am I. But he's a handsome man, don't you think?


Thanks to three hours in a FedEx Kinkos, here's the score. Remind me to find a real print shop. Kinkos - great for b&w and color photos. 11 x 17" scores? Nope.

Over the shoulder of an unexpecting band member...

The marimba part gets some serious stick height!
This part is written for sandpaper blocks, but they are seldom loud enough to hear. Here's the cabasa making a good substitution.
Yea for euphoniums!
Hey, Sebastian? How are those high 'c's comin'?
The performance was a good one and the opportunity to hang out with the students was a lot of fun as well. This was definitely the highlight of my band camp.

Now back to writing drumline stuff!

Summer

Well, if I thought I might have more time and motivation for blog entries in the summer, I would have written more by now. But as it stands, my time behind the computer (which has been extensive to say the least) has been spent in Sibelius working on drumbooks for various bands across the state. It is a time consuming line of work, but I truly enjoy it and look forward to the month of June when I do all of this writing.

When July hits, I start putting my 'band director' hat back on a little. West Texas A&M University Band Camp will start in a week, then I'll have to start communicating with the outside world and remember what it's like to be addressed as "Mr. Rath." (If I'm addressed as "Mr. Rath" in the month of June it's usually because I ran into a student at Chili's...)

So, on June 9th, "Heroes of Old, Men of Renown" was premiered by the Town and Gown Band. The performance was solid with only some things here and there that could have gone better. My parents drove down for the weekend and for the performance and fortunately, my dad made a recording from the balcony. I expected that the concert hall would have made an archival recording, but that was not correct.

I'm pleased with how the recording turned out. So pleased, in fact, that I am submitting "Heroes" in two different Composition Contests. Who knows how it will do, but we'll see...

If you want, you can hear it at my website. The link is on the right.

Now back to the grind!