Monthly Archives: August 2012
Why Your Degree Title is Wrong
Students in colleges today put so much emphasis on their degree titles, on their specialty. Now, I firmly believe that to be great at what you do (and I believe anything less than great isn’t worth doing), you do have to specialize, in a sense. But I have a serious problem with the structure degree […]
Drop the Needle / Telemann Canonic Sonata
Here’s a little something I’ve been playing around with: Telemann’s Canonic Sonata No. 1, movement 3. A duet, both parts played by me. Many thanks to Mike Forbes for doing these transcriptions. Available on the Tuba-Euphonium Press website.
Sightreading Sundays / Aug. 26
This week is back to basics. Simple rhythms and all in the diatonic key. This should help younger students especially to feel more comfortable playing different “chunks” of a scale (not always starting on the tonic note). Download the Sightreading Sundays PDFs here.
Today in Music / August 20
On this day in 1882, the world heard the first performance of Tchaikovsky‘s 1812 Overture, in Moscow. It was commissioned by Tsar Alexander II for performance at Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The music is a retelling of the invasion of Napoleon’s French Allied Army into Russia. The Overture’s score calls for the firing of […]
What Music Looks Like / A Cellist. And Cows.
This certainly demonstrates the power of music, no? A cellist plays and a group of cows walks across the field to get closer, to listen. And it’s not just classical—cows like jazz too. Some scientists suggest that music boosts the milk output of dairy cows. We certainly know it boosts the output of students. […]
What Others Say / Miles Davis
Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself. —Miles Davis, jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer
User Experience
I’ve always liked traveling. That’s how my parents would get me to fall asleep when I was a kid, and I made a job out of it when I toured with SBQ. One thing I really like about traveling is meeting people from completely outside my sphere. You can meet the most varied and interesting […]
Sound Bites / The Business of Art
Being a musician today isn’t simply playing well. It means seeing your art as your business. You are your product.
Sightreading Sundays / Minor 2nds
Sorry for the lateness of this post today. Just got back from Indianapolis and the DCI World Championships. It was a great time, but now I’m back in the swing of things. Todays sight-reading focuses on the interval of a minor second, in a waltz feel. It is a basic range with only a few […]
Long Tones: The Pursuit of a Life in Music 