Football season is winding down

Finally, the Aggies are almost ready to call it quits, and let the marching band have a weekend to ourselves. Thankfully they squeaked out another win, but regardless the best party of the game was our disco show. Hopefully video will be forthcoming...

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Cool Cymbal stuff

That was from Crossmen



The IUP Marching Band



Is there a better cymbal line than Santa Clara Vanguard?



VIPER!!!! Only the greatest cymbal visual of ALL TIME!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ0mc7Yuwws

I couldn't embed this one, EPSN 2 wouldn't have it, but this is the BEST CLOSER EVER!!! (In my Opinion)

Anyway, that's enough for now.

Band Geek Win!

LOVE it!

A W is a W...

Woohoo! The Aggies won the home opener against Idaho State!!! We ( The Aggie Marching Band) played a special patriotic tribute for 9/11 featuring a big flag on the field, and it was AWESOME! My baritones looked great too. All in all it was a great game!

I hate rush jobs...

So our athletic department at USU, in their infinite wisdom, planned our home opener on Sept. 11th, which doesn't bother me, except that we only have two weeks to prepare this show, and our pre-game. It is tough, because we are all kind of on edge, hoping that everything is going to work out okay with the shows... I suppose I am a little excited to watch the game, since our team nearly pulled of an upset against Oklahoma, I just wish that it wasn't so soon after the beginning of school...

I'm in KKPsi

I had the pleasure of going to dinner with on of my brothers from Kappa Kappa Psi, the honorary band fraternity during our fundamentals week. We were both wearing shirts that we had made to wear for the breakfast we provided for the band, which had KKPsi stenciled on them. When we got to the restaurant that we  were going to eat at, a family that was eating there started eying our shirts, and asked us "What does that mean? Is it some sort of gang?"


We wound up spending a good twenty minutes explaining our role as members of Kappa Kappa Psi, what we did in the band, what kinds of shows we do. It was actually kind of fun, and funny at the same time. The things I take for granted are things that other people may never have heard of, I guess.

Back to the grind...

Here we go, back to school. Finished is the summer, sleeping till eleven, band camp, camping; on to music history, jazz band, and private practice...

Band camp was great though, I am really glad to have a solid section this year. It is nice to be able to count on the members of my section to be there on time, to play their parts well, and to march well. I hope that we will have a blast together this season.

A tradition of the USU fundamentals camp is the picnic/pie auction, where section leaders get a large plate of pudding to the face, along with a few faculty members. My baritones seemed to really enjoy spreading pudding all over my face, and I have to admit that it was pretty funny, and it is an odd sensation to be covered in pudding. Thanks to my section for a great Fundamentals Week, I'm looking forward to the rest of the marching season, starting Sept. 11th against ISU!

It's so hard to get motivated.

Still haven't gotten very far on the Viderunt Omnes arrangement, and I am stuck in the intro of a Journey arrangement for pep band. It is just so hard to get motivated to do these things during the summer. It is driving me absolutely insane!

New Arrangement

Woohoo!!! I finally got started on my arrangement of Perotin's Viderunt Omnes for three euphonium and one tuba! Hope it will be good!

Lessons I Should Learn

Wow, I finally got back to practicing today. I thought that I would take a couple of weeks off after the semester ended, take a bit of a break, but the couple of weeks turned into a couple of months. Okay, not quite a couple of months, but too long for comfort. I find that I have lost a little range, and a little air support, which is not a huge deal, those things come back with practice. The real problem is that I wasted time catching up. If I had not wasted so much time not practicing I would be that much better. Chalk up one more on the list of lessons I should learn.

Impatient

You know how you go through phases in life? Well, my latest phase is the "impatient" phase. It seems to hit me around the summer time, mostly because I realize that I am a poor college student who has no money, and that sucks. Sometimes I am impatient because I have a burning desire to go back to France, sometimes it is because I see a new gadget I want, or because an old one has malfunctioned and I really want to replace it. In any case, I think that the "impatient" phase is possibly the most annoying of the phases that we go through. It manifests itself in different ways for different people, but there are a few things that are common to all who are going through this particular phase:

1. Sour moods, crankiness in general. When in the impatient phase, no matter how many things go right, they always seem to be outweighed by a lack of money, cool cars, cool phones, cool computers, etc...
2. Compulsive buying. I have noticed in myself and others that when this phase hits we tend to buy a lot of small, random things to try to make up for what we don't have, which usually just leads to clutter
3. Rationalization. People in this phase generally try to rationalize going into debt for non-essentials, which will only lead people into the "financial ruin" phase

Myself, I have managed to stick to a somewhat cranky demeanor this time. I have tamed the compulsive buying urge, and I hate debt so much that no rationalization is good enough for me... Maybe I can beat this thing yet...

Music and the "Rock Star" mentality

In his book “Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain” Oliver Sacks addresses many neurological phenomena associated with music. In a section on “ear worms” he said something that really made me think. It was a little unrelated, but I think that Mr. Sacks would not be offended by the train of thought his comment inspired. Mr. Sacks says, “Half of us are lugged into iPods, immersed in daylong concerts of our own choosing, virtually oblivious to the environment–and for those who are not plugged in, there is nonstop music, unavoidable and often of deafening intensity, in restaurants, bars, shops, and gyms.” Music is everywhere, it is on TV, in the movies, used in advertising, for recreation, it permeates every facet of our media. You could say that we have developed into a music-based culture, as many of us, if not most of us, can’t even be comfortable going a full day without music. But is it a good thing?

Music is readily available, if you are bored you can skip on down to Hastings or Borders and find hundreds of CD’s. With the development of iTunes and Amazon mp3 you don’t even have to leave the house, the music is right there, available for download, in most cases for just a dollar per song. Though the studio equipment used to make the albums is expensive, the cost to the individual pop musician is also relatively low, most rockers can get a decent guitar and amp for far less than the cost of a decent tuba, string bass, or cello. Given the relative ease and low cost of producing this sort of music, is it any wonder that school administrators often struggle with budget requests from their music programs? The burning question is “Has popular music cheapened society’s perception of ‘legitimate’ music?”

Since rock first started growing out of the jazz movement the “Rock Star” mentality has been on the rise. It was subtle at first, but we can see its full blown effects in today’s society. The “Rock Star” mentality, at its most basic, is the perception that music is not “cool” unless it is being made by big-name stars according to the latest trends. The “Rock Star” crowd rockets through musical trends so fast that songs are only “popular” for a year or so, then they are put on the shelf, and brought back out for nostalgia’s sake from time to time. The rock stars have taken music and turned it for profit, for propaganda, for advertising, etc. They have convinced the majority of young people that playing in a wind ensemble or and orchestra is uncool, and that classical and jazz masterpieces are “old-people” music. The young people then label anything that isn’t trendy “boring” because “it doesn’t have a good beat” or because they don’t like anything that wasn’t either played through overdrive pedals or made on a computer.

Now, it would be unfair to say that every musician who has risen to popularity did so solely with the intent to make money, just as it would be unfair to claim that all young people follow the trends and snub all things instrumental, classical, or jazz. There are those of us who tend to follow the “Music for Music’s Sake” mentality. There are still people who see music as pure, as art. There are still people who understand that music is timeless, above profit, a means of communicating an idea, thoughts or feelings, across centuries.

The question is, who is right? Or better yet, does anyone have to be? Could it be possible to teach today’s young people to appreciate art music alongside popular music? How do we reconcile such different musical points of view?

Summer Time, and the Living is...

So, I'm finally all done with finals, and I'm a week into my official summer vacation!! I am unfortunately embarrassed to say that I have yet to practice my tuba. I have to say that I am not surprised, the same thing happened to me last summer, and I am beginning to wonder why? What is it about summer time that makes me this way? I'm not sure, but I'm bound and determined not to let it happen this time. I've decided on a few things that I intend to do, and I thought that I would share them online, in the even anyone else is looking to improve their practice.

First, I am scheduling regular private lessons with my studio teacher. As a music major my scholarship requires me to take private lessons for two semesters per year, leaving the summer wide open. As my studio teacher offers lessons for free over the summer, I decided to take him up on it.

Second, I plan to at least warm up every day. My biggest downfall last year was not even touching my horn all summer long. I spent the first three weeks of school learning CC fingerings while trying to rebuild my embouchure, it was a waste of time I could have spent improving instead of backtracking...

Third, I may not have jury materials to prepare for, but I have etude books, and I have chosen a solo to work on over the summer. It is important to give direction to practice time, so that it doesn't become boring and repetitive.

I'm sure there are other ways to enrich practice over the summer, these are just a few that I plan to use.

Recital: Gene Pokorny

Yesterday I had the opportunity to travel to Salt Lake City to hear Mr. Gene Pokorny, Principal Tuba for the Chicago Symphony, give a recital at the Libby Gardener Concert Hall, University of Utah. After the lesson and master class I had with him last week it was a wonderful opportunity to see his techniques in action. He started of the concert with a wonderful transcription of a movement of a Bach violin concerto, which sounded absolutely spectacular on his F tuba. He also played Monument, a piece dedicated to the memory of Tommy Johnson, a beautiful elegy for a wonderful tuba player. I found it amusing that he also included an excerpt "Jabba the Hut" from Star Wars' "Return of the Jedi" which came off as a pretty good solo piece.

I was also very impressed with his ability to fill the hall. It was really just a wash of wonderful tuba sound. His technique and tone are absolutely inspiring. His execution of Anthony Plog's Nocturne and Sonata for Tuba were phenomenal.

I think that the thing that impressed me most of all was his respect for the memory of Maurice Abravanel. When he came out for his encore, he spoke briefly of his experiences with the Utah Symphony in the early 80's; it was evident by the emotion in his voice that it was a very special time in his life. I was impressed with the amount of respect he had for those who had played before and with him in that ensemble, and the fact that he dedicated the first of his encore pieces to these retired members of the Utah Symphony. All I can say is that it was a wonderful evening of music from one of the greatest musicians I have ever personally met.

Every Instrument is Important

For the past couple of months I have been involved in discussions on a Facebook group dedicated to music education. There are a lot of differing opinions about things, and it is interesting to see how people have formed different opinions based on their level of involvement in music education. One common thread throughout the discussions, however, is the sense of the importance of advocacy for all types of music education and the arts.

Earlier this month in a discussion I noticed a young woman who's orchestra teacher had made the decision to remove her and her fellow violists from the orchestra class at their school. Knowing that you can't remove students from a class like that without bad behavior or other legitimate cause, I offered to try to help them secure their place in the orchestra by writing a form letter that they could sign and give to their principal or district administrators. The were able to use the letter to save their places in the class and draw the attention of district officials to their situation.

Music education advocacy is something that is really important to me, and I am always ready and willing to help in any way I can.

Lesson and Master Class

Earlier this week I had the chance to have a private tuba lesson with Gene Pokorny of the Chicago Symphony. It was possibly the most amazing musical experience I've ever had. I mean, we're talking about a guy who had lessons with Arnold Jacobs and Tommy Johnson. If you play tuba and don't know Arnold Jacobs, got online and do some research. Tommy Johnson, well, if you've ever watched movie then you've heard him play...

Anyway, aside from improving my playing hand and foot within a day, Gene had some really interesting things to say about music education. He of course is not a music educator, at least not full time, but he values music education. At the end of a two hour masterclass he took a minute to talk to us, and he told us, "You music education majors are on holy ground." He explained to us that the reason he went into music in the first place was that he had been in a high school program of only 25 kids, a measly one percent of his school participated in band! As he progressed in his education he eventually decided to become a performer instead, but he holds educators in high regards, and gives master classes and guest lectures when possible, as his way of giving back.

I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to have a lesson and master class with such an experienced, talented, and humble performer as Gene Pokorny.

Starting from the Top

Life has a lot of twists thrown in to make it interesting, I think. I have always been a music lover, I started piano at the age of six, and this after at least a year of teacher hunting. So you could say that I was born with a desire to make music. I have made all kinds of music over the years, but I never expected that I would end up emphasizing in tuba. I never even imagined playing the tuba until I was in high school, and then only as a way to march in the band ( I wasn't much of a drummer at the time). I thought that surely I would emphasize in percussion. But, like I said, life twists, and here I am, a music major emphasizing in band education, and tuba. I attend Utah State University, and love it. I have had so many opportunities, in the marching band, wind ensemble, and jazz band, to really expand my horizons musically speaking, that I feel it important to show people just what kinds of things they can do with music in their lives.

In the preface of his book, "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain" Oliver Sacks said "for virtually all of us, music has great power, whether or not we seek it out, or think of ourselves as particularly "musical." This propensity to music -- this "musicophilia" -- shows itself in infancy, is manifest and central in every culture, and probably goes back to the very beginnings of our species. It may be developed or shaped by the cultures we live in, by the circumstances of life, or by the particular gifts or weaknesses we have as individuals -- but it lies so deep in human nature that one is tempted to think of it as innate..." I think that too many people overlook this essential part of our nature. Society's perception of music has changed in recent years, and many now think it frivolous. It is viewed as an expendable elective, something that can be dropped when the budget gets tight. I would like to share my positive experiences with music, and other's experiences with advocacy for music programs.