There Ain't No Rest For The Wicked...
Man, I'm tired...holy cow...I'd like to take a nap but there's too much to do...
I'll take a moment, however, to do a little update...
School
School is keeping me WAY busy...
20th Century Theory is going better than expected...Still challenging, but I'd doing pretty good so far...20th Century Ear-Training is sucking, however, and I'm going to have to work a little harder to get through it...Atonal sight-singing bites ass...On Friday, I have a Theory Mid-Term, which I think will be fine, as long as I study...
Jazz Theory is fun...It's not too difficult, and much of the stuff so far is either stuff I already know or is also being taught in 20th century...
Music Research is just a lot of busy work for me...I mean, really, I already KNOW how to write a research paper; I've already gotten A's in my graduate level classes to prove it! Eh...While I should bless my stars that I have an easy class, I get frustrated with the time it takes to do all the projects...
Composition/Senior Project is, after last week, doing okay...I finally had a couple minutes of the film score written to show Dr. Lubet and he REALLY liked it; really encouraged me to keep going in the direction I'm going...which is very cool...I know that I'm probably going to be ripping off a lot of Bartok for this, with some allusions to John Adams...I want to have the score completed by the beginning of November, so I can work on textures and getting a decent MIDI recording out of it...I'm feeling a little behind this week, but I'm going to try to some more composing tonite...
It's funny - The atonal stuff we're having to learn in Ear-Training references quite a few of the Bartok examples that I've been using as my template for the score...So in many ways, my composotion work is re-emphasizing my theory...Weird!
I CANNOT believe that I'm GRADUATING in a few months...That still hasn't registered yet...Even as I'm RSVPing seats for the commencement...
Orkestar Bez Ime
Have I mentioned how much I dig my band? Damn, do I really dig my band...Not a lot of ego and I'm with some of the best musicians I've ever played with...We've been really busy lately, too...
We've had a gig every Saturday for the last three weeks: Played the St. Paul Farmer's Market middle of Sept. - I wasn't awake for most of it, but still a lot of fun - Sold ALOT of CDs...We played Eau Claire the following Saturday for a private folk dance organization - it was a good show, though I had to run sound and play at the same time, which I dislike (either one or the other is fine, but not both)...
Last weekend was MN RenFest...It was a fluke gig: we had planned to go to Fest as a group anyways and bring our instruments, but I wanted to make sure we didn't step on any toes - so I contacted Anita K. (coordinator) to make sure it was okay - and she offered us a bunch of spots that were open...We took a couple spots and went out in full gypsy costume...And despite the cold and the wet, we had a GREAT time...Impressed a few folks (which I was hoping for), got some great responses, and got free beer - Can't beat that with a stick...
** Did I mention this was the first time ever that I was a BADGED PERFORMER out at Fest? **
After all those years of hanging with Fest musicians, I supposed it was about time...
Now, it's time to take a break (which I'm sure all you Fest folks - who've had a much busier schedule - can relate to)...But we have another gig coming up in a few weeks, so no rest for the wicked...
And then we're planning to record a CD - my first with the group...Color me excited...
I'll take a moment, however, to do a little update...
School
School is keeping me WAY busy...
20th Century Theory is going better than expected...Still challenging, but I'd doing pretty good so far...20th Century Ear-Training is sucking, however, and I'm going to have to work a little harder to get through it...Atonal sight-singing bites ass...On Friday, I have a Theory Mid-Term, which I think will be fine, as long as I study...
Jazz Theory is fun...It's not too difficult, and much of the stuff so far is either stuff I already know or is also being taught in 20th century...
Music Research is just a lot of busy work for me...I mean, really, I already KNOW how to write a research paper; I've already gotten A's in my graduate level classes to prove it! Eh...While I should bless my stars that I have an easy class, I get frustrated with the time it takes to do all the projects...
Composition/Senior Project is, after last week, doing okay...I finally had a couple minutes of the film score written to show Dr. Lubet and he REALLY liked it; really encouraged me to keep going in the direction I'm going...which is very cool...I know that I'm probably going to be ripping off a lot of Bartok for this, with some allusions to John Adams...I want to have the score completed by the beginning of November, so I can work on textures and getting a decent MIDI recording out of it...I'm feeling a little behind this week, but I'm going to try to some more composing tonite...
It's funny - The atonal stuff we're having to learn in Ear-Training references quite a few of the Bartok examples that I've been using as my template for the score...So in many ways, my composotion work is re-emphasizing my theory...Weird!
I CANNOT believe that I'm GRADUATING in a few months...That still hasn't registered yet...Even as I'm RSVPing seats for the commencement...
Orkestar Bez Ime
Have I mentioned how much I dig my band? Damn, do I really dig my band...Not a lot of ego and I'm with some of the best musicians I've ever played with...We've been really busy lately, too...
We've had a gig every Saturday for the last three weeks: Played the St. Paul Farmer's Market middle of Sept. - I wasn't awake for most of it, but still a lot of fun - Sold ALOT of CDs...We played Eau Claire the following Saturday for a private folk dance organization - it was a good show, though I had to run sound and play at the same time, which I dislike (either one or the other is fine, but not both)...
Last weekend was MN RenFest...It was a fluke gig: we had planned to go to Fest as a group anyways and bring our instruments, but I wanted to make sure we didn't step on any toes - so I contacted Anita K. (coordinator) to make sure it was okay - and she offered us a bunch of spots that were open...We took a couple spots and went out in full gypsy costume...And despite the cold and the wet, we had a GREAT time...Impressed a few folks (which I was hoping for), got some great responses, and got free beer - Can't beat that with a stick...
** Did I mention this was the first time ever that I was a BADGED PERFORMER out at Fest? **
After all those years of hanging with Fest musicians, I supposed it was about time...
Now, it's time to take a break (which I'm sure all you Fest folks - who've had a much busier schedule - can relate to)...But we have another gig coming up in a few weeks, so no rest for the wicked...
And then we're planning to record a CD - my first with the group...Color me excited...