Arranging

Tonight, I have been trying to arrange 3 Beatles songs for our brass ensemble this semester. It is harder arranging for 9 people instead of 4 or maybe 5. It hurts the brain.

Tour

This week, we tour area high schools for two days, Tuesday and Friday. It has screwed with my practice schedule for some reason. I couldn't have my lesson yesterday either, so that doesn't help.

Day off

Today is a good day. All I did was eat and watch tv. This is something everyone needs to do once in a while.

Good rehearsal

Today in wind ensemble, we treated as a silent rehearsal. This way, everyone shuts up, pays attention and actually plays. We sounded a lot better than the last couple of weeks. Thank you Dave for doing that.

Music Education Awareness?

As you all know, I decided to change my major from music education to music industry. I am happy and feel no remorse from it. The question is if I still want to be a part of MENC, the group that raises music education awareness. I still support music education because that is where quite a bit of my customers lie. I don't know if I have the energy to still be a part of this group for at least another year and a half.

9 days after

So it has been nine days after my sound revalation. Boy has it been hard. I have worked and worked and worked, and so far I felt I have made no progress. I go into my lesson yesterday with Josh and says what I needed to hear. He told me that I am on the right track and I just need to keep plugging away. So I go into band today and tell myself that I will play on my Schilke 59 today. I sound amazing without the cork! Good day for me.

Revalation

I realized in my lesson yesterday that I don't open up my mouth when I play. There is simply too much tension and not enough space for the air to pass between my lungs and the end of the trombone. And to think that most, if not all, of this can be solved with a wine cork.
Thank you Josh for that revalation of thought and technique.

Fun challenge

Here's a fun "challenge" for my followers:

Comment on this blog with the completion of a joke. I will start it.

"A guy walks into a bar...."

Finish it (but keep it clean).

Sectionals

I have had the best sectionals for wind ensemble this semester than the 4 and a half years before this.Everybody knows their parts better, we listen to each other, and we adjust when need be. We also click a lot better than this section ever has. Yay for the trombone section this year!

Blarg

I got done with practicing tonight, and I feel I got quite a bit done. Then I looked at how much time I spent vs. past sessions. I spent less time practicing but felt I got just as much done as I did when I practiced for 20 or 30 minutes longer. What's going on?

One more to the list

Check out this video of System of a Down playing Toxicity.

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

Some days are bad.

Today made me mad in wind ensemble and jazz band today. Absolutely no one was focused in wind ensemble. Everyone seemed to see band as "let's talk over Dave because we haven't seen each other in 20 minutes" time. Also, my sound just wasn't where I wanted it to be, but those days happen. All I have to say about jazz band: too much talking, too much noodling while Josh was talking, not enough actual playing of the music. Isn't that we are here, to play some music? At least I got done a little early from jazz band today. Now I can go practice at my speed, at my noise level, and most importantly, at my own sanity.

They keep coming..... but not always musical

Jim Gaffigan.......bacon........'nuff said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nT9P8MMpsE

another video

I've been listening to R. E. M. a lot recently and one of my favorite songs is Losing My Religion. Here is a video of a live performance of that song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmkTl8wpAYc

More practicing

Last week, I worked on the first movement on my two movement solo. I would first buzz a short section until I was able to accurately blow the center of pitch and then play it on the trombone. I could feel an improvement leaps and bounds further than anything before this semester. Note to self: do that every time I pick up the trombone.