Category: Humor

Weekend Picks

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Yes, I’ve been slacking off on keeping up on posts lately. I haven’t, however, run out of random music related links to recommend for your weekend surfing.

I wasn’t familiar with Geraldine Evers before. She plays bass trombone with Orchestra Victoria and is the woman to hold a permanent trombone position with a major Australian orchestra.

Even if you’re not a fan of the prog-rock band Queen, you’re probably familiar with their tune Bohemian Rhapsody. Learn about it’s story, compiled and discussed here.

Here’s a good dictionary of Musical Terms and Definitions. Here’s an example.

Schmalzando

A sudden burst of music from the Guy Lombardo band

Here’s a photo of me doing my best to play schmalzando. I’m the trombonist on the far right here.

Do you have a tune that you just can’t get enough of? If you want to listen to an infinite, yet still ever changing version of that track you can upload it to The Infinite Jukebox. For fun I tried it with a 10 piece trombone choir composition I wrote. Not sure if this link will work, but you can always try out your own. It probably lends itself to certain styles. While the full results aren’t really all that exciting, some of those random moments are pretty interesting and could make for a composition exercise or method to come up with ideas.

Lastly, Mick sent me a video of Weird Al Yankovic’s tribute to Frank Zappa, Genius in France.

Weekend Picks and Upcoming Gigs

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It’s Friday, so you might be looking for some music related web sites to browse this weekend. But first, if you’re around Hendersonville, NC tomorrow night (Saturday, June 21, 2014) come out to the Southern Appalachian Brewery for some local beer and traditional early jazz by the Low-Down Sires. The music goes from 8-10.

If you’re around Greenville, SC, you need to check out the Greenville Jazz Collective Big Band. The will be playing two sets on Monday, June 23, 2014 starting at 7:30 at the Mellow Mushroom in Greenville. Bassist Shannon Hoover and trombonist Brad Jepson co-lead the GJC Big Band, but Brad will be missing this show. That’s unfortunate, but Brad asked me to fill in for him, so I get to jam with them.

Here are my weekend picks for you.

The Greenville Jazz Collective web site. Start there and let the music play while you look at the rest. Live recording from the Altamont Theater in Asheville, NC.

Practicing a Difficult Passage Effectively is advice by hornist Jonathan West. He discusses several ways to make your practice time more efficient and there’s probably something new in there for almost everyone.

Writing for Slate, Jan Swafford gives a very nice summary on how our concept of intonation in western music has changed over the centuries. The Centuries-Old Struggle to Play In Tune starts in antiquity through the development of equal temperament.

And lastly, settle back to listen and watch the greatest 4th chair trumpet player who ever lived, Pete Barbuti.

Weekend Picks

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It’s Friday, so here are my picks for your music related surfing this weekend.

Are you a tubist or teaching tuba students? If you need some ideas for solo repertoire, check out David Zerkel’s “Do You C What I C?”: An Examination of Solo Literature for the Contrabass Tuba.”

How old are you? Did you know that your abilities to hear higher pitches are dependent on your age? Check it out and see how closely your high frequency hearing matches your expected age here.

If you’re a fan of the London Symphony Orchestra or Ravel’s Bolero go take a look at the LSO’s interactive video performance. You can change camera views to many different sections and view multiple camera angles at once. All I want to know is why Valery Gergiev using a toothpick to conduct?

And lastly, although this isn’t really very musical, check out coin magician David Roth performing his routine called “Tuning Fork.”

Weekend Picks

~ wilktone ~ 1 Comment

Sorry for missing the last couple of weekends, but if you’re looking for some music related stuff to visit around the web, here are my weekend picks.

Are you a trombonist working on solo repertoire, like the Hindemith Sonata, Creston Fantasy, or Larsson Concertino? You might want to practice with an accompanist, but it can be expensive to practice a lot with a quality pianist. Laine Lee has got you covered, with free downloadable midi files of the accompaniment parts for those pieces – and several others. Thanks, Laine!

Do you like Latin music? Me too. Would you like to learn more about the musicians and development of the diverse musical styles that fall under the umbrella of “Latin music?” Check out Latin Music USA and watch this great PBS documentary.

Have you ever hear been at a jazz club and heard the following conversation?

Hey, man. Hip that crazy chick over there.

Yeah, I’m dig.

Don’t embarrass yourself at your next jazz gig. Learn to speak jive.

Lastly, you should take a few minutes and learn a little bit about Carol Kaye.  You may not know her name, but you probably have heard her play bass. It’s unfortunate that the full documentary was never made.

Got a cool music related link? Post it in the comments or drop me a line.

Weekend Picks

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It’s Friday. Here are some random music related things around the web to educate and amuse you.

Are you a classical music fan? If so, embrace your inner geek and thrill in the 10 Geekiest Moments In Classical Music. Did they miss any that you think should have made the list?

Are you a jazz musician? How many tunes do you know? Does it take you a long time to learn new tunes? Eric has some advice on How To Completely Learn a Jazz Melody In 30 Minutes.

Do you ever feel like you spin your wheels in a practice session? Annie Murphy Paul wrote about the Myth of ‘Practice Makes Perfect’.

Finally, take a look at my next practice project, Etude 6.

Weekend Picks

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It’s Friday, so I’ll share some more bookmarks of random music related stuff around the net.

For an online, freely editable database of trumpet exercises, visit the Trumpet Exercise Database. It includes warmups, warm downs, flexibility, endurance, scales, etudes, and more.

Are you looking for a fancy online pitch pipe? Check out the Virtual Piano.

Joe Jackson played trombone for Maynard Ferguson, played lead trombone with the Airmen of Note from 1991 to 2011. He also served as the Airmen of Note’s music director from 2004 to 2011. He knows a few things about how to be a good bandleader.

Do you know “The Lick?” If not, watch this video and learn in all 12 keys.

Weekend Picks

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Here’s another link dump of music related stuff on the web for your surfing pleasure this weekend.

The Many Killers of the Music Industry, by Tim Cushing writing for TechDirt. It’s in two parts, The Analog Era and The Digital Era.

Looking for a pithy quote from a jazz musician to win that online argument you’ve been having? Look no further, you can find it here. “What I’m dealing with is so vast and great that it can’t be called the truth. It’s above the truth.” – Sun Ra

Are you a contemporary classical composer and need to put together a composer’s statement? Don’t fret, you can use the The Contemporary Classical Composer’s Bullshit Generator to throw one together in no time. “Unlike traditional improvisations, I aim to develop illusions, including a highly polyrhythmic arrangement that explores all notions of progressive noises.”

And lastly, take a few minutes and watch the story of Harry, a racist barber in the 1930s whose life changes after the arrival of  a magical trumpet.

Swing of Change from Swing of Change on Vimeo.

Jazz on the Muppets

~ wilktone ~ 2 Comments

I was recently reminded about all the great jazz artists that appeared on the Muppet Show. They had their own Muppet Orchestra, of course, but I haven’t found a definitive list yet of who most of the sound track musicians were. Some of those muppet studio musicians had to play with some great jazz musicians. How would you like to be Ronnie Verrell, who plays Animal’s drum parts and have to drum battle with Buddy Rich?

Frank Reidy supposedly played a lot of the saxophone and clarinet parts for the Muppet Show. He got to follow Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet solo on Swing Low Sweet Cadillac.

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And while not really an example of burning jazz playing, the Sax and Violence sketch from the Muppet Shows reminds me of the Dizzy Gillespie’s bit with his  big band performance of Doodlin‘ at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1957.

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Then there’s this version the Muppet Orchestra did of the jazz standard, Honeysuckle Rose. While the buzzing gets annoying to me, the interplay between bass and sax is fun and I like how the bassist covers the melody at times.

There are other children’s television shows I can think of that often featured jazz or other art music. What are some of the ones you can think of? Post your YouTube links below if you can find them.

Citogensis

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Last week I got an email from a graduate student looking for help with a reference I made in one of my blog posts. Since the specific quote itself was by a humorist, not a musicologist, I recommended he find another source. His response was the humor was ok in “Academia” and would I please send him the page number to complete his citation. Unfortunately, he seemed to miss my other point – you should always go to the original source and confirm that what you’re reading is accurate. This xkcd cartoon offers a perfect illustration for why.

xkcd: Citogenesis

While I would like to imagine that my writing is a good resource, I wouldn’t recommend anyone cite this blog or any of my quotations without verifying the information. Even in those areas where I have some academic expertise I like to recommend that everyone not take my word for indisputable fact, but do your own research and look for yourself.

Find Your Double C

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My apologies for the unexpected outage these last few days. Things seem to be back to normal now. To cheer you up, here’s some advice from Jeff Curnow on how to find your double C. “So easy, even a child can do it.”