past and future (good times)

thanks again to all who came out to last night. its great to play for such a big and enthusiastic crowd. where else can you see somebody serenade a ikea lamp, alt-classical garage band and band with balloon bass? thanks again to dorian wood and unpopable for their unique and wonderful performances.

because of the success of last nights show, i'm probably going to start hosting an early show on 2nd sundays of each month. we just have a few details to work out, but if all goes well the next night would be october 8th. the goal is to promote other bands like us who don't really fit in on "rock nite". kind of the 'bad news bears' musical cabaret.

we also have a good recording and video of the show. look for parts of it to be posted online over the next week or two.

our next show is sept 14th with ninja academy at midnite. on sept. 17th i'm going to be sitting in with the cat hair ensemble at safari sams. show starts around 7pm. we also are looking playing a few other clubs starting in oct and i'll also be sharing a faculty recital at csuf on march 15th.

the retrace cd is picking up steam...
i'm just starting work on creating a graphic novel illustrated libretto. we also recently rerecorded some vibe and bass clarinet parts because of mic bleed in the original recording session. the first two movements need one more mixing pass and i need to finish comping the vibe and bcl parts in mvt. 3 and 4. right now i would say we are about 85% done with the whole project.

we also have started laying down tracks of all the new music we are playing. i hope to have most of it recorded by jan. this cd will be much less complex and will feature the smaller six-piece ensemble that has been playing in the clubs. if all goes well we could have the demo's out by summer.

besides all of this, its great to be back in school. classes are going well and i have started out on an ambitious project by overhauling how i teach my musicianship classes this fall. i spent all summer reading all the research that was out there and emailing some of the experts. the final result is an interesting cross that brings my jazz training and current music education research, with my secondary school classroom experience.

i have a much longer post on this to come, but basically i have brought instruments into eartraining class. in past semesters i found that most my time was spent encouraging students work on eartraining at home with their primary instrument. i also know that the level we expect most students to come in at is probably never going to happen (especially at a state school). i could put my head in the sand and complain about how my students cannot hear anything or adjust my methods to teach the class that is in front of me. so far i think they are hanging on (its still very early), but anything i can do to lower the stress level and give them tools to develop great ears is probably the most important thing i could do.