R+R

some people thing break is about rest and relaxation, but i think its all about rehearsal and recording.

rehearsal went well today. we started sifting through a wide variety of music that we might "cover"this spring. we looked at music composed by lasso, bach, satie, rodgers, as well as one of my new modular pieces. with all the interesting gigs we play you never know when a bach fugue or renaissance motet might come in handy, so its always good to have the possiblity of playing much more music than you need. i also feel that concerts that feature single composers almost always end up being a little tiring on my ears. i think mixing up the evening with scratch arrangements and/or deconstructions makes for a much more enjoyable performance. i know i get sick of my music and its probably better to not show all of your tricks at the same time.

after rehearsal we compared holiday plans and or semester successes and failures over 99 cent tacos and i then made it back to los angeles to continue editing the most recent vocal recordings for retrace. the recording and editing is going much smoother this time around in the studio. so far we have the recording and editing of the first two mvts. completed and over the next two weeks we will be finishing the last two mvts also. i'm not sure if i'm going to release retrace on its own as an ep or continue recording my latest compositions this spring? once i get done with the vocals i'm sure i'll have a better idea.

winter break

the semester is over, but i still have final papers to grade and a lot lesson planning to do before over the break. i'm teaching an advanced fundamentals class and its been pretty long since i thought about what "advanced fundamentals" is. the department has some general guidelines of where they should be able to sightsing, but i really need to sit down and figure out what i want them to do. the music ed class will get to move from educational theory to practice teaching this semester.

if all goes well during the next 2 weeks i'm going to finally finish recording and editing retrace our steps. the timing is pretty good because we just committed to play at the synchromy concert at beyond baroque on feb 19th. this spring i'm also going to try and play monthly on sunday nights at mr. t's . i also expect the instrumentation to be more organic in the club also.

i recently decided that i'm not going to worry about having the exact instrumentation in the club anymore. trying to play 2-3 times a month with the same members isn't always possible, so i am going to treat each performance like a project. each show will be created around who can be there with a one or two invited guests to mix things up. this will be an interesting strategy to that will allow us play more consistently and explore a wide variety of music until the next batch of music is finished.

why isn't this more common?

diverse instrument ensemble(d.i.e)
california state universtity fullerton 12/07/05

sopra la chiccona tarquinio merula (1635)
sinfonia iv allesandro scarlatti (1715)
passacaglia johann fredrich meister (1691)

intermission

jacqui (transcribed solo) clifford brown (1955)
tread on the trail (dedicated to sonny rollins) terry riley
(1965, rev. 2000)

brian madigan, bass
pam gadaire, guitar
xico castano, clarinets
veronica paez, oboe
marissa peshkepia, clarinet
ryan nunes, vibraphone
carl stronach, vibraphone
michael lassarre, alto saxophone
lloyd rodgers, conductor

music shouldn't be preserved in an airtight glass display case
why isn't this more common?

set it free

finals

the end of the semester is finally near, i think i have just survived the transition from secondary ed to college. i'm sure over the break i'll be able to process it.

overall its been pretty jarring. some my biggest mistakes were giving my students too much credit. i assumed that they would read the syllabus, and plan their work load accordingly. i wasn't the greatest undergrad student, but if i figured it out they could too? not always. as the semester progressed i realized that i needed to manage the classes like the high school students i just left. lots of deadlines, rewrites and constant reminders of what was in the syllabus. now that i know, it will be much easier to plan classes next semester, live and learn.

the biggest surprise is how these students react during finals. i gave the singing portion of the fundamentals test this morning and was intrigued by those who had been horribly failing (as well as skipping many classes and tests) thought that a good sightsinging grade would pass them. on the other hand i was also surprised how many "C" students didn't show up for the final and who will now fail.

with that all said, i think this is for me. now that i have a handle of what teaching college is really like its going to be much easier to adapt my goals to a stituation that i have now experienced.

don't get me wrong, i do have many bright/mature students who show up and do their work. i probably obsess to much over wanting to make my classes such that everybody can succeed. i guess its just surprising to see some students with potential not make much effort.