You Can Get the Metal Filings Out With Floss

Here's a fascinating science experiment I found at the Boston Globe website.

Did you know that there are actually shards of metal in fortified cereals?  Check out the video, it's plain as day.  You can pick them out with a magnet. 

Can your body really absorb pieces of metal in a productive way?  The article doesn't say anything about that.  The American Chemical Society says yes and writes, "In the stomach the metallic iron is oxidized and eventually absorbed through the small intestine."

I tend to think that cereal companies are taking this iron thing a little too literally, but if the chemical society says it's so I guess it's so.

Posted 8/16/2008 | Posts | Leave a Comment | Email Me

Andy McKee and his Asian Doppleganger

I found this song by Andy McKee through a YouTube ad.  It's called Rylynn.  I've been listening to this on repeat for 3 days now.  I finally bought the album on iTunes today.

Posted 8/15/2008 | Videos | Leave a Comment | Email Me

Bald Man On a Little Bike

Probably the only thing that can make a folding bike look stupider is a folding bike being chased down by a cop on a Segway.  

In a city like Norfolk, which surpasses the national average in murder, rape, robbery, assault and theft, you'd think this guy would have something better to do than chase down the bald guy on his special bike.  Just the other day some lady stabbed her boyfriend in the neck and sent him running and bleeding into the street just a few miles from our place.  

The dude actually said that he would confiscate my bike if I didn't register it with the city.  

I can't imagine what kind of trouble this guy must have gotten in to get put on Segway duty.  He probably tried to ticket his chief for double parking outside the station and got his scooter taken away.  

Then I got cornered by a homeless geriatric who wanted $20.  But then he saw my bike and figured I must be a broke loser too.

It's a FOLDING BIKE, not a short bus.  Haven't you ever seen one?

Posted 8/13/2008 | Books | Leave a Comment | Email Me

Statler & Waldorf

Posted 7/31/2008 | Books | Leave a Comment | Email Me

Training for a Different Musical Focus

I've been going through a kind of musical growth spurt in the past few weeks.  This seems to be how learning music works - you accumulate a great deal of knowledge and information and it doesn't impact your playing or writing at all...and then suddenly all at once it does.  My friend Mitch used to talk about music training advancing in plateaus like this and I really think he's right.  

I've been training for a new side of the industry in the past year or so - casually at first, then in earnest.  I'm talking about composition, and more specifically composing for commercial formats - film, TV, radio, internet.

Studying composition isn't new for me, but making progress in it is.  I used to fill up manuscript books when I was a school kid (mostly doodles and novelty stuff) and at Indiana Univ. I took courses and private lessons in composition while I worked towards my liberal arts degree.  I wrote a few good songs when I was in college, a few of which were played by my inimitable college band O-Jo Malone.

But after college I found jobs playing, not writing.  I've been playing ever since, and I've been lucky enough to travel all over the world as a keyboardist and pianist.  

I like traveling, I love playing, but a future of traveling 10-12 months a year seems wrong.  Touring is for a younger me, and now that I see 30 coming in just a few years, I'm feeling the weight of this transient life bearing down on me.  

I have a cousin that's recently had some impressive success in the producing/composing side of the industry in Chicago and LA, and it got me thinking.  There are a lot of things that a person can do with music that isn't touring.  Trouble is - I need to learn how to do them!

Composing, arranging, orchestrating, notating, recording, producing - there's a whole list of fun things to do with music.  But, like everything else in entertainment - and even more so in this case, that kind of thing is very difficult to get into.  

"Very difficult to get into" - I've heard that before.  I hear that everywhere I go.  For years I've been doing gigs that are very hard to get into.  The trick on those jobs is to be ready when your opportunity comes.  

So I'm learning everything I can.  Years ago I bought a load of books on writing music for film, but only casually leafed through them.  In the past few months I've poured over them.  I started taking composition lessons with a Juilliard trained composer in New York 6 months ago.  I take a lesson every week on Sundays.  I've read the Rimsky-Korsakov book on orchestration twice, and I'm working through an orchestration course online.  I paired up with an animator and tried my hand at writing music for her 3 minute short film.

I've been reading every book I could get my hands on - Your Brain on Music, The Rest if Noise, Great Pianists, Concise History of Western Music.  I've found lectures on music history on iTunes and tried to get a historical perspective. I've bought scores off Amazon of Stravinsky, Schoenberg and picked up others by Beethoven, Mahler, Reich, Riley and tried to dissect their recordings.  

I've been renting movies and watching them over and over.  In the past few weeks I've studied Bernard Hermann's music in Pyscho and Citizen Kane, Hans Zimmer in his animated films and Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  I've watched Elmer Bernstein movies, Harry Gregson-Williams movies, John Williams movies and others.

I've watched as much as I could find on YouTube concerning film composition.  Gear, interviews with composers, footage of recording sessions, music theory lessons, orchestration tips.

Lately I've been trying to blatantly steal from these composers - to try to write a heroic theme like John Williams, a suspense theme like Bernard Hermann, a "waiting" theme like Hans Zimmer.  I've been trying to orchestrate these themes with the orchestration things I've been learning.  I send everything to my teacher at the end of the week and await critique.  

There's so much to learn, and it's so difficult to teach myself so much.  Creating a "curriculum" and staying disciplined is frustrating.  I wish I could go back to school, but I don't even know where to begin with that.  I certainly can't afford to go to school, and I don't want to stop working long enough to do it.  Because on the side of my career that is already going - the performing side - things are going really well.  I'm getting interest from Broadway music directors and contractors and other performers.  I'm so close to playing on Broadway that I can smell it, and there's no part of me that wants to throw that away to go back to school full-time.  

I read in "This Is Your Brain On Music" that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something.  I'm no where near 10,000 hours in commercial composing, so I'm trying to take it easy on myself.  It'll take years to get there, especially as I'm learning on my own.  I just hope that I can learn as much as I can, as quickly as I can so that when an opportunity on that side of the industry presents itself (arranging, orchestration, composition), I can jump on it, do a good job, and start picking up more work like it.  If I'm lucky I'll one day be able to dove-tail out of being a traveling minstrel and into working in a home studio.

In that way, this gig in Hawaii has been good.  The same thing that drives me so nuts about this gig - the isolation, the empty time, etc. - is exactly what's created an opportunity for a musical growth spurt.  I should give myself a little pat on the back here and say that I've, for the most part, done a pretty good job of staying on task while out here.  I could probably count on one hand the number of nights I've gone out instead of staying home and working on these things.  Perhaps I haven't been practicing the piano as much as I should have, but what time I should have spent on the keys has still been spent on music.  I've been trying to fill those 10,000 hours with something useful!

Posted 7/16/2008 | Music Career Topics | Leave a Comment | Email Me

Update on Life

I've been in Hawaii for a little over 2 months now. Times flies pretty quickly around here. The job is cushy and I have projects to occupy my time. It looks like I'll be coming back out to Hawaii in October, after I finish my my gig in Virginia.

Feedback has been good here in Hawaii. I get nice comments about my playing from the guests on the ship and sometimes from the cast. I find some of the material a little stale, but even in the boring stuff I find some interest. I'm the only musician in this show, and it requires constant concentration and I like that.

Finding the best way to follow a singer is a good challenge, too. Sometimes the singers don't even know where they are going with a phrase or song, and it can be such an interesting non-verbal conversation between a pianist and a singer in those situations. Obviously I'm concentrating on the material as I go through it, but as I get more comfortable with the material, I'm able to notice the nuances that the singers brings and support or discourage their tendencies only with my playing. I find that a constant interest while playing these shows.

The job tends to aggravate the tendinitis in my left hand, called deQuervain tendinitis, but I take good care of it and it's not a debilitating problem - just a nuisance. It's certainly much better than it was when I was younger playing in a rock band. I remember my roommates and I rushing to the hospital after a show when my left thumb locked into position and wouldn't move. I was a real idiot back then about technique, and the problems I'm dealing with now are probably entirely from that time.

My technique improved considerably, for instance, last year when I took a few lessons in Chicago. I remember I took 6 weeks off last September just to practice and rework my technique and, despite my last paragraph, it has really paid off.

It would be great to be able to go to a doctor about the tendinitis. Certainly the problem is minor enough that it could probably be fixed simply. But health insurance still eludes me, so the same goes for regular doctor visits for little things like an aggravated thumb. Perhaps my boy Barack will get into office and come through on his campaign promise of universal healthcare.

Speaking of Obama, I again donated money to his campaign this week. I'm one of the over a million people that have made small donations to his campaign. They talk about us on the news all the time. I've got some hope that the guy is as good as he says he is, and that he might bring the change he talks about in his stump speeches.

And speaking of politics - did you see McCain went down to Columbia this week to show support for NAFTA? What, is the guy trying to lose the campaign? How dense can you be. The newest job-loss numbers are due to arrive any day now. I hope that he's in Columbia talking about shipping jobs down there when the news breaks that the US lost another 50,000 jobs (or whatever) in June. See how that polls, Mr. Maverick.

L. came for a cruise a few weeks back. We had a fantastic time. The ship's just a big tin can and the islands are just hunks of rock without her here.

L. says she misses my cabin steward. I don't blame her. Do you know that I have a lady that comes into my cabin and makes my bed, straightens up and gives me new towels? Every day if I want. And I get paid to be here. Beat that.

I'm still taking composition lessons while I'm out here. I call my teacher once a week on Sundays. I email him what I'm working on, and he emails me scores or recordings or reading material. It works out alright. I'm trying my hand as composition, specifically film composition, in an attempt to find a job that doesn't travel so damn much. I'd like to get off the road sometime in the next five years, you know what I mean? And I don't want to have to give up music. Or teach lessons to beginners. I don't know yet if composing is the solution, but I'm willing to try and see if it takes.

I found a great book the other day, called Eat This, Not That. It details different restaurant chains, and what you should order to stay healthy. I'm shocked - SHOCKED - at what this book tells me. Keep in mind that on my gigs I'm either provided food or expected to eat at restaurants and consequently, I'm always ordering off menus. This book tells me that I'm always picking the wrong thing! Did you know the Sierra Turkey Sandwich at Panera has 40 grams of fat? I do not kid. Shame on you Panera! And shame on me for ever ordering that (and I have).

That's all that new here. I'm in Kona on the big island tomorrow and I have the day off. I'll likely be working on my comp lesson for Sunday. I pay good money for those lessons - I gotta put my time in!

Posted 7/2/2008 | Posts | Leave a Comment | Email Me