Little Gifts Like Candy

A few weeks ago I gave my beginning strings class their beads. I blogged about these beads in July. The kids love to pull these out, and we have been working on the tricky passages of Jingle Bells with these beads. Because we do them in class the way I would like for them to do it at home, I think it has been very helpful.

They also took their first test this week, and when they all passed, I handed out a little set of note name flashcards on little rings for them to put in their cases next to their beads. They were so excited to get these cards, you'd have thought I had given them candy. Now let's see if they use them!

Gamelan Concert

I am a little slow on posting about the HMC Gamelan concert I attended over a week ago. On the program - Lou Harrison, John Cage and Bill Alves. Bill teaches at HMC and composes for gamelan (and other instruments), often accompanied by visual media. The second half of the concert showcased one of his newest works.

Here is a video of one technique used in the John Cage work, Haikai, which I found particularly interesting.

Third Coast Percussion

In honor of John Cage's 100th anniversary, Pomona College had Third Coast Percussion, a four-member ensemble from Chicago, to campus this past week for workshops and performances. I chose to attend this afternoon's performance, and I was so glad that I went. 

I first heard this group while we were living in Chicago where they are based. I don't remember exactly what I heard that day, but this afternoon they played some Steve Reich, John Cage, and two recent pieces. When I walked into Little Bridges and saw this setup, I was immediately drawn in and wanted to get up on stage and just play all the various bells, gongs, bowls, marimbas, drums, etc. 

Scamfest 2012

Last night we, along with hundreds and hundreds of people, attended the 17th annual Scamfest at Bridges Auditorium. We were treated to the music of 12 a cappella groups from So Cal, many from the 5Cs.

The a capella style has really changed over the years, from barbershop to the current texture of a lead singer with a huge consort of back-up singers with prominent beat-boxing. Now, I like this current style, but two hours of the same texture is tiring to my ear. The audience really liked it, and I liked some of the songs, but I was wishing for more diversity of style.

I did enjoy the various choreography of all the groups.

I also noticed that the groups from USC and UCLA were a notch higher in quality (tone and intonation), and I wondered if it might be because there is a greater chance that more of those students are music majors and/or take voice lessons.

I particularly enjoyed The SoCal VoCals (which I heard on the Sing-Off a few years ago) and their rendition of Bottom of the River and Reverse Osmosis and their 15 Step.

William Blake Poetry Set to New Music

While listening to NPR podcasts during my daily trips to the gym, I heard this story about new settings for some William Blake poems by Martha Redbone. As a child my father read me Blake, and I especially enjoyed The Tyger and memorized it. I am also a fan of Appalachian music - bluegrass as well as the sound of the hymns as heard in O, Brother Where Art Thou.

At the NPR website you can listen to two songs - The Fly and The Garden of Love to get an idea of Redbone's amazing voice and the perfect union of these two seemingly diverse entities. Perhaps this will serve as inspiration for me for some future compositions?

Playing without Pain

This was a concert weekend which meant lots and lots of playing the viola. Two hour dress rehearsal, concert Saturday night (one and a quarter hour) with repeat performance this afternoon.

This morning my friend Wendy, trained in Alexander Technique, came to our Women's Choir at church and worked with us a bit on how to use our bodies more naturally for better tone production.

It got me thinking about the pain I have been having on the left side of my back when I play viola for a long time, and I think it has to do with how I share the stand with my stand partner. I asked Wendy about this and if she knew of anything to do, and she said that it is just a matter of trial and error. I think this problem is compounded with violists since our instruments are larger than violins and can really get in the way of each other.

So just before the concert this afternoon, my stand partner and I worked on a new arrangement that put her closer to the music and me looking at it straight on instead of twisting a bit. We were both happier and more comfortable about this new arrangement, and we wonder why we haven't worked it out sooner.

Now if only the notes were bigger and clearer so we could see better, and if only the Eroica was not so intense for so long a time and it was easier to concentrate through that whole symphony.

Prepared Xylophone

Yesterday I went to an Orff workshop where the presenters (Lissie Quishenberry and Rachael Doudrek) used rubber bands in several great ways. First of all, they used large bands around xylophone bars ala John Cage. One can "pluck" the bands to create a new timbre, but also stick things underneath the bands to create a "prepared xylophone" with yet a new timbre.

Another cool thing to do with rubber bands is to use them to color code each note (ala boomwhackers) which can go with any visual that you might create.