Posts made by Kehaulani

Dr. Mark - in this context, what is a parenthesis? Thanks.

It isn't the best fit but it also depends on how it's done. With creativity and ingenuity, it can be done. For high school kids, who knows? I used to teach at a school of the arts and I know those kids could pull it off, but I don't know about your setting.

Also, the director may have made the choice because the bass player wasn't ready for the piece. Was this germane?

@J-Jericho said in Fun with Scales:

@Kehaulani See lower left. Two vertical lines. Typing the letter "k" does the same thing.

Thanks.

That's an equal sign. It is found on the key just to the left of my Backspace key and shares the symbol with a plus sign. All it does is type an = symbol. Still don't see what you mean.

I don't understand that, Big Dub.

Gad! What's the reason some contemporary (especially internet) lecturers can't take pauses for things to sink in, to emphasize major ideas, etc. but just blast through the material without pause?

@Dr-Mark said in Artist on BOARD:

Hi BigDub,
The farm scene reminds me of my youth living up north and walking through the deep snow with the air so brisk it hurts the lungs even though the sun is so bright it hurts the eyes. All of this from splotches of color. Really cool!

I had a girlfriend in Germany who was Russian. She said that in the depth of winter, when she walked to school, she had to walk through a trough of snow piled so high, it was over her head. That's deep. Gad!

I have been out of the "legit" music publishing business for a while and need a current contact.

I need a good retail or internet source to purchase some charts, specifically the scores from "To the Edge" by Mark Taylor, publ. by Hal Leonard. (I can't purchase directly from Leonard.)

Any recommendations? Thanks.

@Dr-Mark said in Update on my injury:

@GeorgeB said in Update on my injury:

Yesterday is history the future is a mystery and today is a gift.

Or as a woman friend used to say a little more bluntly, "If you've got one leg in yesterday and the other in tomorrow, you're p***ing on today".

@J-Jericho said in How about a "Random Meaningless Image...let's see them string"?:

@Kehaulani Here ya go, Kehaulani:

duduki.net

My wife and I had the honor of meeting Count Basie and his lovely wife, Catherine after one of his concerts.

Sometimes an anecdote summarizes someone's character, and the one I recall follows:

As you know, Count Basie was fond of wearing his trademark nautical captain's caps, and while he was in an airport with his entourage, an elderly lady came up to him and, not knowing who he was, thinking that he was a porter, asked him to pick up her luggage and come with her. Which he did. When he returned, a young member of his group (It's important to note that this was in the mid-1960s, when racial tensions were very high.) asked him why he carried this old White woman's luggage, why he didn't tell her who he was, and how dare she presume he was a mere porter just because he was Black and wearing a cap. To which Count Basie replied: "What are you talking about? The lady obviously needed help with her luggage. She couldn't manage it by herself, and I was able to help her, so I did!"

Wow!

Reflecting on this, personally, I can understand playing primarily for pleasure.

I've been a full-time professional musician all my life, and fairly successful. (Not bragging, just qualifying what I'm about to write.) My go-to practice goal is to refine and improve (or actually, in my case, to regain) my proficiency as a player. I'm just wired that way.

I may have quoted him before, but in one of Dave Liebman's books he said, "Practice isn't something you like or dislike. It's just something you do".

But lately, I've been wondering about just returning to how I practiced when I was younger. To improve, but also to just enjoy it for the sake of pure pleasure.

When you're a pro, there can be a tendency to be hard-core. As Niner pointed out, I'm not auditioning for the New York Phil. anytime soon and maybe (I've got nothing professionally to prove) just dialing back a bit and enjoying music for music's sake.

It's something I've been wondering about, anyway, lately but this thread has brought it to the "fore", as it were.

That still leaves my original question, though, as to how much progress one can make with just playing tunes for pleasure as opposed to working on more "austere" exercises.

@Tobylou8 said in How about a "Random Meaningless Image...let's see them string"?:

@J-Jericho said in How about a "Random Meaningless Image...let's see them string"?:

@Niner
pixabay.com

Atomic Basie!

Thanks for a pertinent answer.

No need to be defensive, it was a logical question. When I started out, I usually played a standard warm-up routine, some flexibility exercises, exercises from Arban ending with tunes I had from song folios. I've wondered lately if I wouldn't enjoy the same program rather than working on more exercises, character studies or the like as opposed to playing songs.

I'd enjoy it more, but I wonder how much progress I'd make (or sacrifice). Just a question to help my own program.

@Niner said in What Is A Good Practice Routine?:

I don't belong to any band. There are no "gigs". I'm not a "serious" player. I don't do "technical exercises" and I wouldn't be doing any lip slur or tongue exercises on a bet. I find myself getting better progressively anyway. I have accumulated lots of written music and approach each secession much like a sight reading contest to a large extent. I pick up one thin or thick book as the spirit moves and flip to any page an start playing. I might play the whole tune, or not, and then flip a page and try another. I might go back to one I wasn't performing close enough to right in the same session and try it again a time or two. I change horns every few numbers as well as mouthpiece. If over time my mastery of any tune seems better...and it does.... I'm happy.

Serious question. Can one progress and build this way?

Excellent book.

1. Long Tones, widening intervals starting on G.
2. Flow Studies.
3. The Balanced Embouchure (BE), all exercise categories.

• BE includes #2 to #4 of Dr. Mark's above.

4. Technical exercises.
5. Improvisation.

• • proportion of last two depends upon if it's a gig day.
• • also, if it's for a gig, then material, especially the tricky parts, of the upcoming gig/concert/performance.

ps. I don't know why this format is so screwy.

Ach so. You might find this observation interesting, then.

I was doing an abstract water colour in class at the Honolulu Academy of the Arts once, and felt this presence behind me. It was my teacher peering at what I was painting and he said, out of the blue, "Are you a musician?" And I said "Yes. How do you know?" And he answered, "I can tell by the way you use colour". Astute.

And I guess you just can't get away from it.

@Newell-Post said in How about a "Random Meaningless Image...let's see them string"?:

The only time in my life I ever saw a 100% total eclipse.

I was in Denmark in July a couple of times and that's what the sky looked like at 02:00 in the morning.