Dear Doper Musicians - amateurs, pros, teachers, composers, arrangers - I’m just curious what everyone is practicing or otherwise working on these days?
I’ll start - Singing, I’m working on a pair of chamber pieces by Omar Daniel and Jean Coulthardt for Baritone and Piano Quintet. The Daniel is called ‘You Are Where You Are’, and the Coulthardt is called ‘Tarantella’.
Guitar - I’m still trying to keep to my schedule of writing one composition, arranging one chord/melody standard, transcribing one piece and playing one transcription per month. I just got an 8-string, which is totally messing with my head. ‘Skylark’ is this month’s standard, I’m transcribing the George Van Eps ‘Tangerine’, I’m playing a transcription of Joe Pass playing ‘I Can’t Get Started’, and I’m still working on an original. (I name them for the first piece of spam I get after I write the last note - that way, I’ll never run out of names.)
Piano - I’m working on the first movement of a Kuhlau Sonata (Op. 59, #1), the Mendelssohn Andante Sostenuto (Op. 72, #2), Bach’s 6th Invention E Major and a Matt Dennis arrangement of ‘Somebody Loves Me’.
Just writing this down makes me feel like I need to go practice for a bit. What’s everyone else doing?
I’m preparing the role of Andrew Borden in a production of Jack Beeson’s Lizzie Borden, put on by the opera program at the university I teach at. My performance schedule has slowed down considerably since I started pursuing my teaching certificate; I’ve more or less decided that full time professional opera singer is not for me. So that’s about it, besides my student teaching schedule (currently in elementary) and teaching about twelve hours worth of voice lessons a week at university. A couple of choir jobs and random gigs, but those aren’t much to talk about.
I’m mostly working on brushing up my technique–I’m hoping to start grade 8 in the fall (at the Royal Conservatory of Music) and I really need to get my scales and arpeggios back in shape.
Plus, my theory is in shambles–especially transposition.
I’m brushing up a new song cycle (premiered last summer) for its second outing – on a faculty concert next weekend at the University where I teach.
Aside from that, I’m learning a bunch of Russian songs and arias for a benefit concert in April, and working up the Schubert Mass in A-flat for a series of concerts in March.
Getting together with the other guitarist tonight to polish up a new songs (punk band) and piece together some new riffs and ideas. I want to get another 4 solid songs out to put a demo out. It’s been a few years since the last one and we are going to need new songs so we can start doing more shows again.
I’m currently engaged in the final mixing of my band’s forthcoming album. Then we have to get it mastered, do the pressing, packaging, etc. We’ll be on the grid (iTunes, etc.) by summer, I reckon.
It’s a frustrating time, though. The urge is to get your stuff out there immediately, but it takes time to get all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed. It takes a damn long time. In the meantime, I’m writing songs that are even better than what’s going to be on the album and I’m already wanting to do the next one. ARRRGH!!!
We’re playing the DC Independent Film Festival next month, which is a welcome break from the piss-stench rock club scene.
Last week I had my regular ‘oh my GOD I’m rusty’ session trying to get around Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Festival Overture. Compared to that, the familiar territory of The Firebird was a welcome relief!
Anyway, that’s out of the way, so there’s plenty of other things to be getting on with. Thing pupils are learning which I really should get polished include the Schumann A minor sonata, a silly Rachmaninov showpiece which I can’t remember the name of, and various bits of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. A few accompaniments to sort out, too, and for some reason I tend to do these more readily than anything on the violin. But I really should do the latter, because I’m developing some bad posture habits while teaching and need to start rectifying them before they cause me problems.
I’ve recently had a slight urge to try learning some Ferneyhough, which happens every so often, normally quickly followed by a sense of deep frustration. However I need to get the music back from a pupil first (who isn’t learning it, just looking at it!) And on a completely different theme, I’ve spend half of today transcribing a second-rate sixteenth-century Requiem setting.
My brother and I have an inside joke about the phrase “in shambles”. I saw some documentary on mudslides on the Hitler Channel some years ago and the narrator used that phrase at least 6 times. Now, anytime something gets ruined or demolished or something, we have to describe the situation newscaster style in your best “almost Tom Brokaw” voice:
“Kythereia’s lack of musical practice took a tole on scales and arpeggio as well as leaving her theory…[dramatic pause]…in shaaambllleees.”
I’m cracking up just typing it.
I’ve always been keyboard or woodwind oriented, but I always wanted to learn bass guitar (not regular guitar and not string bass, but fretted, 4-string electric bass). I think in bass lines, hear them in every song. Maybe this is the year I’ll actually get a bass and learn. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
My bass player would be the first to agree with you!
Let’s see:
Electric band is currently just playing gigs when all of our lives allow us to do so - we’re all super busy right now. No new songs.
However, some of us are working on an acoustic set of songs for a more “unplugged” type of performance where we can play different venues. All new songs, new arrangements, etc. - so plenty to learn. We also have moved my electric band bass player to lead guitar (he started as a guitarist and does great, almost mandolin-type stuff up the neck with a capo) and we have added a stand-up bassist, who does both walking and bowed stuff, depending on the song. Last night we worked on everything from Can’t Find My Way Home by Blind Faith and Femme Fatale by the Velvet Underground (excellent with bowed bass) to Underneath it All by No Doubt and Back to Me by Kathleen Edwards. Very fun.
I have been experimenting with a different set of settings for one of my electric guitar-amp rigs. I found this very saturated, thick tone that is still very clear and articulate - when I start playing, I can’t put it down! Very inspiring - especially for lead work, which I have typically avoided like the plague.
Hybrid picking - where you hold a flatpick with your thumb and index, but also fingerpick with your middle finger - and ring and pinkie if you have the inclination and ability. Something I have always wanted to learn, and for some reason I have stumbled into an approach that I can do and sounds good, so it is slowly getting incorporated into my natural style…
Cool thread - reading what you all are working on is interesting.
**An Arky ** - you darn well better post your release info on the SDMB when you’re ready!!!
Well, I’ve started piano lessons again to get some structure to my practice and playing. I’ll work through the grade 3/4 classical book aiming to hit grade 5 level, then start on some Jazz and Blues stuff.
But…
my wife has joined a community choir, which is on during my piano lessons, so I want to reschedule piano and do that, too.
Guitar-wise, I am trying to put together an acoustic rock set, maybe with some backing from the laptop, for gigs at our friends pub - Eagles, Dire Straits, Crowded House, Clapton, yada yada.
My electric guitar has been put away until I get the study back (my stepson is sleeping in there temporarily).
Until yesterday I would say I’ve been staring blindly at my little digital recorder trying to think of something interesting to play. Or sitting at the piano in the dark playing “pretty chords” and not writing them down because “oh, I’ll remember that.”
Yesterday, though, I had to put all (well, most) of that stuff away to make room for the other guys. My guitarist and bass player came over for our not-so-regular jam. We “practised” (improvised, actually) for around five hours. It was great fun, but accomplished f*%^-all. Still, it was fun and reminded me that I can still play drums when I want to.
So I guess the answer to your question is, “Nothing, really.” I have no discipline.
I’m working as music director for two shows right now; a high school production of Pippin, and a middle school production of Dear Edwina. I’m the accompanist for a University production of the show This Changes Everything.
I’ve got a small pick-up band going for our local Mardi Gras parade on the 23rd of this month.
My 80s cover band is on temporary hiatus while one of the guitar players is unavailable for two months.
And, I’m getting geared up for a community theater production of Bat Boy: The Musical, which I’m music directing this summer; our auditions are over spring break in March.
I’ll be playing and arranging for a very special CD this summer, a tribute to the pioneering sax group The Six Brown Brothers.
Lately I’ve been playing a lot of bass sax and flute, which I haven’t done in a while. Both are slippery, uncooperative instruments, but of course in totally different ways. Yet both want to roll out of your hands as you play, despite one weighing 18 pounds and the other, what, maybe 18 ounces?
I eagerly await the premiere of Enlarge Your Penis.
Then hie yer butt down to the music shop and pick one up! I played keyboards for, umm, 35 years before picking up a bass, and I wish I had started WAYYYY earlier in life. I think bass is relatively easy to learn, and, as a keyboardist, may come very naturally to you. 4 strings, each tuned a fourth apart… pretty straightforward.
To answer the OP - I’ve got a bass, several boards, and a CD player run thru a cheap mixing board into a set of headphones. This allows me to spend a lot of time woodshedding bass (or Hammond or synth or piano) parts that I’ve been listening to for years. Mostly prog CDs and Frank Zappa stuff.
With my middle school band, I am working on a Mike Story arrangement of Sousa’s The Thunderer, along with Meyer’s Knights of Dunvegan, and a new piece called Moscow, 1941 by Balmages. Sadly, the Balmages is not going real well. I will likely have to dump it in favor of something a bit shorter – probably Australian Folk Sketches by Mark Williams (who was murdered in a horrible family tragedy about a month ago). All of this is in preparation for our concert and sight reading contest. Besides the literature, we’re also working on musical fundamentals such as tuning, scale exercises, rhythm exercises, and general middle school stuff.
With our high school, we just finished our region’s solo and ensemble contest. My daughter’s woodwind trio earned a First Division and will be in the State Solo and Ensemble Contest. Sadly, I don’t remember the piece. I led a percussion ensemble to a First Division with Fisher Tull’s Sonatina for four percussionists. They too will go to the state contest. My other percussion ensemble, made up of less mature players, performed a cute little number called Strike, Shake, and Stomp by George Frock. They did not prepare as well and did not get the top mark. We also had several other ensembles advance to state, but no solos this time around. We had several solos get a First Division, but none were certified for State. Our high school is also getting ready for concert and sight reading contest and we just firmed up the literature this afternoon.
After writing all that down, maybe I’ve got more going on than I thought. No wonder I’m tired.
I second that! I’m a keyboard player, but I’ve got a bass and was able to hit an advanced intermediate playing ability with very little work. And, since I read music, I actually end up an arm and a leg over some other more proficient players as far as hire-ability.
Hats off to you. I’m returning to college this fall (never quite finished) to get my degree so I can pursue my career in the public schools (hard to get hired for any non-stipend position without a degree), but I could never make a career as a middle school band director. You’ve got to have so much patience. But, it’s guys like you that give a great start to people like me, so keep on keeping on!
And, I loved playing The Thunderer and other Sousa marches in middle school. Good stuff. My favorite piece for band (that I’ve played) is Holst’s Military Suite in F. I played bari sax for about eight years, and that one was a lot of fun.
I haven’t been able to do jack recently. Work, school, girlfriend, trip to St Thomas and moving into a new house have eaten all my time.
The last thing I was working on was this thing, which I haven’t finished writing yet. The solo goes to crap at about 59 seconds in. I know what the solo is going to do next and I have a good idea what will happen with the rest of it.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to playing with in a week or two. I haven’t had a chance to play at all. When I do get time to play I’ll end up having to do scales for a week or so to get back up to speed. Before I ran out of playing time I got serious about my arpeggios, picking each note. None of the sweep stuff. Once I get back up to speed it’ll be arpeggio work for a while and hopefully I’ll finish writing/recording more stuff.
I’m preparing for my senior recital, which is in April. I’m a composition major, so half of it is my compositions and the other half is me playing other people’s music.
For the performance part, I’m doing Poulenc’s flute sonata, Bach’s E major sonata, and Soliloquy by Lowell Liebermann. The Bach is proving to be the biggest bitch, because I don’t do much Baroque music (I tend to stick to the 20th century).
My compositions include a woodwind trio (which I’m playing in); a transcription of a woodwind quintet (because getting an actual quintet together would have been more trouble than it’s worth) for flute, clarinet, and piano (I’m in that too); a choir piece that was written for a Christmas performance last year but didn’t end up on the program for various reasons; and a marimba solo for my brother (this is the only piece I haven’t actually finished writing yet).
