I’m…
This week, working up the short baritone solo sections of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem for a concert in October.
Getting started learning the role of Melchior for a holiday production of Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors.
Cajoling my voice students into learning something – with mixed results. 
Ha! Doing those pieces twice in one year put me off waltz music permanently.
Rob Power - Grey Matter (a multi percussion solo)
Akira Miyoshi - Torse III (marimba solo)
Mark Duggan - Jubilee (Glockenspiel and tape)
Maki Ashii - Thirteen drums (multi perc solo)
Geez, not to go all street and anti-pretentious or anything, but …
“Kurt Weill cabaret … the Cimarosa Bb Major and the Clementi G Major Sonatina … Vivaldi L’estro armonico B minor concerto for four violins … an Opera based on the second branch of the Mabinogi … A chamber choir concert, under the title* Oriana*, revolving around music written in praise of Queen Elizabeth I … Rachmaninoff rhapsody on a theme of paganini … Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes … baritone solo sections of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem …”
People. Where are my rockers? Doesn’t anybody just jam out on Louis, Louis for three hours anymore? It makes a man want to swear off throwing TVs out of hotel windows.
Not really much of a rocker song, I’m working on Hallelujah (emulating Jeff Buckley more than Leonard Cohen) for solo guitar. The biggest challenge, obviously, is the singing, which I’m struggling to make less annoying-- I have an awful voice.
I’m also working on Twilight Time (Leo Kottke’s version). I’ve been at it off and on for a while now, and I’m kinda using it to improve the smoothness in my playing. I still find it quite hard to make notes ring out with the same volume and level of stacatto, especially when the left hand’s moving quickly around the fretboard.
Posts 3, 8, and 9. 
(Also, I never said what style I was working in, although the reference to leitmotifs could lead you to believe it was something hoity-toity.)
Well, I have heard of one of them. But I’ve no idea where or why!
Vivaldi was a rocker 
Turn the volume up high: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLuqRl8SdU4
So now I have to ask – how many of us here are members of the AFM? 
(Local 30-73 represent! snork :D)
What’s the AFM?
I’m utterly amateur, especially at bass guitar. I’m woodshedding Chris Squire’s Fish out of Water on bass. I’m also working on the piano intro for Genesis’ Firth of Fifth.
No progger here, nosirree…
Well, I’ve been thinking about what to write here. First of all, please know that I am a middle school band director. So many of you folks are working on such cool things while I am busy teaching kids which end of the clarinet to blow. Seriously. No AFM in my alphabet soup (American Federation of Musicians), but I do have TMEA, ATSSB, TBA, and TSTA. (Bonus points for folks who can decipher all of those.) I am also a Sinfonian, so OAS! AAS! LLS!
Now, what are we working on:
Sixth Grade Beginner Band: Due to Hurricane Ike, our supplier was quite slow in getting instruments to us. We just got them on Thursday afternoon, so today was the third day everyone (mostly) had horns, mouthpieces, etc. I am working with the clarinets, saxophones, and percussionists. Our high school director is working with flutes ('cause that’s her instrument) and the brass. That gives her about fifty percent more kids than me, but I don’t mind – she gets paid about fifty percent more than me. Anyway, we’ve learned how to put the instruments together pretty well. Clarinets have a bit of a tough time getting everything lined up. All the reed lickers need to work on getting the reed on straight. Percussionists are starting on bells and learning how to hold the mallets and strike the bar. Tomorrow, we’re going to work on getting a clear pitch on the mouthpiece/barrel or mouthpiece/neck.
Seventh Grade Band: We’re working on getting a good, balanced ensemble sound. We also are working on integrating a few late beginners into the program. Lately, we’ve been learning about march style using a little march called Laredo,by John Edmondson. It is also working on our reading chops. We’re also working on learning our major scales.
Eighth Grade Band: We just finished a patriotic performance at school. The kids performed the Higgins arrangement of Star-Spangled Banner and a little patriotic medley called Patriotic Bits & Pieces. Now, we’re also learning about march style using a wonderful march by David Holsinger called Von Grrrhart’s 613th Regimental March. It is quite challenging for such a young group, but it is lots of fun to play. We’re perfecting the major scales that they learned last year and in the next week or two, I am going to rock their world with minor scales. We’ll do both pure and melodic. I teach them parallel to the majors, so my approach will be “Let’s play the Bb scale, but start on G. Let’s call that g minor.”
Both Seventh and Eighth Grade: All of the seventh and eighth graders are working on etudes for our Region Band auditions in November. This is a prestigious contest and a big deal. There will be about 800 students vying for 230 seats. It’s pretty cool. I also am the organizer for this contest.
High School Band: Football rules in Texas, so we have halftime performances each Friday night. This week’s trip is about a two-hour drive each way. The kids are excited, but I’m not looking forward to being out with teenagers until 1:00AM. We’re working on polishing our contest show, as October is marching contest season in Texas. Our contest show features music from the classic rock band Styx.
So that’s about all that’s on my plate at work these days. I am blessed with the privilege of working with the best kids in Texas. We have so much fun together, even on those long bus rides.
Ukulele-- getting ready for a show on October 16th, getting back into practicing after a bit of a hiatus, trying to force myself to learn some fundamentals and theory instead of just learning chord changes by rote.
It’s the American Federation of Musicians. In short, it’s the union. 802 here!
Local 820
If only that would work on the violin! I just fear the leading notes would never end up in the right place eventually…
Viola: Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata
Ensemble: Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4
5 or 6 new acoustic songs for our next unplugged performance in about 3 weeks. Includes a 3-part harmony version of When Will I Be Loved (cover of the Ronstadt version) and a few other cool songs.
7 - 8 electric songs for our next dance-band performance right after Halloween. We’re looking at a couple of REM songs, some Stones, a pop-reggae song and Beds are Burning by the Oils…
Good stuff - nice to play with my bandmates after a summer off…
If the muse descended right now and said “Poof! You may have the ability to play one piece and one piece only on the violin.”, I would spend the rest of the day agonizing over whether it would be the Beethoven or the Berg concerto… We had a copy of the Beethoven and the Tchaikovsky on 78s when I was a kid - I think the Beethoven was on about 6 or 8 sides, but I remember spinning through them both over and over. Another retirement project, perhaps.
Punk has obviously changed since the late '70s - I used to get kicked out of punk bands for having too much technique, and kicked out of prog bands for not having enough. Would you feel better or worse if I pointed out that the Villa-Lobos Etude #2 is all about sweep arpeggios?
And if anyone ever told you that GAS can be cured, they were dead wrong! Held in check, maybe, but I know, and my family knows, that I’m only one new set of strings away from trying out another guitar, and that road has only one destination… Saw a beautiful 7-string Eastman last time I was in the Twelfth Fret and my blood pressure still hasn’t come all the way back down.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooh…I wonder if I might pick the Sibelius instead…