Sunday, December 24, 2006

Notorious non-percussionist bangs on stuff, film @ 11

There's been a percussion theme to the past few days.

I've been working on "Test Pilot's Lament", one of the songs I'm about to record. In it, percussion on an autoharp will take the place of rhythm guitar. The wooden handle of the autoharp's tuning crank turned out to be great for hitting several strings at a time and I'm practicing this. For a notorious non-percussionist, even a sequence of even eighth notes can be a challenge so I'm working on it with a metronome.

Also last evening I accompanied Celeste to the Musical Nightmare Before Christmas at the Starry Plough, organized by Suki and Lucio (whom I overheard referred to by someone in the crowd who I guess couldn't remember or pronounce his last name, as "Lucio Megatron"). There was lots to listen to including Lumper/Splitter's emergency guitar surgery and a solo set by notorious non-metronome Moe! Staiano. I was close enough that I was hit by flying shrapnel. It was awesome.

The memory of that experience came with me to my classical flute gig this morning, in which I was directed to play finger cymbals and claves in a couple of pieces instead of the flute. During rehearsal I made sure to play them in ways I wasn't supposed to, in honor of Moe!. But I play often enough with those classical people that they now expect me to act out in new music ways and it's hard to shock them anymore.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Year-end madness

Hmmm...exactly when am I going to get everything done I need to do before the end of the year? Or more precisely, before my two big commitments in January? I've got those sessions coming up, to finish "Not Made of Stone", and Womantis is supposed to premiere my piece "Genesis" in January too. So I've got a lot to do, and like Celeste always does in her blog, here it is in no particular order:

get flute and bass flute repaired
rehearsals with John for "Save a Prayer"
coordinate Dan's "Save a Prayer" piano part, editing, MIDI file export
be on the hook for Jim's questions about "Save a Prayer" and "Death & the Maiden"
practice vocals for all the songs
find out what mallets are good for playing percussion on an autoharp...or else see if chopsticks work, or the tuning implement
figure out how to pack everything
worry about if I can get my instruments onto the plane as carryon or not
go with Celeste to new music shows while she is back for the holidays
make elaborate plans for my time in Portland with K
make more elaborate Portland plans with Rich and Daria et. al. (I hope)
do Yule and Christmas things as appropriate with friends & family
play classical holiday gigs
work on "Genesis"
coordinate the Company's travel plans and lodging arrangements in Oregon

I'm sure I've forgotten plenty of things. If you know of any, drop me a line. Thanks muchly. :)