Weekly Review – January 27, 2013

Only four weeks into the year, and it has already been a busy year. This week was the beginning of the CSULB Spring semester as well as the PAS SoCal Day of Percussion and 2013 LA International New Music Festival with SouthWest Chamber Music. I also found a great new app for iOS called Newsify. It is a Google RSS News reader for iPhone/iPad and if you read RSS feeds, I would suggest that you check it out. It puts your feed into a newspaper-like layout and connects with all of the social media websites. I was using NewsRack ($4.99) and this app is easier to use and looks...

Weekly Review – January 20, 2013

Here are my links that I have been reading this week. Today is Martin Luther King Day and the Presidential Inauguration. It also marks the beginning of the semester at CSULB. It is going to be a busy semester and I am looking forward it! Recently, I have been working on the repertoire for a set of concerts with Southwest Chamber Music and I am looking forward to the concerts. Finally, if you are in Southern California, please come and check out the PAS SoCal Day of Percussion at CSULB. Here’s something to try! Get Fit in 5 Minutes a Day with the Ultimate Body Weight...

2012. A Reflection and Goals for 2013.

To say 2012 was a busy year would be an understatement. I celebrated a milestone birthday, saw the birth of Zachary Andrew (our second son) and bid farewell to my friend and mentor Michael Carney. As I wrote on my FaceBook wall, “It is very hard to say goodbye to someone who has meant so much to me and my family over the past 22 years. I was grateful I had the opportunity to study, teach, work and be around someone like Dr. Michael Carney for so many years. Being in the room today and spending time with former students and singing for Michael will be something I...

Weekly Review – January 13, 2013

One of my resolutions is to post more often. Each week, I am going to put together a list of articles, blogs and other related resources that I have been reading and enjoying over the past week. This is not a comprehensive list by any means, but if there is something I missed, please leave a comment and let me know. Cheers and enjoy. There are a lot of Drummers on this list!! 15 Jazz Albums To Look Out For In 2013 http://t.co/SHHLrzns What is better than a video with one Trombone Slidecam? A Trombone Slidecam Duo! @maddow https://t.co/P1ZTME93 iPotty Aims To Entertain...

Audition Advice 102

Last month, I wrote an article about Audition Advice. We received a lot of good feedback on the post. Be sure to check out the comments for additional tips. I am planning on releasing my tips as a PDF document in the new year. I also wanted to draw your attention to some videos on this same topic that feature professors from Indiana University. We have previously featured “Kevin Bobo explains how to “play hurt” in an audition” from a video series called “Project Jumpstart Workshop: The Art of Winning Auditions” from February 8th, 2011....

Audition Advice 101

Auditions are just around the corner and I thought it would be a good idea to crowd source an audition advice post so that we can give some advice to incoming freshman and transfer students who will be auditioning soon. To start off the discussion, I thought I would present my observations and suggestions from past auditions and ask other teachers and percussionists to add their comments below. In a couple of weeks, I will compile all of the comments and create a master list of audition advice. Audition Advice Run your entire audition several times prior to your live...

How Effectively Do You Use YouTube?

We all know that YouTube is a valuable source for any musician. According to YouTube’s statistics, 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. We all know that there are a lot of bad videos included in this number, but there are also many videos that are educational and worth watching. So how do you use YouTube? Chris Robley wrote a blog post on the D.I.Y. Musician Blog (a service brought to us by CD Baby) detailing the “Top 5 Tips for Effective Music Video Promotion on YouTube.” Some of the top tips included: 1. Add links at the top of the...

Digital CD release/marketing/distributio...

On September 12, Tom Burritt and I sat down for a somewhat impromptu google+ hang out to talk about digital/CD recordings and their marketing and distribution. Take a listen to hear about how to get your recordings into iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play. And, a few other services you may not have heard about. After watching please leave your ideas/thoughts below the post. httpvh://youtu.be/rZhIRNtDMk4 —– Originally posted on DrumChattr.com on September 13, 2012. The photo in this post is used under the Creative Commons License: Attribution – NonCommercial...

Navigating Social Networks Article

I was interviewed for an article called “Navigating Social Networks” for Halftime Magazine. The article is now available online. Thanks to Jeremy Chen for asking me to be a part of the article. Below are some excerpts from the article. Click here to read the entire article. Navigating Social Networks By Jeremy Chen With social networking now being a significant game changer in the entire world of communication, marching arts organizations must ensure that this medium is being understood properly and being used in a manner that benefits—rather than hurts—them....

John Luther Adam’s Inuksuit Resour...

“…to act in the capacity of the human” John Luther Adams is one of the 21st Century’s most important composers. He has written a lot of extraordinary music for chamber ensembles, orchestras, solo instruments and specifically percussion ensembles. Most of his music draws inspiration from the outdoors, especially the landscapes of his home in Alaska where he has lived since 1978. Inuksuit (2009) was premiered at the Banff Centre in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta and received it’s US premiere on the campus of Furman University in South Carolina. I am fortunate...