Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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John Luther Adam’s Inuksuit Resource Guide
“…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…
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Video Playlist of Inuksuit
I have created a playlist of the videos from the West Coast premiere of John Luther Adams’ Inuksuit from what has been posted on YouTube. If there are any videos I have left out, please let me know and I will add them.
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Mira Costa Percussion Festival Recap
On May 18, I had the opportunity to work with the percussion students from Mira Costa High School and Palisades Charter High School. Aaron Smith and I worked with the four percussion groups on a wide variety of percussion ensemble pieces. The students were very receptive to our suggestions and it was an honor working…
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Congratulations to the Graduates
On May 18, 2012, the College of the Arts at CSULB held their commencement ceremony. This year, the percussion program at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music graduated 6 majors and 1 minor. Congratulations to Andrew McAfee, Michael Malinowski, Kim Long Vo, Patrick O’Konski, Danny Chavarin, Jonathan Baer and Amanda Buda. All your hard work…
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2012 Mira Costa HS Spring Percussion Festival
I will be presenting a percussion masterclass on Saturday, May 19, 2012 at 5:30pm as part of the Mira Costa HS Spring Percussion Festival. The masterclass, titled “The 21st Century Percussionist: Today, Tomorrow and the Future,” will talk about becoming a successful freelance percussionists. The masterclass is sponsored by Zildjian, Yamaha, Evans and Innovative Percussion.…
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Genesis Hand Pan
Over the past couple of months, I have been fortunate enough to play a new instrument called the Genesis Hand Pan (aka Hang Drum). A friend of mine, David Beery, has starting making these instruments and they are absolutely beautiful instrument. Below is a video from the IronWorks Percussion Duo Concert on March 1, 2012.…
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New Video of “Continuous Line of Evenness”
It has been a busy month and I haven’t been writing much on my blog! I hope to change that in the coming month. I wanted to share the first video of my new timpani solo “Continuous Line of Evenness.” This is from my Faculty Artist Series Concert on November 1, 2011. httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGiDJM542d8 Please leave…
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Samba de los Changitos
I just got the recording back from UT Austin and I am very happy about the performances of my tunes with the UT Steel Band. Check out the recordings of Samba de los Changitos and PanSon. Thanks again Tom Burritt and David Saad! Samba de los Changitos will be published this Spring. PanSon is available…
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2 Mallet Double Sticking Considerations
The semester is in full swing and have been continuing to teaching marimba fundamentals to my students at CSU, Long Beach. One concept I talked about was 2 mallet double sticking considerations, so I thought I would list my ideas here and see if anyone in our community had any additional thoughts. 2 Mallet Double…
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Three Things
The other day during one of my college percussion lessons, I mentioned to a student that with all of the things we need to learn as percussionists, I think there are three things that we should always be working on. I know it is naive to believe that these are the only things to be…
Got any book recommendations?