Good People DO exist.

This year's PASIC was one that was very special to me. I was unable to go last year for a few reasons, some financial, and some scheduling. Although i was not able to attend for the whole weekend, i could tell that this year i really needed to go. It seemed as though half way through my Junior year, it was time to  Recharge my batteries, regain some inspiration, and most of all have a great time. Fortunate to have two great friends also attending from the studio at WCSU, we were able to plan flights appropriately, and split the hotel cost.

The first night was incredible, seeing Steve Schick perform as well as So Percussion was an amazing experience. After a long day of traveling we went back to our hotel the "La Quinta" (Very affordable Place to stay next time its in Indy) and crashed. The next day was exciting, two great drum set clinics, Billy Martin's "Life on Drums" clinic, and John Riley's clinic, "The Art of Improvisation." Both Clinics were fantastic, and i recommend both artists books if you haven't checked them out yet. Billy's book interestingly enough, is in non western notation, its pretty cool.

Before both of these clinics, something amazing happened. Me and my roommate Matt, after spending a few hours in the showroom, were sitting outside of one of the clinic rooms looking over some music we had purchased. While waiting for doors to open,  a man came up to us both and asked if we would mind if he sat with us. We of course said it was okay, and he proceeded to sit and talk drums with us. This is one of my favorite parts of PASIC. Tons of drummers and percussionist congregating together simply because they love playing, teaching and learning. As he sat down, we began talking. He had never really been exposed to Billy Martin. A big fan, i began telling him about his new DVD and book. After i told him about this he asked if i would be at the John Riley clinic happening later that day. I told him that i would definitely be there, and that I hadn't had a lot of exposure to John Riley, but had heard a ton of great things. After this, he asked me if i would watch his things for a moment and i told him no problem. He literally went sprinting off. Some time passed, and as soon as i looked at my watch wondering where he had gone, he returned. He had Both of John Rileys books, "The Art of Bop Drumming" and "Beyond Bop Drumming" in his hands. He handed them to me and said, "You'd better check these out."

It all happened so fast that when i looked down for a moment to look at the books, he was already on his way into Billy Martins clinic which was just starting. I yelled Thank you and he gave me a thumbs up. I quickly got up and grabbed my things to tell him again how thankful i was. When i entered the room, there were already so many people inside that i had lost him. Determined, i looked around for a while before i gave up and the clinic was officially starting. Amazed at this experience, i must have told everyone i knew that day about this incredibly generous man i had met.

The next day while browsing the Malletech Booth i recognized him and was able to finally shake his hand and formally thank him.  John Riley was at the Alfred Booth later that day and was also able to sign both books for me. Having a terrible memory, today i cannot remember this kind mans name, although i want to remind everyone in the Percussion world how fortunate we are to have events like PASIC to bring us all together as a community. Experiences like the one i had are ones that make the world of percussion unique.

If the man who did this for me happens to read this by any chance, I want him to know how much his kind gesture touched me. Also, that I've been tearing apart "The Art of Bop Drumming" ever since i got back from Indy ;)

My experience as an Undergraduate musician has been one of many experiences that i like to look at as  "Stepping Stones". One of my first was practicing Technique exercises my first semester, then finally having a short marimba piece to work on second semester.  Then Moving on from snare drum Etudes, to actually playing snare drum pieces and multiple percussion chamber trio's and quartets. There are many things in our lives, as well as our undergraduate careers that make us feel that we have, and are continuing to mature as musicians, future educators, and as people. 

As I am about to enter my second semester of my Junior year, i have picked, and i am beginning to prepare repertoire for my next step, My Junior recital. As i prepare and practice my rep, as a tool to further understand the music on a deeper level as well as give you all insight on to what i'm playing. I am going to Do a separate Post on each piece i am Playing. The first of which being my Marimba Solo... 

Variations on Lost Love, By David Maslanka-  

Variations on Lost love in a Muli-Movement work for solo marimba composed by David Maslanka. Although he has spent some time as a faculty member at a few colleges and universities, David Maslanka is a composer who has been working soley off commission since 1990. Currently living in Missoula Montana Maslanka is best known for his compositions for wind ensemble, as well as his eight symphonies and one full mass. 

When interviewed about his composition style, Maslanka had this to say. 

You ask about the soul nature of music, and are music and soul the same thing. Music is one of the expressions of soul. A person does not have to be consciously aware of soul connection for soul force to be expressed through that person. The conscious mind and the deep unconscious are two different things, but everyone has both of them. The unconscious can push its way into consciousness unbidden. Often this makes people do neurotic or crazy things – compulsive behavior of one kind or another. If a person is prepared artistically, then a sudden eruption of soul force might appear as a composition or a powerful performance. The person may have no idea where the force came from. This was my experience as a young composer. As I gained technical skill there would be sudden bursts of music that 'appeared.' There was always the hard work of getting it composed properly, but fairly early on I learned to follow my instincts when something powerful began to happen. The impulse to write, having a 'true voice', and having the necessary technical equipment are all different issues. There are fine technicians who have no true voice, and people with true voice who have struggled with technique.

—(Maslanka 2005

My first experience with variations on lost love was hearing it at a Percussion master-class at school. A fellow student at the time performed it extremely well and i was immediately inspired to be able to play it at some point. It had many challenging technical aspects, as well as a hauntingly beautiful and mysterious melodies. Starting slow, a melody is introduced and then there are many variations on it (Hence the title). 

After some further research, i was able to find out this piece is based off of the poem, "Lost Love" by Mr. Robert Graves. As i read the poem I found that this piece is actually very fitting to my life. I will spare you the details, but i went through a tough break up this summer, and i cant think of a better way to express myself musically than to add real emotion to a piece of music i am performing. The Poem, (Listed Below) speaks of a man who is on a forever long search for "Lost Love." 

His eyes are quickened so with grief, 
He can watch a grass or leaf 
Every instant grow; he can 
Clearly through a flint wall see, 
Or watch the startled spirit flee 
From the throat of a dead man. 
Across two counties he can hear 
And catch your words before you speak. 
The woodlouse or the maggot's weak 
Clamour rings in his sad ear, 
And noise so slight it would surpass 
Credence--drinking sound of grass, 
Worm talk, clashing jaws of moth 
Chumbling holes in cloth; 
The groan of ants who undertake 
Gigantic loads for honour's sake 
(Their sinews creak, their breath comes thin); 
Whir of spiders when they spin, 
And minute whispering, mumbling, sighs 
Of idle grubs and flies. 
This man is quickened so with grief, 
He wanders god-like or like thief 
Inside and out, below, above, 
Without relief seeking lost love. 

The Second Movement, which ive been working the most on lately, can be listened to here. 

Enjoy! 

MB

I hate buying textbooks.

From my perspective, life is a long journey of gathering, receiving, and processing knowledge. We spend our whole life learning and putting together everything we know, to in turn pass it on to the next generation. So when does the bulk of our learning occur? Is it in the classroom? Maybe for some, but i think that living life and interacting with people of our own age, those younger than us, as well as those older than us have the largest impact upon how we learn about ourselves, and about living the game of life.

One of the first things i learned, is that in the music world, more often than not people suck. Yeah you heard me right. Not everyone is going to voluntarily take you under their wing, and show you the ropes, or show you how to be a better musician. The way the job market is today, and even just the way the world is today, everything is so competitive that we can sometimes forget that were all in this together. I have had the pleasure of working with many fellow students, as well as high school teachers, instructors, and professors who have mentored me into what i am today.  Although this is true, i've also had more than a handful of people who quite frankly have wanted to see me fail, and that has almost molded me into what i am today. My freshman year in college during a rehearsal of a piece for a chamber music concert, an upper classman came in and literally said the words, "This is too hard for you, you guys shouldn't be playing this." Whether or not this statement was accurate is beside the point. (Although it was not ;) This just goes to show you a caliber of person that is less ideal.

So how do we deal with this in real life? What do you do when someone, wether it be a professor, fellow student, or any other peer does this? You LEARN. As a future educator i find myself constantly looking at others, and comparing and contrasting myself to them. By doing this, i'm not trying to bad mouth anyone, or think i am better than anyone, i'm just trying to figure out what i think is the best possible thing for my students. The same way we admire people in a positive manner, we can do for the opposite reason. In fact there are a lot of people i admire because they've shown me many ways i do not want to teach, or practice. Although my experience with this that i am sharing is solely musical, this applies to everything we do in life. Strive to be not only the best musician you can be, but also the best person you can be.

Learn from everything.
Make every experience positive no matter how it effects you.
Strive to be the Best you can be.


Peace & Love,

MB

Music is Opportunity

Last year during my spring semester i had the honor of performing for the new assistant professor of percussion at University of Oregon, none other than Pius Cheung. As musicians, networking is something that we are all told will help us in the long run. Most of the time we find it a hassle constantly meeting and introducing ourselves to people hoping they will remember out name, but this my friends, is living proof that the impression you leave on people can really affect your future and their involvement in it. Sitting at the desk of a Dorm on campus (my on campus job at the time) i got a call from a girl named Kristin, a very talented upperclassmen percussionist at the time. Today was the day of the Pius Cheung Masterclass, and she was asked by Dave Smith our resident percussion teacher if she could drive to the train station to pick him up. Nervous, she asked me if i could go with her. Of course my response was yes. I got someone to cover for me and jetted out of Newbury hall as fast as i could. I was about to go pick up someone i had long admired, someone i considered a Marimba GOD up at the train station to come do a Masterclass that i was performing at. It was a very cool feeling. I had only seen videos of Pius on the internet. He is often Featured on Vic Firths video podcast which you can find here. From what i could tell, he looked like he may not speak english very well, he sat on an organ bench while he played so he must be very tall, and he was definitely VERY asian. As i waited at the terminal, many people got off the train and finally i saw him. Trying to be the least awkward i could be,  i stopped him and introduced myself. To my surprise, he was much shorter than me (I'm 6'1), he had little to no accent, but he was in fact VERY asian. I feel like in my mind i look at my percussion idols as celebrities, but on the exterior Pius was just....a normal guy. He performed an outstanding Convocation recital for the entire Music Department with a great energy and even took requests for his last tune. Lunch passed, then the masterclass began. Of course Mr. Smith picked me to perform first. I had just finished learning Eric Sammut's Rotation 1 and i was looking forward to playing it for him. He had so many great things to say, and he conveyed it in such a positive way. Many of the comments he made pertain to his new book, "Colors."After the masterclass in a professional fashion, we took a picture and i told him how grateful i was for his input. We became facebook friends the next day and that was it. Or so i thought. A few weeks later, in passing, Mr. Smith called me into his office and the first thing he asked me was, "How big is your car?" At this point in time i was driving my fathers old car, which is an infiniti sedan. He asked me if i could fit a 4.3 octave marimba in it. Puzzled all i could think of was that scene in 40 year old Virgin. Ya know..."I hope you got a big trunk 'cause im puttin my bike in it. Anywho i told him i had fit it in before and he told me that Pius needed to borrow one for a gig in westport. He said if i did it he would pay me a hundred bucks and he would really appreciate it. The next day i got a facebook message from Pius, he told me he was ecstatic that i was able to help him out and that i should bring a drum so we could play together. This was such a great opportunity for me! One gig with Pius eventually turned into Two and it was a great experience. He played Bach solo and i sat in on Djembe for a few other tunes, but the one i remember the most was Ghanaia by Matthias Schmitt. An african sounding marimba Piece, Ghanaia has a great theme to jam over, and thats exactly what we did. This was one of the funnest pieces ive ever played and the fact that it was with someone whom i greatly admired made it special. As full time musicians its not often that we get that special feeling after every piece, but i sure did feel that way after this performance. Pius and i still keep in touch via facebook, and having his name as something concrete on my Resume' is a great thing. So for anyone thats thinking about introducing themselves to someone in the world of Music, or whatever it is you're trying to succeed in, know that most of the time there is only good to come of it.  Ghanaia