Over the past three years, we have tried to spotlight some “hidden gems” that we want to share with our readers (Jolivet’s Rhapsody for Seven or Satie’s Parade). I can’t believe we have never featured Baljinder Sekhon on DrumChattr so today I would like to correct this wrong and introduce his piece Sun. I was introduced to this piece by Scott Ney at PASIC a couple of years ago. I finally got around to programming it last year and not only did the students like performing the piece, it was also an audience favorite. The colors and textures are beautiful! I would highly recommend checking this out for your next percussion ensemble program.
From the video listing on YouTube:
“Scores for three percussionists, SUN explores a variety of musical energies. From tired phrases to extended climactic passages to short-lived bursts of sound, many segments of music are intertwined and overlaid in a way that creates a singular event (the piece) with various “flares” of sound on its surface. These segments are often separated by silent moments that, because of their context, each express a different type of energy.
The instrumentation of the individual percussion parts are very similar; that is, each percussionist has one keyboard instrument, “skin” (containing a drum head), wood, and metal. In addition, all of the percussionists share one large cymbal that is central to the staging. At times the three percussion parts are treated as one large instrument with three performers working towards one musical character. This orchestration and interaction alternates with each performer executing their own layers of sound to create a heterophonic texture. The percussionists use a multitude of techniques to create a palette of nuanced sounds. In addition to common performance practices, they use their hands, fingers, knuckles, and fingernails to muffle, modify, and create a large spectrum of characteristics.
This work was made possible through a commission from the Volta Trio. I would like to offer a special thanks to Paul Coleman for his recording expertise, the Eastman Composition and Percussion departments, Eastman Concert Office, and Christopher Clarino, Sean Connors, and Erik Lutters of the Volta Trio for their extreme dedication and hard work.”
Originally posted on DrummChattr.com on January 17, 2014 by Dave Gerhart
For most of us in the college ranks, school has started or starts soon. In 2013, Dr. Carolyn Bremer wrote an email that she sent out to the students in the Bob Cole Conservatory. Below is the email she sent out (posted with her permission). Some of it is specific to to the BCCM, but a lot of it is applicable to music students everywhere. Have a great year and please add your thoughts below.
One of the most difficult aspects of life as a music major is managing your time. We put a lot of demands on you in ensembles, academics, lessons, classes outside of music, concert attendance, and learning from your peers. The theme of this little tome is:
It’s All About How You Spend Your Time
Here is a list of suggestions for how to survive school, do well, and be happy. (more…)
It’s August, and that means we’re on the threshold of a brand new school year. For the first time in 22 years, I am going to be walking onto campus as a full-time teacher, rather than a student. Perhaps it was a bit of nostalgia that inspired this post, but I wanted to make a list of fifteen things I’d want a brand new freshmen percussion major to know and hear as they prepare to start school. Some of these are things that I did, and I am thankful for, and others are things that I never thought of, and I’m hoping that you can learn from my mistakes. Even if you’re not a freshmen, hopefully this list can offer some good suggestions of how to make the most of your academic experience! (more…)
“People aren’t owed jobs because of (possibly bogus) qualifications or credentials; they get jobs because they can do something valuable for someone else.”
This mindset is sometimes lost in the percussion community. Degrees (especially performance ones) won’t actually get you anything in the real world. The skills and assets that you acquire while obtaining your degree can be of great value to you if applied in the right way. But, the piece of paper itself, not so much.
This article sums up these ideas rather nicely. As everybody heads back to school, make sure to ask yourself “What skills am I picking up here?” and “How will I apply these skills in the real world?” and “Are these skills going to be able to make me a living?”
Enjoy!
Originally posted on DrumChattr on August 17, 2013.
It’s almost back to school time, so I’ll share something on education today. I don’t know any truly professional percussionist who isn’t in the world of education in some form. It doesn’t matter if you are a full time teacher, independent contractor, freelancer, blogger or whatever. The vast majority of percussionists teach somewhere in the professional lives. Even people who strictly perform/play for a living most likely have somebody studying a Youtube video of them somewhere. So, they’re teachers. (more…)
DCI World Championship Prelims are tonight. So, in keeping with the big events to come this week we invite you to take a listen to NFL quarterback great Steve Young and his observations about DCI. Thanks to Carlos Johnson for the video tip.
Into the Air, for two marimbas by Ivan Trevino performed by Thomas Burritt and Joe Kelly, member of the Festival Hill Orchestra Percussion Section at the Festival Institute at Round Top in Round Top, Texas. Performance taken from the “Percussion Section Showcase” on July 14, at 1:30 pm in the Festival Concert Hall. Enjoy! Excited about any new pieces? Leave them below the post.
Originally posted on DrummChattr.com on July 19, 2012 by Thomas Burritt.
On June 14, 2012, Bob Cole Conservatory faculty member Dr. Michael Carney passed away from a long battle with cancer. On that day, I lost a colleague, friend and mentor. It is still hard to believe that Michael is gone, but I truly treasure all of the time I had to spend with him. I learned more than more than just music from Michael. My only hope is that I can be such an influence on as many people as Michael was. I will miss Michael, but I will continue to teach, play, direct and mentor current and future percussion students just Michael did with me and my fellow percussionists.
Today, we are celebrating Michael’s life with a memorial concert in the Carpenter Performing Arts Center at CSU, Long Beach. There will be performances by the CSULB World Percussion Group (performing West African and Brazilian Samba music) Pandemonium Steel Drum Band (Michael’s professional group), Noelle Carney, and Lucky7 Latin Jazz.
Below is a tribute that Carolyn Bremer, chair of the Music Department, wrote after Michael’s passing:
Dr. Carney was Director of Percussion Studies at the Bob Cole Conservatory for thirty-one years. He taught generations of percussionists and directed the World Percussion Group, Steel Drum Orchestra, and the Drums and Drummers Project. He taught classes in World Music required for all music majors and also open to the entire university.
Michael traveled the world performing, teaching, and studying. His performance expertise ranged from classical to jazz, and included musical instruments and styles from West Africa, the Caribbean, and Brazil. In the summer of 2005, Michael completed his first jazz concert tour of Brazil, performing vibraphone and steel pan in concerts. His concert in Rio de Janeiro was honored by the Jazz Society of Rio de Janeiro as the #2 International Jazz Concert of the Year (Wayne Shorter was #1) and Carney was named as the #3 International Jazz Musician of the Year (tied with Wynton Marsalis and Roy Hargrove).
He was founder and director of the World Percussion Project, a program that took American professionals, students, and teachers abroad for intensive study of music and culture. The project has taken participants to Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, Bahia, Brazil and Ghana, West Africa. His musical journeys also took him to Spain, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Trinidad, the Philippines, and Thailand.
As a classical percussionist he performed with the North Carolina Symphony, Pacific Symphony, and Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. Carney was been featured as a steel pan soloist with several symphony orchestras including the Virginia Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Tulsa Philharmonic, Modesto Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, Wichita Symphony, and Long Beach Symphony Orchestra performing his own compositions.
Michael Carney was born in 1952 in Palmyra, New York. He earned degrees in percussion performance from East Carolina University, the Eastman School of Music, and North Texas State University. He also studied at the International Center for African Music and Dance in Ghana, and the Oficina de Investigaçaõ Musical and Rio Gruppo Percussaõ in Brazil. He is survived by his wife Grace and their daughter Jasmine, Nikolaus and Noelle and their mother Jann, his mother Jan, stepmother Shirley, brother Brian, and sisters Debbie and Tricia.
Originally posted on DrummChattr.com on July 7, 2010 by Dave Gerhart.
Today, we feature freelance drum set artist James Yoshizawa performing Cannonball Adderley’s solo on “Freddie Freeloader” from the Miles Davis’ album “Kind of Blue” on drum set. I have never seen anyone take this approach to soloing on drum set and I hope this inspires more people to try this out. If you have any suggestions or input, please leave your comments below. Follow James on FaceBook.
In one of the handful of lessons I’ve taken with Jason Harnell, he suggested transcribing and playing a horn solo on the drums. I decided to use Cannonball Adderley’s solo from “Freddie Freeloader.”
This was all done by ear. I started by listening to the solo over and over to become familiar with it. Then I started picking out phrases that I thought could be orchestrated on the drums in an interesting way. I didn’t go bar-by-bar from beginning to end. Sometimes a 1-bar phrase in the 4th chorus would catch my attention, then a 4 bar phrase in the 2nd chorus, etc. I gradually did that over the course of a week or so until I basically had the whole solo orchestrated on the drums.
This is a totally different experience than black and white transcription. A lot of creative, interpretive decisions need to be made in order to transfer ideas that sound hip on the saxophone to ideas that sound hip on the drums. There’s a fine balance between being too literal or too vague.
Originally posted on DrummChattr.com on July 26, 2012.
