maren

as promised, more cake!

Cake and more cake, with love from couw & maren!

Oh, you might be surprised.... The "hover" method usually works pretty well, but sometimes our aim isn't always, shall we say, controllable. "Hover method" keeps the performer cleaner, but gets the seat dirtier, endlessly necessitating use of "hover method."

Did you catch the part about the OSU mascot named Aric Effron???? Or maybe that's Eric Ephron...

Babies ARE more portable before they start walking!

Up -- has anyone been to Iridium yet? Tonight and tomorrow left.

Well, being over 50 and slightly arthritic has somewhat reduced my finger strength and smoothness -- among the reasons I'm not a working electric bassist anymore. Nonetheless, I think making the EFFORT to play in time, and focusing on it, besides being artistically important, is actually physically therapeutic as well. Mentally too. Maybe you could devise some rhythm-focused lessons for this student that aren't quite as demanding as the metronome boot camp Uncle Skid survived! I had two piano teachers before I was 18, and between them they whipped me into shape, time-wise. An element of humor was an important part of inspiring/motivating/ challenging me (opposite of "sucking all the fun out"). I still have the page from 3rd grade where my teacher, without saying a word, wrote COUNT! in 8-inch letters across the whole piece -- giving me one of those stern but wryly amused looks as she did it. When I was 16, I was taking piano lessons from another teacher who also directed me as a singer (musicals, chorus) -- he had a way of pointing out the good with the bad that made me eager to conquer the bad: "Your voice is so gorgeous, you're just wallowing in the tone -- and GETTING SLOWER AND SLOWER!" "You have a great feel for bringing out the lowest notes of the left hand line when you're sightreading -- almost makes it hard to notice YOU'RE NOT PLAYING HALF OF WHAT'S WRITTEN!" I think a student of any age can feel the love behind constructive criticism, when the love is there on the teacher's part. Maybe you can find (write?) a piece that's technically readily within this guy's grasp where the whole challenge is to focus on the time -- phrases that vary rhythmically most of all? That might be a way to address the time issue. So that it's very focused -- "here's what I'm teaching you with THIS assignment" -- rather than bringing it up as a global deficit in his playing.

This reminds me of some IQ-type test question I encountered in about 5th grade -- it had four pictures of musicians in a marching band and you were supposed to check the one that was "working the hardest" -- I got a "wrong" answer because I checked the flute player -- I was supposed to know the beefy guy with the tuba was the right one. But because I played the flute (assigned to it, denied the brasses because I was a girl!) and HATED it, hated the sound, hyperventilated with having to keep a constant stream of exhalation going, holding my right arm out and up at an exhausting 90-degree angle -- I thought I'd find it easier just to sling the f---ing tuba over my shoulder and puff out a "pah" once every bar.

Remember "Coawfee Toawlk"? Bronx, Queens, Long Island?

Boawston? [i moved from Wisconsin to Boston in 1977, and the midwestern way I pronounced "Bob" was understood in Boston as "Barb" -- and when I ordered "potted beef" from the cook where I waitressed, he said "PATT-ed beef? What's PATT-ed beef? Do you mean POAWTTED beef?" BTW this is a REAL working-class accent -- quite the oawpposite of pretentious!]

ditto

Well, at least we agree with each other, if this ISN'T what Joe G saw!!! [stage production had music by Marc Anthony Thompson, aka Chocolate Genius]

I never heard of "Portrait of Jason" -- sounds like I'll have to check it out. But Joe G's description also made me think of "A Huey P. Newton Story" -- writted and performed by Roger Guenveur Smith off-Broadway ~5 years ago -- and then filmed by Spike Lee:

Yet another huge fan who doesn't have cable. Rented 1st season for home marathon (just like Mr&Mrs Johnny E, and wesbed's folks) and saw 2nd season a friend had taped -- now I try to avoid hearing about the shows I haven't seen until I get to see them. (NOOOO! Don't tell me David and Keith broke up again! When I haven't even seen them move in together!)

Congratulations! And best of luck!

Ooh, we (a band I was in) had a heavenly raclette dinner in our wonderful promoter's lovely farmhouse outside (and uphill from) Zurich -- melted and almost roasted raclette* with tiny pickles and tiny onions and potatoes and fantastic bread on the side. And wine. Ooh. *

This thread is guaranteed to vastly increase the female membership of this forum... um, NOT!!!

Me too, me too, me too! Should've jumped on the early bandwagon -- I was offline yesterday -- but, I was partying on your birthday, Tom! Many happy returns to Organissimo Forum's own Golden Rooster!

Good luck! My nephew reports to Marine boot camp the same day -- so you know my best wishes were already headed there -- now they're in doubletime.

And then there's the old hemiola. Where what's been 6/8 turns into 3/4 (by way of accents) for a bar or two: 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 + 2 + 3 + (aka "1 2 3 4 5 6") (happens a lot in latin music, especially in 12/8 things)

Hey Rooster -- I've been singing soprano in a large (~150 voice) classical chorus in NYC for the past two years and alto in a small (at most, 12-voice) madrigal/motet-y group for three. (Maybe you never got my BNBB-era PM -- November 2002? -- you were selling some classical CDs and I was looking for Berlioz Messe Solennelle to help learn it for the big group.) I sang in choruses in college (was a voice major for a few years) and then spent about 20 years in other genres (!) (let's just call it "Other Music from Under Ground" -- if anyone's familiar with that venerable venue originally known as CBGB-OMFUG) before hooking back up with "classical" recently. I know what you mean about choral music being toward the bottom of the "listening to" list -- the only pieces that ever had some serious rotation there for me are Symphony of Psalms, Britten War Requiem, Mozart Requiem -- and some opera choruses (Boris Godunov stands out for me as one where the chorus has a real dramatic role). [Also, not "classical" but definitely choral: Kirk Franklin, recently.] But it's been great to sing this music -- the big group I'm in (St. Cecilia Chorus) performs at Carnegie Hall with orchestra twice a year, and does a third concert in a big church with organist. Still to come this year is Bach St. Matthew Passion at Carnegie Hall in May. Shortly after I joined the big group, I was amazed to realize how GREAT I felt at 10 PM after 3-hour rehearsal. A big part of this is physical -- I walk miles everyday and am in pretty good shape, but I've never really gotten into yoga or any exercise routine beyond walking -- so singing long phrases in long pieces for 3 hours with a 15-min break in the middle makes me feel like I guess OTHER people feel after their tai-chi-class-equivalent. An added plus. I sang the Brahms German Requiem in college and loved it; also Ives Three Harvest Home Chorales :tup, Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms, Beethoven's Ninth (mentioned earlier this week in a thread about Ruth Ellington Boatwright, Duke's sister, because her husband McHenry Boatwright was the soloist in that college performance, guest-conducted by Gunther Schuller!). Really lovely piece we sang earlier this year: Puccini Messe di Gloria.

Man, that was banned a LONG time ago...

And after the Schnapps -- ANOTHER ROUND OF CAKE!