Long Beach Press Telegram Previews CWO Concert

The Long Beach Press Telegram published a feature article about Francis Johnson and Steve Charpie's attempt to promote his legacy. The article was timed to help promote Steve's concert with the Concordia Wind Orchestra on Feb. 17. Read the article

Test your musical brain!

www.tonometric.com

This site has 3 tests:

Adaptive Pitch: Determine how well you can discriminate between two separate pitches (it gets progressively tougher)

Rhythm Test: Measures your ability to hear subtle differences in rhythmic patterns

Tonedeaf Test: Measures your ability to hear subtle differences in tone patterns.

Give it a try!

CUI's Flute Teacher, Susan Fries, Publishes Book

Susan Fries recently published a book about legendary flutist Marcel Moyse, titled My Teacher, Remembering Marcel Moyse. The book is a narrative of 54 individual stories about famous flute teacher/performer, Marcel Moyse, who was the most-recorded flutist in France between the 1920s and 1940s.

Book excerpt
Book website

Steve Charpie

Our Feb. 17, 2008 (3:00) the Concordia Wind Orchestra will perform with trumpeter Steve Charpie. Steve is a expert on early American brass instruments. A great article and video about Steve was posted yesterday on the Long Beach Press Telegram website.

"Tuning" Out Distractions (lessons from sports science)

Fox Sports has a series that examines issues in sports science. There is plenty of crossover into music. Here's what I learned from a recent episode about free throw shooting:

• the brain decodes visual stimuli and aural stimuli in different areas. Decoding visual stimuli is more cognitive, which also means visual distractions can more readily be blocked out.
• Aural distractions, being harder to filter, will have a greater effect on us. The greatest of aural distractions is not just noise, but surprise, inconsistent noises.

What does this mean for musicians? Consider a solo instrumental performance. We make every effort to focus on, within the moment, our expressive music. But wrong notes happen (the trumpet "clam"). Science tells us that these shake us physiologically, breaking our focus, and putting future notes in jeopardy. There are two things we can do about this:

1. PRACTICE A LOT: You'll miss fewer notes in performance!
2. PUT YOURSELF IN PRESSURE SITUATIONS OFTEN: We may not be able to control the fact that audible distractions shake us, but we can control our reaction. Those that minimize the anger after mistakes are in the best condition to execute. Anger quickly raises the physiological stress indicators, and this makes playing an instrument more challenging, leading to more mistakes. A high-intensity, critical mentality may be useful in the practice room, but there is already too much heat on us while we are performing. A calm mind resists the mental "commentary" while we play. That is a good thing. How do we achieve the calm mind? We've got to perform as often as possible in many different pressure situations. Save your critiquing for after the performance and include a critique of how well you responded to your missed notes (the distractions). Did you dwell on it well after it happened? Did you allow your "blood to boil?"

Finally, the question begs to be asked - why do we put ourselves through this? In my opinion, playing an instrument in public is one of the toughest things to execute. The experience gained in the heat of the musical moment will definitely translate to other areas of life - public speaking, thinking quickly in a meeting, keeping poise when you are being judged (a job interview, date, etc.). Musical performances will stay with you all of your life. Make the most of them (prepare well & execute as calmly as you can), and you will always value and cherish the experience!


Sport Science: FT Distractions

Bah Humduck!

Last year, Warner Bros. released another cartoon version of "A Christmas Carol," this time featuring Daffy Duck as Scrooge. This is worth your time to watch (especially if, like me, you have little kids and will be watching cartoons anyways!) because of the outstanding soundtrack composed by Gordon Goodwin and performed by his Big Phat Band. It is a throwback to the old days of fully-orchestrated soundtracks, full of great jazz licks. "Yo Tannenbaum," one of the tracks from this soundtrack is up for a Grammy Award.
http://www.gordongoodwin.com/index1.html for more information about the Big Phat Band and this soundtrack. (GG and the Big Phat Band are behind another popular cartoon soundtrack: The Incredibles.)

One additional note: Jay Mason, Concordia's professor of saxophone, is playing bari sax on this soundtrack (and his name is listed in the movie's credits).

Big-10 Linebacker Plays Chopin

One of the highlights that has been playing during college football's bowl season is a piano solo. That's right... John Misch is a freshman linebacker at Michigan State who earned a starting position. He's also a very talented concert pianist. Here's the full video, taken at an awards banquet before the bowl game.