hEARing, part 1

I arise from my summer daze for a rare blog...
I've been working on memorizing Peaslee's Arrows of Time. Normally I don't bother to memorize music. Why? I've always felt you should do whatever produces the best performance. If I hesitate because of a little memory slip, the piece suffers.

I must admit, however, as I work to memorize some of the funkier intervals of that piece, I find that I must truly learn them. I find that I play them better because, since I had to memorize them, they are clearer in my ear.

So here's an equation to consider...

Memorizing = Better Inner Hearing = Better Performance

I'm not totally sold on memorizing yet but I have to admit, this is something new to consider.

You never stop learning.

Interested in Shires Trombones?

For anybody local to Columbia, Newell Sheridan will be in town on June 20th with some horns for sale. I play Shires and love it, by the way. Just heard that the whole Atlanta Symphony trombone section has switched to Shires.
Email me if you're interested.

Trombonophilia...yet no YouTube (dang)

OK, this looks interesting and way over my little head. Still, perhaps someone out there might want to know about it.

The group has a choreographer and yet I find no video on their website or on YouTube. I get the feeling it would be interesting.

Here's a link to their blog:
http://trombonophilia.blogspot.com/


Here's the announcement that was emailed to me...

June 2007 at the Stone curated by Christopher McIntyre


Tuesday's and Thursday's (plus Friday June 1 & 29)
Trombonophilia
A month-long festival featuring New York's unusually creative group of local trombonists, all of whom compose and lead their own projects. Visit the festival site for more info at www.cmcintyre.com/trombonophilia.htm


6/1 Friday (JC)
8 pm
Trombonophilia: Chris McIntyre's SoHo SoLo
Chris McIntyre (trombone & laptop)
A new solo set of compositions from a 70's SoHo perspective (Niblock, Glass, Zummo, Rzewski) as well as McIntyre's evolving stuplimity no.3 for trombone and ISE.

10 pm
Trombonophilia: 7X7 Trombone Band
Joe Fiedler, Ben Gerstein, Curtis Hasselbring, Richard Marriott, Chris McInytre, Steve Swell, Peter Zummo (trombone)
Formed to play McIntyre's music with choreographer Yoshiko Chuma, 7X7 has performed at the River To River and Fall For Dance Festivals and Issue Project Room. Tonight features McIntyre's stuplimity series pieces for multiple trombones and Fredric Rzewski's Last Judgement (subtitled "for solo trombone or any number of echoing trombones not quite in unison")