Okay, I do have something to bitch about.  Why don’t people reply to emails, especially if you are asked a question that needs answering?  I do not get it.  When someone sends you an email that needs a reply, DO IT!!!

For those not around NC, you should know it feels like mid August around here.  Could hit 100 degrees.  I wont complain about that.  I would rather it be 100 than 35 any day.  It is just unusual for this time of year.  Sometimes it will get up to 90 and higher, but it doesn’t get to 100 til later in the summer.  Either way, I am now officially riding the bike virtually everywhere I need to go.  Unless I have to take things with me, its bike time.  I like having the newer bike.  It rides very smooth, but is really loud.  I will get the loud fixed when some money comes in.

It’s hard to tell if this was a good week or a bad one.  Certainly not as good as I have been having.  The schedule was light this week anyways, and I was going to get out of town and visit Pittsburgh, PA.   Last week, I had a serious toothache and went to get it taken care of.  The Dentist was rather good, and helped me find the cheapest solution, which was to replace the silver filling I had and patch the cavity behind the filling, then put in a new filling.  The pain has been lessening with each passing day and is pretty much cleared up today.  Never the less, the damage was done.  Summers are tight with money, and the tooth ordeal ate up my vacation money, so I didn’t go to Pittsburgh.

I have been taking care of lots of little things around here dealing with brass band, tubaband, and the usual stuff.  The transition into the Music Director position for the Triangle Brass band is going well, as best that I can tell.  The Board has met and we are working out some new policies and officially updating the document.  These things will help us operate more efficiently in the future, and help us to become a more professional outfit.  I do feel good about the transition and look forward to the annual general meeting in two weeks.  I have a lot to prepare for to be ready for that.  I am almost into the repertoire phase of planning, which is where it gets fun.

We are looking for a Business Manager that could volunteer to be basically an administrative aid to the President and myself.  To help us operate the band efficiently on the paper side and to take care of odds and ends that I don’t have time to do.  If someone wants the job, let me know.

My tooth starting hurting Monday or Tuesday.  I gave in and went to the dentist today to get it worked on.  I got a new filling put in, and hopefully that fixes it.  If not, root canal is the next step.  Geeez, you do not even know how badly I do not want to do that.  Put in a good work to your deity that my tooth is now going to be OK and that no more work is needed on this.

Well, a week has gone by, and a lot has happened. My parents came to town to spend some time and see my concert. I was very busy getting the house ready for their arrival. The house looks pretty good, and seems so much more spacious now that there isn’t cluttered junk everywhere. Can I keep it this way? Hahaha, probably not for long.

Friday evening was long and tiring. I had to rent a truck to move equipment to the hall. It took a while and there was an accident in front of the rental place. Since things were not normal, I forgot the key to the shed and it put us a little behind schedule. Traffic was bad as well. We got everything in the hall, horns passed out and we were ready to start the rehearsal at 7 PM, as planned. I was already tired. The rehearsal went really well. I can not believe we actually got through all of the material in this one rehearsal. Although the TYBB has been working on the music for about 5 weeks, this was the only time the whole band, 32 players in TYBB and 35 Alumni, could get together and put the program together. We worked very hard in the rehearsal, and it was looking to be an amazing product. Afterwards, we hung out a little at Bo’s.

Saturday morning came fast, and we had a short rehearsal at Regency with the Triangle Wind Ensemble for their Memorial Day concert. We played the ending of 1812 Overture and Stars and Stripes Forever with them. The concert that evening was really nice. We had a picnic dinner there and enjoyed the show. The TYBB/Alumni ended the concert with a bang. it went really well.

Sunday evening was the TYBE/TYBB/Alumni concert. This was the last concert of the season for us, and because of the number of performers, was a huge task in putting together. The TYBE did a really good job, and Jon Caldwell put the program together like a pro. There were some challenges, as rehearsal conflicts were making things tough to rehearse. They pulled it together. The 2nd half of the show was the large combined TYBB and Alumni band. A total of about 65 players, and a lot of talent on that stage. The music was challenging, but all stuff you would kill to hear a lot of brass play. The performance was great. There were very few flaws, and the band was fairly responsive and spontaneous. The crowd was pretty large, a bit bigger than we usually get, and the hall seemed pretty well full up. The audience was definitely responding well to the music. The ending, when we added the 40 players from TYBE to the end of 1812 Overture was amazing. There was a lot of sound there.

Monday I took my parents to Wrightsville Beach and we hung out there for a day or so. it was really nice not to have a bunch of things to do for a couple of days. The parents are gone now, and It is back to regular routine of lessons for the week, but my schedule is a bit lighter now. Summer, here we come.

The big concert Sunday was a personal best for me. I was so proud to have so many people return to make music again. Most of the alumni that came back are actually studying music in college, but all of them still like to play brass band stuff. It was the history of my time as director of the band on stage at one time. The fact that it sounded absolutely amazing was a plus, because the music I programmed was so much fun to conduct and create a product with. I will never forget this one. It lines up as one of the greatest musical experiences of my life. Picture:  1812 Combined Bands

Well, the house is just about ready for my parents to arrive.  I have to clean their bed sheets and put some clothes away, but other than that, the house is spic and span clean.  I have to say, I need to keep it clean like this.  I like the house when it is not so cluttered.  I have been so lazy and negligent in avoiding the pile up and accumulation of stuff.  Where does all of this crap come from?  Now, the joint is neat, but not organized.  Organizing my office and clothes and stuff will happen over the summer, and I will make an honest attempt at keeping things clean and organized forever.

On top of the four days of housework, we have lessons and brass band rehearsals.  Many alumni came Monday evening to TYBB rehearsal and we got a decent amount of work done.  I think this concert this weekend will be really good.  I am only stressed about having one rehearsal with the whole group together Friday night.  It will probably be for nothing (the worrying), but never the less, it is there.

So, my parents come into the airport tonight at almost midnight, which is a good time.  It gives me plenty of time to get some last second things worked out and ready for them.  The last time they were here, was the TYBB Alumni concert in May 2005.  They might think that the TYBB is a 70 piece brass band all of the time, not just these two concerts.  Hahaha. Either way, they are here for a week.  Since my step Mother is a night owl, and there is nothing to do here at night, and I wanted faster internet service, and I wanted a TV again, I bought a new TV and got cable/road runner in the house.  I was surprised that they got it hooked up in one day and everything works great.  It’s amazing.  Clean house, TV, fast internet, family in town, old timers coming oin town to play in brass band again… what could be better in life?

I am in the middle of spring cleaning.  My parents are coming to town Wednesday, so I have no choice but to clean the house up a bit.  A lot, actually.  I admit, I am not the cleanest dude around, and I let stuff accumulate.  Where does all of this crap come from?  Geez.  I am pecking away at it, but there is so much to do, it is consuming me.  I spent most of the day Sunday on this, most of today, and I bet most of tomorrow doing this.  I have to add it to the other things I am working on for the concert this week.

Saturday, I played a pops concert with the Tar River Orchestra.  It was an easy gig, playing only the first half.  With two rehearsals, it was three trips to Rocky Mount which is a full tank of gas, about $70.  This gig cost me $70 just to get to.  This is $40 more than it could, or should, or used to cost.  Gas is going to ruin us.  If it costs more to get to the gig, its going to force them to pay more, making it harder for them to afford paying us , meaning they wont use live musicians anymore…and guess who gets cut first in an orchestra?  That’s right, the Tuba.

The last few days have been perfect weather-wise around here.  I have been spending some free time outside reading.  Since I was avoiding cleaning the house, and wanting to relax a bit, I read a book I just got in the mail.  I Love Amazon.com.  Its an autobiography by Lynn “Buck” Compton, and it is a fairly personal inside look into his life.  Compton was an officer in the 101st Airborne, Easy Company, featured in the book and mini-series Band of Brothers.  This is where I learned of him, and from that, and the book have developed a great and human respect for this fellow.  Interestingly, Compton was a teammate of Jackie Robinson at UCLA, and prosecuted Sirhan Sirhan for the murder of Robert F. Kennedy.

So, I am about to run out to the brass band shed and pick up some things, and continue to work around the house getting things ready.  Wask Clothes, clean dishes, throw crap away… I pay the price for being lazy.

Why is it that it is so tough to get kids to play music?  I am not talking about just getting a good tone, or play in tune.  I mean, why do they struggle to be sensitive to music and phrases and melody, and accompaniment?  I struggle with this.  I am lucky.  I get to work with a fantastic group of young brass and percussion players.  They are for better or for worse, the best we have in this area as far as talent is concerned.  So, we are not talking about kids struggling to get notes out of the horn.  They are closer to being accomplished players than beginners to be sure.  So, why is it so tough for them to play musically?  Why is their attention to detail with music style so poor?  Don’t get me started on this.

• Are we using music to teach the things we think will be beneficial to them?
• Have we turned learning music into a task oriented activity?
• Are students learning how to think creatively or emotionally?
• Are we getting students to find passion in artistic music?
• Is our band training system failing?

I have my theories about the answers to these questions.  I think about them all of the time.  My brass band is designed to be a supplement to the school band experience, and too often I am thinking that it is the only place where that list of questions above is being answered in the positive.  Am I in this alone?

Saturday was a day of graduation gigs.  It was a nice day and went by smoothly.  It was a lot of playing.  It’s nice to have the work.  The last week was busy, but not so bad.  It was nice not to have to go to Central, as they are done for the summer and it freed  up some time to work on other things that are pressing.  Most notably, the TBB Board meeting.  We talked about the season next year, and a few other things I want to work into to make it work like I want it to.  So far, so good.

Sadly, there isn’t much else to say right now.  Preparation is ongoing for the big brass band concert on May 25th.