Last Friday, I was invited to work with young musicians on Lightworks at Smith Junior High School where my own junior high band director now teaches. Lightworks is not an easy piece (easily a grade 4), but her students have picked it up pretty damn well. (Seriously, I don’t think I even knew what 5/8 was in 8th and 9th grade and these kids are nailing it.) It’s a pretty weird/quirky piece, but there are a lot of cool musical things starting to happen. I’m excited to go back there and work with them more before the premiere (which is May 7th, by the way).

The morning after that premiere, I have an early (but thankfully quick) flight to California where the Cal State Fullerton Symphonic Winds will be performing Turkey in the Straw. That’s right! Also on the concert is Lincolnshire Posy, Bernard Gilmore’s Five Folk Songs for Soprano and Wind Band, and Holst’s Second Suite in F. 

It’s all folk, all night long! 

If the first thought that just came to your head was “WTF?” then you’re in the right place. An explanation to Ryan in panda-face (above): since sometime back in highschool, me and my friends have been making dumb songs. And I say that with all the love and pride in the world. They’re something we’ve kept somewhat exclusively within our own creative circle, but I’ve recently decided to start sharing them. 

Now when I say “dumb” I don’t necessarily mean that they’re all dumb or that they’re necessarily meant to be “funny”. By “dumb” I just mean… different. Like, Neil Diamond or Bob Dylon different. Or Gary Wilson different. They’re basically whatever we feel like writing — from 80’s tunes you can dance to, to hip-hop, to whatever.

It’s definitely very different from the concert music I write. In fact, if you’re a director rehearsing one of my pieces, consider yourself warned.

Past hits have included A Little More Than Ordinary (folk-y), This Dream (rap-y), A Cheesecrisp is Not a Quesadilla (?-y), Ristorante Italiano (Bocelli-y), and our latest hit, The Information Age (80’s-y). I’ll probably only post the new songs we make from here-on-out, but I may throw in some weird oldies from time-to-time, too. There’s really no describing exactly what they are or why they are. Frankly, we’re not sure we even know. 

But, if you want to help us figure it out, you can subscribe to our pod(music)cast at iTunes for free. Just click the link below or do a search for a podcast called “Your Basic Tune & Lube.” Enjoy!

Subscribe to Your Basic Tune & Lube (clicking this link will launch iTunes)

Wow, I’m really falling behind with these blog posts. But then again, no one really reads them anyway (especially when there aren’t any pictures… like this one). Oh well.

A few months ago, I was contacted by a Masters students at Bowling Green State University, Christopher Baumgartner. He emailed me a few questions about Shadow Rituals and I pretended like I knew what I was talking about, but more importantly sent him a few other references and articles on the piece that would probably explain the ‘inner workings’ of the piece better than I could. Last night, surfing the web, I came across his Masters thesis paper entitled A Performance Analysis of ‘Whirlwind’ and ‘Shadow Rituals,’ Ticheli Composition Contest Award Winning Works in 2007. 

I am always so amazed when I learn about people who are studying that piece and writing about it. So far, I guess this would be the third. Dr. Keith Kinder first analyzed the piece in Manhattan Beach Music’s publication MBM Times #2. Dr. Shelley Jagow wrote about it, disecting the piece even futher, in a chapter of GIA’s Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, Volume 7. And now, Mr. Baumgartner — with his 60-something page paper (granted: half of those pages are dedicated to Jody’s piece, Whirlwind).

Geez. All these doctors and masters writing about my music and here I am without a degree. I’m pathetic.