New Directions
You know the old expression -- when one door closes another one opens? That's usually been a crock. But all of a sudden, I've found a couple of open doors in my path, and they all involve music.
First of all, Band Geeks is still churning forward. The script is always being tweaked and I'm always either doing arrangements or searching for pieces to arrange.
But other things are going on, too. One of my big regrets in life is that I never learned how to play jazz. As a French Horn player, they steer you away from jazz as there are probably enough jazz French Horn players out there to count on one hand. But now that I'm committed to the Mellophone, the yearning is there. In steps Mark Taylor, who is a regular on the mellophone page forums. I've loaned him a couple of horns recently and now he's offered to tutor me in jazz! This is VERY exciting for me for a couple of reasons. First, it's something I've always wanted to do. Second, Mark is extremely cool and a wonderful musician. And third, this will be the first time I've taken any music lessons since around 1984!
Additionally, I've finally begun working on my CD with Steve Ryan. I've been shaping the project for years now, but we've never gotten together until yesterday. And all of a sudden, it's a very different project.
You see, when I'm writing a play I do a lot of preliminary plotting out of characters, intentions, actions, plots, subplots, etc. But it's only when I actually start writing it that it all gets its own focus and, sometimes, it's radically different from the plans I've made. When the characters start breathing and interacting, they sort of force things in their own direction. It's a remarkable moment!
The same thing sort of happened here with Steve. Steve and I have a good chemistry and a strong respect for each other as musicians. We're also both hungry for a good opportunity and have no problems with making them ourselves. So, last night we just played through some stuff. We're in no way ready to start recording yet, but it became quite clear which numbers will work, which won't work, and that we have a lot more freedom with where this project will go than we originally thought. Maybe we'll shift the entire theme of the program. Maybe we'll just do original arrangements. We really don't know yet, but all we do know is that a huge door creaked open right in front of us, beckoning us to enter.
So here we are now -- standing at the threshold, staring into through this door, with our feet moving forward into the unknown. This project could take a while, but at least we're now on the path to a new direction. And I like being on the path.
First of all, Band Geeks is still churning forward. The script is always being tweaked and I'm always either doing arrangements or searching for pieces to arrange.
But other things are going on, too. One of my big regrets in life is that I never learned how to play jazz. As a French Horn player, they steer you away from jazz as there are probably enough jazz French Horn players out there to count on one hand. But now that I'm committed to the Mellophone, the yearning is there. In steps Mark Taylor, who is a regular on the mellophone page forums. I've loaned him a couple of horns recently and now he's offered to tutor me in jazz! This is VERY exciting for me for a couple of reasons. First, it's something I've always wanted to do. Second, Mark is extremely cool and a wonderful musician. And third, this will be the first time I've taken any music lessons since around 1984!
Additionally, I've finally begun working on my CD with Steve Ryan. I've been shaping the project for years now, but we've never gotten together until yesterday. And all of a sudden, it's a very different project.
You see, when I'm writing a play I do a lot of preliminary plotting out of characters, intentions, actions, plots, subplots, etc. But it's only when I actually start writing it that it all gets its own focus and, sometimes, it's radically different from the plans I've made. When the characters start breathing and interacting, they sort of force things in their own direction. It's a remarkable moment!
The same thing sort of happened here with Steve. Steve and I have a good chemistry and a strong respect for each other as musicians. We're also both hungry for a good opportunity and have no problems with making them ourselves. So, last night we just played through some stuff. We're in no way ready to start recording yet, but it became quite clear which numbers will work, which won't work, and that we have a lot more freedom with where this project will go than we originally thought. Maybe we'll shift the entire theme of the program. Maybe we'll just do original arrangements. We really don't know yet, but all we do know is that a huge door creaked open right in front of us, beckoning us to enter.
So here we are now -- standing at the threshold, staring into through this door, with our feet moving forward into the unknown. This project could take a while, but at least we're now on the path to a new direction. And I like being on the path.
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