Saxophones: Not just Jazz Instruments

As a saxophone player, I find saxophones to be some of the best instruments there are, in terms of tone quality, versatility, and overall sound. Although they lack the many years of repertoire that instruments like violin and oboe have, there is plenty of recent saxophone music that sounds nice and makes great competition pieces.

Often people think of saxophone as a jazz instrument. And in many cases, that’s true. However, saxophone is not just a purely jazz instrument; there are many famous classical saxophonists, like Claude Delangle, that have made and continue to make a good name for classical saxophone. There are colleges and universities that have classical saxophone schools as well as jazz saxophone schools. In general however, people consider saxophone to be a jazz instrument because the classical side is not as well known due to the big name jazz players like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane.

I’m not a big fan of combo jazz, I prefer the big band setting, but saxophone got a good portion of its fame from combo players. Charlie Parker and John Coltrane are some of the more famous players of the peak of the jazz era but there are many thousands out there that write their own music and perform nowadays. Many jazz professors are saxophone players, and many classical saxophone players, but not all, play jazz saxophone as well. Jazz saxophone is wanted much more than classical saxophone; someone will pay to hear a saxophonist play John Coltrane but will probably not pay to hear a saxophonist play Christian Lauba (although Lauba is good, his modern repertoire is an acquired taste). Additionally, there is more permanent work for saxophonists in a traveling big-band than there is for a saxophonist in a major symphony, as not many symphonic works include saxophone parts.

Personally, I am a big fan of Claude Delangle and classical saxophone in general. I’m not that into jazz saxophone, probably on account of having not practiced enough to get very good at improvising. A few years ago when I started taking lessons from my current teacher, he suggested that I get Claude Delangle’s album, Under the Sign of the Sun. It is one of my favorite classical albums and has much of the repertoire that I have learned in the past few years including Tableaux de Provence by Paule Maurice, Concertino da Camera by Jacques Ibert, Scaramouche by Darius Milhaud, and most recently the Tomasi Concerto. Before I’ve performed any of these pieces for a competition, I’ve listened to the recordings multiple times and tried to imitate the parts of Claude Delangle’s playing that I like.

I especially enjoy playing saxophone in a wind band environment. I’ve played in the school’s wind ensemble for a while and have done summer camps, IMEA district, and soon IMEA state. I like the place of the saxophone in the ensemble; its place in the middle of the ensemble lets it play multiple types of parts. It’s not restricted to the bass part and low melodies like some of the low brass generally is and it isn’t restricted to the higher melodies of the flutes. It falls in line often with the French horn, which coincidentally is one of my other favorite instruments, although I cannot play it. I like the wind band repertoire as well; I enjoy the works of Holst, Grainger, and many of their contemporaries. It’s fun music and band is one of my favorite parts of the day.

So to anyone out there planning on picking an instrument to play, pick saxophone. There may be a plethora of saxophone beginners, but if you choose the path of classical saxophone, there aren’t too many out there, and the music is fun and rewarding.

Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse (Part 2)

When reviewing the previous week’s zombie apocalypse survival guide, I realize I left off a very important thing that will affect much of my discussion; objectives.

Objectives are important; in my opinion surviving a zombie apocalypse is great, but if all of humanity’s progress is lost, then the next generations (assuming that you were not the lone survivor in a given area) would have to rebuild from scratch and would likely die out. Therefore, my objectives will not be only survival; although that is the main objective, there are multiple other objectives regarding the preservation of humanity’s knowledge and works. Below are the objectives as I perceive them at the moment.

1.      Survive- Survival is important; if you don’t survive, you cannot complete any of the other objectives. Therefore, survival is the prime objective.

2.      Preserve knowledge- It’s important that the skills and knowledge of the past be preserved in order to create a functioning society.

3.      Create a functioning society- as mentioned in the previous part of Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse, it is important to travel with a group. A group can function as a small society on its own, and it is important that society continues after the zombie apocalypse.

These objectives are the paramount objectives, most other objectives can be derived from these (objective 2 can be derived from 3, but it’s important to explicitly state it, as not everyone would draw that conclusion). If objectives are added in the future, I’ll add them as subsections of the paramount objectives.

So, the first major thing in this post that I wish to address is that I’m going to contradict my first post; moving out to rural areas is not the best idea in regards to the 2^nd and 3^rd objectives. In terms of survival only, rural areas are fantastic. For preserving the knowledge of mankind, cities are the best choice, as they have the most information, museums, and historical documents. However, cities are also full to the brim of potential zombies. A functioning society can be made in many environments, so it will have a minimal factor in the decision on location.

Ultimately, I’ve come to the conclusion that a suburban area would be the best location, preferably a college town or a suburb with a college in it. Such examples are; Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, Bloomington, Indiana or Illinois, River Forest, Illinois, and others. Each town/city has a university in it (University of Illinois, Indiana University, and Dominican University and Concordia University).

You may ask, why a university? The answer is as follows; universities are places where the knowledge of mankind is not only stored, but it is taught as well. Universities would have functioning cooking facilities, housing, and a variety of instillations for the management of the university itself (backup generators, water treatment, etc.) that would allow for some modicum of civilization without the need to run massive power plants. The layout of universities and the buildings would be conducive to building a functioning society. In addition, many of the university students would be sent home during the zombie apocalypse or would chose to go home, making the campuses largely vacant and reducing the number of potential zombies.

The four universities mentioned above each have their advantages and disadvantages. Concordia University and Dominican University would be defendable; they are small enough that small walls of cars and other objects could feasibly be created and are small enough that zombies inside could be easily eradicated. However, both of them are surrounded almost completely by suburbs, making farmland scarce which would cause the later generations significant problems. Indiana University, Illinois State University, and the University of Illinois have plenty of available farmland nearby, and have large areas such as quads where food could be grown. However, the size of these universities would be difficult to manage, as there are multiple buildings that would have to be cleared of zombies, and creating a wall to keep out zombies would be difficult, if not impossible. It would be possible, and advisable if one was to use a large university as their zombie survival outpost/colony to first start at the central area of the university, the University of Illinois Quad for example and create a wall around that area first, slowly moving to the other areas and moving the walls as necessary. Due to the necessity of farmland, and the problems of large numbers of zombies in suburbs, of the four universities, the University of Illinois and Indiana University are the best choices.

Once walls are completed and the zombies in the area have been rooted out, then it will be possible to create a functioning society, survive, and preserve the knowledge of mankind. While food collection and food production is paramount at first, once the production and collection have been managed and are sufficient, other items, like books, valuables, and technology should be scavenged from areas and stored. These items will preserve the knowledge of mankind and can be valuable items to trade with other potential colonies after the initial deluge of zombies.

That’s all for this week, stay tuned for next week’s zombie apocalypse survival information.

USS Enterprise D, a French Horn, and Frank Lloyd Wright: Christmas Tree Time

“Shuttlecraft to Enterprise, shuttlecraft to Enterprise. Spock here, Happy Holidays, Live Long and Prosper.”

That’s one of my favorite sounds towards the end of November through December. It’s the sound of the Galileo Shuttlecraft ornament on my family’s Christmas tree (for those of you who don’t know, the Galileo was a shuttlecraft on the USS Enterprise from the original series of Star Trek). When I was younger I remember pressing the button to start the sound over and over again, hearing “shuttle shuttle shut shuttle shuttlecraft” again and again. When I got home on Saturday after visiting my grandfather and cousins, pressing that button was the first thing I did.

As per tradition, the Christmas tree in my house went up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Aboard the tree are a plethora of ornaments representing the different interests of my family throughout the past couple decades.

The first set of ornaments I notice are generally the Star Trek ornaments; Data at his console aboard the bridge, the USS Enterprise D, the USS Voyager, and the aforementioned Galileo Shuttlecraft. These ornaments are some of my favorites; I watched Star Trek frequently with my family during my middle school years (the complete 7 seasons of The Next Generation, the 4 seasons of Enterprise, a little bit of the Original Series, and a good amount of Voyager) and the ornaments bring back fond memories. The ornaments especially remind me of my first few Christmases and are always nice additions to see on the tree.

The next ornaments I noticed this year were the multitudes of ornaments of characters from children’s shows and children’s movies. There are innumerable Mickey and Minnie Mice that adorn the tree in concert with Winnie the Pooh, Goofy, Simba, and many others. Disney characters were very prevalent in my childhood, as, like other children, I watched Disney movies such as A Bug’s Life, The Lion King, and the Pixar movie Toy Story. Woody and Buzz Lightyear are on the tree as well, relics of a long past era (although Toy Story 3 was rather recent and was very good).

In addition to the Disney characters, Thomas the Tank Engine and his friend Percy also are present. Thomas was one of my favorite shows as a child, and I still remember countless hours playing with the train sets that my parents gave to me.

The most frequent kind of ornament on the tree is the kind from an interesting place in the world. There are ornaments from all over; Washington DC, Mount Rushmore, India, Greece, Chicago, England, Germany, the Netherlands, and many other countries. The ornaments themselves are rather interesting; they range from orbs bearing the name of their origin (not the origin of their production or they’d all be saying China) to little Greek soldiers and blue and white Greek houses and an elephant from India. The number of these ornaments increases as the number of places my family and I visit increases; no doubt there will be an Argentinean ornament at the end of the year.

Then comes the occasional Frank Lloyd Wright ornaments. My dad, being a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, has accumulated a few interesting Frank Lloyd Wright ornaments. I’ve counted one or two, but have not found more, probably because I haven’t looked hard enough.

Musical instruments are surprisingly infrequent on the Christmas tree; I’ve seen a cello and a French horn, neither of which anyone in the family plays. I swear I’ve been given a saxophone ornament in the past the location of which is unknown to me.

Last but certainly not least is the lone R2-D2 ornament without any other Star Wars paraphernalia on the remainder of the tree. As a member of a family that enjoys Star Wars, I am surprised by the lack of additional Star Wars ornaments. However, I can’t imagine that a random Jedi would look good on the tree; Kit Fisto hardly invokes a Christmas spirit.

For the next month and a half, I’ll be able to look at the ornaments on the tree and remember the past Christmases I’ve had. It’s an enjoyable experience, and I can expect to hear many more holiday greetings from Spock through January.

Top Ten Songs to Run Around and Play (In Ascending Order)

Occasionally, I have the urge to run around somewhere and play a fun song. And I have (ISYM 2011). More than once. Marching band is the number one way to find fun songs to run around and play, but there are other ways as well, particularly Youtube. Below, is my list of my favorite songs to play in a fun environment. Pick one, and play it on your local main street some time.

1.      Land of 1000 Dances- It’s a pretty cool little ditty. It’s nice to play in a large group (marching band) and it’s fun to take the mellophone (not in Word’s dictionary) part up an octave. It’s fun to play at football games, but it’s hard to play without all the band, so it can’t qualify for the most fun song to run around and play because you can’t run around and play it.

2.      Let’s Go Band- This is a classic. Just whip out a trumpet and play it, and everyone recognizes it. But without a band, it seems kind of pointless to play.

3.      Bad Romance (Just the first part)- People love Lady Gaga, and the first part of Bad Romance is really catchy. Problem is, after a while it gets kind of old going C,C,G,G,Ab,G over and over and over again. But it’s fun to play. Not worth making a Youtube (also not in Word’s dictionary) video over.

4.      Go, Fight, Win- Another really fun thing to play on trumpet. It also reaches the problem of seeming out of place when there isn’t some kind of sports event going on.

5.      Frankenstein- It just sounds plain awesome when played by a marching band in the stands at a game. Only problem is, nobody knows it. It isn’t exactly a pop tune, so nobody knows what it is and they don’t remember it when you play it a second time.

6.      I Want You Back- Classic Michael Jackson. It’s perfect to play all day erryday. Everyone knows it, and it’s always a big hit with the crowd and the band. Great to play, but unfortunately does not make a great solo thing to run around and play.

7.      Soul Finger- A big hit in the marching band I’m in. It sounds fun and there are some pretty cool motions you can do while you play. And the trumpet parts are pretty boss.

8.      The Hey Song- If I had two or three sousaphone players, a trombone, and some trumpets, I would love to go downtown (as in downtown OP) and play this. It would get everyone energized, but like most the aforementioned songs, it requires more than one person.

9.      Yakety Sax (or Yenkety Sax in Boots Randolph’s 1963 album)- One saxophone player can run around and play this for any situation, whether it be while someone runs after a bus or while a police officer chases you away for playing on private property. It was also the Benny Hill theme song, so that gives it a bit more street cred. Any alto or tenor saxophone player (and soprano) should give this a try (not bari, you can’t run with a bari that well).

10.  Careless Whisper (Commonly known as Sexy Sax Man)- If you haven’t seen the video, watch it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaoLU6zKaws). This, I personally have done, with two other saxophone players, and it is incredibly fun. We serenaded the Papa John’s guy, a Jimmy John’s guy, some camp counselors, and a camp dance, and had quite the positive reaction. So if you ever get the chance, do this, it’s worth it.

Awesome Music of the Week #2

Piece: “String Quartet #1 in D, Op. 11- Andante Cantabile”

Composer: Pytor I. Tchaikovsky

Artist: Academy of St-Martin-in-the-Fields (Iona Brown)

Album: Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik – Neville Marriner

This pieces, Tchaikovsky’s “String Quartet #1 in D, Op. 11- Andante Cantabile” is one of my favorite pieces. I’ve listened to it countless times off my iPod on “Repeat 1” and have to say, it still doesn’t get old.

I was first introduced to this piece over the summer at the ISYM Saxophone Camp where my quartet played a Marcel Mule arrangement of it. I was on the baritone saxophone part, so I was able to listen to all the solo parts while I played the accompaniment part. It was very nice to be able to hear how all the parts worked together, and of all the pieces we played, it was my favorite (even in comparison to the Jeanjean).

I enjoy the pensive part at the end where three of the four parts take small solos while the others play background accompaniment. It is very melancholy, and I find it peaceful and relaxing.

I listen to it often now, even after I had my fix of it during the summer. It was by chance that I discovered I had a recording of it; I searched through the iTunes store to find the saxophone arrangement to no avail. Then one day I put my iPod on shuffle and it popped up, albeit a string quartet version. I have listened to it nearly every day since then, and it is my song of choice when playing Minecraft.

I probably like this song because it brings back the good memories of saxophone camp, yet there is still something else in it that makes me want to listen to it more. I’m not quite sure what it is, and I’m not quite sure I’ll ever know what it is, but I’ll keep listening to the song whenever I can.

Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving again and as usual, there are Facebook statuses of “Happy Turkey Day” and others about how the Pilgrims screwed over the Native Americans. These statuses are not only a bit cliché, but missing the point of Thanksgiving. The point of Thanksgiving is not to think about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans; they’re rather inconsequential to the point of Thanksgiving, they just provided the basis for the holiday itself. The true point of Thanksgiving is vocalizing what you’re thankful for. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here’s what I am thankful for.

1.      Family- Although people often assume that this goes without saying, I think it’s important to say it. I’m thankful for my family; they provide me with food and shelter, are genuinely nice people, and are great. Grandparents, parents, and siblings, all are important to my life, and I’m thankful to have them.

2.      Friends- I appreciate my friends, and although I probably don’t tell them it, it’s great to have friends. It’s nice to have people to talk to, whether it is about school, Knights of the Old Republic, Apple products, chemistry, Minecraft, and more. Having people to talk to at lunch makes my day not only more enjoyable, but it makes it different in a way that is hard to put into words. So to all my friends, near and far, I am thankful for you.

3.      Teachers- I would not be the person I am today, and will not be the person I will be in 20 years without teachers. Teachers have difficult jobs, and it is important to remember that they shape who we are. I would especially like to thank my band directors, math teachers, and science teachers, as these subjects are the highlight of my day and the classes would not be the same without each and every one of them.

4.      Pets- I enjoy having my two geckos and I enjoy other people’s pets as well, such as my grandmother’s cats. Pets are fun, and my geckos always seem happy to see me (or they just want food) which brightens my day considerably. So I’m thankful for pets; the companionship they provide is invaluable.

5.      Music- It has inspired me throughout my entire life and still provides inspiration for me today. I would like to thank everyone who plays music, writes music, and teaches music for the invaluable experience that it has been for me. I am also thankful for the music companies that manufacture instruments, such as Henri Selmer Paris, for the wonderful equipment they provide.

6.      Computer Games- I enjoy playing computer games; it helps me stop thinking about everything I usually think about and focus on entertainment. I thank Bethesda Studios and LucasArts especially for the great games they make and the endless hours of game-play they provide.

7.      Food, Water, Shelter, etc- essentially, I am thankful for the life that I have today. All over the world there are people who lack the basic necessities for survival. I am thankful that I have all the tools I need for survival, and am thankful for those who provide them for me.

So all in all, I am thankful for my life and everything that makes it up. Although there are things that I don’t like, I am thankful that they exist, as they are instrumental to making me who I am. To my friends and family who may read this blog, I am thankful for you.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving,

Sincerely,

Cody

Mouthpieces: The Mouthpiece Chooses the Player (as the Wand Chooses the Wizard)

Today I went shopping for a new mouthpiece for playing trumpet. I’d been playing on a Bach 1C for quite a while now, and was having trouble with the range requirements for lead jazz trumpet (I could only get a high C reliably) and I figured that it was probably time to try something different. I asked around for advice (thanks for the help y’all) and the general consensus was to go and try a bunch out.

So I went to a store and the people there gave me a bunch of new mouthpieces to try out, recommending that I get a “screamer”. I tried 4 or 5 Bach’s ranging from a 2C to a 7C. The 5C was the best fit for me, and the people then recommended a bunch of other brands to try other than Bach.

There were many variants of the same kind of rim and cup shape. The Schilke’s were difficult for me to play, and although I could hit a bunch of high notes, I didn’t like the sound. One of the mouthpieces I tried I could feel my lips pressing on the inside of the cup, which I thought was rather weird.

Eventually, they gave me a Dennis Wick 4C, which was the perfect match for me. I got an F# out (yay!) and could hit E’s and D’s fairly reliably, so I bought it.

It was kind of reminiscent of that one scene in the first Harry Potter book where Olivander tells Harry that the wand chooses the wizard. With all the selections available, the one mouthpiece stood out from all the rest, and when I used it, magic (figuratively speaking) happened (in my opinion).

This experience has called into question my preconceived notions about mouthpieces. Although I’ve tried out mouthpieces before, albeit generally for saxophone, I had gone into the experience already knowing which one I wanted, and I manipulated the results to fit my preconceived notions. For trying out the trumpet mouthpieces, I went into the experience knowing next to nothing, making it much more genuine and allowing me to find the best mouthpiece for me.

Maybe this has overarching meanings for other domains as well. Perhaps it is best to go into new situations with an open mind.

Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse (Part 1)

From week to week, I am going to begin writing down my thoughts on how to survive a zombie apocalypse, and what to do in certain situations. Before I can start theorizing on how to survive a zombie apocalypse, it’s important to lay down certain assumptions about the zombies and the government will act. Below are the assumptions (there are a lot of them):

1.      Zombies have no special powers- in many games, such as Left 4 Dead and Fallout, the zombies (or ghouls for Fallout if you feel like being politically correct) have special variants and powers such as releasing radiation, healing other zombies, or exploding. For these purposes all zombies are the same in the sense that they all have an undying desire for human flesh, and they are interchangeable with each other. In addition, they can’t do anything special; they are essentially deceased humans wandering around.

2.      Zombies stumble around- in games and movies alike, zombies often run around and chase the survivors. In this premise, the zombies’ motor control is impaired, meaning that at best they can reach a top speed of 4 miles per hour, or 1.79 meters per second.

3.      Zombies are “killed” by destroying the head or removing the brain- it’s fairly self-explanatory, zombies are still controlled by their brain, so removing it is the end of line.

4.      Zombies cannot reproduce- although it also seems fairly self-explanatory, it will have some bearing on my later theories.

5.      Zombies cannot inherently sense survivors- Zombies cannot sniff our survivors like they do in movies. If they see a survivor, they will attack, but if the survivor appears dead or is not visible, the zombies will continue on their way.

6.      The apocalypse was started by a virus- the virus was airborne and infected many people. It killed most of them, and those that were infected and did not completely die became zombies. At this point, the airborne virus is no longer present and is not a worry for the survivors, the one carried by the zombies is a threat.

7.      There is no cure for zombieism- no cure, no reason to look for one. For these purposes, it will be assumed that the group of survivors knows this. And even if there was one, it would be for professionals to look into.

8.      Zombies infect humans through biting and blood transfer- if a zombie bites you, you become a zombie. If the zombie virus enters your bloodstream through some means, you become a zombie. It can be assumed that zombie blood mist created by exploding parts of zombies and spraying blood will not infect the people who breathe the air (that would just make everything way too hard).

9.      The government will not do enough to stop the spread- short of nuking the start point of the infection and stopping all international travel, in my opinion, it would be impossible for the government to stop a zombie apocalypse. In this scenario, the government would not do either, and the infection would spread. In addition, the government would collapse, leaving no administrative body.

So with these assumptions, the theorizing can begin. Here are a few basic steps that will describe what to do right when the zombie apocalypse begins.

The Beginning

1.      Gather friends and family- It’s important to have a group; you need people to cover you and traveling in groups is key. Don’t get too many people that travel becomes unmanageable. Try to get enough people that travel in a large bus (like a school bus or a coach bus) or caravan of cars is possible.

2.      Choose people with survival skills- Get a police officer or someone else who can train people in gun use, get some Boy Scouts or Eagle Scouts, get a doctor, and get people who are good at scavenging and have a good street sense. You need people to have specific roles, but also be versatile enough to adapt to new situations.

3.      Get guns and ammo- Not everyone will be able to use a gun in the beginning, as they’ll lack to proper training, and it’s not just point and shoot. Give those who cannot shoot guns machetes, axes, sledgehammers, or other melee weapons that they are strong enough to use and feel comfortable with. In terms of guns, get rifles, pistols, shotguns, and lots of ammo. It’s important to have lots of ammo and other supplies; otherwise the guns become blunt objects for bludgeoning. Compound bows and crossbows are good as well, as the arrows can be reused.

4.      Stock up on survival supplies- Get non-perishable food, water, and survival gear. Get maps for your intended destination and make sure you have navigation tools as well as gasoline for your intended mode of transportation.

5.      Leave urban areas- no matter how many people the virus kills, urban areas will be more densely populated with zombies than the country will be. Get out to rural areas where it will be statistically less likely to run into zombies.

6.      Move out- waste no time in leaving; the longer you wait, the more time the zombies have to get to you, and the more time other people have to leave and clog up the highways. Better to be safe than sorry (and dead).

Next week, I’ll discuss what to do after you get to rural areas, and what you should do if you encounter trouble along the way.

Geostationary Orbit: Cool Stuff

The geostationary orbit of satellites is one of my new favorite topics in physics; from one reference point on earth, a satellite will not appear to move at all because it is orbiting the planet at the same speed that the planet is revolving, and its altitude will not change.

It turns out that there is a specific altitude and angular speed that the satellite has to be moving at to make this happen when the satellite is orbiting directly above the equator. Below is the proof.

Assume that the satellite has mass m. In order for this to work, we want our centripetal force, F_centripetal, to equal the force of gravity, F_gravity. The expression we get is as follows:

F_centripetal = F_gravity.

The next step is to use Newton’s 2^nd law, ΣF=ma, making our expression then equal to:

ma_centripetal = mg, where g is the acceleration due to gravity.

We can see that the m’s cancel out leaving us with simplified:

a_centripetal = g

From here we use two expressions that we already know, a_centripetal = ω²r and g = (GM/r²), where G is the gravitational constant of the universe and M is the mass of the earth. We then get the expression:

ω²r =  (GM/r²), which, with a bit of algebra, simplifies to: r = (GM/ ω²)^(1/3)

This still leaves us with a problem, as we have two variables to solve for, ω and r. fortunately, we can figure out ω; in order for the satellite to be geostationary, it must rotate with the earth, meaning that it must make a full revolution, 2π radians, in 1 day, 86400 seconds. Now that we know ω, we can solve for r, which is just simple algebra. Our final altitude ends up being approximately 42200 kilometers above the center of the Earth, or when subtracting Earth’s radius of 6400 kilometers, 35800 kilometers, approximately.

In theory, satellites in this orbit would have an exact footprint on the Earth, but due to other forces other than the Earth’s gravity, satellites still shift, regardless of whether or not they are at the exact altitude of a geostationary orbit.

So yeah, geostationary orbit, fun stuff.  

Top Ten Great Things About IMEA and Summer Camp Bands (In Ascending Order)

1.      Bassoons- at a given high school, there are probably at most two or three good bassoon players. And if there is more than one band, chances are those two or three good bassoon players aren’t in the same one. So, more often than not, in a regular high school band, you’ll have one bassoon player that you can barely hear at any given point in time, regardless of how good they are. In an IMEA or summer camp band, there are more bassoon players in one place, making it easier to hear the bassoon part, and it makes a novel experience of seeing more than two bassoons at any given moment.

2.      Concerts- it’s nice to play for a large audience. It’s also nice to hear a good orchestra. Choir, not so much.

3.      Oboes- there seem to be a lot of them; except that the good ones are hard to come by (I’m lucky enough to get to play with some!). In a large, competition band, there are a good number of oboes, depending how large the ensemble is and the best part is that they’re good! Good oboes are, in my opinion, some of the best sounding instruments around. Hearing them is a treat, but playing with them is way better.

4.      Trumpets- some schools seem to have lots of good trumpets, and others are lacking. A good trumpet can be like a good oboe in the sense that it sounds very nice, but it’s way louder and packs quite a punch. Plus, composers seem to give trumpets all the loud and sublime solos (Horkstow Grange etc.). In a large band, there are dozens of trumpets, so all the nice, fun, loud trumpet stuff gets magnified, and ALL the trumpet parts are heard, not just the principal.

5.      Volume- big bands are loud. Seems fairly self explanatory. There’s something fantastic about having large amounts of brass blaring around you, and being able to hear the clarinets and flutes as well. In concerts like IMEA concerts, it’s always nice to play louder than the orchestra and the choir, and it’s nice to get chills during all the best parts of the songs.

6.      Conductors- summer camp bands and IMEA bands are run by some pretty cool conductors; often the conductors or university professors or really hard-core high school band directors. Whatever the case, I’ve had great luck with my conductors for these kinds of ensembles; Dr. Robert Rumbelow for ISYM, Robert Sheldon for IMEA, and many others. They’re always inspiring and say the cool stuff that your band director probably heard at one point or another and just forgot to tell you.

7.      Repertoire- these kinds of bands always play all the cool music; Grainger, Holst, Vaughn Williams, R. R. Bennet, Saint-Saëns, and many others. Grainger is one of my personal favorites, as is Holst, and I was recently lucky enough to play both Grainger and Holst in the same concert.

8.      French Horns- I love French Horns. Probably because I never get to hear them outside of an IMEA or camp environment. Nothing in a band, in my opinion, is better than a good first horn player playing an awesome solo. And there are few things better than a full horn section playing a horn soli in a Grainger piece. And these kinds of bands often have both.

9.      Dedication- the people in these bands are there for a reason; they want to be there. Whether it is a summer camp of a competition band, the people involved worked very hard to get there and want the music to sound good. As opposed to the general apathy of high school bands, chances are, the people in the band actually enjoy band music and aren’t there for their college resumes or the fine arts credit they need to graduate.

10.  People- not only are they dedicated, the people in these ensembles are cool, fun, and interesting. It’s nice to meet people from other schools who actually care about their ensembles, and it’s nice to play in a group where everyone is at roughly the same level. In these bands, new friendships can be made, and great music can happen.

Awesome Music of the Week #1

Composer- Henry Jackman

Album- X-Men: First Class

Songs: “Frankenstein’s Monster”, “Magneto”, “First Class”, “Not That Sort of Bank”

I first got this album a few months after I saw X-Men: First Class in theaters. I liked the movie and I especially liked the music, particularly the music from the suspenseful parts, notably during the scene where Erik Lensherr confronts some former Nazis at the Villa Gessel. The song at that point “Frankenstein’s Monster” is similar to “In The House – In a Heartbeat” from 28 Days Later, but the orchestra part was more prominent and it has some cool Spanish guitar in the beginning. Not only that, but it makes good music to play foosball and ping-pong too if the games are really intense.

The eponymous song from the album, “First Class” is another one of my favorites. It is rather triumphant, and it makes great music to wake up to. It builds rather nicely and at one point the electric part of the ensemble drops to nearly nothing and leaves the melody with the strings; that’s the kind of music I would like to listen to (and play) much more often.

“Magneto” and “Not That Sort of Bank” both utilized the theme present in “Frankenstein’s Monster” although “Magneto” was much faster and “Not That Sort of Bank” was less intense overall. The four songs are, in my opinion, the best on the album.

Henry Jackman has written numerous other film scores as well, including the scores for Puss in Boots (“The Puss Suite” is fantastic by the way) and Kick-Ass (I haven’t gotten the film score yet, but certainly want the piece from the ending). He also worked with Hans Zimmer on the film score for The Dark Knight, which is another one of my favorites.

For the past two months or so, I’ve listened to these songs a lot, often while on a bus ride, walking around, or playing computer games. I look forward to the next film score that Henry Jackman composes; it’ll probably be as good as or better than this one.

AP English Language and Composition (Part 1)

So far, we’ve read two books in class, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and The Scarlet Letter, as well as one book over the summer, Montana 1948. In a quarter and a half we’ve read and discussed three books. And we won’t start another until after Thanksgiving Break. And that book isn’t The Great Gatsby. It’s the biography of Frederick Douglass, which I can expect to be pretty good, but it’s not The Great Gatsby.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was pretty good. Jonathan Safran Foer is a great writer, and I enjoyed the plot and some of the characters, although Oskar did annoy on a number of occasions. And it was a bit too over the top sentimental and melodramatic. I did think that it did a pretty good job of portraying the mindset of a young kid.

What I didn’t like about it was the analysis that the class did. People were under the impression that Oskar was a genius and that everything he said was completely true, or at least, that’s how they talked about it. Oskar said “inventing” a lot, which in the context of the book meant imagining and fantasizing, and some of the people in the class seemed to believe that he was actually inventing enormous pockets and multi-mile-long limousines. And bird-seed shirts that could make you fly. And there was an argument about whether or not centrifugal force was real.

And some of the outside reading was ridiculous as well. There was part of a “textbook” about the Dresden bombings which was possibly the least objective piece I have ever read. We had to read part of Slaughterhouse 5 as well, which I can imagine is a perfectly good book on its own, but the passage was strange out of context.

Then, we had The Scarlet Letter. The plot of the book was enjoyable, and although the symbolism was a bit over the top, I thought it was interesting. Although I am not a big fan of Nathaniel Hawthorne for his apparent lack of historical knowledge about Puritan New England, and what Puritans were, I enjoyed the characters and the townspeople, although I probably liked Roger Chillingworth more than Mr. Hawthorne intended.

I liked the work and tests about the book; identifying rhetorical strategies on the tests were helpful in allowing me to gauge my progress in becoming AP ready, and I now know much more about transcendentalists, although, to some extent, I wish I didn’t. All I can say about the general class discussion is that someone’s group discussion question was what Halloween costumes we thought Hester, Chillingworth, Dimmesdale, or Pearl would wear.

So, all in all, English is an ok class this year. The books are good and although the discussion is frustrating, I’ve learned more than I thought I would, especially about rhetorical strategies and logical fallacies. For once, English is a serious class with clearly defined goals, those being; learn the skills necessary to score well on the AP in May.

AP Physics C: Mechanics (Part 1)

So far this class has been one of the best classes I have taken in high school. I’ve learned lots about the history of physics and physics itself, not to mention numerous interesting tidbits about the physicists themselves (Newton especially). The problems are moderately challenging, and although I’ve taken Calculus 1 and 2, the application of the calculus concepts is more difficult than I anticipated. Not everything is as black and white as it was in BC Calc, and doing some calculations (like moment of inertia) have been rather annoying and frustrating.

But despite the challenges, the class itself is fantastic. The teacher teaches very well and he not only teaches the concepts, but the history behind it, as well as throwing in some fun jokes and facts. So far, we’ve covered vectors and kinematics, Newton’s Laws and their applications, work, energy, and momentum, and rotational dynamics. The first three sets of topics were easy enough; I’d just seen them in less detail and without calculus in the honors physics I’d taken over the summer at CTD. The last topic, rotational dynamics, was the hardest for me, probably due to the lack of homework and practice problems I completed. I can only hope that the last section, gravitation and simple harmonic motion, will be better.

The best part about this class is, in my opinion, is how much I want to be there, and the general atmosphere of the class. It seems strange to me, but unlike some of my other classes like English and Spanish, I actually want to be in the class. Maybe it’s the science, maybe it’s the teacher, maybe it’s being in a class with seniors and not juniors like me. It’s the first time in a long while that I’ve wanted to be in a class, and didn’t have a bunch of people screwing around and causing distractions. Maybe they don’t screw around because it’s an AP class; the people who are taking it genuinely want to take physics, or maybe it’s the teacher. Regardless, this class is one of the best I’ve taken, and I look forward to completing the semester and taking Electromagnetism second semester.