Just havin’ fun …
Itamar Erez and the ADAMA Ensemble
Itamar Erez (piano); Tony Nickels (oboe); Laurence Mollerup (bass); Stefan Cihelka (tabla & percussion)
I just received this:
Pianist Leon Fleisher on the PBS NEWSHOUR
Senior Correspondent Jeffrey Brown’s interview with legendary pianist Leon Fleisher will air on the PBS NEWSHOUR tonight (Monday, July 18). Fleisher sat down with Brown to talk about his life’s work in music, his struggle with an ailment that prevented him from playing with both of his hands, and his recent book ‘My Nine Lives: A Memoir of Many Careers in Music.’
Listening is the great secret….If you don’t hear before you play, what you play is an accident….You have to hear in your inner ear your goal, your ideal, what you want it to sound like.
Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.
It’s a sound that few of us have heard since the last time we saw a modem that looked like the one above. Still, it’s a sound that will always be recognized by anyone born in the 80s or earlier – the dial-up modem sound.
We may have moved on and there may no longer be a need to hear that ever-so-annoying high-pitched whine again in its original form, but the people over at Geektastic slowed it down for us a lot and gave us something that can only be described as creepy.
Found here.
Um … seems to me that anything slowed down 700% that will sound sort of creepy. You know?
I think modern-day musicians are unaware of the fact that by staying indoors, they are not getting the adequate amount of vitamin D that they need.
So some are suggesting Mozart had health issues and died at 35 because of a vitamin D deficiency. It’s suggested that Mahler’s health issues were due to the same thing. I’m still not willing to sit in the sun to play my oboe.
I read it here.
G.P. Telemann is a amazing Composer for the oboe!
Keep your eyes open for this:
STOLEN OBOE!!!!
POR FAVOR DIFUNDIR !!!!!!!!!!!
Ayer 16 de julio por la noche en Salta, Argentina, le robaron a MARCELO MERCADO , el oboe Green Line (número de serie G11755).
Cualquier información, por favor contactarse con mercadomarcelo [at] hotmail [dot] com
Muchas Gracias !!
Read online:
Is Perfect Pitch Necessary?
Frankly speaking: No! Most of the many musicians I have met during my time in the music game, have survived very successfully without it. They are all respected professionals in many styles of music.
But if you’re aspiring to become a member of the Chicago Symphony orchestra, well you either already have it or you should definitively start looking for lessons to perfect your pitch.
“Perfect pitch” isn’t the same as perfecting your pitch. And I doubt very much that every musician in the Chicago Symphony has “perfect pitch”.
I’ve puzzled over perfect pitch for a long time. Some who have it suggest that it’s 440 and it is, indeed “perfect”. So what if they play in San Francisco Symphony, an orchestra that claims 441 as their A. Or Europe, where the A goes even higher? And do the players in orchestras that play a higher A develop a “new perfect” when it comes to pitch?
Now learning to play in tune, and learning to match your pitch to the group you are in is very important. And — here’s a thought! — listening to yourself when you practice is a good thing. Really. I sometimes turn my tuner on nice and loud to an A-440 and have a student play his or her A. They play until they listen and adjust to match the A. I’ll put on other notes as well, and get them to match those. Tuners are great for checking intonation by looking, but when we are sitting in an orchestra we have to match pitches by listening, not looking, so I do try to work with them on this whole listening thing. They will tell you, in fact, that I frequently ask them, “What did you hear?” after they play a scale or piece they are working on … and yes, I sometimes get the response, “I forgot to listen!” So often we are busy thinking about fingerings and rhythm and, doggone it, our ears turn off. Surprising, but true.
Oh well. I think saying one must have perfect pitch to be a great player is crazy. I guess some people don’t. So if you want to pay someone who will grant you “Perfect Pitchdom” you go right ahead.
I read it here.
I know my oboe teacher is here when I hear her daughter singing in the stairwells 🙂 #socute
Over the weekend I added a new plugin to my site. It’s a handy dandy plugin, as it notifies me when I have broken links. Wow do I have a TON of broken links here. I do apologize … I knew very well that I wasn’t up to date with a lot of things, but I hadn’t a clue just how many! I also found that some of you are entering incorrect URLs when you make comments. I fixed those I could fix. Do double check your typing if you want someone to click through and find you!
I’ll be working to update as much as I possibly can, but I am still pondering dropping a few things here. Changes occur far too rapidly in orchestras, so I know the orchestra double reed rosters have tons of mistakes, and now I’m finding that the page listing university instructors is not only out of date, but the links to the instructor’s bios are nearly all faulty as well.
This site may soon have a few fewer pages … I think spending days and days correcting everything might be unwise if not many use them. Still, if some of you think certain pages are important to you, would you please let me know? (“Pages” are those links you find from the pull down menus above.) Thanks!
