Music Myself

Early

2009-04-11T12:43:00.002+02:00

Why did I have to wake up at 4 AM today? Just when I thought I was beating it, the jet lag.

I meditated. At 4:30. I used my trifold futon as a cushion and pointed the lamp into the bookcase. I slipped my hood over my head and aimed for 10 minutes. I got to 8.

Munich Again

2009-04-08T17:55:00.003+02:00

Munich again is warm and the first morning here looks mild. I'm planning on beating jet lag by a combination of two things – sleeping right and writing. I already slept all the way through the night until 7 this morning (pretty good if you went to bed at 10). The next thing will be to write and open up the noggin to some fresh continental air. Don't want it to get too stuffy in there, and I want to know just exactly what the old noodle is involved in when I get in the dumps after a long flight. So – sleep right, write right.

*later*

Now I feel achy, tight in the head and tired in the way I only feel after 12 hours in the air headed east. My stomach growls at odd times, though I'm not necessarily hungry.

Munich is now a warm place where you can walk in a t-shirt outside. Women wear brighter colors and show more skin and hair. Sunglasses perch on heads and brownness creeps up arms and legs. Ha – I've got a head start with the brownness.

Home Trip '09 Draws to a Close

2009-04-04T07:13:00.001+02:00

Long weeks at home have deepened my attachment to my journal and made me see that I want to pursue writing, somehow or other. What's it going to be like back in Munich?

Tuneful Pockets for a Better World

2009-02-24T13:01:00.002+01:00

What if everyone carried around a musical instrument in their back pocket? Some people would take it out at inopportune times and play subversive melodies. Some would play waltzes and mazurkas in groups, others would improvise alone in C minor on lonely afternoons. Others would neglect their instruments or leave them in their other pants when they went out. I myself would jam on the blues at opera conventions or maybe play a few bars of Mozart in a different key and in minor instead of major. I would keep an extra instrument tucked into my sock, just in case.

(Thanks to Six Sentences for the inspiration)

The Mountain Road

2009-02-18T22:44:00.003+01:00

Here's an Irish tune I recorded on guitar and fiddle today. Thanks to Ash Tree for the indirect tip about Imeem. I'd love some feedback on my fiddling. Heck, let me have it for my guitar playing too.

Fiddling Around

2009-02-18T22:27:00.004+01:00

Fiddling with Sven, Charlie and Wolfgang from the Ramblin' Folks tonight was more fun than I thought it would be.

I'm learning to appreciate Sven more: if he looks like he's having fun (and when he's having fun it looks like he's dancing a tango with his upright bass) then that means the tune is alright. Not too boring at least. If the tune is no good, then he looks like an axe murderer going over his list of future victims. So, I like Sven.

Charlie's always talking about new tunes we could play. Wolfgang tunes his mandolin for about an hour before we can start playing. For our last practice session before a relatively major gig for us next week, it was pretty relaxed. I guess that has a lot to do with the fact that a third of the band wasn't even there.

That reminds me: our flute player is sick (hopefully she gets well before next week) and our banjo player twisted his thumb so bad he can't hold a pick anymore (hope that thumb gets better before next week).

Maybe I'll let you know how that gig goes... then again, maybe not.

Last Night at the Gig

2009-02-16T12:01:00.002+01:00

The Swiss guy screaming "Who wants more cheese?" at the top of his lungs. The former flute player sitting in the front row wrinkling her brow as we play. The birthday boy (70, red-faced) with a shaky smile. The older man with a black beanie who says, "Say, you look a bit like that star fiddler, don't you..." I guess it's better than saying I look like Jesus. That's what I hear more often than not.

At our gig last night there weren't that many listeners (read: there were lots of talkers). One screamed out an honorary "Ziggy zaggy, ziggy zaggy, Oy! Oy! Oy!" right as our flute player was starting a delicate Irish tune. We played on. I forgot the end of a tune we hadn't played in a while. We played on. Listeners disappeared to sing campfire songs around the bonfire outside. We played on.

After a few hours we cleared the stage and somebody put on some Beyoncé. Oh well. The Ramblin' Folks will play another day.

Jens Kommnick at Kunst im Kontext

2009-02-08T18:34:00.004+01:00

Here's a link to a review of mine on a student-run website in Germany. Since I forgot to have them add the link to Mr. Kommnick's site I can at least add it here:

Jens Kommnick's site

Be sure to check out his example tracks and tell me (or him!) what you think. I think you'll like his music.

Feel free to tell me what you think of my writing or my taste in music.

The Ramblin' Folks

2008-01-31T13:58:00.001+01:00

Some Old-time Fiddle Tunes

2007-12-01T15:23:00.000+01:00

Here's some of my fiddle playing. The tunes (Arkansas Traveller and Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine) I got from OldtimeFiddler on YouTube, be sure to check him out. He's got some great music up. As always, I love to hear comments and reactions to my playing.

My Guitar Arrangement of some Irish tunes

2007-07-30T12:06:00.000+02:00

Here's me playing one of my arrangements for guitar of the Leitrim Jig and A Fig for a Kiss. I know I said I'd put some fiddling up first but this just happened. Please tell me what you think, I'm hungry for feedback. Enjoy!

Another Inspirational Blog (and Musician)

2007-07-29T19:43:00.000+02:00

I found a new blog through YouTube recently. It's currently top on my list of blogs and/or musicians that inspire me and show me what I'd like to do with my blog and with my music. This fellow at oldtime-smith.blogspot.com keeps a log of his blacksmithing, gardening and musical (oldtime fiddling!) activities.

Aside from enjoying his numerous YouTube videos which document his fiddle playing, I also get a really good feel when I think that he's writing and posting videos about the things that he enjoys above all else. This is one of the things that the internet is most valuable for.

Above all, this inspires me to document some of the things that are important to me, so hopefully there'll be some fiddle videos up here soon! I hope some of you at least are curious to hear me scrapin' away...

The Road by Cormac McCarthy, reviewed at Ash Tree

2007-07-17T17:03:00.001+02:00

McCarthy's apocalyptic, dark novel was recently reviewed at Ash Tree. The review was thoughtful and intelligent, but I couldn't help but notice that my reaction to the book was superficially similar (the reader is often shocked and horrified) but ultimately quite different. While quite unpleasant, I see The Road as a deeply valid and troubling reaction to life in current times.

I guess it's true that McCarthy has a lot of dark themes, but the sense I get is that he's writing about this stuff because he can't do otherwise. You also have to admit that the "dark side" is very present in current American politics, not to mention in other parts of the world strongly affected by our politics (for example Iraq). To try to avoid horrifying things in our current world is both hopeless and unintelligent.

What I'm trying to say is, The Road is not just a novel with "horror movie" themes. It has more to tell us, and we shouldn't avoid it because of it's darkness. It was in any case a quite unpleasant read, though in my opinion a required one. Please read the review and tell me what you think!

The Busking Experiment (1)

2007-07-16T14:22:00.002+02:00

So, for me, busking (translation: playing music on the street for money) is a big mystery. You see a guy out on the street playing his guitar or squeezing his accordion and you don't know if he's (1) a professional musician out slumming, (2) a bum desperate for a buck or (3) the traveling type who's just out for a good time. I would fall somewhere between (2) and (3). But the biggest mystery is, how much money can that guy actually make busking? You see a few coins in his guitar case; has he put them there himself? Has he already culled out the big bills?

The mystery springs from the numerous unknowns involved. The busker thinks to himself, how good am I? Are people actually listening to me? If I were better at my instrument, would I necessarily make more money or is it basically arbitrary because people only give you their spare change anyway?

These questions arose from my two first busking attempts last week at a Munich subway stop. In roughly one and a half hours over two days, I made ca. €7.50. I was playing Irish tunes on my fiddle, at a spot where the acoustics were good and the foot traffic was considerable. Both times someone stopped to talk to me and give me their contact information, both musicians. Both times kids dropped some of their parents' money into my fiddle case and then waved at me when they moved on. At other times I felt like the pigeons were my best listeners and all they were contributing were droppings, and by that I don't mean money that you drop.

Rather than answering any queries or clearing up any mysteries, my own forays into busking only created more question marks, along with a desire to count the meager change in my fiddle case for the tenth time. Hopefully some insight will come my way: Can you make good money busking? Is there a wrong and a right way to busk? Is it too frustrating in the long run or will I be able to learn to enjoy it? I'll let you know tomorrow, right now I'm off to the subway stop...