Page last updated: 25 Jan 2010
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Monday, 25 January 2010.
Started working on the Clawhammer Banjo from scratch DVD. Only got about 15 minutes in on the first bout, much of which was especially basic, although I did get a touch of RH technique for frailing.

Thursday, 21 January 2010.
Got some mandolin practice in tonight, working on the Beethoven Sonatina for Mandolin. I feel somewhat listless and directionless in my mandolin practice at the moment. I really should find an instructional book to work through.

Tuesday, 12 January 2010.
Spent some time on the first lesson of the Victor Wooten bass CD. Not terribly impressed so far, at this stage, it’s mostly working on getting the skills to use the right thumb kind of like a guitarist uses a pick. Still, it’s a useful discipline to work on, and I think will be handy for using the thumb pick on the banjo.

Sunday, 18 October 2009.
Ended up being the solo musician providing music for Pax Christi again today. Brought the keyboard and a guitar. I remembered a mic, but forgot the mic stand (oops). Played fairly. I really need to spend more time on keys to deal with my sloppiness there.

Tuesday, 13 October 2009.
Got a couple birthday presents early: A Deering Goodtime 2 banjo and an Eastman A505 Mandolin.

Tuesday, 6 October 2009.
Stopped at McCabe’s for the first time ever. My mission was to look at banjos and mandolins. They had the Eastman mandolin that was recommended to me, but not the Gold Star banjo. I did get a chance to try playing a mandocello and the Taylor ABG.

Saturday, 3 October 2009.
Pax Christi Regional conference today. I played piano, but not always as well as I would have liked. More practice would have been a good thing. John August was not always able to follow on violin: Next time, we need to have some rehearsal beforehand.

Wednesday, 23 September 2009.
Courtesy of Jill Sobule, I got to go to the concert/discussion to launch The Best is Yet to Come, a tribute CD to Cy Coleman. I first heard one of the songs from the CD courtesy of the KCRW Song of the Day podcast and I immediately fell in love with the music.

Cy Coleman is one of those composers that everyone knows but few realize that they know him. His best known song is “Witchcraft,” but it turns out that he also wrote the music for the first Broadway musical I ever saw on Broadway (and, as it turns out the only one), Barnum which starred Jim Dale and Glenn Close, neither of whom I realized were famous at the time (perhaps they weren’t yet famous: This was before Fatal Attraction or even Garp.

But I digress.

The evening was about half panel discussion, half performance. There were a few illuminating bits in the discussion, but the performances were divine. Pianist Dave Palmer opened with an instrumental version of “A Moment of Madness” and closed with a Coltrane-inspired version of “Witchcraft.” Julianna Raye performed “I’m Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life” (which I had heard previously in an inspired version by Holly Cole), Jill Sobule did “I’ve Got Your Number” channeling Blossom Dearie in her onstage demeanor. Sara Watkins pulled out her violin to play “Seesaw” and “Too Many Tomorrows” (the latter was the track that made me fall in love with the album, the former isn’t on the album at all), and Perla Batalla (whose voice I had come to love from her contributions to various projects but I had never seen what she looked like until tonight) performed “Hey Look Me Over” and “The Colors of My Life.” In all a fantastic evening.

Sunday, 20 September 2009.
Sparsely attended Pax Christi mass this month. I felt really low energy and played almost the whole mass sitting down.

Tuesday, 15 September 2009.
Recorded a couple of melody guide tracks for Nalleli on piano and got in some flute practice. On flute, I was feeling tenseness in the corners of my mouth as I worked and was splitting on B2 and C3 when I played songs out of the omnibus.