Lots of little and big things have happened…

1) Well, to start, I MADE ALL-STATE! First chair in orchestra in fact! And I won only by 2 points. Talk about a close call!

2) I going to be playing a solo with band (hopefully) if Steven Shoop ever gets back to me…

3) We played Mahler last week in BYSO,  and I had to play all by myself, all the rest of the low brass were playing in a REP concert. It was not very fun.

’tis all.

Two more tracks – Double Dissonance & Darkscape

Double Dissonance came from an idea I had while making Deep Under the Vacuum. It has four tracks, the top two have the same note, with one being a few cents flatter than the other, creating that wah-wah sound you hear when two instruments are slightly out of tune. The bottom two also have the same note, but not the same as the top two. Again, one track is a few cents flatter that the other, creating that wah-wah effect. The top two tracks are panned all the way to the left, and the bottom two are panned all the way to the right. So you have one wah-wah in one ear, and another in the other ear. Then the tracks pan back and forth, letting you listen to the changes in the wah-wah effect. The tune finally ends in a final, non-dissonant chord. It’s much simpler than what I just described. Here’s the link: DoubleDissonance.mp3 Be sure that you don’t have any “sound enhancers” turned on. It will ruin the effect.

Darkscape is just me looped over myself. It’s just for fun. (what isn’t?) Link: Darkscape.mp3 Again, make sure you don’t have any “sound enhancers” turned on. It will ruin the effect.

Deep Under the Vacuum ~ Music Video

I made this video one fine Saturday morning so I could flush all the creativity out of my system so I could focus on homework. Strangely, I spent more time trying to upload this video at a decent quality than doing homework!

http://www.vimeo.com/1853013

Deep Under The Vacuum

It’s Saturday,
and I was bored,
so I made this.

http://www.esnips.com/doc/2b901df4-51c0-4806-977c-b2812ac6ee35/Deep-Under-The-Vacuum

Title: Deep Under the Vacuum
Artist: John Baylies
Album: Vacate the Area
Genre: Tuba-Trance

:-)

Jr. SYMS Concert & Other Stuff

First of all, to all my readers (ha!) sorry I haven’t been posting as frequently as before, It’s summer, so I’ve been in Maine, where there are no computers.

So, we went to my brother’s SYMS concert (he made the Johnson concert and jazz band. I’m so proud… *sniff*). They played Mazama, Clouds that Sail in Heaven, and A Galop to end all Galops. They were all great, especially for musicians that young. I’d have to say that like Mazama the most, the percussionists really pulled it together on that one, as it required everyone to play a single staccato note at the same time, but no one was late or early! It surprised me! I was like “sweet!” Oh yeah, there was also a tornado warning, which required everyone to go into the cellar. My dad, brother, and I just stayed above ground and watched the lightning. :-)

Other Stuff ~ Unattended, my origami shelf has kind of died, it’s now populated with car keys, hearing aid batteries, science museum passes, and nail clippers. So I’ve started and Origami Stairwell, where I’m hanging origami around our stairs. I’ll upload a photo when I don’t feel lazy.

I’m struggling with the Marathon problem that I have to do for my AP Chemistry summer work. I think I set up the equation properly but I’m still getting a g/mol ratio below one, which obviously isn’t right…

This summer I’ve been listening to way more music than I usually do. Here’s the list of what I listen to, and when I listen to it:

I now officially own my very own Tuba!

I have been bugging my parents for the longest time, and it just so happened that my teacher, Mike Milnarik, was selling his Rudy! I thought that there was no chance we would buy it, since it cost $6000, but I went and played it anyways. It sounded great, and it slotted so well! I could rip through those partial exercises (|: C E G E Ĉ G E G :|) like nobody’s business! I loved it! Especially with the new mouthpiece that came with the horn, my LM-7 didn’t work so well. After trying the Rudy out for about 30 minutes my mom came in, I played for her, told her how much I liked the tuba, etc. and she said she would buy it. I was like “Wait, what? I thought we couldn’t afford this kind of stuff!” I was ecstatic! And to make a short story shorter, it is now sitting in the corner of my room behind a chair (so no one knocks it over). I can’t wait to spend all day tomorrow playing it!

That’s Rudy!

Jack’s Theme Suite

I’m addicted to the melody in this song!

http://www.tindeck.com/audio/filestore/y/ycmm-song1.mp3

It’s Jack’s theme from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Petr Spatina – Good Water Music

Woah, I can barely hold a steady note on a pair of wine glasses, let alone thirty! It must take forever to tune, and to learn the note configuration. The link is below, just click on ‘video’ and be amazed!

http://www.goodwatermusic.com/

The instrument is called a glass harp (Glasharfe in German; also called musical glasses, singing glasses, angelic organ or ghost fiddle). I love strange instruments like this. As always, there are some YouTube clips after there jump.

DCI Warmups

I find these videos amazingly awesome! I get goosebumps when I watch them. I wish that our marching band could “warm up” like this. The space chords are out of this world, the intonation is impeccable, and the timing is terrific! Here are the videos after the jump.

Darn You, YouTube Content Identification Program!

Ooh, I just came close to being sued for posting copyrighted songs on YouTube! That’s crazy!

Dear YouTube Member:

UMG has claimed some or all audio content in your video The Destruction Of A Radio. This claim was made as part of the YouTube Content Identification program.

Your video is still live because UMG has authorized the use of this content on YouTube. As long as UMG has a claim on your video, they will receive public statistics about your video, such as number of views. Viewers may also see advertising on your video’s page.

Claim Details:

Copyright owner:	UMG
Content claimed:	Some or all of the audio content
Policy:	Allow this content to remain on YouTube.  Place advertisements on this video’s watch page. Applies to these locations: Everywhere

UMG claimed this content as a part of the YouTube Content Identification program. YouTube allows partners to review YouTube videos for content to which they own the rights. Partners may use our automated video / audio matching system to identify their content, or they may manually review videos.

If you believe that this claim was made in error, or that you are otherwise authorized to use the content at issue, you can dispute this claim with UMG and view other options in the Video ID Matches section of your YouTube account. Please note that YouTube does not mediate copyright disputes between YouTube owners. Learn more about video identification disputes.

Sincerely,
The YouTube Content Identification Team

I’ve gotten this once before for posting the Dueling Banjos scene from Deliverance. If you search YouTube you can see that they enforce this rule very sporadically. Now I have ads on my video… harumph..