My Broken Body Clock

So...

I woke up at 5:30 this morning, wide awake and thinking about the keyboard parts I need to practice for this week's Yacht Rock. It's now 8 AM, which means I've been hammering out string parts to Magic and Don't Go Breakin' my Heart for a couple of hours. I feel good about both songs, though. Those are usually the ones that kill me, and once I've really trashed them, I lose all confidence in what I'm doing. This time will be different. I noticed that most of my keyboard practice as of late had been the frantic "what chord is next?" kind of stuff, so instead I practiced everything slowly with the metronome and got it all down.

Waking up absurdly early happened to me last week, too. I'm guessing it's a combination of trying to keep up with Jack (going to the pool, mostly), trying to get all my stuff done, and also work. Sometimes I accidentally crash a little earlier than I should, and then I wake up in a panic over what I didn't practice the night before.

For some reason, this is a bad week for teaching. Everybody is out doing something else this week, and I think I have about three students a day. Not good for the wallet! Next week is local marching band hell week, so that should pretty rough too, but the middle schoolers will hopefully be back in the groove.

...and no, this picture is not of Reggie. It looks alot like him, though!

Busy

Not much to report these days. Yacht Rock is losing Brandon Still, one of our keyboardists to a touring southern rock band called Blackberry Smoke. It's a great move for him--he gets to experience the world! Blackberry Smoke is out a playing shows--very cool--and they've got a European tour lined up in December. That should be amazing. I've never played in a touring band, so I'm envious of his experiences. However, at this point in life (for me), I don't think I could do it unless it was something I had to take, like Paul Simon's band or something. I have too many things that I'd have to let go of (local gigs and teaching) to go ride around in a van and make $8 a night! Not to mention Jack and my family. Go Brandon go!
Anyway, I'm trying to cover his parts as best as I can, so I'm practicing alot of keyboards. I am, in fact, awake a 5 AM thinking about the chords to "You're So Vain." I need to get in the room and deal with that, I think.

Another cool flute site

Here's another cool flute site I recently came across: www.flutes.tk. They have information (and links) to lots of interesting flute stuff.

That's a nose flute, by the way.
davidfreemanmusic.net

...and we're baaaaaaaaaack!

Yeah...last night we played a free (to the public) show at the Park Tavern. We had an awesome night. Plus, all my equipment worked!
The sound was great, the women were hot, the food was good, the crowd was responsive. I think it was one of the best ones we've done.
There was no traffic, too, so everything was cool. I hope they're all like this from here on out.

Friday Yacht Rock

So...I turned up to Yacht Rock last night, and they'd closed the parking lot in front of Andrews in order to make a "beach" for a Fourth of July party. Hmmm. Where will our fans park?
The crowd rolled in late, but they all made it eventually. It turned out much better than we expected (numbers-wise). We had thoughts of everybody holding out for the party at Park Tavern today (we're there 8-11 PM tonight).

In the continuing saga of what can go wrong with my equipment...you may recall how my EWI has run out of battery at Andrews the past two months. This month, I put in new batteries before the gig. Predictably, my EWI died right in the middle of the first set. I don't know what happened. Maybe there was a bad battery in the group of four (they're rechargable batteries, so maybe one was old and had lost its juice). Anyway, that was not cool. I put in another four batteries and everything was fine for the rest of the night. What a pain, though...it messes with my head.

There were lots of weird things last night. I think we were all a little flat, and labored to get to the end of the gig. I didn't feel like I was there. Kind of like the gig was going on in the background, and I was paying attention sometimes, but sometimes...I don't know. I wanted to be awesome, but I couldn't get it going. Lots of "oops, I missed that" kind of stuff (in both corners of the room). It happens...we'd played really well the night before at the 10 High, but there wasn't much magic at Andrews. We tried, but it wouldn't come.

Fingers crossed...hopefully we can summon the spirits from Koko's Boat House. Hope to see you tonight at the Park Tavern.

Thursday!

I woke up today and both my arms were asleep. I was like a rag doll--I could barely roll myself over (one arm was in the way!). At least I hadn't metamorphised into a roach.
Between my arms not working and having no idea what time it was, I'm off to a weird start.

I am pleased to report that after several weeks of wondering, I have solved the problem I was having with my EWI. Namely, I was concerned about it not reacting to me in a predictable fashion. I got out my manual Wednesday night and tweaked my settings, and it's back to normal. I guess the thing gradually got off, and I'd never bothered to notice. I had to reset the pitch bend, because it turns out it was always on (probably half my problems!). The breath sensor I reset to feeling good, and then I padded it a little to compensate for the fact that I've been playing in hot and humid conditions (the 10 High and outside) lately, and if I don't take that into account, and starts to play on its own.

I am still interested in eventually getting a second EWI, due to the fact that I can't take it to just anyone and have it worked on, and at this point I'm using it on average two gigs per week. There's no running it to Bryan Lopes' house to have something fixed right before!

Last night at the 10 High went very well. We were at capacity before we got on stage, and there was a line snaked around the side of the building. Very cool. Playing for a packed room is an amazing feeling, and of course there's lots of love for the saxophone. Whenever I walk to the front of the stage, people (and by people I mean HOT women!) start cheering wildly. It's easier to really go for it when the audience is like that. It can feel a little silly playing something like Baker Street and trying to really milk it when the crowd couldn't care less. I become much more aware of my stage movements, and I feel stupid.

On the subject of equipment, I feel like both reeds I played (tenor and alto) are going a little dead, but it's a nice spot for what I'm doing--that is to say, I'm not playing in a quiet, acoustic setting, so the fact that they feel like cardboard at a softer volume isn't as important as their ability to take alot of air and not close up on me. The end is near for them, but I may be able to squeeze a few more notes out of them. Both have lasted about twice as long as usual. The reed gods are on my side these days.

Two Really Cool Flute Sites

I've been poking around the internet looking at flute stuff. Here's two interesting places worth checking out:

1. Larry Krantz has tons of neat articles about playing and teaching flute. There's something written on every conceivable topic--Larry obviously has a lifetime of experience as both a performer and teacher. All flute questions can be answered here!

2. There's lots of Irish flute stuff out there, but not much in the way of African flute playing. Fula Flute is a completely original (to me) way of utilizing the flute. It makes you realize how timeless the flute is...before the traditional silver flutes that everyone is familiar with, there were Irish flutes and Native American flutes and African flutes, plus Latin America was using flutes.