Milton_Elementary_School_Newsletter — this one is the RTF

Milton_Elementary_School_Newsletter — and this is the MS Word

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Local Wall prior to rampage.

In a statement released late this afternoon, investigators indicate the altercation began several days ago when Burke’s foot went through a portion of the porch floor attached to the wall. Evidence on the scene indicates that during attempts to negotiate with the wall, Burke discovered that the wall had been secretly harboring significant quantities of mold, spiders and slugs, mostly embedded in the water-logged insulation place against the OSB used by a prior homeowner as a temporary repair. Upon discovering this information,  Burke appears to have undergone some form of psychotic break and is reported to have attacked the wall with wrecking bars, a sledge hammer, and multiple power saws.

Aftermath

Officials on the scene indicate that that the wall’s remains are currently piled on the scene pending availability of appropriate disposal vehicles and have requested that local residents remain clear of the demolition zone pending conclusion of the investigation and disposal of the remains. Although the wall was a total loss, Burke suffered only minor scrapes, although it appears that a ruptured wallet may be a possibility. Burke was not available for comment at the time of publication.

In addition to the devastation to the wall, countless numbers of insects, spiders and slugs were left homeless as the result of this senseless tragedy. In an interview earlier today, former resident Slimy Sluggo stated “It just doesn’t seem fair. We all were just innocently living our lives in this wonderful damp, unventilated spot. I mean, is it our fault someone used wood that is such good food for us or forgot to put any vents in to let things dry out?” Authorities on the scene indicate that many of the former residents are refusing to leave on there own. Plans are currently underway to encourage them to move on later today.

Slimy Sluggo

In related news, shares in Home Depot increased 10% in anticipation of a likely spike in sales.

Plans for reconstruction of the wall have not been announced pending notification of Burke’s wife and family. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested memorial contributions be made directly to the Porch Wall Reconstruction fund.

10:00 AM — Woke up late after a long night last night. Was rather shocked that the sun was out and the skies were completely cloud-free. Once the sun gets off that outside wall, it ought to be a great day to get some serious painting done on my house. I love my old house! It is so rewarding to be slowly restoring a piece of history, and I’m saving so much money doing the work myself!

2:00 PM — Wasted way too much time on that first cup of coffee. Damned Facebook! But the sun is still out and I just checked the radar … no rain within 100 miles. Time to get set up to paint!

2:30 PM — Got all set up to paint and started spraying and not 5 minutes later a freak thunderstorm dropped torrents of rain on the house. Sun was out the whole time, but the primer all washed off. Might be a good day to get some inside repairs taken care of instead.

3:00 PM — Got the nifty water filter in under the kitchen sink. Funny, the directions didn’t say anything about tightening the connections into the filter. Oh, well. It’s just a few gallons of water inside the cabinet. I’m sure it will dry.

3:05 PM — Noticed a bit of a urine smell by the toilet. I’ve been meaning to pull that thing up and replace the wax ring. I think I’ll go check and see what the weather looks like, then I may tackle the nasty toilet job since the wife and kids are gone and we don’t have a second toilet.

3:30 PM — Outside wall stayed dry, so as soon as the roof dries off and quits dripping on the ladder, I think I’ll be able to paint. Meantime, I’m off to tackle the toilet.

3:45 PM — Got the toliet pulled. Pretty gross, but doesn’t look like there was a leak. Should be able to get it all cleaned up and remounted pretty quickly, but first I’m going out to check and see if things are drying up outside.

3:50 PM — Crap. Diarrhea.

4:00 PM — Went out to check on the weather again. Put my foot through the porch floor on the way in. Looks like there might be a couple of rotten boards to deal with. Toilet’s ready to put in, though.

4:10 PM — I don’t understand how nuts and bolts can just disappear. Toliet is set in place, but the nuts for the toliet bolts are MIA. I swear I left them… oh, crap … more diarrhea.

4:15 PM — Found the source of the urine smell. 4 year old appears to have started collecting his pee in the baby potty. That thing is awfully uncomfortable to sit on….

4:30 PM — Found the nuts. They were sitting right next to the toilet on the floor. Good news, though. Diarrhea seems to have cleared.

4:45 PM — Took a closer look at the porch. Whole damned wall and floor is rotten. To top it off, I stepped on a rusty nail. Might be time for a tetanus shot. Got most of the nail out, but it looks like there are a couple of little pieces left in the wound. Maybe I’ll try and clean it out later, but right now, I need to paint.

5:00 PM — Off to the ER. I guess the ladder wasn’t quite dry and I slipped off from about 10 feet up. Probably would have been OK, but on the way back in, I fell all the way through the damned porch floor and now I have a nail in my ass as well. Oh, and now the toilet is leaking and the damned diarrhea is back.

10:00 PM — What a night. Good news is the ankle isn’t broken. Doc says it’s just a ruptured tendon, should be better in 12 weeks or so. Had to have the remains of that nail in my foot surgically removed, but the nail in my backside came out cleanly. One of the ER nurses was nice enough to give me one of those donuts they give to people after hemorrhoid surgery to use when I go sit on my damned leaking toilet.

10:15 PM — Water line on that stupid ass filter came loose and started squirting water all over the kitchen floor. Slipped and fell right on the nail wound in my ass.

10: 30 PM — Damnit, forgot to empty the stupid toy potty and the dog spilled it all over the place.

10:35 PM — Just slipped in the dogs freakin mess. Where’s that damned dog! I’m going to bed.

Teena, we will miss you.

Hammond Family Memories from Jeremy Burke on Vimeo.

As a church musician, there are also many really wonderful things that happen in our parish. As the cantor, I have the annual honor of performing the Exultat each year at the Easter Vigil, and I also have the privilege of performing with a really good organist, with an historic pipe organ that has been recently fully (and properly) restored. Pretty cool stuff! Then there’s the reality of working in a small parish … and the challenge of finding decent music that my small choir can do, and do fairly well.

I have to preface this next part by saying that I am incredibly proud of my little choir and what they do week in and week out. I’m unbelievably fortunate to have the tremendous level of dedication and commitment that I have from my group. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get frustrated at times, and Holy Week and Easter just remind me of our limitations.

My frustrations really boil down to three basic issues: membership, the disconnect between my expectations and reality, and the limited music available for small choirs.

This year will be my 7th Easter as the cantor for St. John’s, and I will readily admit it is the most challenging. When your choir is small to begin with, loosing a member is a big deal, and this year, I lost a member who also happened to be a retired vocal music educator to another parish, and had another member join the ranks of the New Hampshire “Snow Birds” … the retiree’s who live in New Hampshire in the summer, and find somewhere warm to live during the (LONG) cold New Hampshire winters.  Add to that some health problems for a member that usually fills in one of those snow bird spots, and another member who recently welcomed three small children into his family, and it’s been rough. So, I’m down 4 members for Easter. Even without the membership challenges of this year, however, Easter is a challenge for all of us that work with small choirs. Then, add to that having my best (and most faithful) soprano coming down with laryngitis just in time to not be able to sing for the Holy Week and Easter services, and, well…  Membership is an ongoing challenge in any volunteer group, and I have yet to find a strategy that works for me. But I’ll save my thoughts on that for another day.

One of the biggest challenges I face, and the one that I likely have the most control over, is my own desire to try to match my choir’s performance with my personal feelings about Holy Week and Easter. There are actually two pieces to this; one is centered on my feelings and expectations about the Easter services and what I think we ought to do for these services. The other piece of this one is my own musical training and my own musical experiences. This one is hard. It would be easy to just lower my expectations… “Well, we’re just a small church with a small choir; it’s OK that we don’t sound that good…” Bad idea!

I keep my expectations high no matter what I anticipate will happen.  Granted, this has to be tempered with some realism. I’d love to be able to do a huge, SATB masterpiece most weeks, but especially during Holy Week and Easter. But if I know there will only be 4 people in my choir for Good Friday … probably not such a great idea. So when I say I keep my expectations high, I mean only that I try my best to push my group to do better, despite our limitations. I do back my expectations down relating to the literature I select, choosing unison and 2-part literature with an occasional SAB piece thrown in for good measure. Which brings up the third source of frustration — literature.

As anyone who works with a small choir knows, it’s always challenging to find appropriate liturgical music in good unison and 2-part arrangements. Throughout the year, I make things “extra” challenging by trying, as best I can, to tie the anthem into the Lectionary readings. Lent and Easter (and for that matter, Advent and Christmas) just make the problem even worse because of the nature of the music available. Every time I go looking for new music for Lent and Easter, I realize that I’m not the only one that has some delusions of grandeur around the whole Easter season. Try this. Go to www.jwpepper.com and look through the Adult Church Choir music. Music categorized as for Easter: 68 anthems. Apply the difficulty filter and set it to “Easy” — three anthems, two of which are SATB and one is unison/2-part. Set the filter to “Medium-Easy” and a whole two anthems show up; one is scored as SATB, the other gives a choice of SATB and SAB. And if you have the 68 choices listed with voicings — 66 SATB, 9 SAB, 2 2-part, 1 unison, 3 listed as either unison or 2-part. 48 include instrumental parts (meaning entirely separate instrumental parts are available for purchase).

There are certainly ways to deal with all of my frustrations, but I’ll save my thoughts on each of these for separate entries. For now, I’ll just say, I’m glad Easter is over … at least until next year!

Last weekend, our beautiful Collie … with very long fur … decided to try and herd a skunk at about 11:30 Saturday night. Since it was 11:30, I figured there wasn’t much we could do about it right then and there, only because we live in the middle of nowhere and there wasn’t any way I was driving 30 minutes one way for tomato juice. Big mistake … not the part about not going to get the tomato juice … that was a good call. I’ve since learned a few things about de-skunking dogs. Just in case you find yourself in my shoes, a couple of tips I’ve picked up:

1. Don’t wait to do SOMETHING. I can’t testify to the effectiveness of this solution, but one thing I learned is that the nasty stench is sprayed in an oily spray. If you can get this off before it has a chance to dry, it’s not much of a big deal. Don’t bother with tomato juice, just get the dog somewhere you can soap him or her up really well with dish soap. One of my choir members swears by this solution if you can wash the dog immediately.

2. The tomato juice solution is an old wives tale. Don’t bother unless you want a smelly, pink dog.

3. If you either can’t or don’t have the opportunity to get the stench off right away, there are a few options to try. One is one of the enzyme based commercial formulas. We used Natures Miracle, and it did OK; and I think it could have completely done the trick if I had bought enough of it. I’m cheap, though, and only bought one bottle. For our large (65 lb plus) very furry Collie, I really needed a second bottle, but it was $15 a bottle at the only pet store in a reasonable range of where we live. There are also several other homemade concoctions that are supposed to work pretty well. The one I tried used 1 cup of dish soap, 1 cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide, and 1 cup of vinegar. After using the Natures Miracle and this goop, the dog is very clean, very fluffy, and only smells a little bit. Keep in mind, since I didn’t know the part about doing SOMETHING immediately, he sat with skunk stink on him for about 16 hours. Another formula that is supposed to work uses 3% peroxide, baking soda, and a lot less dish soap. If I had it to do over, I’d use this instead of the formula with a full cup of soap. If you opt for the cup of soap option, see number 5.

4. You can spend a lot of money to be told how to de-skunk your dog … or you can just do a Google search. 

5. If you put goo with 2 cups total of dish soap in your dog’s fur, you’re going to be spending a lot of time rinsing …. and rinsing and rinsing and rinsing and rinsing. 

And the most important thing I learned? Don’t let the dog out off-leash in the dark. He likes to chase skunks…

March 18, 2009 Taize Service

Just a word of warning – it’s a large file so be prepared.

When I started studying the saxophone (and music) seriously, I had one goal … to be the best saxophonist I could be. Everything else I did was in some way centered on that goal, either to actually play better, or to position myself to find a way to make a living centered on the saxophone.  I studied music history because they made me if I wanted to stay in school; music theory because I thought it might help me get a job; flute and clarinet because… umm… well, because. Even though I was doing all those things, they were on the periphery. My focus was always the saxophone. In short, I had tunnel vision. Although I was going through the motions of a lot of musical activities outside of the saxophone, I didn’t really enjoy it, and I didn’t fully appreciate much music outside of the literature for the saxophone.

Last week, I had the opportunity to play for a Lenten Taize Service. Nothing really out of the ordinary for me at this point to be playing at a church service – it’s pretty much a part of my weekly routine at this point. The Taize music wasn’t new to me, either. We’ve been using several of these as part of the Eucharist for the last couple of years, at least. It wasn’t even strange that I was playing them on flute; I’ve been begrudgingly pulling my flute out for these (and a few other things) from the time it somehow got out that I could play the silly thing. Two things were different — the first is that we were able to recruit a really good violinist to play for these services. The other thing that was different — I caught myself having fun. Fun, playing flute, with violin and organ?!? What? After the initial shock and shame, I realized that this has been going on for a while now. I’ve been enjoying being a choir director, choosing to listen to things like Yo-Yo Ma playing the Bach Cello Suites instead of something on the saxophone. It really has happened … I’m no longer just a saxophonist, I’m a musician.

Where am I going with this? I have no idea (remember the blog is, after all, Random Notes!) Just a thought that’s been going through my head  In the meantime, I’m bummed that I have to miss the second Taize service tomorrow, but am looking forward to the third one on April 1st. Who knows, maybe I’ll even practice my flute!

So, the Rousseau Celebration has now come and gone. It was an incredible event, great to see so many great saxophonists and old friends and spend a weekend playing, listening, and talking about saxophone! I’m very happy to be able to say that my performance of the Heiden Solo went quite well. The performance itself, however, is not all that important. What is important are the final steps I took to be fully ready to perform.

First and foremost, know that what I do and how I practice the last week or so prior to a performance really is not all that different than what I do the first few weeks. The reality is that, if good practice techniques are being used from the start of preparation, there doesn’t need to be a major change in strategy in the last week. One of the best parts of practicing smart throughout the entire process is that, usually, there isn’t much of a need to panic at the end. That panicked feeling that can set in a week or so prior to a performance — you know the one where you don’t feel you’re going to be ready in time — often comes from using poor practice techniques early in the process of learning a piece. That’s not to say that poor practice is always the problem — issues such as misjudging the difficulty of a piece or simply not having enough time available can be a significant part of the problem. But, if the assessment of the difficulty was close and something like oh, the composer not getting the piece finished until the 11th hour don’t interfere, practicing correctly from the start also means no cramming, no desperate avoidance of everything except the literature, and a week of being able to fall asleep.

For this piece and this performance, if anything, I allowed more time than was necessary, so I was able to continue my normal practice routine, with a few exceptions. During the last few days of practice, I did not stop doing things like scales, long-tones, and other literature. For the most part, I also continued to practice the Heiden as I described earlier.

Some things that I did do differently, though. First of all, I spent more time playing from beginning to end, without stopping to correct mistakes. These practice performances were also done at my desired performance tempo. The goal of doing this is to practice maintaining concentration for the duration of the piece, and to get better at recovering from mistakes that invariably happen during a live performance.  The ideal way to do this would be to be able to work with your accompanist, but that rarely works out. When this isn’t possible (translation … until I win the Powerball….) I find other ways to model playing with the accompaniment. Using Smart Music is sometimes an option (if your piece happens to be one that has a Smart Music accompaniment). Another option is to play along with a good recording, or to have your accompanist record just the accompaniment for you.

The one other thing I find helpful during final preparation is to record myself practicing, and the practice performances are especially insightful. When I go back and listen to myself, I then have a realistic idea of any passages that are muddy, or any fundamentals that could use some work. It’s also really helpful in evaluating the musical content … basics like the pacing of dynamics, articulations that need attention, accents … all those details. Recordings never lie…

The last steps I take have little to do with actually playing. During the last 24 hours, I make sure I know exactly what the hall looks, and if possible, I go stand on stage so that I can visualize myself in the space. I try to get a good night’s sleep the night before, and on the day of the performance, I make sure to eat no matter how I may feel, but I keep it light.

Themes of the last couple of weeks: consistency, memorization, hitting a wall, fighting boredom!

Consistency

At this point, I know all the notes, all the trouble spots, all the frustrations; I don’t need to work specifically on learning the notes. What I do need on any piece after the first couple of weeks is to work towards getting all the notes right all the time. There’s a saying that I’ve seen quoted several times… the difference between an amateur and a professional is the amateur practices until he can play something right, the pro practices until he can’t play it wrong. That’s exactly where I am by this point … I can play it right and now I’m working on not being able to play it wrong. Some of the strategies I’m using for this:

1. repeating the difficult passages
2. putting together longer and longer sections
3. repeating the difficult passages slowly
4. playing from beginning to end without stopping
5. repeating the difficult passages even more slowly
6. altering rhythms
7. repeating the difficult sections — even slower!
8. shifting the downbeat
9. repeating the difficult sections — maybe not quite so slowly, but still slowly
10. isolating the 2-4 note units that still aren’t quite right
11. umm… repeating the difficult sections — slow….err, yeah, you get the idea!

Memorization

Don’t get me wrong … I have no intention of playing this piece from memory in a couple of weeks! I’m allowed to have the music in front of me, so I’m using it. Still, it pays to memorize. Personally, I don’t find it at all necessary to be able to play from beginning to end of a piece without the music. What I do find unbelievably helpful — if not necessary — is to be able to look at a passage and to be able to play that passage without really looking. It is really the same concept as being able to look at a word and instantly know what the word is without having to go through it letter-by-letter, then expanding that to looking at a sentence and knowing the whole sentence rather than having to look at each word. 

Hitting a Wall

No, this doesn’t have anything to do with a remodeling project … or a real wall! During the life of the learning process for any piece, I’ve always experienced a period of time that becomes so frustrating that I start thinking of literally hitting a wall. There is always a period (at least for me) during the learning process during which I feel like I’m making absolutely no progress no matter what I do. Intellectually, I realize that it is extremely unlike that I’m not making any progress, but it sure feels like it! Reality — there is a point at which just about everything in a piece is learned — most of the fingerings are down, most of the musical content — there are just those pesky details — a measure here, a connection there, maybe an altissimo note in another spot — that just seem to refuse to quit being  a problem. My best solution isn’t one I’m comfortable with in this situation. This is normally a good time to put the piece aside for a few days or weeks and come back to it. But when there is an immanent performance looming, I don’t consider that to be the best choice.

My second choice is actually something I started a couple of weeks ago. I set up a microphone and recorded a couple of the problem passages back when I wasn’t doing so great with it, so now I can go back and listen to where I was 2 or 3 weeks ago and realize that I really am making progress — even if it is slow!

Fighting boredom…

AKA the Glazunov Syndrome! When I first heard and played the Glazunov Concerto, I loved it. Then, there was a point in my undergraduate days that I could have sworn every single saxophonist in the studio was performing “that stupid Glazunov Concerto” and I got to a point that I was so bored with it, I had a hard time tolerating sitting through a performance. A couple of years later, I still heard the Glazunov at least as much, if not more, but there was no longer an issue with being bored. What had happened was that I had gone from it being a new and exciting piece to thinking I knew it pretty well and then finally, to really learn all of the little nuances of the piece and loving it all over again. I’m hoping the learning curve I’m on with this piece is similar — but much faster! I haven’t come up with a really good strategy for this one, other than to just work through it and try to practice without thinking about whether I love the piece or hate it. We’ll see!

So, down to 2 weeks until D-Day! More to come…