This last week has been a whirlwind for me as I finished up all of my work projects (I am a Quality Leader at Adobe Systems Incorporated) before my sabbatical. Some high tech companies have decided to eliminate their sabbatical programs in recent years and I am thrilled that Adobe Systems continues to have this program as a benefit for their employees. It is also amazing that is has been over 11 years since I started working there.

Back to the marimba…

I have placed a new video online discussing Katamiya as part of the PATV online learning contest. This video discusses the recordings that I know of that contain this piece as well as my thoughts on the pronunciation. After months of posting video as part of the last piece (Gordon Stout’s Etude #3), I decided it was time to actually talk in one of my videos.

A big thanks to Matt, Torrin, and Steve for posting videos about their first week’s experience with the piece! The next video later this week will include more playing. I am trying to squeeze in measures from this piece as I polish my other pieces for the Zeltsman Marimba Festival next week so we will see how far I get!

Thomas Burritt via Percussion Axiom TV has announced that the next interactive piece that we are learning on the marimba is “Katamiya”. He has teamed up with Steve Weiss Music and is offering prizes this time for the people who are the most interactive. His introduction to the contest is below:

Today, he started the instruction with PATV episode #39 shown next:

I am so thrilled to be learning this piece. I probably will always be labeled as the marimbist who loves “pretty” marimba music and I am ok with that label. This piece fits squarely into that category!

I have posted a video of measure 1 (played with block chords as instructed instead of rolls) as well as the right hand of measure 2-9. The left hand is going to need some more work as that is a groove rhythm requiring me to write in the sticking. I decided to break down the piece into the right hand and left hand components. I am not sure if that approach will work as it will require the hands to come back in sync later.

All comments welcome! Enjoy “Katamiya” Take 1:

As I looked at my practice log for April, I noticed I had taken a 21 day break from practicing the marimba. First of all I need to realize that there were some good reasons (World’s Largest Trivia Contest being the largest) but that really is no excuse.

I have come back to practicing and am now able to play the entire Gordon Stout Etude #3 (from Book 1). This was a learning exercise as part of Dr. Thomas Burritt’s Percussion Axiom TV that many people have been working on completing for the last couple months. A couple notes before we get to my performance.

1) It is true that I can play the entire Etude all of the way though, but it is not performance ready yet. There are a number of wrong notes still.

2) This is the first performance where I was able to really think about the “groove” of the piece. Rhythm, dynamics, and note accuracy keep your mind busy in this piece but a major part of making music is connecting with the piece and telling the story to the audience. The “groove” is important. During m28-29 I finally started feeling this.

3) M20-25 had some problems which I usually don’t get wrong. I forgot where I was in the music for a few seconds.

4) M38-42 are “close” the groove is correct but the notes were not fully accurate.

5) I repeated m43-48 like the repeat from measure 1-6 . That is not correct therer is no repeat.

5) I am thrilled to finally play it all of the way through! As I have stated before, this would have never been I piece I would have played on my own. After taking the time to really work with it I do have to admit that I will keep this in my repretoire.

My next ask to the Percussion Axiom TV folks is to see their performances! I cannot be the only one and I would love to see other videos of progress on this piece. At minimum, head over to the Discussion part of Thomas Burritt’s site and state whether or not you completed it.

In future posts look for more videos of this piece as I get it performance ready and quite a bit faster.

Enjoy take 8 of Gordon Stout’s Etude #3!

In the continuing online learning exercise to learn Gordon Stout’s Etude #3 from Book 1 for marimba, Thomas Burritt has posted Percussion Axiom TV episode 30. That video is also inline below.

The episode goes over the final measures of the etude and talk about a concept called blocking. Thinking that I was somehow better than the teacher, instead of listening to how the chord progression works and how important it is to put that under your hands first, I decided to be a “blockhead”. I was going to do this my own way and just do the notes and the rhythms at the same time. Well that was significantly harder and caused extreme frustration on my part. Weeks passed, and after hitting a dead end, it was time to re-watch the episode and understand what Dr. Burritt was saying. So, I started fresh and now have completed the last part of the etude.

There are still a couple wrong notes but I can say that I can successfully play the entire etude now. Stay tuned for future posts where I put all of the sections together and try and increase the tempo to something closer to what the composer intended. Remember, don’t be a blockhead. 🙂 Here is Take 7 of the etude.