Music

Yet another un-attributed list from an email message. Made me smile.

you should not play any notes you have left

1. Everyone should play the same piece.
2. Stop at every repeat sign, and discuss in detail whether to take the repeat. The audience will love this a lot!
3. If you play a wrong note, give a nasty look to one of your partners.
4. Keep your fingering chart handy. You can always catch up with the others.
5. Carefully tune your instrument before playing. That way you can play out of tune all night with a clear conscience.
6. Take your time turning pages.
7. The right note at the wrong time is a wrong note (and vice versa).
8. If everyone gets lost except you, follow those who get lost.
9. Strive to get the maximum NPS (notes per second). That way you gain the admiration of the incompetent.
10. Markings for slurs, dynamics and ornaments should not be observed. They are only there to embellish the score.
11. If a passage is difficult, slow down. If it’s easy, speed it up. Everything will work itself out in the end.
12. If you are completely lost, stop everyone and say, “I think we should tune.”
13. Happy are those who have not perfect pitch, for the kingdom of music is theirs.
14. If the ensemble has to stop because of you, explain in detail why you got lost. Everyone will be very interested.
15. A true interpretation is realized when there remains not one note of the original.
16. When everyone else has finished playing, you should not play any notes you have left. If you have notes left over, please play them on the way home.
17. A wrong note played timidly is a wrong note. A wrong note played with authority is an interpretation.

I Get Peculiar When I’m Lonesome
Maybe Yes, Maybe No
Dave the Roach
No Pajamas
Catalogue Lady
Hangin’ On (like the lice on the legs of King Kong)
Bad News Makes Good Blues
Sunny River
Outright, Downright Change
Tasty Food For Thought
Relaxin’ with Jackson

That’s the play list. Somehow I only had the first 4 saved. Can’t remember where I put the text file that has the list in it, so here it is. Best I can tell is 1979 for vintage.

In Dallas, Commercial Radio Without Commercials – New York Times

“In a major market, for a classic rock station to change formats is really an anomaly,” said Fred Jacobs, a radio industry consultant from Detroit who helped popularize the classic rock format in the mid-1980s. “You could make a nice, long, healthy list of top five stations that are classic rock,” and several would be No. 1 or No. 2 in their markets, he said.

But Mr. Freeman, the Dallas station manager, says he has had his fill of classic-rock bands like Led Zeppelin. “A friend of mine said, ‘They’ve been climbing that stairway to heaven for 30 years, you’d think they’d be there by now,’ ” he said.

CBS jumps back into the music business – Dec. 15, 2006:

Mark Fratrik, a vice president with BIA Financial Network, a financial and strategic consulting firm for the media and communications industries.
…
But Fratrik said it would not be a good idea for CBS to use its radio stations to get more exposure for the musicians on CBS Records. He said the radio business is now highly formulaic. So it would not be in CBS’ best interest to feature relatively unknown artists while all of its competitors are playing “top 40″ musicians.

“Radio is so incredibly competitive that if CBS actually did favor their own artists instead of more popular ones, they would pay in terms of lost listeners. That would be a tough thing for CBS Radio to shoulder,” Fratrik said.

What’s wrong with the “fill-in-the-blank” business is the business thinks that the people with the decisions are nothing but eyeballs, ears, and wallets. They would prefer that there be no decision at all – think subscription service.

Maybe the 20%+ decline in the CD business is due to the increase in formulaic “art” spreading across the globe?

Anyone know of a comparison showing the decline of music sales with the spread of Clear Channel radio stations?

Vault Radio

Give away the music and sell the show:

The major labels are freaked out: CD sales are continuing their inexorable decline and iTunes sales aren’t making up the difference. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of artists are giving away their music for free on MySpace, their own websites and independent MP3 blogs. This puzzles the labels. Don’t these bands want to make money from their art?

I remember making a choice between a recording and a live performance back in the 1980′s.
It was between a double album recording by Ron Carter – “Picasso” or attending the live concert.
It was simple math then (at least to me) $12 for the double album, $25 for a 2 hour concert.

How much did the artist receive from the album sale? Probably $.20 if lucky.

(Via The Long Tail.)

Don Butterfield, acclaimed tuba player, dies at 83 – Examiner.com

The Associated Press
Nov 29, 2006 1:32 PM (1 day ago)
Current rank: # 1,580 of 8,566 articles

CLIFTON, N.J. – Don Butterfield, a renowned tuba player who began playing the instrument because his high school band in Centralia, Wash., was out of trumpets, has died. He was 83.

Butterfield, of Clifton, died Monday of an illness related to a stroke he had suffered about a year before, his wife, Alice Butterfield, said Wednesday.

So sorry to hear this. Don was my mentor. We studied and worked together in 1969 and 1970.

So many memories.