Category: Music

Catching Up

Busy these days with work and lots of stuff. So here’s catching up on a few random things. Work has been busy and problematic, and I’ve putting in extra evenings and fixing other people’s bugs to keep things on track. I think we turned a corner mid-week last week. We have a release coming up this week, and now we’re in good shape.

My book has been done for a couple of weeks, but now I’m waiting on the publisher to get back to me.

We got our xmas tree up today. A nice wide bushy one. Lots room for ornaments. Went out to pick one up in the rain. Always a nice feeling to have the tree up.

I’ve been starting to get back into the music recording thing, picking up my half-finished third Buzzy Tonic album. So far the focus is on playing. I have a backlog of half-written songs, so I think I’m gonna work them up to play and sing live before I get back into tracking. Ought to go faster with the arrangements worked out and under my fingers.

The other day I was showing Michelle how to hammer-on on the bass. I’m kind of a lazy bass player and will often hammer-on or pull-off when I’m doing a fast chromatic riff, just so I don’t have to articulate the note with my right hand. I use my thumb on the right hand alot, especially on the bottom two strings. I generally switch to fingers-only as a tonal effect, from rounder to punchier. So my hammer-ons and pull-offs on the bass are really quite solid, which is weird since I’ve never really consciously worked at it.

One of the most amazing musicians I’ve ever played with was this cat Jim Wynne, who was a master of the two-hand tap technique on the bass. I little two-handed-tap blues improvisation for Michelle to demonstrate his style, playing the bass line in the bottom two strings with my left hand and tapping the 3rd and 7th on the offbeats on top two strings with my right. To my surprise it came out sounding really good! I guess it’s not that different than piano. I’m gonna have to work a part like that into one of my songs.

The girls are having a good fall. Yesterday they had the holiday show at the performing arts group they belong to, Young at Arts. Michelle has been working out Do a Deer from The Sound of Music by ear on the piano. Talented girl. Meanwhile Lizzy is enjoying being in 8th grade and her grades are up, and that comes at a good time. She’s finally getting algebra. She was cast as one of the leads in her school play this winter. The theme of the play is New York, and the songs are all taken from classic shows, with an original story to string them together. She has six songs. Her character is British, so she’s been having fun practicing her accent. I’m going to be playing in the band again this year. I got the list of songs and put together a playlist. It’s a fun set. We listened to it as we put up the tree today. It has two different songs called New York New York.

By The Book

Last weekend I finished the intro text for my book, and the stuff for the symbols and basic folds. Now that my origami book is done I’m looking to start in on some new projects.

I was at the music store last week to buy some clarinet books for Michelle, and bought a couple really good music books for myself too. One is Bach for the Electric Bass. This is great fun to play so far. The first two pieces in the book are the two parts of a two part invention. The first has regular notation and tab, and the second only notation. It’s really good for practicing reading in the bass clef, and also works really well as a source for riffs for walking bass lines. The lines lay really well.

The other book is called Metaphors for the Musician by Randy Halberstadt, and its a jazz piano theory and practice. I already know lots of theory, and while in theory there’s no difference between theory and practice, in practice that’s not always the case. This will be a good book to help me get it together playing-wise and take it to the next level as a performer. Just what I’ve been looking for. The need was inspired by my desire to take a solo at the end of Checker Cab, while still holding down the bass part. I have to come up with a melodic right hand approach that works with the in-the-pocket bottom, sounds good, and is possible to play.

Right now I’m reading thru the book, but it’s designed to be used at the piano, so once I’m done I’ll start over at the keyboard. It will take a few months. Lots of deep harmony theory, very well laid out, and more general stuff about how to approach comping and improvising that transfers into playing in general. One thing he stressed early on is the importance of playing slow and keeping good time. I know I tend to rush, and I don’t play with a drummer that often, so I’ve started practicing with the metronome again, and in general just taking everything down a few BPM to work on a more relaxed feel. That alone is already making a difference. Especially on a song like Heat Wave or Steppin’ Out.

I also got a book of arrangements of songs from the various Mario video games. Some of them are pretty hard. And a Soundgarden songbook. They were my favorite of all the grunge bands of the ‘90’s and I recently got turned on to them again. Chris Cornell is a genius with his singing and his use of melody and out meters. Unfortunately the book is in guitar tab, so it’ll take a pretty good amount of work to make piano adaptations. Still, it’s faster then doing it by ear.

Martin came over last weekend with the family, and we had a little time to jam. Matrin always has a knack for picking interesting covers, and so now I’m working up Breaking Us in Two, which I knew once a long time ago but forget. Perfect song for me to sing on.

Rush In Brooklyn

Last night Jeannie and I went and saw Rush play at the Barclay Arena in Brooklyn, named after basketball great Charles Barkley, although I don’t think he ever played for the Nets, and I can’t say why they got the spelling wrong. The arena is brand new and only a few blocks from where we used to live. This site was formerly a train yard, an open pit on a triangle of land that was sort of a dead zone in downtown Brooklyn, something you’d have to walk around. I hadn’t been back there since they broke ground on the arena, but it’s good to see it finished. Apart form the overbright animated jumbotron marquees, it’s a very nice arena.

The show itself was great. Rush has a new album out, Clockwork Angels, which is full of great material. The first set concentrated on material from their 80’s synthesizer phase, song like Subdivisions, Big Money, Force Ten, The Body Electric, Territories, and The Analog Kid. I think they played about half of Power Windows over the course of the night. For the second set they brought out an 8-piece string section. They opened the set by playing most of Clockwork Angels, 9 out of 12 songs. The string players had some good rock’n’roll headbanging choreography in addition to filling out the sound on the new songs. The CA material ranged from complex and ripping metal to much more layered and gentle stuff. “The Garden” was a standout and closed that part of the set. The string ensemble stuck around as they hit a few more classics with the strings taking on what was formerly the synthesizer part. These included Manhattan Project, Red Sector A, and YYZ. Then the power trio wrapped it up with a few of their greatest hits, including Spirit of Radio, Tom Sawyer, and 2112, parts I, II, and VII.

Alex’s guitar broke down in the middle of Temples of Syrinx, so he improvised a goofy little dance while his roadies scrambled to provide a replacement. Meanwhile Ged and Neil carried on and it worked just fine. Alex came back in just in time to do to solo leading into the finale.

I really enjoyed the selection of music. Even though they skipped a lot of songs you might expect, they played a lot of great stuff you didn’t expect, and besides, I heard those other songs last tour. It’s good they’re continuing to present new things. The new material is great, and the rest put an interesting focus on a sometimes-overlooked phase in their career. It was the phase where I first started seeing the live, as it happens. As musicians, these guys just keep getting better. Geddy’s still got it in voice, and his bass chops are flawless. Alex Lifeson has such range, diversity of styles he can play, and roles to fit in with the music. And of ocurse he’s a world-class soloist. Plus all those pedals. Neil Peart’s playing is fast and precise as ever, but he’s also found a new level of fluidity. You can hear the way he pushes and pulls the groove in different songs, and for all his speed, he somehow looks like he’s moving in slow motion. Put them together and they’re great ensemble players, and the songs really bring that out.

It was a fantastic show. I sure hope they put out another album and come around again.

More of the Same

Am I in a groove, or in a rut? Who knows? On the book front, all the photos have been cropped, color balanced, edited, retouched, mastered and delivered to the publisher. 140 pictures, 12 GB upload. Thank you Bob! My last two diagrams are the Giant Squid and the Turkey. I’m to step 50 on the Squid, which is the tricky part. It looks like it’ll be about 65 steps. I hope I can finish it tonight. I’m up to step 65 on the Turkey, and I’m estimating 80 steps and hope to finish that within the week. These are the two most complex models in the book, but the light is at the end of the tunnel.

But even though I’ve been working hard, other interesting stuff is in the offing. The fall weather has been beautiful. Been getting to spend some time outside, although it’s getting light late and dark early already. The kids are alright. Work is mellow at the moment, and I’ve been working out and my health has been better again lately.

I’m planning on going to the MIT Origami Conference later this month. It should be a great time. I’m teaching and exhibiting, and it’ll be great to see the MIT origami people. Got to work out the travel logistics, which really means finding a hotel room.

Been working on learning some new songs. I’ve taken a break from writing and recording until my book is done, but I’ve been practicing. I can now sing and play eight of my own originals on piano. Recently added “Fine Red Wine” and “Angel or Alien” to the repertoire. Plus a couple new covers: “Stepping Out” by Joe Jackson and “Thunder Road” by The Boss. At least a few of them are pretty hard songs to play but I’ve gotten to the point where I know them well and continue to sharpen the arrangements and performance.

Origami Giant Squid

I came up with another new model this weekend to round out the cephalopod chapter in my book: a giant squid.

In other news I bought a song book of 60’s music on ukulele for Michelle not to long ago. She’s been learning a bunch of Beatles songs out of it, and I’ve been playing along with her on piano and guitar from time to time. She’s been asking to watch A Concert for George since I told her Paul does a version of Something on the uke, so yesterday we sat down and watched it.

On the downside, my music project with Erik had kinda cooled. I’ve been working up some new songs, but we haven’t had the time to get together and jam for a while. I want to get some gigs lined up for the fall, but I guess that’ll have to wait until I’m done the deliverables for my book. Ah well.

Summertime Blues

Last weekend’s gig went well. An important milestone, our first full-length gig. We played for a smallish but appreciative crowd and the set went over well. Eight originals and ten covers in two sets. It’ll be a few weeks before we can get together again because of vacation schedules and whatnot. Hopefully in the fall we’ll start picking up more, bigger gigs and work on getting a rhythm section.

Meanwhile work has been busy and stressful. At least this weekend, there’s nothing going on and I can some time to recharge.

Froyo Gig

Here’s an announcement that we will be performing live next weekend:


The John Szinger – Erik Blicker Duo

Saturday, July 21 at 1:00 PM.

Beanberry’s Cafe & Frozen Yogurt Bar
265 Huguenot St., New Rochelle NY

Lots of good stuff, classic rock, blues and a good mix of old and new, covers and originals. Come out if you can. This is a family-friendly venue. Hope to see you there!

Checking In

It’s been a busy couple o’ weeks. First off, I’ve been listening to the new Rush album, Clockwork Angels, for pretty much every day the last two weeks. It definitely rewards repeated listenings like only great music can. I’m gonna say I think its their best album yet!

Second, last week Lizzy preformed in a production of “NYXSW” with her performing arts group Young At Arts. NYXSW expands to New York by Southwest, and the show was a musical review of New York and greater-Texas themed songs and skits from various shows such as Company and Oklahoma. It was very well done. Lizzy had a few solos and did great, and a couple of the older kids were just fantastic.

Third, this last weekend was the annual Origami Convention. This year was an especially good time. More on that, plus pics of the exhibits and my new models, coming soon.

New Recording: Now

Here’s a rough mix of Michelle’s new song, Now.

And at the opposite end of the musical spectrum, I just picked up the new Rush album, Clockwork Angels, and I’m just blown away. Imagine if Rush made a concept album that picks up where Hemispheres left off, but incorporates everything they’ve learned in the last 30 years. This is that record!

I Learn to Work the Saxophone

Good news about work. After having worked last weekend, we got a release candidate of our app done by lunchtime Monday. So now we’re in QA and waiting to see if there are any bugs. Meanwhile the release date has been pushed back to mid-July because Abe our QA guy is expecting a baby any day now. Meanwhile, I’m writing unit tests, which is something we’ve always meant to do but never seem to have time for, but our Corporate Overlords have mandated it, so it’s actually fun and cool, and will have lasting payoff in terms of the quality of our code.

So I got to take a summer Friday this week, and dedicated it to catching up on random tasks. High on the list I have to have work done a couple of my horns, and needed to find a sax repair main. I used to repair horns myself, but I don’t have any of the tools or supplies. So I’ve been asking around, and one of the local music stores recommended Virgil Scott in Yonkers. So I went over there and it turns out he was great. I had him check out my alto, and he fixed it on the spot. The main thing was it needed a new cork on the neck, be he also spotted and fixed some minor leaks. Very friendly guy, and we got to talking. He hadn’t seen a Selmer USA. He thought it was basically identical to a Mark VI, although I pointed out a few differences.

Clearly he knows what he’s doing, and he’d even fixed Michael Brecker’s horn. So its great to find a saxophone repairman. Next week in I’m bringing in my tenor, which is a classic sax but in worse shape. It has some serious leaks in the lower stack.