Last night, while filling in for Larry Baedke at the Mesa City Band (he is recovering from heart surgery), I was surprised at the end of the rehearsal when the president of the band's board announced that I had been awarded the official position of Assistant Director. I am deeply honored to be conducting this excellent group of musicians.

I consider myself truly blessed to have encountered so many musical opportunities these past few months. Not only is it an honor to be leading so many knowledgable and talented musicians (in both the Silveridge Orchestra as well as the Mesa City Band) but conducting is truly a joy for me.

Anyway, due to Larry's absence, I'll be in charge until the end of the season (in May). I wish Larry a speedy recovery and I know he'll be back on his feet in no time.

In Mainstage I've created a template for the format that I use each week. Mainstage, in a way, is like Powerpoint in that you can pre-program a bunch of tools and elements of a presentation that then you are intended to use live in front of an audience. Instead of slides, however, Mainstage lets you program patch changes for instruments and backing tracks, among other things. To read about how I make backing tracks, see my previous post "The Birth of a Backing Track".

Here's the Layout screen of Mainstage, with the layout I created for use with the band. You can see some of the different controls and readouts that are available at the bottom of the screen. Each of these can be dragged onto the workspace and programed to do many different things, such as activate backing tracks, adjust the volume of individual tracks, or adjust the gain on the guitar (which is what I play during the performance). This layout is what I currently use, but it has evolved little by little over the weeks that I've been using it. Every time I discover something else that I need to do during the performance I add a control or indicator to my layout.

Then, the next step is getting a set list ready for the performance. I create a separate page for each song that we will perform, and each song then gets it's own levels, settings and backing tracks.

In the Layout screen I programmed all of the foot controls on my GiO to perform different functions during the performance. Aside from starting and stopping the backing tracks, and selecting different songs from the set list, I also have programmed controls to allow me to add or remove the individual backing tracks as needed. The GiO is very neat in that even the lights are programmable to whatever colors I want. So, to make it quick and easy to see what tracks are currently activated during the performance, the buttons on the screen match the buttons on my foot controls. I also have a kill-switch programmed if I want to mute everything.

Once all my settings are made for the performance, I can save them all as a file and load it up ready to go on Sunday morning. Mainstage has a Performance mode that focuses all of the computer's resources and removes all other distractions from the screen. Once in this screen, I can use the mouse to adjust the various knobs and controls as needed, but mostly I use the foot controls while rehearsing and performing.

Several people have asked me about my use of the computer with the Praise Band at St. Mark's, and I've put together a brief rundown of how I make my backing tracks.

First of all, efficiency is key because (at least lately) I have been recording several backing tracks each week. Luckily, this process has become pretty routine for me. I begin by recording either a lead track with the melody or a piano track if it also carries the melody (sometimes I don't want the piano doubling the melody). Anyway in this case, the piano line has the melody in it and so I used it along with a click track to help me keep the beat.

By the way, "How Majestic Is Your Name" is a classic Michael W. Smith piece from the 80s. Before recording this, I watched him perform it from 1982 w/ Amy Grant (on YouTube). At St. Mark's we don't do anything so dramatic (or fast!--if you watch the video, skip past the introduction to 1:30 to see what I mean.). Even so, I always love to take inspiration from from what I can, and I find him to be a fantastic musician and songwriter.

Anyway, after the basic melody is down I can start to layer other things on top of what I've recorded. I set Logic up to use a drum kit with my keyboard (I don't own a drum set... yet ;-) Here's the layout of my most-used drums (for reference, the lowest C shown here is C1).

So, with my piano track playing aloud, I will practice and create a drum part for the piece. I prefer to 'perform' it as I record it, rather than program it like a drum machine. This way, the grooves and the fills sound natural. I tried to make a video of myself playing the drums, but I couldn't hold the camera while I played the drum part because it takes two hands. Anyway, you can imagine how it might look to play the drums in this way. Here's the recording of the next step:

I don't like to over-orchestrate the backing tracks, so I don't do a lot more after this point. I firmly believe that the live musicians should be doing most of the work. However, the bass player in the band is often away so I have been recording a bass track for when he's gone. Originally I was plugging in my bass and making the track using the actual instrument, but lately--in the name of expediency--I have been using the keyboard with one of Logic's many high-quality bass samples. This way, I don't get quite the realistic sound of flesh on string, but it does allow me to make the recordings a lot faster since there is no additional set up and synching required.

At this point I can simply use the various mixers and editors in Logic to tweak anything that needs tweaking and then I extract each instrument as its own track. These tracks are then imported separately into Mainstage so I can use them individually or in combination depending upon the instrumentation that I need. I'll explain that process in my next post, "Making Music in Mainstage".

This is something that I've been thinking about for a while now and I've finally gotten it started. In the process of developing my own jazz chops while playing with Swing Memories, I knew that I also wanted to write pieces that I can use with my students to develop their chops. Now that my concert schedule isn't as demanding I have the time to do it. I intend for each piece to not only introduce jazz concepts and idioms, but to challenge the students with improvisation.

Anyway, go check out my new album "Rubber, Meet Road" and the first piece in the album, "Get Off My Beat". As always, let me know what you think!

A few weeks ago I mentioned to a friend that I felt that I have been learning even more about my craft since leaving my job at the school. To my surprise this notion was met with sincere disbelief. I was told that they would have thought that, at this point in my career, there wouldn't be that much more to learn.

It's stuck in my head for a few reasons. On one hand, I have visited this notion before. But, I also wonder: what kind of professions are out there that can be said to be truly mastered at some point? Are there really any?

A favorite anecdote of mine is from Peter Boonshaft, who tells this story often when speaking, and also includes it as a preface to his book "Teaching Music With Purpose". He describes being a freshman in college at the opening convocation of his music school. He tells how he expected a band, orchestra or choir to open the ceremony. That would seem like a likely start for a year at a music school. However, instead he was surprised to see an old man hobble onto the stage "somewhere between 90 and 160 years of age. A little, unassuming old man who would become one of my greatest teachers."

The old man spoke then to the assembled freshman: "When I was twenty-one I knew everything. When I was thirty-one, I discovered I could learn a bit more about one or two things. When I was forty-one I realized there were a few things I didn't know." He went on like this for a while and ending by saying, "At seventy-one, I conceded there was more I didn't know than I did know. And now I stand here before you, at the age of eighty-one, confident that I don't know anything."

You might laugh. It's funny. It's also true. They say wisdom comes with age and if that's the case then wisdom must reveal what our intelligence lacks. What's more is that I feel that it's okay to not know everything. I don't mind telling a student that I don't know the answer to something. Frankly, it's silly to assume that I should.

I also believe it's okay to not do everything perfectly. I was playing a piano piece for a student the other day and I made a mistake. He was a sixth-grader and was eager to point it out to me. I think he was surprised when I agreed with him. Of all things, musicians should understand their imperfections. Of course, the notion that music should be perfect is a product of the over-consumption of recorded music... I'll save my rantings on that subject for another day. :-)

PS. The Mesa City Band has a big concert at the Mesa Arts Center next Wednesday night. It's a big deal for the group, for it's the first time we've been in that facility since it was built.  It's at the Piper Auditorium at the MAC from 7-8:30, Wed. March 9th.