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- Written by: Greg Shoemaker
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It is the beginning of spring break for spring semester 2022. I have not posted any updates on this site since December 2020 and I apologize for that. Since then, I have been thoroughly enjoying the process of working my way through the lower level undergraduate music education curriculum learning as much as I can about so many diverse aspects of music while taking the occasional holiday trip with my family and simply experiencing the fullness of life. I have honed my musical objectives somewhat while still maintaining some degree of flexibility with my options. While my overall goal is to produce the best music of which I am capable in whatever form that takes, be that performance, composition, recording, arranging, or teaching, the focus for the next two years will be on completing the requirements to obtain certification to teach music. Before addressing that specific topic I wanted to first mention that my review of music theory has been very helpful and that it went considerably beyond what I was taught when I originally started to study in music the 1980's. I am sure it will prove to be beneficial as I begin to explore composition in more depth in the future. Also, the various methods classes I have taken (voice, woodwinds, strings, and brass) have also been quite stimulating and enlightening despite the lack of being able to have a true field experience with any of them until this semester due to Covid restrictions. I must say that I am looking forward to beginning my first field experience during the coming weeks. The other music related item to add is that I have completed the wiring of the studio so I will no longer have long cable runs. I hope to detail that process with some pictures in an upcoming post so keep your fingers crossed.
I have come to realize that my primary musical interests lie along the lines of commercial music and that will be where most of my creative efforts in the future will tend to focus. This may cause some to ask why I want to be a music educator. As a TRS retiree I cannot legally take a full time position as a teacher in a Georgia public school but I can work in a certified position as long as it's half time or less, or at a private school. The fact is that I love music and enjoy sharing what I have learned about music with anyone who is interested, and I enjoy teaching and interacting with the students and others who share my interest in music. Being certified will simply provide me with greater flexibility as I continue the pursuit of my musical interests.
For the near term I plan to continue my studies and improve my performance and production skills. A classmate with whom I have started collaborating has introduced me to the Ableton Live DAW and I will be exploring that in more depth as well as working to improve my repertory. Hopefully, I won't wait another year before posting another update.
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I've been getting a little strung out on OBS this morning but need to put it behind me so I can do a little Spanish study. I’m so eager for this semester to be over although I have greatly enjoyed everything I’ve been learning. Once I complete my Spanish Final no later than 1:00 Saturday afternoon 12/12/20, I have a quiz and dictation for Aural Skills that I will finish that night, a quiz for Theory I will also do that night, my two recordings of the Bach and Gershwin for Applied Piano, and a Composition for Theory, both of which I need to finish by noon Wednesday 12/16/20. I'll use the composition assignment to finish the verses of Te Amo and then will transition into once again doing a little development of this site and LetsPracticeMusic. The studio is where I'll probably spend most of my time during the break. I plan on running microphone, speaker, and Cat5 cable to various locations to help eliminate some wire clutter, put together a good desktop computer to use for recording, do some additional research into DVR security systems for video capture in the studio, and write and record some music. I'll also finish up the various loose ends associated with the kitchen and other home renovations and, if it's not too cold, do some work in the yard. That's the plan for now. I'll post more as the work progresses.
As an aside, I have disabled all comment features for the time being. I may reactivate this feature on a selective basis but thus far it seems that some people have been hoping I would not be moderating the comments and would post links to sites that I have no desire to have associated with my site. Needless to say, I never allowed those comments to be posted. If there is something you might want me to post on this site then you can contact me directly using the Contact Me link at the top of the page.
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I'm almost finished with Fall Semester 2020 and would like to both look back at what I've accomplished and look forward to what lies on the horizon. I feel I've made a lot of progress intellectually and also technically but at the same time I don't feel I've accomplished as much as I would have liked, particularly with my applied lessons. With the way classes were conducted this past semester I am thankful that I didn't have to spend as much time on campus, particularly in the efforts to fulfill some of the normal requirements of the program but, at the same time, I would have liked to have benefited from the exposure I would have received if those requirements were in place. Of particular note is the concert attendance requirement which would have meant an additional four hours a week I would need to spend on campus. Fortunately that was waived. I would have liked to have sang with the Men's Glee Club but that too would have meant an additional five hours each week on campus. Still, I did get to receive some voice instruction and was able to focus more on theory and aural skills which will be very important as I start to produce more output. In a sense I don't feel I have made as much progress as I wanted with my piano as I only worked on three pieces during the semester but I can detect some slight improvements in my practicing and the process of learning new songs. Regarding my improvisation skills, I feel I've developed a much greater degree of independence between my hands rhythmically and harmonically but that is probably more a side effect of all the classes and not related to any specific thing that was 'taught' to me in any of them. This is not to say that there is not a lot of room for growth but I am reasonably satisfied with my progress in the academic realm.
The thing that I am looking forward to is polishing off two of those songs I've worked on in my applied class as well as experimenting with the material I have been exposed to so as to begin to produce some music. Peripherally related to this is the desire to move the studio to the 'next level' in terms of workflow efficiency and configuration. I have a lot of things I want to do between semesters including installing additional wiring, upgrading the recording computer, acquiring a dedicated video recording system, and getting everything working smoothly. I am starting to get more comfortable with OBS and may start streaming at some point next semester, especially if I'm am able to implement these modifications in a timely manner. I'll be reviewing all that soon. Unfortunately, I still have to study for my Spanish final this Friday and make some final recordings for my applied piano and my voice class. Once that is all done I'll turn my attention to some of the things I've mentioned plus many more, including adding some fresh content to my websites, over the break. That's all I have to say for now so enjoy your music making and have a Happy Holiday!
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Over the past six weeks of this abnormal summer my focus has been on completing repairs and renovations to my house which has disrupted some of my music making efforts. This has included some foundation work, exterior painting and repairs, resurfacing the floors, and a complete renovation of the kitchen. Hopefully, by the end of this month all the work will be complete and I will be able to get my studio back to a usable condition. School starts back in a week and a half so by early September I will inevitably be motivated to refocus on my music making efforts and resume adding content to my sites.
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Yesterday I had hopes of getting some stuff recorded and getting the X32 talking to Reaper the way I envisioned it and it seemed like everything wasn't going to work out the way I wanted it to do because I couldn't seem to figure out how to do some routing things I wanted with the X32 and I wanted to change the layout for Reaper back to the way I had it about a year ago before I started messing with some things I saw on some videos somewhere, possibly the Reaper site. I ended up resetting Reaper back to the default layout and was afraid I had lost some other things in the process but everything is still there. I have also had some periodic issues with internet connectivity and some other issues that I need to resolve related to the computer communicating with many of the various devices attached to it. Finally, I wanted to get a better understanding about OBS and how to put it to effective use but it was challenging me as well.
I never did get things just the way I wanted them but before I went to bed last night I did manage to record a drum track that I will be using for several purposes. The first application is simply as an example of variation 1 of groove one in the Tommy Igoe book, possibly more to show my drum teacher that I have been practicing some and starting to do fills like showed me in my last lesson. The second purpose was to use it as an instructional video to post on the YouTube channel. The third is to use it as a rhythm track to build some kind of background music for my much needed intro and outro for all the other videos. The final application is to use it as the rhythmic foundation for a song that I have yet to write, quite possibly in Spanish because I need to start reviewing all that before the second semester starts in August and that would be a good way to begin.
I've also been practicing the Bach fugue #14 from the WTC and have decided that I will use it as a case study of sorts to demonstrate several practice techniques. I'm guessing that it will probably take me about another four to six weeks to learn properly and I am planning on creating a series of videos and articles about my practice process that I will be posting on Let's Practice Music and my YouTube channel, again for demonstration purposes. Today I spent almost seven hours creating a Finale engraving of the piece with the twin purposes of learning how to use Finale better and to have an easier way to create notation excerpts for the fugue to use in the descriptions of my practice techniques. Although it still has some things that need to be cleaned up in the file it provides a good starting point for learning some of the more subtle practices of engraving music notation. I will continue working on the appearance as I learn the piece but I have created a PDF of the file without fingerings that is readable and am posting it. ==> Bach Fugue #14 (WTC Book II).
In writing this entry I realized it would be nice to get a plugin or component for this website to display PDF files in the article and give the option to download them and in making the preceding link was a compromise in that my brief search didn't turn up a free plugin that would do it without me spending a lot of time setting it up. It also makes me realize that I need to go ahead and update the menus and other aspects of the website but I will address that over time. I will certainly do that before I start actively promoting any of my music or other online content but my focus now is primarily in generating my content so if you happened to stumble on this.