Songs With No Words? Sort Of...

I have just constructed five songs that have words, but they don't.  I'm also going to use two very old favorites from the classical literature that people would recognize, but they are going to have their own spin.  However, these five songs that have words, they won't be sung on the tracks.  The words have meaning, they determine the titles of the songs, but they are like poetry that accompanies the tracks.

I can imagine, in a perfect world, that people at shows would sing the words along while I play, but I don't think that the words need to be present on the tracks.  I'm a bass clarinetist, not a singer.  I'm like Santana...I'd rather not sing.  However, I'm not making Supernatural.  I'm not trying to crack open the Billboard hot 100.

I think the songs will really speak to people because they have deep emotional meaning.  They are very personal, but I don't see the need to throw the words up when I know I can't sing them.

So, what say you to words that exist but are not sung?  I don't think I'm living a pipe dream that people would sing them at a show, but I don't want people to think I'm crazy.  A poem that fully matches the song someone's listening to...it almost begs them to interpret the song even more, and that is what is going to make it all worthwhile.

The Heights Of Cross Promotion

I am going to be doing a lot of releases over the course of the year.  There will be a YouTube channel with mood music on it that has lovely backgrounds.  There will some indie rockish type stuff coming out in the summer and fall, and there will be several releases through the CD Baby free market.  You would have to pay for the tracks, but they don't charge me much to list on their market.  As I said, the heights of cross promotion.  If you have never been to the CD Baby website, you go visit them because there are MANY more people besides me who also want and deserve your business.  Links will be coming as soon as the first album comes out.  This is sort of an unholy combination of storytelling moody jazz that could pass for indie rock if I changed the structure and added some words.  Yeah, something like that.

New Music Coming Soon!!

I will have an album coming out at the beginning of the second quarter, and one every quarter for the next two years!!!  I also have an album waiting and ready to go for the holiday season, and you will be able to get an album of sacred music in between.  I have discovered a good distribution option for me, and I will be promoting the heck out of it very soon.  I just have to get everything submitted first.

More to come!

Got A Book In The Works

Just had an idea for a children's book today...hoping I can line up an artist soon to see what we can do with this thing.

And four albums coming...if you have an suggestions on which digital distributor to use, that would be a good thing!

The Current Setup (Bass Clarinet, Alto Clarinet, Contra Clarinet...OK, All The Clarinets)

My setup has changed...five thousand times over the past few years AND I starting practicing all the clarinets orchestrally.  So, I have a completely new setup that I use regularly on everything.  This goes from the efer all the way down to the contra and beyond.  The question is, what am I using now?

Eb/C -- They share a Vandoren B44 mouthpiece and size 3 Blue Box reeds
Bb/A -- They share an old Hite M41 (which is now just the M) and 3.5 56 Rue Lepics
Alto -- I use a Yamaha 5C mouthpiece and 2.5 Vandoren V12 Alto Sax reeds
Bass -- I use a Selmer D mouthpiece and 2.75 Gonzalez Bass Clarinet and Tenor Sax reeds
Contra -- I use the original Leblanc mouthpiece that came with the horn and 3 Blue Box reeds.

Eb/C -- I use a Vandoren V16 soprano sax ligature with the No. 2 plate
Bb/A -- I use the Vandoren Leather ligature with the leather plate
Alto -- I use a Rovner EDII (now defunct) Tenor Sax ligature with no plate
Bass -- I use a vintage gold Harrison ligature
Contra -- I use a Rovner Dark ligature

Eb -- 1930 Rampone Milano
C -- Pre World War I unsigned Albert system
Bb -- 1950 Leblanc Symphonie
A -- 1914 Selmer Paris (before they used serial designations)
Alto -- 1965 Leblanc Paris
Bass -- 1997 Leblanc 430S
Contra -- 1969 Leblanc Paperclip BBb

Any questions?  I'm happy to answer.

34 New Tracks

I have 34 new tracks that I recorded while I was in Ohio visiting my wife's family.  34 tracks made in a sun room with the heater going ;)  However, they are all interested.  They've all been parsed and titled...now I need to make albums.  Once I'm done doing that, it's time to get my music on the web.  I'll be posting details of each album when it is released!

I'm Back, Again?

Ok, this is, I believe, the third time I have come back to the blog after a long hiatus here or there.  I've been working at home and practicing while my wife is in graduate school.  She's probably going to get a thousand Master's degrees, but I've started taking control of my career.  The blog is going to become a place to promote my music (which I am in the middle of recording.)  I hope to have six albums out before the summer.  All of them are nice and smooth easy listening tracks I'm recording as A Man Of Few Words.

I'm also going to start a video series on YouTube for band excerpts on bass clarinet, on for basic pedagogy and another series of background tracks that you can listen to while you are working.  I'm going to actually leave the blog up on my computer this time, and I will actually *gasp* reply to comments.  I read a few lovely comments that I had never seen before because I just wasn't looking after the blog at all.

So, I'm back, but this is my career, and I hope to do it full-time from now.  When I get my first two albums done, I hope to have them on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora and the Google Play Store.  So, you'll be able to enjoy my stuff wherever you are.  More updates to come when new videos or tracks are out there.  However, I can't do any of that if I keep yapping on here.  Did you know how much goes into getting your music on iTunes, etc?  Sheesh!  I have to get to work finishing this music, working with an aggregator and get my stuff out there.

That's it for today, hopefully more good news is to come!