Announcements
¡¡
2011-07-19
I¡¯m happy to announce the availability of my theory lessons to accompany private instrumental study. I had a student this past year who I wanted to give a truly beneficial experience to, beyond just trombone technique. I started writing small ¡°snippet¡± music theory exercises that I would print out and bring to each lesson to have him do. Each one would consist of a homework assignment and simple reference page dealing with a new concept and would only take 10-15 minutes to teach. It went well, and I decided to write an entire curriculum from it. The end result is what I have posted here ¨C ¡°Terrence¡¯s Theory¡± ¨C a total of 34 theory lessons suitable for any high-school instrumentalist who studies privately. These 34 lessons can be easily covered in 63 weeks, giving any high-school student a deeper understanding of music and a competitive edge on college theory. Each lesson itself is small in scope, easy to teach, and convenient to print out and bring. I hope you find these lessons useful, and well worth the $20 bucks you pay for them. ¡¡ Want to view a sample lesson? Here it is! Lesson 6: Building Major Triads.
¡¡
Download the whole course here!
¡¡
¡¡
I'm very happy to announce the official completion and availability of my Opus #1, Symphony for Wind Octet. I want to take a few lines to talk about it.
I wrote Symphony for Wind Octet to be a sort of conducting etude. As I was looking ahead and trying to prepare myself for conducting school, I was daunted by my own lack of experience, and lack of footage to put on a DVD application. Conducting seems to be a vicious catch-22; if you want to go to school to learn to do it, you already have to have lots of experience doing it; to get a lot of experience doing it, you have to go to school. For most, including myself, conducting opportunities are hard to come by. It came to me that I should write a piece that would be easy to put together using instruments that are readily available, giving myself some opportunities to grow. I wrote movement one, incorporating many elements of what I thought at the time would be fairly challenging. After finishing movement one, I decided that I wanted to write a piece with a large scope that would tackle as many of the technical aspects of conducting as I was able to conceive; I wanted to write a piece that others could use as well, a piece that would be universally challenging, providing the biggest "bang for one's buck" possible. And that's what I accomplished.
Symphony for Wind Octet is a four-movement, 65-minute work with challenges suitable for any beginning (or intermediate) conductor, written to use instruments that are readily available (with the notable exception of the bass trombone, for which a tuba can be substituted if necessary). Movement one features technique challenges spread across three separate melodies. Movement two is an exercise in meter changes; every measure is in a time-signature that is one number different than the previous bar, i.e., 5/4, 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, etc. Movement three is an exercise in accompanying soloists; each instrument is featured in their own recitative-style solo/cadenza passage with each accompaniment being more demanding on the conductor than the previous one. Lastly, movement four is a theme and variations, also built to be progressive; the movement begins in straight-ahead 4/4 time and ends after a Stravinsky-style mixed meter passage.
I believe this piece to be a perfect challenge for any young conductor, or any musician who wants to try their hand at conducting. This piece, however, is not just an etude; it is a piece that performer and audience member alike can enjoy. The majority of the melodies are tonal and easy to relate to. Additionally, each instrument is featured as a unique element inside of this ensemble, giving each performer opportunities to play that are not common in ensemble literature.
Ideal for any military or college ensemble.
¡¡
Pricing:
conductor's score: $25 set of parts: $40
Email me for ordering details!
¡¡