Well, I guess now is as good a time as any to let everyone know that I (we) will be moving back to Omaha this Fall!

We’ve been away for over 8 years now, and it’s time to come back home. This big move is partially why I haven’t posted in a while… Busy, busy, busy… Overwhelmed with the preparations, really. Of course, this also means that I have had to set aside things like writing music in the interim… I had been writing a lot of stuff, so this might actually be a good time to take a step back and gain some perspective. Then, I can start fresh and go in some new directions.

Anyway, it will be great to be able to see a lot of the people we have known over the years again and to hang out at all the old places we used to visit. Sure, I’ll miss the mountain views and the crisp, clean mountain air… But, I have always been a big fan of Omaha, and family and friends are much more important than the view out of my window. Besides, the Omaha Symphony is way better than the orchestras I’ve heard around here (sorry, Colorado, but it’s true).

Posted via email from Music Tech Talk on Posterous

I was finally able to get hold of a recording of the March 2010 Gallery of Living Art (GOLA) Performance of Joseph, Look and See by First Lutheran Church of Colorado Springs. Well, the singing was by First Lutheran, the music was by me. Well, I guess I did sing too…

Anyway, a few things of interest about this piece, the performance and some general observations about choral music…

One, it’s the first time I’ve had a Christmas/Nativity piece performed in the Spring (to my knowledge). That’s because the GOLA tells Jesus’ story from birth through Resurrection. It is my greatest honor and very humbling to have had one of my works performed in the setting that it was truly intended for: The J-man’s Crib. OK, just kidding. That was supposed to be witty or funny or something, but it just sort of fell flat… I meant “church,” and next time I should probably just stick to writing music and let someone else do the comedy… Unless, of course, you actually thought that was funny… So, this Roman Guard walks into a bar…  But seriously, very humbling.  I just hope it glorifies God the way it was intended to…  And the J-man too.

Two, for some reason I can’t stand the abbreviation “GOLA,” yet I insist on using it here… Weird.

Three, I intentionally kept the range reasonable and the form easy so it would be accessible to a number of different church choirs. Since a lot of choirs aren’t nearly as large as ours, it’s always good to think about things like that. The funny thing is, I actually wrote it for a different choir… The director of that choir is very familiar with the types of harmonies that I used. Our choir was not used to such close harmonies at first, but soon embraced this different style of writing.

Four, I am never quite sure whether people actually like my music as much as they say they do or if they just feel obligated to say something because I am in the choir. I have decided that I do not like all of the attention, and therefore my next piece will be atonal… PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU REALLY THINK OR I’LL JUST GO ON WRITING THIS STUFF!  That goes for you readers too.

Five, while I am not a piano player, everyone thinks you are if you’re a composer… Especially if you write something that has piano in it.  But let’s think about this for a minute.  If I wrote something for for bassoon, would you assume that I am a bassoon player?  How ’bout the piccolo?  No way.  Personally, I think not being a piano player brings a distinct quality to the flow of my music.  There have been occasions when performing a choral piece when I have said to myself, “this choral piece sounds like it was written by a pianist.”  An no, that is not intended as a compliment.  What I mean is that choral music, in particular, has its own unique qualities and doesn’t always translate well from other styles of writing.   Really, in my perfect world of choral bliss all choral music would be a cappella, all choirs would be perfectly balanced and I would never have to worry about levels of difficulty or other such silly restrictions…  There certainly wouldn’t be any pianos around.  Note: I actually love the piano, but lets face it…  A temper-tuned instrument accompanying a naturally tuned ensemble is kind of a contradiction in terms, don’t you think?  I firmly believe a lot of choirs are just afraid to sing without one and have not yet realized their full potential.

Six, speaking of pianos…  I believe Satan invented Clavinova’s (or other such fake pianos).  Come on, does anyone out there actually think those things sound even remotely real?  In Heaven, God only listens to full-size grands.  Pretty sure I read that somewhere…

Seven, I hate to say this, but I wish the recording of this performance had the piano amped a bit more……………….Well, if I’m gonna write for it, I at least want to hear it.  Besides, I know it was played brilliantly, it’s just hard to hear.  Probably just mic placement.  Good thing the choir is awesome! Thanks guys!

Posted via email from Music Tech Talk on Posterous

Sometimes I get carried away and I can’t seem to stop myself from posting. Other times it seems there are big gaps… And, of course, if I was patient enough to post this tomorrow, it would spread things out a little… But since I’m not, I just want to take this moment to point out a feature or two on Bandcamp that I like.

1. I like the way one can be directed to a customized, tiled list of your music instead of just the most recent upload. The old way made you have to click and scroll too much and that can only lead to carpal tunnel.

http://dmgardnermusic.bandcamp.com (new version)

Assigning an upload to each tile can be annoying (and somewhat time-consuming), but it does let you present your music in whatever way you think is most beneficial. You do, however, have to click the back button to get back to the tiles.

2. I’ve mentioned this before, but I love the customization features available in Bandcamp. I am able to really make it look like an extension of my website by changing backgrounds and so forth.

http://dmgardnermusic.com (example of main site)

3. I love how Bandcamp lets you embed your music across several platforms. Not only that, but you can customize font and background colors, again helping you exactly match it to your site’s theme. I also like the visualizations, which can add a little flare to your example, particularly if it is a midi sample. NOTE: I am only going to use the email version of the link for this next example to see how it posts across platforms. I’ll fix it later, if necessary.

http://dmgardnermusic.bandcamp.com/track/fanfare-alleluia-ssaa?permalink

4. I like how Bandcamp lets you offer your tracks in various ways (free, set your own price, fixed price). For me, this is a little less of a concern, as I am not a band… And most of my music on Bandcamp exists for the purpose of example. To a band, however, these features are invaluable. Bandcamp allows you to download in various higher-res formats too. No low-quality MP3s here (unless you’ve tricked the system and up-converted them).

5. It doesn’t stop there. You can offer bonus downloads such as PDFs, offer physical goods and merchandise, and even provide the UPC code for your new album. Bandcamp can even use your UPC info to relay sales statistics to Nielsen SoundScan,” the company behind the Billboard charts.” You have to admit, that’s pretty cool.

6. OK, now this one is a little weird, but it’s still cool none-the-less. Ever feel the need to play Defender, but don’t own an antique Atari system? Well, you’re in luck! Bandcamp will let you play a cheesy little version of Defender with your statistics! Huh? That’s right. …With your statistics. Just click on “stats,” then on “defender” when logged into your account and let the fun begin! Well, it’s a kinda fun for a few minutes anyway…

7. Given the awesome treasure trove that Bandcamp already offers, I’m sure it does other cool things too… But now I’ve spent too much time writing about them to discover any more of them just yet.

Posted via email from Music Tech Talk on Posterous

Below is a comment posted on one of the other platforms I post to:

I don’t exactly have the answer to that question yet…  At least definitively.  But I am going to test a few things out with this post.  Yep, more live testing, but it’s the best way to see results…  Good or bad.  So I will try to accomplish two things:

1.  Embed my Logo into the post via Feedburner’s Feed Image Burner and Flickr.

2.  Make the photos you see in the actual post appear in the email.  For this, I have installed a plugin that changes the image URLs to “absolute URLs.”  Appropriately enough, it’s called URL Absolutifier.  Since I am limited on time right now, I’m just going to shoot from the hip and see if it works.  If not, I’ll move on to stage 2:  Actual Research

If this works, there will be a logo in the email subscription email and an image of the MTT Blog Banner.

Feel free to report results…  Also, if you have any suggestions on the best time to have email subscriptions delivered in general, please let me know.  Thanks for reading!

Posted via email from Music Tech Talk on Posterous

(Oops…  The server didn’t like my graphic attachment the first time I tried to post this, so I’ll just post without it and delete the previous one later.  Sorry!!!)

While in the process of updating my subscription options, I realized that some of my feeds were not updating properly.  The problem appears to have been related to a setting in WordPress.  It was set to display 999 of my most recent posts and Feedburner evidently did not like this.  As soon as I changed it to only 10, Feedburner was happy again.  If you have already subscribed to the RSS feed, the address stayed the same and you shouldn’t miss any updates.

But remember, subscribing by email is the way to go.  So, go ahead, it’s easy!

Also, please let me know if you have any email subscription issues or just any feedback in general.  I’m always looking to improve MTT, and the best way to do that is to find out what you would like to read about.

Posted via email from Music Tech Talk on Posterous

I used to use RSS feeds to follow other blogs, and that was working out OK until I realized that I hate using RSS feeds. There were just too many, and I was really only checking a few of them regularly anyway. …Not to mention, life generally provides constant distractions, so before you know it, you’ve missed a lot of stuff that’s been posted.

So now’s your chance! Instead of just waiting around until you happen to remember to look through your RSS feeds, simply enter your email address in the sidebar on the right and click “Subscribe.” Now you can be as lazy as I am and just wait for the information to just flow your way!

Trust me it really is the best way to follow…

Besides, I know you wouldn’t want to miss out on any of the fascinating posts on Music Tech Talk.

Posted via email from Music Tech Talk on Posterous

I was probably more surprised than anyone else… As stated in my previous article regarding the unfortunate post-purchase-pixel-eating-internal-damage-not-covered-by-warranty fiasco, there was just no way that I was going to pay $430 to fix a $500 laptop (after $250 mark-down/price-match). So while HP was in the process of returining the damaged unit, I gave the retailer a call. I calmly explained my situation and to my surprise, they happily agreed to exchange it for an “equivalent” model. I figured I’d end up with a slightly lesser model. Instead, everything fell into place like a dream…

…Or maybe a nightmare. If you recall, I found out that my wife had misplaced the receipt Of course, there was no way they would take it back now.

But when I walked into the customer service portion of the store, everything just seemed to fall into place. The guy I had talked to on phone happened to be standing right there. There were no other customers around and two other available customer service reps. I told them how I had lost the receipt and had only the tag on the box attached to show I wasn’t walking out with a stolen laptop the first time I bought it. Luckily, that had a date on it. So, cheerfully, without even looking at the damaged product, they retrieved a brand-new identical model from the back… New-in-the-box! The laptop I had purchased was a floor model with only the power chord. To put a little icing on the cake, I now have a brand new receipt and a warranty that starts yesterday. Although, if the LCD screen has another issue I’m pretty sure I won’t be mailing it to HP to get it fixed. With that being said, call me crazy, but I still didn’t purchase the extended warranty. 

Posted via email from Music Tech Talk on Posterous

FINAL UPDATE:  Clearly, pasting from word improved things like text formatting.  Text colors, for example seem to be working now.  There seems to be something in particular about this post that is making Posterous insist on placing the “inline” pics at the end…  If you look at previous posts, you will note that they are properly placed.  I forgot to add the YouTube link for the last iteration of this post, so that was obviously not what caused the problem.  If the pics place properly this time, I tried separating them with text…  Other than that, there are a few challenges to overcome when posting via email, but generally it’s not too problematic.  Figuring out the little quirks is half the fun.

UPDATE TO POST ATTEMPT: It was inevitable that something would not post correctly since this was a live test… In this case, the text colors did not work. Also, while the inline photos did not post as a gallery, they also did not post in the correct position within the post… That is usually not an issue. Not sure what caused that problem, but it may have been that I typed this post entirely in Thunderbird, rather than pasting from Word. Finally, adding tags within the Posterous email was NOT successful… My guess is that they only work when using the post by email feature provided by WordPress. Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to add tags manually for now. I have re-posted the same thing, but started in Word this time and pasted into Thunderbird to see if there is any difference. Below is the original content.

Unfortunately, every now and then the only way to really test a feature is to use it live.  At the bottom of every post you will note that it says the post was posted by Posterous, a handy post-by-email blog utility.  So far, I have been very happy with the results.  It is amazingly simple, posts across multiple platforms and does so relatively consistently and intuitively.  Posterous, is however, not my actual blog.  Sure, I formatted it to kind of mirror my actual blog (self-hosted WordPress), but really I use it because of its email posting capabilities.  It interfaces nicely with Facebook too, as a separate tab.  Ironically, exponentially more people seem to read my blog via Posterous than my actual blog, but since I like the way WordPress looks and acts, I prefer WP to be my blog’s home.

Here’s an example of some generally successful formatting.  This should be green, bold, italic, and centered.

Next, just by posting the LINK (much easier this way, because Posterous decides which platforms need which format), not the embedded HTML, you should see a YouTube video about some kid getting his finger bitten by his little brother with over 175 million views (why?).  By link, I mean just the web address at the top of your browser.  Yeah, it’s that easy.

Next, you should see some inline pics.  In other words, they are just inserted into the body of the post.  Some services will put multiple pics into a gallery, and just one pic inline.  Posterous does this as a matter of fact.  I don’t like it.  Don’t worry though, if you use WordPress, the pics will still post inline, even if Posterous doesn’t.

Here are those two Pics.  I’ll try to have them centered and will resize one of them by dragging.  Some services will let you click on the images to see the full-size version.  Others will not.  Facebook will generally use them as thumbnails, which is nice.

THIS PARAGRAPH FOR FACEBOOK USER INFO ONLY:  Facebook is a terribly buggy platform and will handle pics differently depending on how many there are in your post.  Just one pic is great.  You’ll get a thumbnail followed by a snippet of your post.  More than that, and it has been posting just thumbnails with nothing else.  I have to put a link in the comments below them.  Strangely, those comments repeat themselves every time I post this way.  I think it’s actually another Facebook bug, but in this one instance it at least saves me from having to re-type the comment.  Even more strange is the fact that a fan page will post it correctly, but the regular interface will not… At least they are consistent… Follow these links to see a fan page example: Fan Page ).

TIP:  When posting by email using Mozilla Thunderbird, make sure you remember to select “Rich Text” (HTML) only under “Options” before you hit send.  If you forget and send the message with mixed plain and rich text, your post formatting gets all squirrelly.

Some things like emoticons (if you are into that sort of thing) are more hit-and-miss.      (typed in) :-[ (pre-formatted by email client).  It usually works best for me to write the post in Microsoft Word, images and all, then paste into Thunderbird (Pics, YouTube links, regular links and visual formatting).

However, there is one particularly annoying quirk that I would like to overcome.

Unfortunately, the way Posterous handles tags only works with Posterous.  Everything else may post perfectly on other platforms, but none of them will have tags or categories other whatever your defaults are set to.  This problem makes search engines useless unless you go back and add them in…  Which, of course, wastes time and defeats the purpose of posting across multiple platforms.  So, when formatting the title, the email subject is the title.  This is how you format the tags in Posterous:  Title of Your Post ((tag:  tag, post, blog, tips, wordpress, post+by+email))

Whatever you do, DON’T FORGET THE OPENING OR CLOSING PARENTHESIS which look like this:   ((     ))  If you do forget, your post title will include a long list of tags.  Very unsightly.  The thing is, if you are posting across multiple platforms, as I do, mistakes can be VERY time consuming to fix.  Overall, I don’t have too many issues…  This problem can be easily prevented, if you just remember to give it a quick glance before hitting send.

Making tags post on other platforms, however, is a different story…  So this post will itself be a test of a work around.  You can tell Posterous not to post anything beyond a pound sign followed by the word end (look for an explanation under “What Else Can Posterous Do?”  I would show you of course, but then nothing else would post afterward…  Annoyingly enough, I think you will see the shortcut at the bottom of this post…  BEFORE that shortcut, I will put in just a couple shortcuts that WordPress recognizes to see what happens.  Normally, I suppose I would put these just before the end of the post, so as not to make them too distracting, but for example I’ll put them here.  Also, I’ll put a duplicate set using asterisks instead of brackets for the WordPress sites so you can still see them:

NON WORDPRESS SITES SHOULD STILL BE ABLE TO SEE THESE UNLESS CONFUSED WITH SOME OTHER KIND OF SHORTCUT, I SUPPOSE
[category Blogging, internet, posted by email, reviews, websites, technology, online utilities, tips, wordpress]
[tags test post, formatting, post+by+email, posterous, wordpress, tips]

DUPLICATE SET FOR WORDPRESS SITES:
*category Blogging, internet, posted by email, reviews, websites, technology, online utilities, tips, wordpress*
*tags test post, formatting, post+by+email, posterous, wordpress, tips*These are specifically WordPress.com shortcuts.  I don’t know how the self-hosted version of WP will handle them.  As I said, this is a live experiment.  If you want to see if this worked, here are the appropriate links:  Main Blog (self-hosted WordPress); WordPress.com Version

In case you are wondering, I post simultaneously to over 15 platforms including several blog and social networking services.  Why, you ask?  Because I can…  And because, it’s an interesting way to try out multiple features and services at the same time.  Some of them are better at getting search engine placement, others have better templates or better interfaces.  Other than that, it’s just good, clean fun.

Posted via email from Music Tech Talk on Posterous

UPDATE TO POST ATTEMPT: It was inevitable that something would not post correctly since this was a live test… In this case, the text colors did not work. Also, while the inline photos did not post as a gallery, they also did not post in the correct position within the post… That is usually not an issue. Not sure what caused that problem, but it may have been that I typed this post entirely in Thunderbird, rather than pasting from Word. Finally, adding tags within the Posterous email was NOT successful… My guess is that they only work when using the post by email feature provided by WordPress. Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to add tags manually for now. I have re-posted the same thing, but started in Word this time and pasted into Thunderbird to see if there is any difference. Below is the original content.

Unfortunately, every now and then the only way to really test a feature is to use it live.  At the bottom of every post you will note that it says the post was posted by Posterous, a handy post-by-email blog utility.  So far, I have been very happy with the results.  It is amazingly simple, posts across multiple platforms and does so relatively consistently and intuitively.  Posterous, is however, not my actual blog.  Sure, I formatted it to kind of mirror my actual blog (self-hosted WordPress), but really I use it because of its email posting capabilities.  It interfaces nicely with Facebook too, as a separate tab.  Ironically, exponentially more people seem to read my blog via Posterous than my actual blog, but since I like the way WordPress looks and acts, I prefer WP to be my blog’s home.

Here’s an example of some generally successful formatting.  This should be green, bold, italic, and centered.

Next, just by posting the LINK (much easier this way, because Posterous decides which platforms need which format), not the embedded HTML, you should see a YouTube video about some kid getting his finger bitten by his little brother with over 175 million views (why?).  By link, I mean just the web address at the top of your browser.  Yeah, it’s that easy.

Next, you should see some inline pics.  In other words, they are just inserted into the body of the post.  Some services will put multiple pics into a gallery, and just one pic inline.  Posterous does this as a matter of fact.  I don’t like it.  Don’t worry though, if you use WordPress, the pics will still post inline, even if Posterous doesn’t.

Here are those two Pics.  I’ll try to have them centered and will resize one of them by dragging.  Some services will let you click on the images to see the full-size version.  Others will not.  Facebook will generally use them as thumbnails, which is nice.

THIS PARAGRAPH FOR FACEBOOK USER INFO ONLY:  Facebook is a terribly buggy platform and will handle pics differently depending on how many there are in your post.  Just one pic is great.  You’ll get a thumbnail followed by a snippet of your post.  More than that, and it has been posting just thumbnails with nothing else.  I have to put a link in the comments below them.  Strangely, those comments repeat themselves every time I post this way.  I think it’s actually another Facebook bug, but in this one instance it at least saves me from having to re-type the comment.  Even more strange is the fact that a fan page will post it correctly, but the regular interface will not… At least they are consistent… Follow these links to see a fan page example: Fan Page ).

TIP:  When posting by email using Mozilla Thunderbird, make sure you remember to select “Rich Text” (HTML) only under “Options” before you hit send.  If you forget and send the message with mixed plain and rich text, your post formatting gets all squirrelly.

Some things like emoticons (if you are into that sort of thing) are more hit-and-miss.        (typed in) :-[ :-\ :-* (pre-formatted by email client).  It usually works best for me to write the post in Microsoft Word, images and all, then paste into Thunderbird (Pics, YouTube links, regular links and visual formatting).

However, there is one particularly annoying quirk that I would like to overcome.

Unfortunately, the way Posterous handles tags only works with Posterous.  Everything else may post perfectly on other platforms, but none of them will have tags or categories other whatever your defaults are set to.  This problem makes search engines useless unless you go back and add them in…  Which, of course, wastes time and defeats the purpose of posting across multiple platforms.  So, when formatting the title, the email subject is the title.  This is how you format the tags in Posterous:  Title of Your Post ((tag:  tag, post, blog, tips, wordpress, post+by+email))

Whatever you do, DON’T FORGET THE OPENING OR CLOSING PARENTHESIS which look like this:   ((     ))  If you do forget, your post title will include a long list of tags.  Very unsightly.  The thing is, if you are posting across multiple platforms, as I do, mistakes can be VERY time consuming to fix.  Overall, I don’t have too many issues…  This problem can be easily prevented, if you just remember to give it a quick glance before hitting send.

Making tags post on other platforms, however, is a different story…  So this post will itself be a test of a work around.  You can tell Posterous not to post anything beyond a pound sign followed by the word end (look for an explanation under “What Else Can Posterous Do?”  I would show you of course, but then nothing else would post afterward…  Annoyingly enough, I think you will see the shortcut at the bottom of this post…  BEFORE that shortcut, I will put in just a couple shortcuts that WordPress recognizes to see what happens.  Normally, I suppose I would put these just before the end of the post, so as not to make them too distracting, but for example I’ll put them here.  Also, I’ll put a duplicate set using asterisks instead of brackets for the WordPress sites so you can still see them:

NON WORDPRESS SITES SHOULD STILL BE ABLE TO SEE THESE UNLESS CONFUSED WITH SOME OTHER KIND OF SHORTCUT, I SUPPOSE
[category Blogging, internet, posted by email, reviews, websites, technology, online utilities, tips, wordpress]
[tags test post, formatting, post+by+email, posterous, wordpress, tips]

DUPLICATE SET FOR WORDPRESS SITES:
*category Blogging, internet, posted by email, reviews, websites, technology, online utilities, tips, wordpress*
*tags test post, formatting, post+by+email, posterous, wordpress, tips*These are specifically WordPress.com shortcuts.  I don’t know how the self-hosted version of WP will handle them.  As I said, this is a live experiment.  If you want to see if this worked, here are the appropriate links:  Main Blog (self-hosted WordPress); WordPress.com Version

In case you are wondering, I post simultaneously to over 15 platforms including several blog and social networking services.  Why, you ask?  Because I can…  And because, it’s an interesting way to try out multiple features and services at the same time.  Some of them are better at getting search engine placement, others have better templates or better interfaces.  Other than that, it’s just good, clean fun.

Posted via email from Music Tech Talk on Posterous

Here’s an example of some generally successful formatting.  This should be green, bold, italic, and centered.

Next, just by posting the LINK (much easier this way, because Posterous decides which platforms need which format), not the embedded HTML, you should see a YouTube video about some kid getting his finger bitten by his little brother with over 175 million views (why?).  By link, I mean just the web address at the top of your browser.  Yeah, it’s that easy.

Next, you should see some inline pics.  In other words, they are just inserted into the body of the post.  Some services will put multiple pics into a gallery, and just one pic inline.  Posterous does this as a matter of fact.  I don’t like it.  Don’t worry though, if you use WordPress, the pics will still post inline, even if Posterous doesn’t.
Here are those two Pics.  I’ll try to have them centered and will resize one of them by dragging.  Some services will let you click on the images to see the full-size version.  Others will not.  Facebook will generally use them as thumbnails, which is nice.

THIS PARAGRAPH FOR FACEBOOK USER INFO ONLY:  Facebook is a terribly buggy platform and will handle pics differently depending on how many there are in your post.  Just one pic is great.  You’ll get a thumbnail followed by a snippet of your post.  More than that, and it has been posting just thumbnails with nothing else.  I have to put a link in the comments below them.  Strangely, those comments repeat themselves every time I post this way.  I think it’s actually another Facebook bug, but in this one instance it at least saves me from having to re-type the comment.  Even more strange is the fact that a fan page will post it correctly, but the regular interface will not… At least they are consistent… Follow these links to see a fan page example: Fan Page ).

TIP:  When posting by email using Mozilla Thunderbird, make sure you remember to select “Rich Text” (HTML) only under “Options” before you hit send.  If you forget and send the message with mixed plain and rich text, your post formatting gets all squirrelly.

Some things like emoticons (if you are into that sort of thing) are more hit-and-miss.        (typed in) :-$ (pre-formatted by email client).  It usually works best for me to write the post in Microsoft Word, images and all, then paste into Thunderbird (Pics, YouTube links, regular links and visual formatting).

Posted via email from Music Tech Talk on Posterous

And they all lived happily ever after…  NOPE!

Huh?  Yeah, you read right…  Eating itself.  In fact I would describe it as a growing ink blot.  First a pixel or two, then 50, then thousands!  I had never seen anything like it.  Don’t worry though, because that superhero called Mr. Warranty was still protecting us, if not the store post 14 days.  I looked up HP’s generous pixel policy and decided that there would be no problem getting it serviced.  Then I discovered that my wife had lost the receipt and that the store only keeps receipt records for two weeks (sounds like bull to me).   :’( …But then my wife miraculously found the receipt in the back of our stroller.  Duh, I mean that’s where everything we can’t find ends up.  Once, I couldn’t find one of my kids…  Guess where they were…  Just kidding…  Turns out HP didn’t even need the receipt anyway!!!   Shoot, HP even sent me a shipping box free of charge.  Their customer service was top-notch….

Apparently there was some sort of internal crack in the LCD screen that was gradually exposing pixels to oxygen, which is what makes them turn inky-black.  I can’t possibly see how this was anything but an obvious manufacturing defect, but they refused to service it none-the-less… That is, unless I was going to fork over $430!  Aaaaah, HP, I hate to tell you this, but I bought the thing for $500…  Oh, and I’d rather hack off the LCD screen and just plug in an external monitor than pay you $430 to fix a manufacturer’s defect that should be covered under warranty.

I decided to call the store, even though 2 months have elapsed, and very calmly and politely explained the situation asking “if there was any recourse.”  To my surprise and delight, the store has agreed to replace the computer with an equivalent model!  Wow, what a relief….

Wait for it….   My wife lost the receipt again!  Unfortunately, it is nowhere to be found this time.  Personally, I think one of the kids ate it.

So, in a day or two, when we get our laptop back, I guess we are going to hope that a credit card purchase statement will be good enough for the store to go ahead and still replace the model.  Otherwise, I’ll be stopping by Lowe’s soon to pick up a hatchet and maybe Best Buy for a cheap monitor.  I don’t even know if there is an appropriate emoticon for that…

Posted via email from Music Tech Talk on Posterous

1.  Musicality – It would have been cool enough to pull off at all, but the quality of music he is producing is really first rate…  For any instrument.

2.  Sound Quality – I guess I never realized that an accordion could sound so good…  I mean it has an orchestral “feel” to it.  You even get a good violin solo impression juxtaposed with an orchestral-like accompaniment.  I don’t know if that’s just the way he plays it or what.

3.  Age – Lets face it, most musicians who are remembered as great prodigies didn’t wait until they were adults to be discovered.  While watching kids do things you couldn’t possibly dream of doing even if you spent an entire lifetime trying can be a little discouraging, it is still awesome.  I’d love to see this live.

FYI, for those of you who have made it here on other services that may not have posted the video correctly, it should be posted correctly on my main blog.

It looks like there are several other videos on YouTube out there.  Oh, and thanks, Bill, for bringing this to our attention.

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Also, I should note that Posterous posted these videos correctly to my Wordpress account, even though I only used links (not embedded code) to the videos!

We had a visitor from Atlanta that really didn’t know what to expect from a “Gallery of Living Art.”  Later she said that she really began to understand what it was all about during the performance and was even moved to tears.  I think I experienced a little of this when I saw the Gallery for the first time last year.  The music and the scenes seem to bring the audience closer to the events described in the Bible, making it more tangible and real.  Just to know a story or believe a thing does not always make it understood, mentally or emotionally.  It’s kinda like hearing all the stories about the earthquake disaster in Haiti.  Every knows about it.  People may even feel a bit sad about it…  But a lot of it just seems like news.  Now imagine a play about these events depicted in the same way as the Gallery of Living Art.  Suddenly you realize…  These aren’t just words or stories….  These were real events involving real people experiencing real emotions.  Any event that you did not personally experience will not have the same meaning or impact until it is put into its proper context.  Setting scenes/events in a performance such as the Gallery puts events into a context that everyone can understand.

On a funny note, our choir director shared with us a quote that we all found rather amusing.  Someone in the audience approached her and said,

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We are very blessed to be a part of the Gallery this year.  Last year, we were part of the audience and thought it was amazing.  It is difficult to describe, but seeing the still art reproduced in exacting detail by real people and hearing the choir sing and instruments play from the balcony…  Well, it immerses the audience in one of the most unique Passion Plays one can experience.  Adding a true, life-sized 3rd dimension to the “paintings” is quite stunning.

Laura and I are alternating performances (in the choir), and we are particularly pleased that our daughter gets to make her debut as an angel in the last scene.  While a little nervous with the prospect of performing in front of such a large audience, she is even more excited about having the opportunity play the part.   I won’t get to see her until tomorrow, but I know she will do a great job.  One other cool (and very humbling) thing this year is that we are performing a piece I wrote last winter called Joseph, Look and See. While it was originally written for a friend in Omaha, this will actually be its premier performance.

So, I am never sure whether to refer to the Gallery as a performance, presentation or service…  To me, it seems like a good balance between the three, making it “something even non-religious types can appreciate.”  No matter what your background, if you have a healthy appreciation for life, art and music, you will enjoy the 2010 presentation of the Gallery of Living Art.

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I’ll be honest… I don’t think this picture was actually taken out of a window, but it is very similar to the views that we did have from our hotel. Either way, it is a breathtaking view. Colorado Springs is beautiful and certainly not without award-winning mountain vistas, but there is just something special about Austria.

FYI, I removed our friend’s image from the photo, just in case he doesn’t want it posted for the world to see. I did, however, keep his awesome hair.

From The Archives – Euro Tour 1996:  Post IV

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Of course, articulation would be nothing without lighting fast valves, and the Xeno series valves are among the best. I wouldn’t say they are absolutely quiet or anything, but certainly not distracting.

Surprisingly, I also like the stock mouthpiece. It’s basically the same size that I was using previously, but it seems well-tuned to the trumpet.

The horn already slots well, but with this mouthpiece it almost seems to play itself.

The Yamaha mouthpiece is not as warm sounding as my Bach Megatone, but it is much more precise and requires virtually no change in embouchure from G below the staff to the C above. It also doesn’t seem to require a whole lot of pressure. Perhaps most telling is the fact that I actually seem to have to warm up, and as I play, my playing and stability seem to improve. This is basically the opposite of how it used to be. I hated warming up, because it wasted some of my playing endurance. The peak endurance point was from the start of play. From there it would steadily fall off. My new horn and mouthpiece combination yields a peak somewhere around 50 to 70% in terms of duration of play. I still haven’t gotten used to this concept, but it has helped me to follow good habits such as a thorough warm-up and warm-down routine.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. I got an amazing horn at a great price. Even in the short while I have owned this horn, my playing has dramatically improved. I am certain this horn will help open the door to my eventual return as a legitimate trumpet player. If you’ve ever wondered what kind of difference a good horn can make for a player of any ability, pick up one of these and see what you think. It won’t make a bad player great, but it will help any player fight the horn less and just concentrate on performing. That, ultimately, is what makes a trumpet great.

Musical Injuries Series – Methods of Recovery Post VIII

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You may be wondering why I opted for the 8335S (yellow-brass bell) as opposed to the 8335GS (gold-brass bell) that is supposed to have a warmer tone. I have two reasons:

1) The yellow brass bell is supposed to project very well and have an extremely well-balanced tone.

2) It is also supposed to be very responsive to articulations, etc.

I am not sure that the added warmth of the gold-brass bell version is really such an obvious sell over the 8335S, but since I played them in different environments, I won’t swear to it. The 8335S has a beautiful, full and balanced tone that sits perfectly between warm and bright. Here’s what I think are the strongest selling points for the yellow-brass bell:

A lot of trumpets will tend to sound as though the notes are coming directly from the bell of the horn, which is not only common, but probably a logical expectation. It’s easy to get comfortable with that, but it is not always representative of what the audience is hearing. In other words, when you play a forte you feel like you are playing a forte. However, with the yellow brass bell, it first sounded like I was playing at least one dynamic lower than I felt like I was playing.

I soon realized that, because the horn was projecting so well, I was actually getting a forte while playing at what would have normally been a mezzo forte or less!

I can’t begin to tell you how much this characteristic has made a difference, reducing the amount of pressure required while playing. I discovered this phenomenon when trying out the new horn in various environments, from small rooms to a large sanctuary. Once I started playing in open areas, I heard a big, rich, powerful sound resonating back at me. …Even though I was putting only a moderate amount of force into the notes. The same was true while playing into a wall. In a medium sized room, however, the sound didn’t resonate back as well, thus the initial confusion.

To give you a different way to think about it… It almost seems like the center of the horn’s sound comes from about 15 feet in front of the horn. That’s why I didn’t notice how big the horn’s sound was in a medium sized room. About the point where the sound “centers” is just about the point where it would normally be reflecting back… Kind of canceling itself out from the player’s perspective. I know that is not a scientific explanation, but it is how I perceive it never-the-less. It took a little getting used to, but now I love the amazing projection.

Projection isn’t the only selling feature. The other thing I am very happy with is the 8335’s truly amazing response to articulation. I have never been able to articulate so quickly or cleanly. It’s feels effortless, and never seems to get in the way of the notes. Here is an example of the horn’s responsiveness. It was recorded by accident in the pocket of my crumpled-up jacket by a small Sony digital recorder. …So it sounds a bit muffled.

…Or use this link:
Articulation Example 1

To be continued…

Musical Injuries Series – Methods of Recovery Post VII

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My brand-new (well, very slightly used) Yamaha Xeno 8335S!

That’s a stock photo above, but it looks identical to mine. I got a great deal on eBay, paying about 1/3 of the ridiculously high list price of $2,884 for a new one. Online, they seem to range from around $1,900 to $2,100 brand new. The local store wanted 2,400+ (which, in the interest of supporting local business, I actually considered), but reconsidered after learning the following three facts:

1) They didn’t have a rent-to-own program for this trumpet

2) Yamaha offered a credit line with an interest rate that could put a small company out of business… Oh, and I happen to think credit is akin to being shackled to a sinking ship. Oh, and by the time you paid off the interest, you’d be paying as much as or more for the trumpet than the list price!

3) They didn’t carry in stock the model that I ended-up purchasing, thus I couldn’t try it out.

In case you were wondering, the trumpet is near mint, no scratches, no dings. The valves are in spectacular condition. The case, also in excellent condition, was included. A Harmon mute and two straight mutes were included, along with some valve oil, slide grease and several polishing cloths. Another handy addition was the collapsible bell stand (the kind that fits in the bell). Very cool. For a little icing on the cake, I didn’t realize that the stock gold-rimmed 1 ½ equivalent Yamaha mouthpiece was included, as the description left this fact out. Normally, I wouldn’t care, but in this case I actually wanted to give it a shot. It was also in mint condition.

To be continued… 

Musical Injuries Series – Methods of Recovery Post VI

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OK, now here is an annoying fix (work-around)… Well, actually a few. I warn you, you won’t like any of them.

NOTE: The term “workaround” means this does NOT actually fix the problem, it just circumvents it. It should also be noted that I originally tried to revert back to an older version of iTunes, and it caused me nothing but headaches. Believe it or not, these solutions could actually be easier in the interim while Apple figures out how to make a version of iTunes that actually works for PC all users.

THE “THROW MONEY AT THE PROBLEM” SOLUTION

Go out and buy a new HP Laptop with Windows 7 on it (not a guaranteed fix). Download the latest version of iTunes. You can do this all for the low-low cost of $750 or so. I only know because I happened to pick up a new laptop for my wife recently, and I can buy stuff in the iTunes store with it. I guess you could try just upgrading to Windows 7, but there’s no guarantee that’s going to work either.

THE “HOPEFULLY YOU HAVE ANOTHER COMPUTER (LIKELY NOT THE ONE YOU WANT TO BE USING) WITH AN OLDER VERSION OF ITUNES ON IT” SOLUTION

I’ll use a Podcast for an example. (This one has sub-steps, so follow along closely)

1. Have an old laptop (mine’s running XP) that has iTunes 8.2.0.23 sitting next to your desktop computer (also running XP, but iTunes 9.0.3.15)

2. Make sure that these computers are properly networked (sorry, that’s another post entirely)

3. Use iTunes 8.2.0.23 (or something that starts with less than a 9) to search for and download the music, movies or podcasts that you want

4. Under “LIBRARY,” go to “Podcasts” (for example) and right click on the one you wish you could download on the other computer

5. Click “Copy”

6. Find your “My Network Places” (or equivalent) somewhere on your Start Menu and open it up.

7. Find the shared folder on the destination computer called “My Music” and follow this path: /iTunes/iTunes Media/Podcasts or a similar one that gets you to where you find all of your stuff. You will know you are in the right place when you see other similar media. NOTE: You can skip finding the right folder if you just want to drop the file in a shared folder accessible by the destination computer.

8. On the DESTINATION computer, open “My Network Places.” Go to the shared folder where you put the file.

9. On DESTINATION computer, open iTunes. Next, drag the new file into the appropriate folder in the iTunes LIBRARY.

Well, that should do it. You can go into your device list with your iPod connected and click on the Podcast tab to configure your new download.

THE “EASY BUT DISAPPOINTING” SOLUTION

1. Use the old laptop as a dedicated iTunes platform. I mean, you were probably just going to use it as a paper weight anyway.

THE “STOP USING YOUR $200+ iPod” OPTION

1. This is among the least popular options, but it can often cure the headache of trying to use the iTunes store. This option is often complemented by the “Sell Your iPod On eBay” option.

This is Part 4 of the iTunes – A Love/Hate Relationship Series.

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