RhythmArt Blog

the percussion setup in the pit at Page

Christina posted a blog showing the rampant destruction that goes on around Summerglen at Christmas time, so I thought I’d give a shot of how some of that gets used! Here’s a view of the pit at the Durham Christmas Pageant in Page Auditorium at Duke.  This is actually a little bit smaller than my usual setup, as I’m using bongos instead of congas, and I decided to skip the xylophone this year (the glock covered all the melodic parts pretty well, anyway). Not seen are my stand of sticks and mallets, and the gong. I ended up shifting things around, as I’m better with the jingle bell/hi hat on my left foot, and the woodblock/windchime/triangle/tambourine/cymbal tree was just out of reach while seated (gotta love those walking bass lines on the timpani). All in all though, a fun set up for a fun show!

I did manage to get the studio back to some semblance of order after all the holiday gigs, too! I am glad, though, that I had some time off from teaching to give me a chance to do it!

Now that the crazyness of the season is over, it’s time to start looking at projects for the new year. The first biggie will be my solo recital/drumset clinic/book release on January 14th (more to come on that in the next post). I’ll also be shooting video for the online content that goes along with the book (hopefully knocking that out within the week), to be ready for the official release date. From there, I’ve got big plans – this is going to be the Year Of New Music, with 4 CD’s of original material done by the end of the year. I’ve had a bunch of projects stopped up inside for a long time, and it’s time to get them out! Last year ended up being the Year Of Quitting Things, so now that I’ve got more space in my schedule, I’m going to fill it with the projects that I’m really passionate about. So, be on the look out for new releases from The Periculum, Bodhisattva Percussion Group, Tribal World View, and Summerglen. It’ll be a lot to take on in a year, but I’m ready to knock ‘em out! Also, keep an eye (ear?) on the music player on my MySpace page, as I’ll be putting some preview material there. I’ll also put up some fan-exclusive music on my Reverb Nation player throughout the year, so make sure to sign up as a fan there to be able to access it!