Category: music

SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Play Week!

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This past week involved the intensive preparations for the big Christmas Play, which was last night at my little school.  It’s a pretty big night from a technical perspective, as the Drama Teacher also conducts the Choir and our Dance classes.  As such, all of her students—actors, singers, dancers—all perform as part of a performing arts extravaganza.

It makes for a unique and fun, albeit hectic, experience, and requires yours portly to pull out all of his amateur audio tracks to make it happen.

All of our productions are, out of necessity, staged in the gym, which I call the “Gymnatorium” (at one point, students ate lunch there, too, so it was the “Gymnacafetorium”).  Getting good sound quality, especially for plays, has always been a struggle.

Fortunately, our Athletics Department invested in a new sound system, which offers much more complete coverage than the 15″ speakers I’d been using for years (although those speakers are great).  The problem is that the system came with a new digital mixer (a good thing) that only has six functional channels (that’s the bad part).

Because our productions often require at least a dozen inputs (and frequently more), I had to get creative with the sound system setup, and came up with this bad boy:

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TBT^65,536: O Little Town of Bethlehem and the Pressures of Songwriting

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The Christmas season is upon us again, which means it’s time for yours portly to dust off some classic posts of yesteryuletide, including this timeless classic about a timeless carol.

My students have their big Christmas concert next Friday, 12 December 2025, and while we’re not playing this carol this year, I will surely be playing it at church soon.  That said, this sweet, simple carol will always hold a special place in my heart.

With that, here is 5 December 2024’s “TBT^256: ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ and the Pressures of Songwriting“:

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Flashback Friday^16: Brack Friday Bunduru: Workers Need a Break

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When I first wrote about workers needed Thanksgiving Day off, I was experiencing pretty severe burnout myself.  I do still believe that the Black Friday creeping into Thanksgiving is reprehensible, but I also realize my own stress was playing a role in my analysis.

Of course, this Black Friday I’m bunduru’d with Dr. Wife on the high seas, so I’m absolutely getting a break.  Indeed, I might be eating pizza covered in gravy and leftover turkey from last night’s onboard Thanksgiving feast (I assume we had one; I’m writing this post way beforehand).  While I’m enjoying the Thanksgiving Lover’s Pizza, though, millions are schlepping into retail stores at 4 AM to help grannies save pennies on toaster ovens.

Well, who doesn’t love a good deal?  But a better deal would be shuttering retailers all day on Thanksgiving so employees can rest up and spend time with family before being berated by penny-pinching Karens.

With that, here is 25 November 2022’s “Flashback Friday^4: Brack Friday Bunduru: Workers Need a Break“:

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Open Mic Adventures CLVI: “March of the Goliath Beetles”

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I have a lot of great bass guitarists in my Music Ensemble classes, and I have always wanted to experiment with an electric bass ensemble—a small chamber group consisting entirely of electric basses.  I think it can be done (and probably has been done, if I took three seconds to Google it).

The challenge with basses is that those low tones can get awfully muddy, so composing for multiples of the instrument requires exploring the full breadth of the fret board.

Today’s piece, which I deem to be incomplete (although it does have a satisfying conclusion), is one such attempt at blending three basses into one.  I have yet to try this piece with my three High School Music Ensemble bassists, but I have worked individual parts with them with me playing one of the other parts.  I’m excited to see how and if the three will blend in Reality as well as they do in digital form.

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TBT: Bake Sale Boogie

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A key component of music education specifically and private education more broadly is the necessity to fundraise for necessary equipment.  Last year, my Music Ensemble students organized a bake sale that—Praise the Lord!—far exceeded our expectations.  We raised enough to buy new drum heads and cymbals, and it was a great bonding experience for the student-musicians.

With all the wedding and house stuff this year, I did not get the bake sale on the calendar for this fall, but perhaps we’ll be able to do in January or February.  A Valentine’s bake sale might be a good idea!

With that, here is 20 November 2024’s “Bake Sale Boogie”:

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Spooktaculer 2025 Review

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Well, the 2025 Spooktacular is in the books.  My neighbor called it “the last bachelor Spooktacular,” as it’s the last front porch recital before my wedding.  It is also distinct in that it is very likely the last front porch recital at my current home, as Dr. Fiancée and I are in the process of purchasing a home.  Of course, if my house lingers on the market for an extended period—a distinct possibility in my rural community—we could see a Spring Jam in Lamar in May 2026.  We shall see!

But I digress.  The “last bachelor Spooktacular” was truly a bachelor’s endeavor.  None of my family could attend, and Dr. Fiancée was both sick and up the entire night before on-call.  That meant yours portly had to take care of the preparations solo.

Fortunately, I’d gotten a head-start by working around the house each night after work.  By the time last Saturday rolled around, however, I was absolutely wiped out, and slept in until after 11 AM—a rarity for me.  Dr. Fiancée suspects that I was sick (I repeated the sleeping-in feat the following day), and I had been fighting off a cold most of the week, but even with my delayed start, I managed to get everything done.  I even made my Mom’s legendary Rotel dip, which consists of melting vast quantities of Velveeta “cheese” product and mixing it with two cans of Rotel diced tomatoes and green chilis.  I apparently did it right, because it was a hit.

Regardless, there was still a good bit to do in the yard and on the front porch.  I’m not exactly big on regular cleaning—another quality of my rapidly expiring bachelorhood—and my front porch was looking pretty forlorn.  The yard itself was a bit rough, but my neighbor had mowed it earlier in the week, so I mainly just had to deal with the flower beds and some pruning.

It was a day of little things going awry.  For example, I grill hot dogs for the festivities.  My grill had plenty of propane, but the electric starter wouldn’t work.  When I went to get a stem lighter to light the grill manually, the lighter was out of butane.  I couldn’t locate any matches, so I surrendered and decided to boil the hot dogs (on the plus side, my grill got a good cleaning).  When I made the Rotel dip, I had the heat too high and some of the cheesy goo bubbled over onto my stove.  John’s PA had a faulty cable—and so on.

But, in spite of it all—and I was more stressed than this post is letting on—the event was a success.

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