Make-Up Post Joan

Ok. So here is my concert coverage. We played at the Tabernacle. Usually I love the pipe organ there and it sounded pretty good on my Dupre piece (I do love L'ecole Francais).


It is with great trepidation that I post this final video. I so wanted this piece to turn out. But I started this blog to document our progress and here's to progressing more -- and celebrating our opportunities :)

For those of you really noticing...yes I did cut my hair. I am just not convinced that I love the new short doo. So it might be best not to mention it.

Make-Up Post, Macey

Yeah! Macey is home from his mission! He won't be home long. He and Jenna are tying the knot on February 16th and then on March 1 they are moving to China, where they both have teaching jobs waiting.

This year's new years eve talent show was spectacular. Macey and Sam played a awesome rendition of "Come Together" on guitar and banjo. I need to get that recorded before Mace takes off again.

Here is a song he is writing. He played it for Jenna's Mom shortly after returning home from Mexico.

He would have played it for Jenna -- but she is in China for another 10 days. Anyway, she is a long time subscriber to this blog, so she might get to catch this video before she boards that eternally long airplane flight home.

See ya soon Jenna

Make-Up Post, Joseph

I am going to miss Joseph when he is gone (he leaves on his mission in 25 days). Luckily he stuffed himself with music this past semester so he really needs a break. He, of course, is one of the worst when it comes to self criticism. New Year/New Leaf. We are celebrating the things we do - whether they live up to our expectations or not. We are going to celebrate our opportunities!

Here he is playing the tenor sax solo on Ellington's Sugar Rum Cherry.

And this may have been the coolest song I got to play on all year! Sonatina For Tenor Sax - Movement One - Motive Power!

It only leaves us to ask the question, "Do they have jazz in Texas?"

Ooops. I forgot to add a video of the Sax Ensemble. Here is one of my favorite Gershwin Tunes - Prelude Number 2 (more summertime than "summertime")

Make-Up Post With Bobo

Yes. it has been a long time since I blogged. Priorities and pouting, lets call it that. Priorities because I have other obligations that have deadlines like my job and my forensic courses and my masters classes and my boy leaving on a mission and my son getting married and my babies who want to eat. And pouting because the one characteristic I've passed onto my children is that quality which leads us to rarely be satisfied with our performance and so we needed some space before we could revisit these videos.

New Leaf/New Years Resolution - We are going to celebrate our musical opportunities no matter what the outcome :)

Yes, we all made it through concert season in one fashion or another. Bobo is truly amazing! I love watching her "play the trombone like she loves it!" And she and her cello are definitely "so happy together."

Here she is "Taking Care of Business." Watch for her trombone solo.

She also played in a bell trio at the band concert (her friend arranged the music!)


Here she is with Cellopherson. If you look very closely you can see that he is decked out in his cute little Santa hat.

 If you're still with me, here is an encore piece. "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!"

Extended Family and Extended Family Band

I love my sister Annette. I love her family. I love her kids. It was heart-wrenching to embrace their sorrow at the loss of my nephew, Kurt. In the midst of the sorrow, however, was comfort. I was touched by the strength of her children and their love and support of one another. I was touched by the love Annette's siblings showed for her.

Life is rough. This is why Snoopy dances across this blog. Because life is rough, but as long as we can express ourselves -- we're ok. Life knocks us down, but if we can stand up dancing - we're ok. Life barrels over us, but if we can come up for air long enough to sing the blues, we're ok.

I've been taught that, in a performance, it's important to start  strong and nail the ending. With so much family together this weekend, we thought we might try another family band night, or as bobo coined it "extended family band". It was a "one-of" and we started most of our songs in chaos and ended with a whimper -- but somewhere in the middle we found harmony and joy. Isn't that just like life.

For they shall see eye to eye

If you didn't know it by now, this is an LDS blog and I'm going to get a little preachy today. Sometimes I worry. I try to keep things in an eternal perspective, but it is hard -- because our day to day duties ... well they press.

And I wonder about all the things I study here on earth, will they help me -- in my eternal perspective. Oh let's quit beating around the bush, are there organs in Heaven. Is this all the time I have to learn and play music?

So I'm just about done with the Book of Mormon again and I read in Third Nephi Chapter 16. Christ is quoting Isaiah.

18. Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion.

19. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.

And I realized how much the Lord loves to hear his children sing. Just as I love to hear my children sing and play. And thanks to their wonderful teachers, they got an opportunity this week to do just that.

I'd play Sally Gooden all day if I could

"I'd play Sally Gooden all day if I could, but the Lord and my wife wouldn't take it very good. So I fiddle when I can and work when I should"

Anyway. I try. To not practice when I shouldn't. But I love it so. The new organ is awesome. I'm totally hooked on Hauptwerk software. Sometimes my organ is an 18th century Norwegian pipe organ. Sometimes it's German baroque. And then there's the crazy times my kids get me to fire up the old Wurlitzer.

I'm a little heartbroken. I read an article on how digital pianos are out selling acoustic pianos so much so that acoustic pianos are being taken to the dump at alarming rates because nobody wants to buy them any more. You can't even give them away. Some companies now specialize in dismantling and disposing of these older instruments.

Both my piano and organ are old. Even though my organ is digital and runs through a computer, it is still at its heart wooden cores and mechanical springs.

It is an old Klann pipe organ console that has been converted to a midi device. The piano next to it is an old upright Steinway. They don't make instruments like that anymore. I have a nice digital piano. I take it with me when I'm on the road. I use it to practice with head phones on. But if I had to choose between my pianos, I'd choose the Steinway hands down. I hate to see this kind of craftsmanship die out :(

PS I totally just blogged from my iPad . I am not a technology hater. Just an art lover.