I missed posting a ton of gigs here! Oh well, here are some:

• Saturday May 19th, playing percussion with the Austin Civic Wind Ensemble, 7:30pm
• Saturday June 2nd, playing piano with Not Past 11 at the Black Sparrow Music Parlor in Taylor

Here's my gigs for January - May, 2018

Come see me play!
Read more to see a list of upcoming gigs...

• Diatonic intervals (intervals within the scale) and some melodies to assist your analysis!
• Perfect intervals (why do we call them "perfect"?)
• Imperfect intervals (just to augment the instruction)
• How to analyze and write your own intervals!

Here's the one page of the score we use to analyze intervals and chords.

In part two, you learn about scales and keys.

• The major scale, and how to build one from a melody
• Half steps and whole steps in a scale
• Key signatures, all those sharps and flats
• The Circle of Fifths
• The minor scale

Music notation is the written language that universally conveys both space and time. In the first session, you learn about music notation, just to put us all on a level playing field. You learn about notating:

• Pitch (the five lines, clef, accidentals)
• Rhythm (all those dots and flags)
• Meter (feeling and categorizing the beat)
• Beaming (putting patterns together)
• Complex meter (7/8 of the time!)

I'm working on a music theory class for my bandmates in the Austin Civic Wind Ensemble. Most of them have not studied music after high school (although quite a few have). But they all know how to read music and play an instrument.

That's why most of the music theory books and online classes just wouldn't work. They either start at a very remedial level (what is a staff? What are whole notes?), or at a level too advanced for us. I want to tailor the class to band geeks who play.

Now that I'm playing in a couple cover bands, I notice a song that's often covered is "The Weight."
The Weight, as played by The Band, http://youtu.be/sjCw3-YTffo has a 3/4 bar in the middle of the chorus. Start counting with "Take a load off..."
And... and... and.. you put the load, put the load, right on me...
It's amazing how hard it can be to get it right! Some bands do: