Monday, January 26, 2009

MBOTMA Winter Weekend

My wife is organizing a group of folks from the Maple Lake Mn area to come to the Sunday 8 March performance of the Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra at the MBOTMA Winter Weekend. This kind on activity will boost the number in attendance at our performance.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

MBOTMA set list

I just posted the set list for the MBOTMA Winter Weekend. You can link to it from the schedule page or the gigs page. These are the selections:
X-Town Interchange Rag
Because
Day Tripper
Waltz Lesson
Italian Suite
Goldfinger
Joropo de Lara
Japanese Children's Songs
Where No Mandolin

John Goodin Teleman Transcriptions

I was browsing around on Mandolin Cafe today and happened across a posting from John Goodin from about Christmas time.

He's been busily transcribing some of Teleman's work (a baroque composer) for mandolin, and has made available quite a number of pieces.

For those of you who want to improve your music reading capabilities, these are mostly in accessible keys and don't have too many rhythmic curve balls. Besides, Teleman always sounds tuneful and classy.

For mandola players - some of these works are duets for mandolin and mandola. It appears Goodin has written everything in standard notation on the treble clef, so probably will be easy to play on your octave.

http://www.contratopia.com/mtopia/mandolinPD2.htm

Thursday, January 22, 2009

X-town rhythms with Weird Metronome

The syncopated "honking" rhythms in the X-Town Interchange Rag are tricky. I'm looking at measures 39 and 40 for m1 and m2, and 79 and 80 for md and mc. I recommend the Weird Metronome as a tool to practice those rhythms.

The Weird metronome is free from http://www.weirdmetronome.com/

Here's how practice the rhythm in measures 39 and 40 (or 79 and 80):
Set voice 1 to "low wood block" or some other sound to delineate every beat.
Set voice 2 to "hand clap" to play the rhythm of your part.
Choose the "custom" radio button and enter 12(12)01210(12)01210(12)0 in the box.
Set the tempo to 300 or so.
Click on "play"
Listen to the rhythm or play along until you can't stand it any more
Save the setting for a future practice session.

Measures 37 and 38 (or 77 and 78) are similar. Just change the last (12) to 1.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The difference between bluegrass and OTM bands

http://bluegrasswest.com/wordpress/?p=56

No doubt some have seen or heard this: good review for MBOTMA!

Dave

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Lost scarf

This isn't exactly mando-centric content, but did anyone find a blue scarf on Monday night after rehearsal? It's very soft with some subtle stripes. If anyone came across this scarf, could you email me and let me know? Thanks.
Steve
wstephenmaxwell@gmail.com

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

January 19 rehearsal

The January 19 MMO rehearsal will be at a different place, and will have a different format. The place is Falcon Heights United Church of Christ, at 1795 Holton Street. We've rehearsed there a few times before. You can get a map and directions from the church web site: http://www.falconheightsucc.org/

The format is sectional rehearsals. The first mandolins, the second mandolins, and the mandolas will gather in separate locations within the church and work out troublesome spots in the tunes on our current tune list. I'll lead the mandola rehearsal, and I'll look for volunteers to lead the M1 and M2 sections. Guitars, mando-cellos, and basses can join us at the church, practice at home, or take the day off.

We'll be back at the usual place on January 26. Thanks for being flexible.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain

This group is great! We could take a lesson from their stage presence and great groove!! They have lots of vids on youtube. Check em out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfK-UzQ48JE