Song/Week: A Puzzle Cannon

I wrote this puzzle cannon around 10-years ago and it is not bad. Below are the instructions:

• The opening line (below) is the alto.  The order of voices is alto, soprano II, tenor, soprano I and bass (it may work other ways, but I don’ bother to see if it was invertible);
• The Da Capo symbol is where the voices enter;
• The voices will either come in on tonic, subdominant or dominant;
• The entries are tonal, not perfect (no chromaticism, don’t use any F#s or Bbs; just keep it in C Major, or if you want to think of it modally, Ionian);
• Please excuse the cannon for not being perfect.

Give it a try!

Ideas and Civility

I have been thinking a lot about ideas and civility recently. There have been so many articles, editorials, blog posts, et cetera about civility in higher education that it is hard to know where to start. My view of civility became a little clearer after I read the article Ideas Matter More Than Outfits, Right? by Allison M. Vaillancourt.

I will start with my own concept of civility. First, the word is loaded; it means something different to everyone, it is defined as politeness in formal conversation, and at the end of the day, I do not like the word. Second, I would describe myself as naturally cautious and nice. I do not view this as a negative because in my personal life I have always been the peacemaker. Third, I do not think having debates in higher education that are friendly, silence academic freedom. Finally, I think a lot of problems can be solved by being nice, listening to the person next to you, and trying to find a solution.

As I said before, my view of civility became a little clearer after reading Dr. Vaillancourt’s article at Vitae. Dr. Vaillancourt’s article covers more than just civility and goes over leadership, career advancement, individual presence, gender, perception, and communication. The article also discusses the books Executive Presence by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Don’t be Such a Scientist by Randy Olson; books I am not familiar with but because of the article I am excited to read.

Below are my favorite quotes from Dr. Vaillancourt’s article (I will get back to civility in just a little while).

“Life is unfair and competence will get you only so far. To be taken seriously and to move ahead, you need a special combination of gravitas, communication, and style.”

I agree, per the book Executive Presence life is unfair. You only have to watch the news and read articles about what goes on in the world to know that people do not treat each other kindly. I also agree that competence will only get you so far. In my past life as a musician you were only as good as your last gig and if you could not deliver you did not get the job. In the non-music world there is more to moving ahead than just competence, there is as Dr. Vaillancourt said, “gravitas, communication, and style.”

Three of the most difficult concepts to develop as someone who want to move ahead are having a natural sense of gravitas, being able to clearly communicate with others, and to have a style that is individual and not fake. Some people come into their own at an early age, in their twenties while others take longer, well into their thirties, forties, or even fifties to truly acquire “gravitas, communication, and style.”

My next favorite quote is interesting and continues with the ideas of “gravitas, communication, and style.”

“Claim your space. Lower the register of your voice. Look people in the eye. Check your posture. Use the power of silence. Don’t end declarative sentences with what sounds like a question mark. Demonstrate passion. Speak well of others. Admit your failings. Appear calm and in control…In short: Whenever possible, be male, white, and tall.”

I love this quote except the last bit. I can not imagine that Executive Presence suggests that “whenever possible, be male, white, and tall.” With that said I do understand there are cultural perceptions for those who desire to have an executive presence but I have known many a wonderful leader who is not male, is not white, and is not tall. It all depends on the individual and luckily today cultural norms and expectations are changing.

“Some would argue that really smart or even brilliant people don’t need to be polite or gracious. They don’t have to be able to read a room, or engage in small talk. But that argument fails to take into account the value and power of social skills to move ideas and agendas forward.”

When I was young I truly believed in the first part of this quote. Why do you need “gravitas, communication, and style” when content and ability is all that matters? And this is where civility comes back; if you do not know how to communicate with others, sell yourself and your ideas, and work well with others then how are you going to get any work done?

In some parts of higher education people do not have to work with others and everything they do is solitary but for the vast majority of people, we all have to work on teams, work together, and find solutions. Also, if “brilliant people don’t need to be polite or gracious” than those brilliant people are putting the burden on others to put up with them and understand their vision. Wouldn’t you rather work with the people you want to execute your vision rather than just expecting them to understand and get behind your ‘genius’?

So what is the conclusion? Two different concepts that are related; to move forward in one’s career you need an individualized sense of “gravitas, communication, and style,” and you should be nice (whatever that means to you).

Too simple? Maybe, but not everything in this world is complex.

Song/Week: “Phillip,” performed by Kate Davis

Great performance; simple and beautiful.

Ever since I discovered Kate Davis I have been trying to figure out what song to highlight. I thought about posting “All About That Bass” with Post Modern Jukebox; a performance that highlights her singing and incredible bass playing. Then I thought about her Kennedy Performance when she was a Presidential Scholar and shows off her jazz singing and again, incredible bass playing.

I finally decided to go with “Phillip” because it shows off her performance chops as a rock star. She plays the uke and guitar fine, her singing is poignant, the instrumentation is interesting, and her presence on-stage is just right. The quality of the recording is less than ideal but the performance communicates everything you want from a song and persona that will hopefully rocket her great things soon.

Song/Week: “Clap Hands” - George Krikes & Ryan Lerman (Tom Waits cover)

This cover rocks! First the source material is excellent; there is no better songwriter than Tom Waits over the last few decades. Second, George Krikes does a great job of singing with some effects on his voice adding interest and intensity. Third, Ryan Lerman is awesome! Not only does he do a great job of playing the drums and bass, but he is a great guitar player and the solo in the middle of the song rocks (I think he is playing a Gibson ES-335, too cool). Finally, the video is just right. The nice thing about YouTube and the contemporary music scene is that you do not need a huge budget to produce a good looking video. What need is good music that is marketed with a video that highlights the music, not the people, and this video does this perfectly.

Not Everyone Hates Soccer

I started playing soccer when I was 8; it is the only team sport I have ever played and decades later I still love it. My wife played soccer much longer than I did and was very successful; she played club soccer and continued into her college years but had to stop due to injuries. We both love soccer.

Our first experience watching the World Cup together was in 2006 when Germany hosted and France and Italy fought it out in the Finals. We both distinctly remember when Zinedine Zidane committed the head-butt heard around the world and for many, cost France the title (kinda). Fast Forward to this year’s World Cup in Brazil and the games were entertaining, the US team did great, and Germany deservedly won the final. Ignoring the protests, the crazy amounts of money spent on stadiums, the mafia-like behavior of FIFA, and the legitimate objections to the World Cup by the people of Brazil, it was a resounding success!

Now the point of my article; I recently read Ann Coulter’s blog post about hating soccer and the subsequent follow-up. I don’t read Ann Coulter and I don’t watch cable news so I am not that familiar with her besides she is divisive, her writing comes off as mean, and she really hates liberals.

When I first started writing this article I was going to respond to each of her nine points but in my opinion my article was becoming too long and boring. After thinking about it for a while I realized two things; 1) Ann Coulter is not a fan of soccer (duh) and 2) she has a beef with soccer moms.

Not a soccer fan:

Ann Coulter is not a soccer fan and that is okay; I know a lot of people who are not fans of soccer. My favorite sports are soccer and football, NFL and college. I have my own issue with college football and the money part of the NCAA. I also like basketball, but only when the Suns or the University of Arizona are playing and I like baseball, but only minor league. Because I grew-up in El Paso I have no experience with hockey but I am not to write an anti-hockey article just because I do not watch the sport…

To be a fan of soccer you have to like soccer. When I was young I first really started watching the Mexican League on Univision, it is all we had in El Paso. I got into English soccer when Blackburn won the title back in the early 90s and got back into it during Berbatov’s first year at Tottenham and have been a fan of the north London team ever since. Everytime Tottenham plays I root for them! When they play Arsenal it is a huge rivalry game; when they play Manchester United, City, Chelsea, or Liverpool I just hope for the best. But when Tottenham is not playing and I watch a game like Crystal Palace v. Sunderland I really don’t care who wins and it can be boring. I have the same feeling when the Cleveland Browns plays the Atlanta Hawks, I like the NFL and can appreciate what is going on but I don’t care about those teams. Again, like any sport, you have to like it to be interested and if you do not like soccer, no worries.

Soccer moms:

It seems like most of Ann Coulter’s ire is really on soccer moms and youth sports. Are soccer moms annoying at times? Sure, but their hearts are in the right place. I am not sure if Ann Coulter does not like that some women chose to be soccer moms and put family first but I assume since she is a conservative one of her core beliefs is family values.

I have a hard time thinking that football moms, baseball moms, basketball moms, hockey moms, lacrosse moms, or tennis moms who equally care about their children’s well-being would be any different than soccer moms. If a football mom’s kid got hurt in a game would she not help them and love them or just say tough luck? If a softball mom’s kid was humiliated in front of their friends, family, and peers would she not use it as a learning moment or just rub it in her kid’s face hoping that will make her tougher?

Exposing your children to an organized sport at a young age is a good thing; teamwork, cooperation, and working for the good of the team. Maybe when kids play soccer at age 8 no one loses but by the time they play club and high school soccer there are distinct winners and losers and the injuries start piling up.

In the end, sports are good for children. Sports teach you many things such as how to win, how to lose, how to play fair, how to fight hard during the game, and how to be civilized after the last whistle is blown.

Song/Week: Royals, Walk off the Earth (cover)

Great version of the song! I like that it was shot in one take using children’s instruments, ukuleles, bass ukuleles, and a didgeridoo. This would have been incredibly difficult to record because any one of the five musicians could have made a mistake at any time ruining the take.

Enjoy!

Defending Taylor

After reading and thoroughly enjoying Taylor Swift’s article at the Wall Street Journal I wrote a positive and friendly response about her cheerful optimism towards music and the popular music industry. Afterwards, I read Nilay Patel’s response at Vox that in my own opinion misses the point of Taylor’s article completely. Before I continue with Patel’s article I want to point out what I consider the main point of Taylor’s article:

“In recent years, you've probably read the articles about major recording artists who have decided to practically give their music away, for this promotion or that exclusive deal. My hope for the future, not just in the music industry, but in every young girl I meet…is that they all realize their worth and ask for it.”

Taylor’s message is powerful; she wants to empower young female musicians and encourage them to not give away their music for free while trying to ‘make it’ in the music industry.

To provide an efficient point by point, I will review my favorite quotes from Patel’s article.

“…the vast majority of consumers actually reward convenience. That's why the iPod was a huge hit even though digitally-compressed music sounded terrible at the time, and it's why teenagers today get most of their music on YouTube, even though YouTube sounds worse still.”

I agree! For many types of technology convenience is rewarded but I am not sure that the iPod was a huge hit solely because of convenience; it was a hit because it was small, new, fashionable, high-tech, and you did not have to lug around your CD collection anymore!

As far as the sound quality I am a bit baffled; how good does the quality have to be? I understand that with compression a lot of the highs and lows and the dynamic aspects of music are lost to make the music ‘level’ but for the most part pop music could care less. Do you really need to hear the minute musical details of ‘Wiggle’ or “Aint’t It Fun’? No.

The only time I want a perfect sounding recording is when I listen to Classical Music and some types of Jazz. Good quality recordings are good enough when listen to most R&R, R&B, C&W, or Pop songs; YouTube sounds fine unless you are listening to Classical, then it is okay. I assume there are adudiophiles out there who can’t stand the quality of YouTube but they are a small percentage of the total population and probably incessantly complain while they have their $200 headphones on.

“It's also why the album is dead: you can't sell a handful of singles and some okayish filler songs to people for $10 or $15 or $25 anymore, because convenient internet music distribution has utterly destroyed the need to bundle everything together.”

Ugh. I purchased so many albums when I was growing-up and 75% of the songs were disappointing. The only artist I was consistently happy with was Morrissey; most of his albums were good from beginning to end but then that is my bias.

I do agree that the internet has incentivised artists to release singles rather than albums but not all artists. The artists that focus on hit singles, hundreds of millions of YouTube views, and getting their songs on TV and in movies are usually not worried about lofty ideas of artistic merit; they want the songs to be good, they want people to enjoy them, and they want to be successful. These goals are fine and this type of music serves its purpose.

Continuing the discussion about albums, Mr. Patel saw Jimmy Lovine give a speech where he “bemoaned the fact that artists are churning out bad-sounding singles while touring instead of spending years in the studio crafting Led Zeppelin-like masterpieces.”

Ugh. This always makes me smirk; baby boomers lamenting the poor quality of music after 1971 (1975 for Led Zeppelin). I find it funny that there seem to be so many writers and influential people who are stuck in the 60s and early 70s. If they would open their minds they would realize that there have been countless ‘Led Zeppelin-type’ masterpieces created in the last 35+ years and many today are being created in people’s living rooms!

One artist that created two album length masterpieces in the early 2000s was Tom Waits with Blood Money and Alice. Now Tom Waits does not have the best voice and his music is not blues rock but the quality of the songwriting, the musicianship, the instrumentation, and the ingenious use of the source material is brilliant. If you then move beyond singer songwriters and blues rock into rap, R&B, and other types of music you could find many album-length masterpieces; you just have to be open.

Finally, one of Patel’s main points is the fact that albums sales are in a free fall mainly because of the internet. Music, and the economics of music today are different than what they were ten-years ago, very different than twenty-years ago, and a lifetime away from thirty-years ago! But as with different industries, technology, and art forms, one generation means change and if one does not adjust they will be left-behind.

How will Katy Perry make money? Well, that is easy, she is a pop superstar! No worries there and her albums and tour make plenty of money. How will Daniela Andrade and Pomplamoose make money? That is difficult and more complex. I suggest watching Jack Conti’s TEDx lecture on the small business musician because musicians these days have to hustle (even more than before) and be open to other types of revenue streams because signing with a major label does not always equal pop music success.

Conclusion

Mr. Patel brings up many good, valid points about the contemporary music industry, pop music, and album sales. But when it comes to Taylor Swift, Mr. Patel missed the whole point of her Wall Street Journal article and comes off as demeaning and arrogant.