Christmas time

Hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone. We were snowless here in Haven and the weather has been very mild, great for travel. It was the first year that one child was not at home, very strange...guess that's what happens when life goes on.

I was able to get a few arrangements done and am still toiling away on "the big 5" commission. five different setting for steel drum band and some sort of vocal accompaniment. very "out of my box"...to say the least.

Tropical Shores is putting out another CD called "Steel Drum Paradise" soon... maybe by new years day.

four days off

I had over 4 days off over this thanksgiving holiday and i was able to get a lot of time of the music making machine.. new arrangements of percussion ensembles, a few new singles, and 2 new steel drum band arrangements... not bad for an old guy.

i also got to help jaimie set her gigmasters page for her band (Island shores steel drum band) out of KC. I wish i could have started when she is starting and had the tunes that she has. she also has located some other players in the KC area which should be fun for her. pretty sure she can get some good gigs...maybe she will hire ME now.

Thanksgiving energy

Got a boost of energy lately (maybe because of Thanksgiving) and did a few new arrangements. mostly Christmas oriented due to the time of year, but also some new single playalongs including "Pan in A minor". i really like that tune and it could be one of my new favs.

working to get my daughters steel drum band "Island steel" off the ground and running...seems like she has decided that she is ready to gig.

new look for an old book

I have just recently finished revamping pan tunes 1 with all the sheet music being upgraded to match the already revamped mp3 files. feels good to have it all look the same. now on to the other books. lots of work to do.

i did also manage to write a few new arrangements of christmas songs and some other like "oye como va". "comfort and joy" is my favorite and my steel drum band is playing it right now.

received a big commission work from a good friend in VA which will involve putting vocal parts to a few songs. this will be a new frontier for me but i am looking forward to starting it.

marching season over now and on to concert, jazz, and pep band season.

new stuff

new christmas tunes and a few new regular tunes are on the website. still working on new christmas playalong book though. marching season starting to draw to a close..

update

its not that creative of a title, but it is accurate. still working on new Christmas arrangments amid newmurous performances by the steel drum band and the hhs marching band.

i still have plans to do an educational dvd next summer. i have had many people ask about it and i think it is going to be quite a big project.

i have been pretty busy with school stuff and now the state fair is in town...so i will be performing there several times in the next week or so. I have been working on several projects including videos, new arrangements and other musical works. i NEED to get to the golf course soon. played last week and felt pretty good about it. maybe today

new christmas tunes

i am in the process of rerecording the original Christmas book. Making each tune a little longer. THEN i got a summer cold....

Back to School, Again

School has started with a vengeance. Not only is it hectic, but it is extremely hot out lately, like over 100 degrees. This makes it hard to teach marching band...fell bad for the kids. The steel drum band has only 5 members, but they are all very good and it should be a good year.

We have started with "jump in the line" and Bri is playing lead so things go quickly because she is experienced.

Rewriting Bass Drum parts for the HS band because the parts that are written are very unrealistic for us. good news is that the kids are all trying very hard so it is progressing at a quicker pace. they are good readers which helps.

school

Big gig tonight with "salt city soul"...playing keyboards with a couple of old friends of mine in hutchinson for the emancipation day celebration. they are really good players and i am really looking forward to it. they do r and b classics and the singer is tops.

school is days away now and i am working towards preparing music for the school steel drum band.

High plains band camp

I am off to teach steel drum class for a solid week at the High Plains Band camp at Hays, KS. It is one of the oldest camps around having started in 1949 or so. this will be my 8th year teaching at the camp and I also teach percussion and play in the faculty concert band.

the classes consist of both high school and middle school students coming to my 30 minutes class once every day for 5 days. We basically prepare one song to perform on the saturday concert at the end of the week. the students are not necessarily percussionists, in fact, vary few are. the class is open to any camper and is limited to 11 students per class (because that is all the pans i can bring. a large percentage of the students are repeaters from year to year and it is a first come, first served situation.

Having just received the new basses and having had them freshly tuned, it should be a great week. BUT it is to be over 100 every single day of the camp. yippee

new arrangements

got "sugar bum bum", "eleanor rigby" and "Another Saturday Night" finished. Now working on some Christmas arrangements before it gets too late.

Having some drums tuned tomorrow by darren dyke. my new basses, new dbl 2nds, set of guitars, and my mannette lead.

new dbl seconds

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when the Gill dbl seconds showed up from Trinidad. they were by far the best pans i had ever received from them...it looked more like a mannette finish and sounded great...although a couple of notes were out of tune from shipping. good thing darren dyke will be in wichita soon, he will make them sing.

got the videos done yesterday and got a lot of work done on "sugar bum bum". summer is slipping away but i feel that i have got a pretty good grasp of my time.

now i have to start to address the new school year, marching band and all.

video central

I am shooting some new videos today for a customer but i needed to anyway because the others on the website were very old. It's always nice to get fresh stuff on the site.

The sound of hammers is in the air today as they put on our new roof (hail damage)...there is also a lot of fire cracker noise in the hot summer air. it has been over 100 for several days now.

i have also been working on a couple new arrangements like "sugar bum bum" and "another saturday night".. lots to do yet on those too tunes.

Darren dyke is coming to tune my basses and several other pans next week. then it will be off to FHSU band camp for a week. bri is feverishly practicing her french horn audition. she has transformed into a very salty player, playing with the hutchinson municipal band has really seasoned her.

Mid Summer

Back from our vacation to NYC and DC. had a great time with fantastic friends including some former students that now live in NY....they saved us by showing us stuff we would have never seen.

Jeff and Jen in DC took us to their jersey shore house and then their house in ramsey.
they also hosted our adventures at the statue of liberty and such...even got to see the cake boss and DC cupcakes.

Working on arrangements of "Sugar Bum bum" and "Calypso"...more on that later

book 6 order information

you can go to www.tropicalshores.net/books.htm to order a book 6 at the discounted price of $20 plus $5 shipping.

BOOK 6 DONE!

incredibly as it seems, book 6 is done a week early! it feels so good to get that book done, big relief. next up is the christmas book 2..but im sure that will not be as big of a project.

Job uncertainly is rampant in our district as we voted to close one elementary school last month. now linda and i do not know exactly what our jobs are and in what buildings we will be teaching in. all we know is that we have jobs and that we will be working hard as usual.

Time for new tunes

Starting to add new songs to our list of songs...this means SOME practicing but mostly learning them at the gig. It is always refreshing to play new stuff cause the old stuff seems really stale to us...but people like the classics.

Todays' gig will be hot but hopefully in the shade at Larry's sports bar. 4-7 pm and we are hoping for a good crowd, it makes the gig more fun.

summer gigs are here

Summer has arrived with outside gigs in the 100 degree weather. played 2 gigs today where the client did not honor the "Shade required" clause. this forces us to be nice people and suck it up and play in direct sunlight, grimacing the entire time as our drums go out of tune.

luckily today was a grouping of 3 short sets in two different locations. The second was at a local sports grill that was having a summer "grand opening" and we were parked on a stage in the parking lot, (yes in direct sunlight). We are actually playing every sunday at this place from 4 to 7 pm. pretty good gig i think, cause the next performances will be in the shade.

fun fun fun

book 6

book 6 is just about ready. i have about 5 songs to record and make "camera ready"...
there is a very big selection of tunes....some beatles, the theme from MASH, just to name a few.

trying to stay motivated in the middle of a bad head cold.

Christmas book volume 2

I am making really progress on 20 christmas Favorites volume 2 with the help of my daughter. She is editing the lead sheets and i am recording them. Hope to have it to market by the 15th of june. then after a week in nyc, i will finish up book 6 of the 20 pan tune series.

Also making good progress on a couple of full band arrangements. feels good to be back on target. even got some golf in yesterday before the storms hit.

It begins!

Ahh, summer is here. Many projects to finally get started on. I have a little school cleanup to do yet but then i am home free. Even got time to play a round of golf yesterday!

First up is to finish some arrangements, then finish book 6, then hit the Christmas arrangements.

Oh, yeah, FIRST, i have to go back to bed until, oh about 10 am....

summer vacation

Summer vacation is a week away and I couldn't be more excited. this has been a challenging year, both time wise and other. My oldest brother's passing really brought home to me how fragile and fleeting our lives are.

I am determined to do several projects this summer including LOTS of writing and arranging and recording, go to DC and NYC on our annual "we made it through another year" trip, play golf (of course) and relax as much as i can.

first up is to finish some backing tracks for some people and get book 6 done...then christmas arrangements.

more than enough

Time keeps blasting past me and school is winding down. i have more than enough projects to keep me busy until the end of school. next weekend we will be on a band trip to dallas with the concert, jazz and steel drum bands.

Then the steel drum band will be doing a joint concert with the wichita state university steel band on the 18th of may. then that is pretty much it.

elanor

I have started an arrangement of elanor rigby, always thought that would be a good tune to play for a steel drum band.

Done with a large portion of the band competitions now (concert band). feels so good to be done. lot of pressure. the kids did such a great job with their songs and they are great helpers, since we host the event....they are involved with running the festival. i owe them big.

steel toiling with book 6, making slow but sure progress. but then, the weather changes and the golf course begins calling me with that "oh so sweet" sound of stick hitting ball...ah!

Made some progress on book 6...was able to finish "cruel summer" and "Waiting in vain"..also made progress on a couple of other tunes. Felt good to get back to recording stuff.

I would like to do a couple of videos soon.
The summer gigs have been coming in sooner than usual which is encouraging.

Started seriously working towards finishing book 6. I have about 13 tunes done and about 7 to go. Just need to do about 1 song every other day now to finish it. working on a couple of arrangements for some customers...THEN i need to start a few more christmas tunes.

REally enjoyed my trip to Charleston, WV with jaimie this week....got to hang with some pretty great people and do a concert with them at the st. marks church (see video).

School will be going into high gear with contests and trips and such. Trip to NY is coming in june.

Siyahamba - I'll Fly Away - St Marks Steel

Christmas tunes?

I have decided to get a jump on the Christmas songs for pan bands already. first up is a medley of "joy to the world" and "God rest ye"..called "comfort and joy".

also working on a michael jackson tune called "Hold my Hand"

A stitch in time

I had a basal cell cancer removed from my temple recently which was not nearly as traumatic as it sounds. 12 stitches and 4 days after the non event, i feel great and am looking forward to getting the stitches out. i will now always heed my wife's warning for sun screen and a hat.

I am preparing my high school steel drum band for their upcoming performance at the Kansas Music Educator state convention at the end of February. We are playing:
Banana Funk, Spin Cycle, Urban Spice, Marche Militaire, One Love, and Trini 2 D bone.
The presentation is on Feb 26 at the Wichita, KS Hyatt and is usually well attended by fellow music teachers.

As i sit here watching the golf channel, i find my mind wandering to warmer days when golf is always an option. One thing is for sure, however, sun screen and a wide brim hat will always go with me.

Snow Day!!

A snow day is always a nice bonus for a teacher. BUT there's always things i need to do with the various groups so for me, i don't always like them. for instance, i REALLY needed to see my jazz band for a rehearsal but....

i have my mind set on starting more Christmas charts for next season..they are great sellers. also thinking about an "Overture" for steel drum band. probably summer for that one though.

Pan tunes 6 is also probably summertime thing....sigh....