*phew* It's been a while

Well, after somewhere around a month of not posting I think I'm too far behind to give you a blow by blow on anything. And after thinking about it I wouldn't want to read a blow by blow of my life either so it's probably a good thing. =P

Anyways, through all of march I've basically been getting caught up in school (which is accomplished now!), learning about mixing, learning about songwriting, and training my voice. I can now sing four complete octaves without having to push my voice. IOW (in other words) it's easy to sing incredibly high now, but my voice is still cracking a lot when I get into head voice. And it doesn't sound pleasant when I get that high either =P And after (almost) completely reading this amazing songwriting book the song collaboration is turning into a song that almost looks singable =P With my new found recording and mixing knowledge I am also able to finally compose, record, and mix well enough to make it sound professional! So you can expect the first song demo this week =]

Thank God for blessing me with more musical knowledge and please pray that He would continue to guide me to more.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, been mostly busy learning some great new stuff and getting caught up in school. Spring break is this week so two more posts will probably appear on here within the next 10 days.

p.s. The duck is a real rubber ducky. As to why they would put it in there with a bunch of chocolates your guess is as good as mine...

Until next time~

Phillip

Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival Day 1

Edit: This post is much easier to read if you scroll down to the very bottom of this webpage and click "Posts (Atom)" sorry again about how it looks.

Another Edit: The bottom gets a little screwy in that mode and the top in this one is weird. Oh well, just pick on I guess, the other one is easier to read though.

As much as I'm sure you want to know how my first day at the Jazz Festival was I must go in sequential order because of other things that happened before the festival. (Well, I really don't, but you know what I mean.) And by other things I mean another amazing sunset. It really was twenty different sunsets all rolled into one but now I'm getting ahead of myself if I'm going to try and keep this in sequential order. The wind was blowing very quickly so the clouds and sky were always changing. When I looked out of my grandparents window and saw that it might be a good sunset I grabbed my camera, my mp3 player, and a bike. I took of down the road riding away from the sunset trying to reach the outskirts of town so I could get some nice skyline shots if the sunset was any good. It turned out I was right. Because the clouds were moving so quickly it looked like 20 sunsets all in one! I uploaded pictures of the best parts except for the very best part. I was quickly pedaling away from the sunset to try and get to some different places to take pictures from when I looked up and noticed that everything was pink. When I looked behind me the clouds were almost "solid" all the way through except for the furthest point right above the ground that I could see until the earth started to curve out of site. What's special about that you ask? The one part that wasn't "solid" was right where the sun was. It was amazing. I can best describe it as the beginning scene in The Lion King, except pink instead of orange, and a sunset instead of sunrise. But my camera doesn't do well in poor lighting and all the pictures turned out horrible and I only caught the end of it. Oh well, I got some other great pictures still =] After I took all the pictures I came across a cute cat poking its head out of a bush. I tried to take a picture but it came out and started walking in front of my bike towards my grandparents house. It stopped whenever I got too far behind and it was just too funny not to take a picture of. =}

Regaurding the Jazz Festival:

After 2 hours of going through the schedule seeing which clinics I wanted to attend and then trying to get rid of all the conflicting dates grandma and I finally had it all sorted out (at least we hope we do!!). Today I went to five clinics, and watched 4 amazing preformances. The clinics I attended today were: "Three Keys to Musical Success" by Byron Stripling. This guy is hilarious and I learned a lot this was definately my favorite clinic of the day. I also definately learned the most from this clinic and it went way beyond my expectations. "Spontaneous Group Improvisation" by Bob Stoloff. This clinic was an amusing mistake. The class description is "Thythmic and harmonic techniques used to create multi-part a capella compositions using the popular 'Circle-Song' format. Come on stage and participate!" I interpreted this as: "In this class I'll get to learn new rythmic and harmonic techniques a cappella (which I also thought implied that it would be a class full of people like myself who can't stand 4 Mhz off pitch and who had enough musical experience to already know complex jazz harmony) using the circle of fourths and fifths." Little did I know that this *really* meant I was going to get thrown into a large room with a hundred and fifty squirmy, loud, 4th to 8th graders and the most experience they had with music was "this sounds consonant, this sounds dissonant, don't ask me why because I have no idea" that could barely clap basic 1-2-3-4 rhythms. The first 10 minutes of the lecture was about sponge bob. The next class was "Comping and the Rhythm Section for Your Student Jazz Groups" by Ian Sinclair. This class was exactly what I hoped it would be (much to my relief considering what I had just finished enduring) and I enjoyed it, but not near as much as the first clinic. My next class was "Rhythm Section Grooves" by Bob Stoloff. I was hopeful that this class would be better than my first experience with him. The description was "Bob will discuss lead sheet preparation, rehearsal techniques and time-feel considerations for instrumentalists and vocalists in all contemporary musical styles." It was also listed under the catagory of "Director Helps" which basically means that it was targeted at other music teachers. So I wasn't too worried about having a bunch on loud, ignorant, grade schoolers again. But once again Bob let me down. Honestly man, I don't care if you can immitate Patrick perfectly. I went to your clinic expecting a professional to help me develop my music. I especially expected it to be awesome considering that you're a professor at Berkley where I previously thought going to college. Instead I got "uuuuh, I don't know Spongebob" and "this is cut time, this is double time." I got to listen to some good drum playing but it was not at all what I came to the clinic for. First impressions really are everything, and if people give you a second chance and you still disappoint them how can you expect them to come back ? The last clinic of the day was "The Role of the Guitar in the Jazz Band and Small Combos" by Corey Christiansen. This class I give an 8 out of ten. It was good, but not outstanding. After the clinics (by the way, they were all an hour long, first one at 10 am and each on started 15 minutes after the other ended, and they're all over town so we had fun rushing from one to the next. By the end of the day I was ready for FOOD. I got back and got all dressed up nice with a tie, slacks, and button-up shirt and we were off to some sort of celebration about the jazz festival in an art gallery. I'm not sure why we went there or what it was for but there was free food so I'm not complaining =] After that we took a trolly to where the performance was going to be. When we got there my grandpa called mom and "apolagized" that I had only met the mayor and the president of Idaho State University and that he was "sorry" that the governer wasn't there. I met a lot of other important people but they all kind of run together now. Anyway, after exploring backstage (we have backstage passes) we went to the "presidents box" where there were fancy cheezes stacked high and neat on fancy dishes along with several fruits and vegetables (and chicken, but who cares about that?). There were even several buttlers handy all of them "happy to accomadate you." on our seats we got ducks with saxaphones and chocolates around them in plastic boxes. The performances were awesome, for the second half Marvin Smith from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno even played. He's the most amazing drummer I've ever seen or heard. Half of the time his sticks were just blurs and they all blended together so that it sounded like one long sound. Ralph Moody was also there (the saxaphone player, not the author). After the show grandma bought me a hoodie. It was one of those classic "grandpa sees something that he likes and Phillip agrees with him and later grandpa shows it to grandma and grandma immediately makes Phillip try it on and buys it with no questions asked" kind of things. So all things considered, it was a good day today =P (I mean yesterday, it's past 12:00 now) Sorry about the pictures being all over the place instead of by what they're dealing with, I can't figure out how to change the settings on that. They either all go at the top of look like... what they look like here. Oh well, it's 1:30 am and I'm too tired to try to figure out how to fix it. So you'll just have to figure out which pictures go with what (for some reason I don't think that'll be too hard). Sorry also for however many tyops and mispellings there are in here, I'm sure there are many. I'm on a laptop keyboard and it's 1:30 am ('nough said?).

Random Poll: Is this duck made out of chocolate or is it rubber? Grandma thinks that it is chocolate because the rest of the stuff inside of the plastic box around the duck is all made by cowgirl chocolates. I also noticed that it has something under it possibly to keep it from melting and sticking to the bottom of the plastic box. Also, why would they give us rubber duckies at as fancy of seating as we were at ? But it *looks* like rubber. It weighs as much as a rubber duckie. And there are no marks anywhere inside of the plastic box that would mean it was chocolate. And I've never heard of a chocolate duck before either. But then again, there are marzipan pigs in this strange world so anything is possible. So, is it chocolate? Or is it not? Put your answer in the comments and I'll open the box sometime in the next two weeks and see if it's chocolate or not. Until then, it will remain closed.

Skiing, Dancing, Jazz Festival, and my first collaboration

Please excuse the very abrupt transitions between topics on this post *cheezy grin*

Square dancing, line dancing, barn dancing, and all that jazz is so much fun...except when you get stuck dancing the girl's part because there aren't enough girls there. I got to dance the girl's part at a square dance on Saturday (Valentines Day). Everything was backwards and I was thoroughly confused. It was still fun anyway =] (Next time Tyler, *I'll* steal *your* girl and you can see what it's like to dance the girl's part [insert innocent but mischievous grin here])

On Sunday and Monday we went skiing on several inches of fresh powder. Sunday was horrible though, it was terribly cold and when the wind picked up and it decided to snow it was time to go home. Monday was an incredibly ski day though. There was everything you could ask for on a perfect day: 5 inches of powder, no wind, not cold or hot, and patchy clouds to block the bright sun but still let enough light through to see well. The only thing missing is a hot shower which I intend to have right after I finish this post =]

Next week I get to go to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow Idaho. I'm reeaaally looking forward to it and I'll try to give ya'll updates throughout the course of it =]

The first song collaboration is going amazingly well!! We have the lyrics almost finished after only a couple weeks!! *does a happy dance, the guy's part specifically* Joy Geisinger (who I'm doing the collaboration with) has an absolutely amazing voice and is an amazing songwriter too =} I'll definately be putting the finished song up here when it's done =] It's basically about a guy *cough*me*cough* who is patiently waiting for The One. Please pray that this song would touch and inspire others to do the same.

Every time I post in the future, I'll try to post lyrics from one of the many songs I'm working on. These lyrics are from the song collaboration with Joy Geisinger:

"And I know it's so far,
Sometimes my dreams start to fade,
but Perfect Love always waits."

Special Olympics

I forgot to post this yesterday: tonight, Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday, my mom and I are going to volunteer at the Special Olympics. Please pray that we would bless everyone we meet during this opportunity =]

Irony, Trends, and Influences

I love Irony, it adds depth and realism to books and movies, and it adds colour to our everyday lives (speaking of colour, I need to figure out how to add some to this page, the brown is nice but it's kind of boring). For those who aren't in the know: I became a vegetablitarian in November 2008. There are many reasons but I'll save those for another post. This week I just had to share a bit of irony with ya'll. My whole life I have been getting taller and taller but I never seem to gain any weight. My mom has said for years that I should eat more meat to "get more meat on those bones" and "a little weight won't hurt you" Since I have become a vegetarian I have gained 30 pounds. That's more weight than I've gained in about 3 years, all in just a few months after I became a vegetarian. Ah, irony is just so... ironic sometimes =]


Since the day when I decided to pursue music as a career (the exact day was December 20th 2008) I have been trying to listen to as many different varieties of music as possible. I try to keep an open ear while I'm listening and try to discover what makes certain bands that seem to have no talent just "make it" in the music business and others with plenty of talent not "make it." I'm also doing this to try and decide which specific genre of music I want to get labeled under. I have learned to appreciate many musical genres that I wouldn't normally listen to and I also have come to many conclusions regarding what allows other bands to "make it" and other bands not to. The first conclusion I came to was that not very many talented people make it into the music business. This first struck me as odd but I believe I'm beginning to understand why now. I believe that this is mostly due to the fact that although they are talented, they are not creative enough. You're probably now thinking "What? Not creative? Don't they write songs and play them the way no one else could play them?" Of course they do, but everybody does that =] Let me clarify by listing some trends I've noticed:

• Many of the popular bands and people are the ones that change the way people think about music. They don't just play rock or pop, they change the way people think of rock and pop. They incorporate elements from other genres into their music and the way the play it or they create a whole new genre of music entirely. This is true with many bands such as Paramore, Nirvana, Relient K, and many many others that I don't feel like listing right now =p

• Many of the remembered bands or people were the first to do something. This is similar to the first point. Why do we remember Scott Joplin, Gary Numan, Van Halen, John Cage, Nirvana, and many many others that I once again don't feel like listing ?

• If they weren't the first to do something, they were the first to perfect it (well, not quite perfect it, but you know what I mean). This is pretty much self a self-explanatory point. Do I really need to keep listing names because I'm getting tired of it...

and now we come to one of the biggest and saddest points of all...

• Many bands simply don't make it because of two things: lack of funds and lack of promotion. If bands and people don't know how to promote their music then it is nearly impossible both to 1: get backed by a record company who can help you promote your music more, and 2: find people who will listen to your music. A lot of bands make the mistake of waiting to be "discovered" instead of promoting their music on their own. Or, if they do promote their music then they don't know how to do it well. Bands not only must be creative in their music but also in their self-promotion.

These are just a few of the things I've noticed but they are the main things as well. And I'm sure everyone reading this is asking "So, what are you doing to promote your music and what creative elements are you putting into your music?" My answer is fairly simple: I'm waiting to begin promoting my own music until I finish writing a few songs and recording them. So far in the creative department though I'm not so sure what I'm going to do, and even when I am sure I won't tell you just in case somebody reads this, decides that my ideas are good, uses them, and takes credit for them. It's a dog eat dog world (sadly..) and I figure it's safer to just write my ideas down on paper stored in my room, record a few songs, and then get them copyrighted so that nothing like that happens =] I'll tell ya'll whenever I finish writing a good song and maybe I'll give you some samples, but it will probably be a while before you get to hear any original music. Hopefully it won't be too long though, I'm in the middle of 2 songs currently, one of them is not that great but so far the other is probably the best I've ever written. =} I'm also going to do a musical collaboration with a friend of mine on a couple songs and those will probably be the ones that I'll post on here before the others. But it will definitely be a while, we just started getting some ideas down a couple days ago.

(Still on the topic of music): Hopefully you guys aren't all completely and utterly lost after that immense amount of information I just threw at you. But also hopefully most of my posts won't be so long lol However, you may come to expect that in my musical updates you will get to hear about my latest musical influences. These will be bands that have completely changed the way that I view music as a whole and will definitely influence the music that I write. This week I found two huge influences: Art Tatum (listen to any of his music, it's all amazing, but "Tiger Rag" is pretty commonly viewed as one of his most complex and interesting pieces) and Regina Spektor (to get a good sample of her music listen to her song "Musicbox" you can find it here [note: it's a youtube link])


Please pray that God would allow me to see what I need to do to touch more lives with my music. Also pray that He would bless me with creative inspiration to set myself apart from the many others in the music industry and continued prayers that He would guide many to where I need to be would also be appreciated =]

*phew* that was a lot about music and you're probably all ready to read about something else now. I'm sorry to say that this particular blog post was mostly dedicated to music and you'll have to go somewhere else to relieve your mind. It was nice of me to warn you wasn't it~

First post!! =]

Considering the fact that the entire neighborhood is lit with the glow of an awesomazing sunset right now (see picture above that hardly does it justice considering all of the houses and electrical devises in the way of half of it *sigh* why do people have to go and ruin everything?) I figured now was the time to make my first blog post (even though I'm supposed to be doing school right now, don't worry mom, I can make up later tonight). Right now it seems like this will be my musical (and non-musical) thought dump of whatever happens to be on my mind whenever I can come up with time to put something on here. Maybe it will eventually kind of sort of turn into something semi-organized sometime in the future to help all of the people who have enough random unconnected virtual noise thrown at them constantly already. I guess I might as well start now. From henceforth the intro/whatever will be at the beginning along with any amazing nature moment pictures that I happen to take. Following will be the train-car of music related things, and the kabus (did I actually spell that right or did I just spell something that has nothing to do with the little red cars on the end of trains?) will be life struggles, lessons learned, and prayer requests. You don't have to pray for me if you don't want to but it's always appreciated =]


True Art is one of those mysterious things that no one can really teach. No one really understands it, even the authors themselves. Music, I think, is the most enthralling art form of all. The Lord has blessed me with the gift of expressing myself through music. I look back on songs I have composed in the past and see how far he has guided me (with the help of numerous music teachers) in my spiritual and musical journey. I laugh and cry as memories flood through my head when I look over my compositions of the past. I believe the Lord has called me to use my musical abillities to further His Kingdom so I intend to do so wholeheartedly for as long as I can. This general area will probably usually be wear you can find my updates on how things are going musically. Maybe I'll even put some song demos in here for you sometimes to hear for yourself =]


This last section I understand some of you may skip over and that's okay with me, I won't get offended or anything =] This section is dedicated to my spiritual struggles, random thoughts going through my head related to them, prayer requests, and updates. It would be much appreciated if you would pray that God guides me where he needs me to be both musically and spiritually.

I hope you enjoyed reading my first ever blog post and I also hope that the mumblings of another teen-aged music addict won't get *too* lost in the noise =]