The Summerglen Files

As I said in the last post, since I’ve lived here I’ve always wondered why there aren’t more musicians out playing in public. So this summer, instead of wondering, I’ve decided to become one of those musicians! For the past couple of days, Andrew and I have gone around town scouting for places [...]

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After a relaxing Memorial Day weekend, Andrew and I hit the park to start our new summer “job”, playing outdoors in downtown Raleigh. Since moving to Raleigh six years ago, I thought it was a shame that there were all these nice wide sidewalks and parks in downtown Raleigh, but there was only ONE [...]

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Here’s something fun to start your Memorial Day weekend. We are big cat fans here at Summerglen, and even moreso when they can play music! Nora the cat’s playing reminds me of those pointillistic Webern piano pieces from early last century, and she has the beginnings of some very good improvisation techniques. [...]

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I’ve been writing and twittering quite a lot about salsa music lately, since that’s what I’ve been working on mostly for the past few weeks. But I haven’t written much about what salsa IS, so here’s a little sampling of this beautiful music from none other than El Cantante de los Cantantes Hector Lavoe, [...]

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For a percussionist especially, soundproofing a home studio can be an ongoing saga–and Andrew’s drumset studio here at Summerglen is no exception. Generally, the sound quality in the studio is good, but the house in general doesn’t have much insulation, which leads to lots of sound bleeding outside when Andrew plays. (Our place [...]

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On Thursday evening, Andrew and I took a trip to The Governor Morehead School to check out their year-end band and chorus concert. We first visited the school, which serves students with visual impairments, about a month ago when we led a workshop with their kindergarteners and first graders. The kids we met [...]

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For the past few days, I’ve been dedicating large chunks of time to writing charts for my salsa band, The Tropic Orchestra, and it’s been an EXCELLENT learning experience.
As a classical musician, I’m used to having my parts handed to me in a folder at rehearsal, or mailed to me a couple weeks [...]

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If you want to know some random things about me, check out this post on Katherine Reschke’s blog, Passions that Pay. Katherine wanted to learn more about the people who visit her blog, so she sent us these fun email interviews to complete. Thanks, Katherine, for the interview!

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Our May issue of The Summerglen Times is up and ready to read! This issue of the Times features the second in a series of three articles dedicated to helping you practice more effectively. This article deals with the physical aspects of playing music, and shares tips on how to take care of [...]

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Having excellent chops is a great way to get your name out as a musician, but having excellent chops AND well-designed promotional material is even better! So, lately we’ve been working with the fine folks at Vigor Creative to update the Summerglen Music logo and website. They just sent us a collection of [...]

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