The Summerglen Files » music everywhere http://www.summerglen-music.com/blog Music, Creativity, and Everyday Life at Summerglen Music in Raleigh, NC Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:41:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 The Rapping Flight Attendant http://www.summerglen-music.com/blog/the-rapping-flight-attendant http://www.summerglen-music.com/blog/the-rapping-flight-attendant#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:15:53 +0000 summerglen http://www.summerglen-music.com/blog/?p=163 It’s always a treat to see music in a concert hall, but one of music’s greatest powers is its ability to refresh and enliven people anywhere. Here’s a perfect example–this performance lasts just a couple of minutes, but it made these people’s flight one to remember!

]]> http://www.summerglen-music.com/blog/the-rapping-flight-attendant/feed 0 Scouting out Raleigh http://www.summerglen-music.com/blog/scouting-out-raleigh http://www.summerglen-music.com/blog/scouting-out-raleigh#comments Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:41:09 +0000 summerglen http://www.summerglen-music.com/blog/?p=59 raleigh tree

Whew! I haven’t been blogging as much as usual lately, because I’ve been running all over Raleigh finding places to play. For the past week, Andrew and I have packed up our instruments and scouted out different places and times to play free outdoor concerts during the summer. It’s been quite a learning experience, and has left me feeling closer to the other residents of our city. After all, I’ve started to understand what they do every day!

Originally, we thought early morning shows would be cool, because they would be a pleasant surprise for people as they walked to work. Unfortunately, our early morning shows attracted only tiny handfuls of people. In Raleigh, it seems that there isn’t really a morning rush of people walking in to work. It’s more of a trickle, and the people in the trickle aren’t going down the same side of the street, or even in the same general direction! So, a little rethinking was in order.

The time when there IS a rush is lunch. We learned that yesterday when we were about to give up and go home, but saw a mass exodus of guys in suits from the State Capitol Building. We set up quickly and made…$11.76! And we won some friends who stuck around and enjoyed several of our songs.

We’ve also found that 10:30am is when the parents and kids start arriving at the park, so we put in an application to play there. For that gig, we’ll definitely have to start learning all the popular kids’ songs. So, if you have a youngster, please comment and let me know his or her favorite tune!

The original spark that made us start playing these concerts was that we were dangerously short on cash (as musicians sometimes are) and we wanted to help the people of Raleigh get to know us and what we do. But I didn’t count on our concerts helping ME get to know people better as well. Over the last week, we’ve learned little things about our fellow Raleigh residents, like who is where and at what time, and somehow it’s made me feel more a part of our community. So I look forward to what is to come; what else can I learn, and who else will I meet as we play our concerts outside!

(Our next one is Monday morning at the Central Borders in Raleigh!)

]]> http://www.summerglen-music.com/blog/scouting-out-raleigh/feed 1 My Summer Job http://www.summerglen-music.com/blog/my-summer-job http://www.summerglen-music.com/blog/my-summer-job#comments Wed, 28 May 2008 15:10:19 +0000 summerglen http://www.summerglen-music.com/blog/?p=55 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 street musician! (And someone mugged that poor guy and took his sax, so for a while there were NO street musicians :-( !)

So now that the weather is nice, we’ve decided to make a commitment to play in a random public place at least twice a week. Today we played a classical and light jazz set in Moore Square Park, and tomorrow we’ll play for the commuters going to work on Fayetteville Street. When we have a free Saturday, we can play in Pullen Park, a nice place with paddle boats, a carousel, and a playground. If we learn the Spongebob theme song well enough, we’re sure to be a hit with the kids!

Today’s performance was great, and gave us opportunities to learn and tweak our show for next time. We made sure to be downtown by 8:15, to catch all the commuters arriving to work at 9–but when we got there, everyone was already at work! Either the fine government employees of Raleigh are overachievers, or they have to be at work at 8. So, our next performance might have to start, uggh, closer to 7:30am. Well, what else do we have to do at that hour? We all know that playing music is much more fun than sleeping! ;-)

Most of our audience today ended up being folks from the Salvation Army shelter on the other side of the park, and a couple of moms with kids. These people really seemed to enjoy the show, and many sat down and listened the whole time or came up to chat with us. There were a lot of passers-by, though, who walked very quickly and didn’t give a sideways glance, even though a marimba and trombone ensemble isn’t something many people see on their way to work.

Seeing that made me grateful for the nice life we have. Sure we have to work hard sometimes, but we also make sure there’s time to stop and enjoy life’s little pleasures. It’s easy to allow yourself to become so busy that you forget to really live your life, so I’m very grateful for the little reminders I get to slow down. Maybe our music can be that reminder for someone else!

I’ll begin posting our Summerglen in Downtown Raleigh shows if you’d like to come and see one, and will share more street musician stories here on the blog!

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