Monthly Archives: December 2019

Piano Trio (Work-in-Progress)

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I am currently working on a piano trio piece, commissioned by the Trio Nuovo to be performed in April. The plan is to have this performed in an all-Beethoven concert so I am incorporating some of Beethoven’s themes and motives into the piece. You can download and listen to the score here:

piano-trio-2019-december-21st-editionDownload

Anyways…so far I have included Für Elise and the opening motive of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. The plan is to have this piece begin in C minor and end in C major. Why, do you ask? Because that is what Beethoven does in his 5th Symphony!!

This is my second piano trio. Here is my first one….

Side note…it is Christmas time and all of my family is in town. It is always great to see my brother, sister, nephews, nieces, etc but it can get exhausting. Yesterday I played a game of football with them and halfway through realized that my 45-year-old self needs to chill or a torn ACL is in my future. I was trying to make moves I haven’t made in 45 years. Here is a pic of a few family members:

Christmas Arrangements

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Merry Christmas!! Well, it’s not Christmas yet. I decided to make a video of me playing a ton of Christmas arrangements. All of these arrangements come either from my Silent Night album or from my Easy Arrangements Vol. 3. Scores/tabs are available. Just click the link above.

O Come, All Ye Faithful

Silent Night (1:32)

We Three Kings (4:45)

Good King Wenceslas (6:10)

O Come, O Come Emmanuel (7:26)

The First Noel (8:55)

Coventry Carol (10:43)

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming (12:54)

Of the Father’s Love Begotten (13:44)

The Holly and the Ivy (15:15)

In the Bleak Midwinter (16:06)

I Saw Three Ships (17:35)

El Noi de la Mare (18:19)

We Wish You a Merry Christmas (20:04)

Etude 8 (Improvisation)

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I am currently writing a set of 8 etudes for the guitar. Each of them includes some kind of an extended technique. This particular one uses a slide which isn’t used a lot in the classical guitar literature. I have always loved the sound. Check this video out…

And if haven’t already checked out the famous Messiahsez, by all means do…

There were a couple surprises that I found sounded interesting in my improv. The first was that when the slide is used with tremolo it produces a pretty cool sound. Also, artificial harmonics can slide around with a slide. Often before writing a piece I will improvise around on an idea or two. That is what I am doing in this video.