Introduction & Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog! My purpose for this blog is to share with you, my friends, music colleagues, students, and fellow music lovers; my favorite music tidbits, such as new music and performers, great soundtracks, music reviews, the use of music in movies, instruments, videos, websites, teaching materials, resources, and various other musical things. I also would like to give you the opportunity to share your favorite music things with me. I welcome you to share your personal favorites as well as any music, teaching, or technology resources that you find useful.

I'll begin by discussing random musical things that I am working on, or have found, or the topics for the day. I hope that I will be able to narrow my blog to one topic per day, making this a rather comprehensive, yet cool cite where you (my friends) or I can refer, to find all these cool things in one place. When I become an experienced blogger, I will be able to post videos and links to my favorites, but for now, I'll discuss thoughts for upcoming projects.

So, the topics for the day are: Music Projects...


Project #1: The Theramin! In my History of Electronic Music class, we're learning about various early electronic instruments, my favorite of which is the Theramin. I've been watching some neat videos and looking for more videos, websites, and books, in the hope of applying this knowledge to my first research paper. I found some great websites/blogs on the Theramin for my Google Reader that I had to create for my Musicians and the Internet class. I will post some of them later.

Project #2: Research Paper. I need to narrow down a topic for my first research paper in History of Electronic Music. It must be on electronic music before 1945. It must include a webliography, annotated bibliography, & be about 15 pages. Ideas so far are: Theramin, Leon Theramin, Clara Rockmore, perhaps something on their personal lives, or how to build the original Theramin.

Project #3 Blog: As you can see, I've begun my blog for my Musicians and the Internet class. Now I need to learn how to add videos, photos, and links. We'll be working on that a bit in class on Tuesday, but since this is a little easier than research, I'm going to try & get as much done as possible on my own.

Project #4 Research Paper #2. This one is for History of Electronic Music, and must be on electronic music AFTER 1945. I really would like to do something on the Eight-Track cassette, but I doubt I'll be able to find enough information. I am considering doing research on the Theramin before 1945, and after 1945, since the Etherwave Theramin and Tannerin have gotten some decent video and research hits. The Theramin may be a better topic for paper #2, since there has been a revival of the electronic versions of the Theramin.

Random favorite things I want to talk about:

1) movie soundtracks-Tron was the most recent cool addition to our collection. Avatar is good, too. I'm interested to see Black Swan, because I heard the movie is very dramatic. I assume the music is a good match.

2) My new favorite musicians: Stjepan Hauser & Luka Sulic, are two very attractive young men who happen to be excellent cellists. I just watched a neat YouTube music video of them playing Michael Jackson's, "Smooth Criminal" on black cellos, in a bar/battle scene kind of atmosphere. I will post the video as soon as I figure out how to do so. Their album will be my next iTunes purchase.

3) cool musician websites: Rock Ridge Music-Sister Hazel's website, and Josh Groban's official website. Both contain blogs, free music samples, and cool videos when you sign up for their fan sites.

I think that's it for today, so I'm going to sign off & start researching how to post all the links. Ciao for now.