The Oracle of Apollo
Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

I haven’t posted here in over four months. Every so often, I look at the list of items I’ve thrown in my post-about queue, get discouraged, and decide to figure out a catch up schedule some other time. I’ll take this opportunity to recap the last four months and, if I get around to filling in the gap, everyone act surprised, okay?

January:

I went to MacWorld Expo, which was really fun, because I got to meet Seth, whose rides in the Pan-Mass Challenge I sponsor annually. [He's riding again this year, so I'll be donating again very soon and I hope some of you do, too.]

I got wet in Half Moon Bay with my friend, Ozreiuosn, in Sea Kayaking II, which taught me more skills in the cockpit. I think I’m going to have to take that class again, though. My confidence level in the kayak isn’t where I’d like it to be before moving on to Surf Zone, a class that teaches us how to navigate the breaks.

At the end of the month, I accidentally deleted the home directory of my computer in a move so stupid that it’ll probably be commemorated on postage stamps 100 years from now. Sadly, I lost all the music I’ve written in the last eight years, although the data recovery people managed to recover a bunch of my files. Soon, I’ll try to recover the music up until last September from my old 12″ PowerBook’s hard drive.

February:

I spent an inordinate amount of time going to parties in February, trying to find my missing groove. Found some of it, lost some of it, still working on some of it. Worked on building some idea about what I’m doing.

March:

I started the process of developing a musical practice routine that will have me mastering my instruments by my 40th birthday, at least enough to play in public. To that end, I started buying some new instruments, starting with a virtually brand new Jupiter flute. My major instrument in college was the flute and if I had this Jupiter 14 years ago, I’d have my degree in music. I can’t believe how beautiful every note sounds on it. Following in the next four weeks, I got a clarinet, an alto clarinet, a bass clarinet, and a tenor saxophone. We’ll see which of these I master and which of these I end up restoring and eBaying.

Later in the month, I developed a fairly annoying case of Labyrinthitis toward the end of the month, which kept me dizzy and in bed for a week. After that, I jumped on a plane and flew to take my children on a road trip. First, we were going to go to Yellowstone, but the day after I landed in Idaho, the Intermountain West acquired a blizzard. So, we headed west instead and explored Portland, Astoria, and found the End of the Oregon Trail. Road trips are always fun.

April:

I’ve been studying my jazz theory rabidly. I’ve also just this week come down with a throat infection that has stopped my practice routine for the time being, at least until it’s cleared up. I’m on antibiotics now and hope to try out the new (to me) horns and mouthpieces I’ve recently acquired. And then, on with the music.

I’m going to try to update this site more frequently. Again, I may fill in the gaps, or I may just aim forward and keep marching. We’ll see.

I’m engaged in a project to master my woodwinds to an even greater extent than I was playing, when I practiced every day in college on several instruments. I wasn’t focused enough in music school on performance and acquiring a high level of mastery, even on the flute (my primary instrument). I didn’t apply any discipline at all to the piano or my other main instruments, the saxophone family and clarinets.

So, I’m building a schedule of practice that ramps up from nonmusicianship to a steady course of focused and disciplined practice that will get my speed, accuracy, agility, tone, rhythm, and intonation back into shape. Adding to this is a laser-focused review of jazz theory and composition, including in-depth studies of harmony, chord progressions, and rhythmic aspects of bebop, post-bop, and modal jazz phrasing. This includes lots of scales, patterns, and exercises.

I certainly have practice sessions that last a couple of hours and involve playing through a bunch of tunes from my large collection of Aebersold Play-Along Sets. Most of the time when I’m doing that, I don’t apply any kind of discipline to any particular tune. I blow through the head a couple of times and play a solo for a chorus or so, then move on to the next tune on the CD, which doesn’t get me on the road to proficiency in the music.

I’m committed to being ready to perform at a high level by my 40th birthday. Unfortunately, that doesn’t give me much time. It’s time to review my workflow and craft a GTD methodology for music practice. Applying my obsessive geek powers to this project will allow me to achieve my musical goals and allow all of you to utter that much sought-after sentence, “I knew him when…”

Yeah, I’ve been really horny this month. Really horny. I have purchased, like, five new horns off eBay in the last month or so. Horns galore!

What did I get? Here we go:

Jupiter flute in C. My major instrument in college was flute. I’m trying to build my jazz chops again and that means retiring (or reserving it for beach parties and the like) my Bundy student model flute. If you have to fight your horn, get a better horn. The Jupiter has aggressive action and a big bold sound that proclaims its jazzability in a very decisive manner.

Selmer clarinet in B♭. I haven’t owned a clarinet in some time, since I gave my sister’s clarinet away to someone in my family. I really have to practice sight reading in the chalumeau register, because the clarinet overblows by an octave and a fifth (the saxophone and flute overblow an octave). Getting through the neck is tricky for me, like many novices or out-of-shapers, and avoiding the squawk as I land on B natural in the clarion register is going to take some practice.

Bundy alto clarinet in E♭. I played the alto clarinet in a couple of ensembles in college, here and there. I got this because I’d been sniped on two bass clarinets in a row and the alto clarinet is on the road. Besides, it’s in E♭. Having horns in different keys is good for learning tunes in all twelve keys.

Tenor saxophone in B♭. This is the big daddy. She’s shiny and pretty and it’s been too long since I rocked out on tenor. This was the fourth tenor I bid on, after snipers took three of them in a row in the last 15 seconds of the auctions. Horns are very competitive on eBay. I got this after I overbid the top bidder by $150 with 90 seconds left in the auction. I got it for $7 more than I had bid on it an hour earlier. Yay for wins!

Pedler bass clarinet in B♭. Again, the fourth bass clarinet I bid on. The previous three were sniped like the tenors, mainly by instrument resellers. Finally, I got this one and I’m really looking forward to getting it. I loved playing bass clarinet in ensembles in college and it’s going to be nice to own the first one of my life. This wood-bodied instrument is sure to blow me out of the sky.

Yay for horniness!