This is a contenious issue, I know, and one that has been in the news quite a bit recently.

As a musician - and has an audience member - cell phones (or other electronics) drive me nuts.  There is something about hearing a cell phone go off the middle of a concert that is particularly obnoxious, moreso (to me at least) than hear a cough, or a candy wrapper, or even the whine of a hearing aid that's turned up to 11.  Why?  First of all, cell phone rings are not subtle.  There is no graceful start of a phrase, no crescendo into it, no gentle entrance.  Instead, one is confronted with an immediate, electronic sound.  Often - at least in "classical" music concerts, and acoustic concerts in general - the sound of a cellphone is so irritating because its timbre is so different from what is being performed.  It is not "acoustic" in any traditional sense of the world - the tones, whether a simple standard "ring" or a tune like the Nokia signature ring tone, are extraordinarily synthesized sounds, played in perfect syncronisation; in other words, the total opposite of what is likely going on on stage.

The other part of the cellphone thing that bothers me is a simple lack of common courtesy.  Without turning this into a long rant on everyday manners, I firmly believe that turning off your cell phone (or at least switching it to vibrate/silent/airplane mode) is a sign of respect:  respect for the performers, who are there to do their best to entertain you with whatever skills and resources they have, and respect for the other audience members, who are there for the experience of live music.  For many people, hearing live music is still a "special occasion" - it's something different from the now more common experience of hearing music via a computer, ipod, or radio.  It's more than just listening - it's an experience, a shared time of acknowledgement that music and art is a important part of life.  It's also an escape - a chance to retreat from every day details, from stresses, from jobs, from communication with the outside world.  Hearing a cell phone ring, especially in the middle of a quite piece, which Murphy's law says is when it's mostly likely to happen, can take much of that away in an instant, and it can never quite be brought back.

(I should note too that ringing cell phones aren't the only way of distracting both audience and performers.  TorQ played a concert recently where a photographer was so intent on getting good photos of us that she continually stood in front of audience members - who were seated - and took multiple photos in a row with full flash from about 10 feet away during the performance.  They then proceeded to look through the photos that were taken on their nice digital camera.  As well as causing a distracting glow, every time she viewed another photo, there was a small beeping sound.  Needless to say, there were more than a few people at intermission who suggested to the photographer that perhaps they'd taken enough pictures by that point.)

In any case, the question for the perfomer is:  how do you deal with these distractions?  Many distractions just require you to plow through as best as possible, and not acknowledge it (thereby trying to minimize its distractive power).  If the setting is more informal, sometimes it's possible to make light of it, to make everyone feel a little more relaxed.  Sometimes, if the distraction is extreme, it might be necessary to stop the performance entirely (not a fun thing for performers or audience members, surely).

Perhaps the most creative response, however, is shown in the video below.  Lukas Kmit, a Slovakian violist, heard the Nokia ringtone during his concert and improvised a response.  Though he's clearly annoyed, it was an incredibly classy response to a less-than-classy interruption.

I have an iPhone, and I know many of my friends and colleagues have smart phones too.  They are fantastic devices for doing work on the go, for entertainment, and for feeling connected.  But please, turn off those ringers before going into any performance that doesn't involve thousands of watts of amplified sound!

-jamie

It seems like January has barely begun and already we are heading back out on tour.  This time we are traveling across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, then back to Alberta for a few shows.  All told we'll be playing about 15 full length concerts, as well as some school performances, workshops, and a masterclass at Brandon University.  For listings of all the concerts, check out the schedule page.  This tour is under the auspices of Prairie Debut, organized by the indefatigable Lynne Bailey.  The woman is a ball of energy, in the best possible way.  She doesn't know it but she's definitely in the running for the (so far fictional) position of "TorQ Road Manager".  We owe a huge amount of thanks to her, and to the Canada Council for the Arts, who have provided financial support for this tour.

Normally I would not be a fan of this slightly crazy warm winter that we're having, but given that at this time last year we were in Fort Frances, ON, and it was -42C, I'll take it.  If it's getting up to 0C during the day in Alberta for the next few weeks, I'm okay with that!

We'll be posting more-frequent-than-usual updates from the road about our travels, probably every couple of days or so, right here on this blog.  So swing by every once in a while and follow along, won't you?

In other news, we just received some pictures from our November performance at the COC - you can check them out here.  For those of you who haven't seen a concert, it gives you another idea of the sort of thing you might expect.  (Don't mind the scrawny mustaches - we were participating in Movember after all!)

enjoy!

-jamie

As this year ends and a new one begins, we look forward to the adventure that awaits. We will be sending out a newsletter soon to update you on our upcoming events, but in the mean time, I thought I would recap my favourite moments from the past year.

Top 10 reasons I love playing with TorQ Percussion Quartet for the 2011 season

10) TorQ performed in over 60 educational institutions throughout Ontario and only missed/rescheduled one show because of a snow day.

9) We saw three moose (mice/meece?) on our way to Sioux Lookout for our Northern Ontario tour.

8) We enjoyed the excited expression on Dan’s face when he found out that he finally had a reason to purchase a toy piano for our first (and hopefully not last) collaboration with the Toy Piano Composers.

7) We were very fortunate to record our second album with the super-talented Mark Wright and Ray Dillard, and we managed to break only one low C marimba bar.

6) Our second promotional DVD and Yamaha Artist Poster shoot was completed by the incredibly talented Empty Cup Media. Carla and Colin also joined us in some amazing poutine as a celebration meal for a long and productive day.

5) We performed in the world premiere of Spiral Notebook, and managed to show up to the concert without any marimba bars.* note to self: check the gear list before your leave the studio :)

4) One word: DIAC! (For those who do not know what this is: it is an incredible 9-day integrated arts camp where we teach and perform. Every year we walk away with amazing memories)

3) We were honoured to share the stage with NEXUS for Reich’s Drumming, AND play Ligeti’s monster work for quartet and mezzo-soprano with Krisztina Szabo. This was all done without killing each other in rehearsals leading up to it, although we did enjoy/deserve/self medicate with the fine scotch selections at the Highlander Pub afterwards.

2) We learned to say our show in French for a month long tour of Quebec and eastern Ontario. We definitely enjoyed some good poutine and local beers to sooth our stresses. (I’m sensing a theme here…)

1)  Adam, Jamie and Dan are incredible musicians, roadies, drivers, webpage designers, composers, bookkeepers, managers, and most of all friends

Best wishes for the new year,

Rich

As we are well into the holiday season, this tends to be a fairly busy time for musicians. A time where those final band concerts and community Messiah's help us get through the year and buy that very special something for that very special someone. However, the rest of the year can be somewhat unfair to most young players. Students and colleagues alike often ask me: "how do I get work?"

I don't really I have an answer per se, just a few simple rules I tell anyone who asked. The question really depends on what do you want to get work doing? Speaking purely from a percussionist point of view, we are luckier in the sense, that we have a few more options than other instrumentalists. For instance, we have the ability to play drum set, perhaps for a band or musical. We also can play in an Orchestra, Wind Ensemble or Brass Band, world music ensembles or accompanying dance classes. We are lucky, that we have a large variety of instruments that circle a plethora of opportunities. The hardest part for any instrumentalist isn't always being able to play their instrument; it's finding a place to play. 

I once discussed my future as a percussionist with my old professor Russell Hartenberger. Besides being completely humiliated on my part, it was a very good eye opener. I was very green and eager to get in a very intelligent comment into the conversation, so, without any hesitation I said, "it's who you know!" to which Russell replied, "Well, actually, it's who knows you"

At this point in my career, I couldn't agree more.

Without divulging into a very lengthy, boring and most likely debatable blog about how to win the game of a freelance musician, I really just want to pass on a few points to ponder.

1) When it comes to you moving to a new country or city, or school, or even a new direction you're taking your music, ask yourself: "does anyone know I'm here?" Most likely they don't, and it's ok to let them know you're around.

2) Believe in your art and what you want to make of it. Not everything always has to be the "norm" for you to be successful. People are inspired by, respect and even envy people who are so obviously passionate about their craft.

3) Never say no to any opportunity...EVER! This is great advice my father (also a musician) told me. There is no substitute for on the job training. You may also learn something you never would of otherwise, or be exposed to. For you younger musicians, it is more than likely you will be called for gigs in community organizations that wont pay. These are the opportunities you can't pay enough for. You have the rest of your life to make money, but you're not going to do it if you don't feel comfortable showing up to a professional gig to a roomful of strangers, and nervous as hell and having to play your very best. These circumstances can either make you as a player, or cost you those big gigs.

Finally, I want to pass on three pieces of literature that I think are beneficial to any freelance musician, of any age.

1) "My So-Called Freelance Life" by Michelle Goodman

2) http://mashable.com/2011/12/19/freelance-raise-rates/ an article by Nellie Akalp outlining that you should respect your craft and what you do, and not be afraid to be paid for it. (Or give yourself a raise) A good follow up to the previous book. Also the article that inspired this blog (Thanks Rich)

3) "The Artist Guide to Success in the Music Business" by Loren Wiseman. Perfect for any ensemble, or solo artist to really take an introspective look at what you are creating and to make decisions that best suit your intentions and outcome.

Thank you very much for your time, please keep in mind that all this information is coming someone who has been there, but more importantly, who is still there.

Have a wonderful holiday and a very safe and happy New Year.

-Dan

December is typically a busy time of year for musicians.  Seems that anyone who has anything do to with music throughout the year wants to have some sort of holiday concert/celebration/extravaganza.  I think it's great - it's another example of how music brings people together during important occasions, helps them mark milestones, and generally enlivens their spirits even moreso than usual.  Music has become an important part of holiday traditions - Christian, Jewish, secular - and even if you argue that not all of it is "good music" (one only has to hear the Christmas muzak that is playing in malls this time of year), most people would (I think) find the season vastly poorer without any of it.

There are a lot of musicians who, truthfully, don't enjoy playing seasonal/Christmas music.  I am not of them.  I love Christmas concerts, maybe because percussionists typically get all the fun parts.  I have always loved playing Handel's Messiah, and as far as I'm concerned, timpanists have the best gig for that piece.  (We play precisely two movements of the entire three-plus-hour work - we don't even have to go on stage until after intermission - and get paid the same as the violinists who play roughly 167,254 notes throughout the performance.)  Usually when I play Messiah I will bring a choral score along with me and, for the rehearsals at least, sing along to the movements in which I'm not playing.  It's such an incredible piece of music, and I'm always happy to get a chance to play it.

Leroy Anderson's famed Sleighride is another holiday chestnut that I look forward to every year.  There are some great parts in that piece - nothing overly note-y or technical, but fun and important licks.  The whip part is classic, and I've lost count of the number of times I've seen people play those notes in the wrong place.  Not sure what it is about that part, but there's something that must have to do with holding a wooden whip or slapstick that causes people to forget how to count bars of rest or something.  The video below is a stellar performance, and worth watching if for nothing else than the facial expression of the gentleman pictured below.  [Edit: it was pointed out to me that the gentleman below is, of course, the great Tom Gauger - didn't even recognize him!  Sorry, Tom.]

Finally, I love playing the more traditional Christmas music.  There are lots of beautiful hymns that get played this time of year, some of which have had stunning arrangements (or rearrangements) written.  It's amazing what a couple of harmonic changes can do to add tension and release to a well-known song - just have a listen to the last verse of this David Willcocks arrangement of Hark the Herald Angels Sing.  Christmas is also the time that everyone brings out the organ and brass arrangements in full force.  There is nothing quite like some full bass stops on an organ to shake the foundations of a room - even a good solid bass drum can't top that! 

Sadly I don't get to play any Christmas music this year as I'm splitting most of December between playing TorQ School Concerts (and of course our album release a few days ago) and a panto show (a type of stylized musical comedy, sort of in a vaudeville vein).  So for everyone out there playing holiday music this year, enjoy! I'll be thinking of my fellow percussionists everytime I hear some sleighbells.

-jamie

Last Thursday, TorQ performed at the Four Seasons Centre for their Noon hour concert series. Each concert always has some sort of title and short description primarily for advertisement and enticement to draw the downtown crowd of Toronto. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s gets us thinking about programming way in advance to an actual show. It brought up an interesting discovery about our programming for this specific performance. TorQ hasn’t really done much in the way of “themed” concerts, where the pieces are all linked together with a common thread, but we’ve certainly done a lot of concerts that had a collective end goal. For example, a program entirely of world premiers, or an evening of improvised music. This concert however was a first for us in that it was focused on a single, common theme; a program of acoustic music inspired by electronic music. More appropriately, the composers on the program had spent a significant amount of their careers creating, and offering their music through an electrical idiom. It was through the comparison of their electronic music and their acoustic music that came after, that we saw so many similarities in content and style. The most interesting thing I found with programming this concert in particular is that this music was already in our repertoire and we made the association afterwards.

 The program included Pattern Transformations by Lukas Ligeti, Threads by Paul Lanksy, What to do ‘till the Power Comes On by Ann Southam and a new piece I wrote called Thrown from a Loop.

My piece is the exception of what I mentioned earlier, Thrown from a Loop was specifically written for this concert, with the theme in mind. I have no background in electronic music to begin with, but have always been fascinated by the use of FX and Loop pedals. I tried to recreate some of those ideas here. The opening section deals entirely upon a digital delay effect wherein everyone has the same material, but is off set by either a 16^th, 8^th, or dotted 8^th note duration. The piece also deals quite a bit in looping and pattern music, which can be seen in the second section. I was greatly inspired by Radiohead’s “Kid A” and “Ok Computer” albums (which were the first to incorporate heavy use of computer technology), I sampled bits of their loops used and in numerous variations, laid them overtop of each other. The idea of looping and delay is revisited in the final section where the marimbas perform patterns in the same vein as Steve Reich, but the vibraphones play bell like chords, one echoing the other with the same melodic material, creating a composite melody.

I will be attaching a video of my piece as soon as it’s ready!

-Dan

As I write this, TorQ is about halfway through teaching a fall class at the University of Toronto.  Technically it's Christos Hatzis' class, called "Composing for Percussion", but he has graciously asked us to co-teach it with him.  (We did this once before, in 2008, but with 22 students in the class and us trying to play everyone's pieces each week, it was one of the most insane - yet ultimately rewarding - experiences of which I've ever been a part.  We enjoyed a few of the pieces so much that we decided to record them on our first album.)

This year the class is the perfect size:  11 people, all graduate students, all committed to learning something (as opposed to committed to taking the required courseload of classes, which can often happen with undergrads).  This is an amazing space to be in for us:  a room bursting with ideas, questions, suggestions, opinions.  Often there is a difference of opinion between us and Christos as to the answer of some questions about notation or technique or ensemble; sometimes that difference of opinion occurs even between members of TorQ.  But that's why I love it:  everyone thinks, considers, questions, challenges. 

The "challenge" aspect is one of my favourite things about commissioning composers to write works for TorQ.  As part of this course, all the composers involved have to write two works for us, the first centred around non-pitched instruments and the second around marimba, vibes and other mallet instruments.  It's a challenge for them:  not in terms of their ability as composers per se (having heard works written for other instruments by some of these guys I'm excited to see what we'll end up with) but because they are writing music for instruments with which they are, for the most part, unfamiliar, despite us giving them as much information as we can think of.  We've spent most of our lives playing these instruments, and the personalized way we approach them is something we've each developped over years of training (formal and otherwise).  How can you explain to someone in a couple of hours, once a week, exactly the different sounds you can get out of a marimba or different ways of phrasing on a vibraphone or small technique subtleties of playing cajón?  It's difficult, to be sure.  That's one challenge for us.  But for me it's a good and important one:  it makes me think about - and put into words - a lot of things that I have internalized so much that they feel like instinct.  It prods me to bring the unconcious into the realm of the conscious.

The composers for their part meet us in this process by challenging us.  As Christos has said more than once:  "Most percussionists write music by starting with inspirational sounds, and figuring out structure as they go.  Most composers write music by starting with structure, and figuring out sounds as they go."  This dichotomy means that composers approach the class in a different way and in turn approach the instruments a different way.  Rather than starting with sounds that we show them, they sometimes ask, "Can you get *this* sound?  What sound do you get if you use this beater in this way?  Can you change that technique to make it sound heavier/lighter/shorter/longer/duller/brighter?"  Because of a lack of familiarity with what is standard and accepted and comfortable and conventional, they ask us to expand our horizons, technically and musically.  And if a challenge like that is offered up in the spirit of creating beautiful/interesting/engaging/unique new music, then it's one I'll happily take on.

-jamie