and ONE MORE THING......!

1. If you are interested in how albums are recorded and you have some time Thursday afternoon / Friday afternoon [May 10-11, 2012], swing on over to

http://presonus.com/community/presonuslive/

from Noon - 6pm Eastern time

Presonus is Livecasting the recording session for the latest SwampGrease 2 with Terence Higgins in New Orleans. It's some really good funk played by real professionals, and the audio is EXCELLENT coming downstream - you can really hear what's going on.

It's a chance to see what a session looks like.

2. The recordings we did in class are now available for listening and downloading at this site:

http://www.last.fm/music/Tom+Rule/Music+Appreciation+Experiments

Enjoy!

Final Words for Spring 2012

Some final thoughts - it's a bit of a tradition.

In no particular order:

1. Final Listening: #1 was the Little Organ Fugue by JS Bach. Baroque. It was amazing how many wrote about a harpsichord. It was an ORGAN!
2. Final Listening #2: Duke Ellington, C Jam Blues. Jazz, of course.
3. FInal Listening #3: Zwilich Concerto Grosso 1985, so 20th Century. A quotation piece that uses a theme by Handel - and a HARPSICHORD....that would explain why part of it sounded Baroque.
4. FInal LIstening #4: Ravel, Romances for Saxophone: Prelude. NOT one on your CDs, adn a bit tricky. The sax meant it was probably 20th C [which it was], but it did have a Romantic-type vibe going on. There were some interesting observations.
5. Final Listening #5: Classical. Surprised? Several put that it had to be 20th C. because of the guitar and the synth buzzy sound [not a bad conclusion]. This was actually a Concerto for Mandola and Jaw Harp by Albrechtsburger [who taught Beethoven composition lessons.]
   
6. You can see what you got points for on the listening - if it was a good conclusion, I copied a word or two into the comments box. Go look at the test in WebCT to see them.
   
7. It really was an interesting semester. Thanks for making it so by participating, jumping in, etc.
8. The recording we made will be posted sometime in the next week at http://www.last.fm/music/Tom+Rule/Music+Appreciation+Experiments. You'll be able to download all of them - use them to annoy your younger siblings!
   
9. It fascinates [and aggravates] me every semester at the number of students who refuse to go to the 2 concerts. That's a whole grade and a half - and every semester I have people fail the class because they didn't go to any concerts. Amazing.
   
10. Don't forget that there is an absolute world of music out there. Get outside your little box and experience it - it's freakishly easy to find music now that you've never heard of. If you don't like it, try to figure out WHY. If you do, likewise!

Now, go forth and LISTEN!

 

An afterthought:

Speaking of listening - I was recently interviewed on AudioStyle audio magazine, which airs on the ArtistFirst network.  CLICK here to check it out.

WebCT: Almost all grades posted

Everything [except your final exam grade!] has been posted - so you can now easily see where you stand gradewise, and can play "what if" using the spreadsheet downloadable from WebCT [inside the "Start Here" folder].

Download and open the spreadsheet. Call up the gradebook on WebCT and manually type in your grades plus the points possible on the tests - and the number of absences.

The spreadsheet will calculate your grade - then change the final exam grade to see what happens to your final grade.

Then GO STUDY!