Laurel Black Music

It's been a busy first half of the month so far. Though summer isn't technically upon us, there's something about the month of June that makes it a month for personal projects. Perhaps it's because my entire life has been attached to an academic calendar, or perhaps it's because it's a month where there's typically more nice than dreary weather - either way, the first half of this selfish month has been a total joy. New Article It's been out for a little while, but you can read "Developing Kinesthetic Awareness: A Guide to Mindset, Explorations, and Wrists - Part 2" in this month's Rhythm! Scene .  Find it on page 14! TAPS East Coast By now there's evidence on social media that TAPS East Coast was a blast, both as a human and as a musician.  Held at the New England Music Camp (NEMC) at Snow Pond, the setting was nothing short of breathtaking.  The faculty were housed in cabins, the students in the new dorm, and our acti...

There aren't many other calming moments than the tranquil, blank mental space that accompanies those first few days at the end of the school year.  Suddenly there is so much time , assuming we can stop feeling exhausted. Time can be our friend or our enemy in terms of our practice.  In preparations for TAPS East Coast, which starts this weekend, I find myself examining my thoughts about practice.  Since many of us are now in a limbo stage, somewhere between relaxed and feeling guilty about it, I'm hoping we can bond over these ideas. Playing Cold – Some people warm up, some don’t.  Though some rep doesn’t require it, if we’re coming in from cold weather, just woken up, playing after a multi-week break, or about to run a complicated recital program, we have to warm up.  Cold muscles don’t move as well, which means the work goes elsewhere, like the tendons. Cram Practicing – Sometimes life only gives us 2 weeks to prep a half recital, but if there...

If there's anything more frustrating than moving a marimba, it's moving a marimba and realizing you've lost a felt or two.  Disappeared - like socks in the dryer.  Though I've been known to use a hair tie in a last-minute situation, I took 20 minutes this morning to make my own felts - 55, to be exact! That's what - less than 30 seconds each?!  Here's how I did it. Supplies - one piece of black felt ($0.40 at Michael's) - ruler - sewing machine (needle and thread works, too, but will take longer)  The brand of felt I found is called Creatology. Here's the label: Instructions 1. Remove a felt from the marimba to take some measurements.  I've found that most are really similar in size, but measure to be sure.   This one is one inch long on the folded edge, 7/8" wide. You'll also want to measure from the fold to the first row of stitching, if there is some visible.  This one is 5/8". You'll want ...

TAPS, ya'll. TAPS made me not hate excerpts. For those that know me, this is a huge deal. Let me explain. My undergraduate education began with assignments of only snare drum, and almost exclusively excerpts.  If you're looking for a way to get rid of a student, I suggest this route.  Not only was I not yet mature enough to have the focus and discipline to learn these, but they were killing my motivation to practice. I wanted  to practice; I was desperate to learn.  Sure, my buzz rolls got pretty good, but I hated the rest of it. I dreaded practice, which as we all know, really sucks. Luckily, my ornery side kicked in and I just started learning marimba pieces in my own time, so the music student was saved!  But that first semester of school has never left me.  Since then, any time a person mentions excerpts, I cringe.  With less self control I'd act like Michael from The Office. In grad school, the quickest way to get me to leave a room wa...

Tendons are like a muscle's alter ego: a superhero that manages to somehow make sure every scenario ends up ok, regardless of villainous plots.  They have undeniable strength, can hold on to just about anything, and save just about anyone. Like Superman and Clark Kent, tendons aren't separate from muscles. They are simply two kinds of soft tissue, gently converging to form one shape.  In a way, one without the other is functionless. Both are needed to form a cohesive whole. Any time a muscle attaches to a bone, a tendon forms the literal connection. Take a look at the diagram below. There's a tendon - drawn here in white - at each end of the bicep and tricep. Though it might be oversimplified to the MD's and DO's out there, each muscle in the body has a tendon at each end to anchor it to the skeleton. What is exceptional about the wrist is the number of highly active tendons running through such a small space.  Not only are there tendons for the wrist,...

Hi, friends! As announced last week, here is the first of two articles to appear in Rhythm! Scene , the online publication of PAS.  You can find my contribution on pages 18 and 19. Rhythm! Scene is edited by  @ percussion 's own Megan Arns. If you aren't the reading type, you can check out the demonstration video that accompanies the article below. I take you through some discovery exercises about how it really feels to move the wrist in different ways. Thanks for reading, everybody. More body info coming your way soon :)

Cool things are in the works, everybody. Publications I'm excited to let you know that I'll have two articles coming out in Rhythm! Scene : one in April, the other in June.  It's a two-parter about developing kinesthetic awareness and applying that knowledge to our wrists.   In the April issue: developing a kinesthetic mindset, discovery exercises for kinesthetic awareness, and discussion of two stabilizing ligaments in the wrist. In the June issue: tendons, common injuries, and a kinesthetic checklist to help avoid them. TAPS - June 6-12, 2016 This June yours truly will be part of the faculty at the Ted Atkatz Percussion Seminar (TAPS) on the East Coast at the Snow Pond Music Festival.  The seminar takes place in beautiful central Maine and it isn't too late to submit an audition tape.  Here are the guidelines .  TAPS is for college students looking to develop excerpts, audition skills, and musicality.  Several TAPS alumni have b...