What the Musician in the Middle of Nowhere Does in His Spare Time

This summer, my music partner Scott B. Adams and I released our latest CD “Country Roads…Beaten Paths”. You can find more information on that at http://www.orchardbeat.com/

Also, this summer, my wife and I built a goat shed, and fenced in the grazing yard for them. This took about 3 weeks to complete. We also re-covered our hoop house. This is what it looks like:

 
It was suggested to me, a long time ago, that I should develop interests in something other than music, just so I didn’t dissolve into a one-dimensional person. Through the years, I found an interest in the Civil War, and consequently discovered that I had two relatives who were wounded at the battle of Gettysburg. I began following baseball again; I had played as a kid and have always loved the game, and now I try to attend a major league game every other year as a vacation.

Another hobby of mine is collecting sci-fi space from the 50s and 60s. The black and white are the more desirable, but the whole pre-Star Wars genre is extremely entertaining. I have over 125 titles now. I found that watching the Flash Gordon serials from around 1940 was very enlightening when I heard that it was the model that George Lucas used. Watching Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope” in black and white gave it an entirely fresh look. You should try it sometime.

When I need a break from all that, I revert to my collection of Marx Brothers movies. I can watch them over and over again and they still make me laugh out loud. Or I lose myself in one of the novels of Charles Dickens, one of my all-time favorite authors.

Between my guitar teaching, my church position as Music Ministry Associate and my occasional performing and recording, I get to do a lot of music. But sometimes, just hanging out with the chickens and the goats is very relaxing. Here’s a video of our youngest goat Ruby “helping” me work on the goat barn.

BEST OF TIMES

Charles Dickens was not a musician. You might have already been aware of that little piece of trivia. The fact is, though, that Dickens had a very musical ear. He also had an incredibly cinematic imagination, which is all the more amazing since the motion picture camera wasn’t invented until 25 years after his death!! [FYI: Louis Lumiere is often credited as inventing the first motion picture camera in 1895.]

So what’s all this got to do with the Musician in the Middle of Nowhere??

Over the years, I have read all the novels of Dickens (there’s around 30 of them), and am now reading through them all again, along with a lot of extra material, such as the travel books, short stories, magazine articles, etc. And as I was reading, I noticed several passages that would make terrific texts for music. So I started to extract them, adapt them, and versify them. The result is that I have composed a set of seven choral pieces (SATB) with piano accompaniment that I am putting under the general title of “The Best of Times”.

The seven passages are from The Old Curiosity Shop, American Notes (2), Pictures of Italy, Martin Chuzzelwit, A Christmas Carol and (of course) A Tale of Two Cities.

I didn’t plan on a rendezvous with any particular event, but the odd fact is that 2012 will be the 200th anniversary of Dickens’ birth. It’s a nice way to celebrate one of my favorite authors.

Here are a couple of pages from “A Small Tyranny” (taken from the first chapter of Martin Chuzzelwit)

My First Composition

The first thing I ever wrote was a very (very) short piano piece called “The Robin’s Song”. Chances are that I was inspired by all that wonderful music in the Schaum piano method books; I think I only ever made it to Book B (I know the series went at least up to G). Anyway, I was 8 years old and riding in the back seat of the family car. I had a small notepad with me and I began by drawing music staff lines. Adding a g clef, I started to pen (or pencil) my master opus. The whole song lasts about 20 seconds. Frankly it isn’t very good, but it’s a first, and I still have that original sheet of paper.

Instead of laughing at it, my parents were quite excited that I had written musical notes of my own choosing. They always encouraged me, and I hope that I am passing that along to my students and friends.

Encouragement--pass it on.

GUITAR BOOKS

Along with recording more music than even I can usually remember, I’ve written quite a lot of instructional material to make learning the guitar easier…and fun. Titles include:

• 
  The Chord Chart Guitar Method


• A Complete Explanation of The Circle of Fifths


• The Un-dreaded Barre Chord


• Unlocking The Upper Neck


• Stuck in a Rut


• Writing for the Guitar
  
  The underlying purpose of all these books is Practical Theory. Too many guitar books either over-explain, or under-explain the operation of music theory in regards to the guitar. With concise text, plus a lot of musical examples and songs, these books can be a terrific help to the guitar hobbyist, or to the professional musician
  
  All these titles, along with a lot more information on each, can be found on my website athttp://www.rasely.com/book.htm and can be ordered through Paypal. They’re all well worth the price (if I do say so myself!).

FREE ON THE FIRST, "Six Days"

March's free download is called "Six Days" and is a fingerstyle piece with a bluesy feel. Enjoy it and share it with your friends.http://www.youpublish.com/tomrasely

My guitar buddy, Bill Cooley

Bill Cooley is not a household name...unless you happen to live at Bill Cooley’s house…or at Kathy Mattea’s house. Kathy Mattea is one of the truly great musical artists whose voice lends itself to a variety of musical styles. From “18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses” to “Where Have You Been?” to her provocative CD “Coal”, her constant musical companion has been lead guitarist Bill Cooley.

I met Bill on the forum at http://www.guitarnotes.com/ and it turns out that we not only share a love of guitar playing, we share a birthday. We also share that birthday with Jimmy Page and Les Paul!! That’s all “good company”.

Bill has released several CDs of his own music that deserve attention. You can find out more at http://www.billcooleymusic.com/

On Writing Music

I write to task. I seldom sit down and write something just because I think I should, although my string quartet would probably fall into this latter category. I write with a specific performance in mind, a particular set of lyrics or idea, a deadline. Because of this I have never experienced what is known as “writer’s block”.

My composition teacher at SUNY Fredonia (NY), Walter Hartley, once said about writing, “If you are a composer, you will pick a note to start on. If you are a really good composer, you will choose a second note and it will be the Right Note.” It took me over 10 years to understand this. What he was saying is that the second note is “right” not only because it leads from the first note, but it also leads to the third note. That’s what makes it so difficult.

When writing a vocal piece, I try to let the words sing for themselves. Words are very lyrical, very melodic, if you know how to listen. This also does not happen overnight.
You can check out some of my music on http://www.cdbaby.com/rasely

Standing out by blending in

Usually a Musician in the Middle of Nowhere works hard at standing out from the crowd--honing his craft to be the best musician he can be, staying in the public eye and ear, being innovative and keeping the music fresh.

Sometimes blending in can be a great way to stand out. Working with local business owners, being a part of the local arts scene, being available to help other artists--these are all good ways to be a stand out in your community.

Here's an artist who has given new meaning to "blending in" and has thereby developed a stand out style:


http://v1kram.posterous.com/liu-bolinthe-invisible-man