Mid January
Harmonium, dissected
2010 has been surprisingly busy so far. The harmonium restoration has proved to be a much larger task than initially estimated- so far I have cleaned the rust and gunk from all of the key posts, replaced the balance rail felts, and lubed the keys so that the action is quite smooth. I still have some structural work to do on the cabinet and the bellows mechanism, which is literally a system of 1×2′s pivoting on dowels. The work is slow, but I’ve got to keep at it, as I’ve already committed the instrument to a gig.
Also with the new year, I started teaching trumpet lessons. Things are going well at this early stage- in addition to looking forward to helping some folks enjoy the instrument, I stand to learn a lot about clearly communicating musical ideas. Having dug into the new generation of trumpet lesson books (my favorite is Arturo Sandoval’s Method), I have already found myself rethinking my own approach to practicing and playing.
My old friend and former bandmate (Magic City- Madison, WI) Pete Surla and I have begun a film scoring and TV licensing music project. It’s quite fun so far- we spontaneously create one song per session with an emphasis on ear worms and catchy hooks. Over the next month or so, I will also be playing gigs with Jim Brunberg, Rachel Robinson, and the band Dirty Mittens. I’m very excited to collaborate with all of these bands’ great players. It will be quite a fun change of pace to play some intimate rooms again, and hopefully learning three band’s worth of material in the next few weeks should shake a few cobwebs out upstairs. In the meantime, this week it’s off to Northern Minnesota’s cold and snow.
