It's been a crazy few weeks with school starting....moving my materials, cleaning a set of rooms and meeting students...I need time to plan. One thing I realize: As much as I like my situation, my overall goal is still to move into a FT college teaching position. I know the money is less, but I want to teach in the jazz arena and woodwinds. That's my passion, as far as a career. I'm grateful that I get another opportunity to teach at Georgia Perimeter College this upcoming semester. This will only help in my overall goal.

I have a recital in the middle of June 2011. What I want to do is prove that saxophonist can play in both jazz and classical genres equally well. Most musicians and people that this is not possible. I think I will turn it into a woodwind recital by adding clarinet and flute for the triple whammy. I will know by the end of the month what I want to play.

Students are coming in...I want to teach more online and I'm currently pursuing/researching my options.

I haven't started recording yet...schedule conflicts and school starting. I will let you know ASAP when I start.

got to go....ttyl

If you want to check out anything related to my teaching of woodwinds, jazz or anything, I am working on a new website...saxknowledge.com

I've recently decided that I will focus more on get more gigs and getting CDs out into the marketplace. I love teaching and I will continue to work on method books and helping people achieve their goals musically; however, I want to play music...not just teach others music. This may be selfish..but I'm tired of leaving the house for not that much money on a p/t teaching gig. I don't want to spend my time running all over Atlanta teaching people and have the studio take 25-30% of my fee, deal with students not showing up,etc. I realize that's part of it; I wasn't born last night. I just believe that the other stuff will pay out more in the long run. No, it's not all about money;just tired of going to teach and no one show up. The good thing about that is that I STILL GOT PAID. I metion money because, like some of my readers, I have a family to support.


That's all for now..TTYL

The gig I had for tonight was canceled. The band didn't live up to the expectations of the owner of the restaurant. We got the gig last minute and I guess it was an audition. They wanted us to play "Mexican-Rock". On the stereo, they had salsa and other forms of Latin music. Nothing from Mexico. Even one of the workers had the nerve to say that "all Mexican music has horns". I'm not even Latino and I was offended (I probably shouldn't have taken it personally). In my mind, it's like saying that all black people listen to rap and wear their jeans half-way off their butt. It's probably a good thing we're not playing tonight. Event though we all need the money, quality time with the family is always a good thing.

This lead to the point of this entry: I understand that sometimes we have to play music we don't like or care for to get/keep a gig. However, if this is all I do in my playing career, I might as well quit now. Sell all of my gear and just teach. It goes back to not wanted to do the same things all of the time. I have to remember that these are jobs I'm playing. Unless I'm Prince or Wynton Marsalis, I have to other things to make it. It's best to smile, be polite and just do the job and go home. It works on the teaching gig; I have to apply it on the playing jobs as well.

Next Thursday, I head back to work at a new location. I'm still teaching elementary school, but in a general music position. I'm a little worried because the focus is on chorus and vocal music, which I've never taught. I have the elementary classes and I've taught elementary instrumental music. It's like I'm starting over again: New school ,staff and students. I just want to make it through the year in one piece.

I also start back at Full Sail on August 30th. It's taking 2 years to complete a 1 year program. Not because I'm a bad student...life happens: baby new job and job transfer all within 14 months. At this point, I just want to get it done and move on. Full Sail is a great school with great programs...It's been hard to focus on school with 2 kids. Now that they're on some sort of schedule, I want to get it done.

I normally don't blog about anything work related...but for this one I will make the exception.

I'll keep this as short as possible, because I don't want to dwell on it too long. The manager at one of the studios I teach at "got upset and yelled" over some miss-communication with a student. Even though mom and I worked it out, he's basically mad at me for not calling back when they called me about the student. I admit...I didn't call back. I didn't think I needed to call the studio, and I STILL think that way. In his words, "When we call, you better return the call". Then he had the nerve to threaten to get rid of me. It's funny because I'm leaving at the end of the month anyway. Here's what I've learned.

1. If you want some to email/call back, say it. Don't assume they know that.

2. In hindsight, It would have been easier to just return the call.

3. Don't take bull... from people who think they know what's going on. At this particular place, I only had 2 students total and I don't think the manager knows this. I'm leaving because It's a waste of time for me to drive 20+ minutes for a 30 min lesson. I'm not wasting my time on things like this anymore. I'd rather have 5 students who follow directions most of the time than 50 who are there because mommy made them take lessons.

4. I need to do the things that are actually beneficial to my family; running all over the city of Atlanta is not doing that.

5. When people want to go on a power trip...let them, because "what goes around comes around". If we treat people respectfully, we get treated respectfully. The reverse also happens.

We'll see what happens when school starts back in a few weeks.

Over this summer, I am working on a scale method book. The working title is "Scales and Patterns: A different way to practice". I've always felt that practicing scales are boring. In the book, I show different ways of practicing scales and different patters created from scales. I hope to have a complete product by mid-fall. The photo in this posting is a possible photo for the cover. This is a picture of my hands while playing at a gig back in May 2010. More updates to come.

Saturday night, I played a gig at Peachtree 200, which is the old Macy's building in downtown Atlanta. This gig went really well. Some developers decided to turn the building into an event center, hoping to bring life back to Downtown Atlanta. The event was the grand opening of the center. Some pretty heavyweight people were there, including Mayor Kasim Reed. Unlike the gig the previous night, things went well. Sometimes it takes having a good gig to overcome a negative one. TTYL

On Friday night, I attempted to play a solo gig at a particular restaurant. I'm not revealing names. At some solo gig, I use tracks. My PA fell apart at the gig. It was a problem that I never encountered. I figured I'll play solo for the 1st set and fix it for the 2nd set. Unfortunately, the "owner" didn't like it and I was told to cut it.

Here's what they said: Everything I played sounded the same and there were complaints. I never found out what were the complaints were. I just packed my stuff and left. FYI...It's hard to have variety with one instrument. I was also given a story about how they never had problems with equipment as long as they had live music. FYI...eventually you will have problems. Things break and have to be fixed.

For those who think I'm just B@#ching about a bad gig, I've done solo gig for over 10 years with no problems. To be honest, I think the owner wanted to have his little meeting and his people were the only ones complaining. The 10-12 customers that were there seemed to enjoy it. I also think that because it wasn't a packed house, he wanted to save some money. This is another reminder that you need contracts. Too many of us are performing without them. I know we want to play and need the money, but we have to be smart.

The only reason I'm being nice is that they did pay me for what I played. If they would have stiffed me, every musician in Atlanta would have known about it. I would be sending warnings like crazy!

My wife has helped to realize that I can't let ONE gig ruining my mood or feelings about music. I just need to move on. As some would say in the business world... SWSWSWN (some will, some won't, so what, Next!).

Lately, I have been felling that I'm just tired of the same stuff. Of course, I'm speaking musically. The same tunes..the same type of gigs, it starts to get old after a while. I'm not saying that the music is boring. I think I just want to focus on other things musically. Some of the groups that I have subbed/played with are in the same place that they were 2 years ago and I'm just tired of it. I believe that this comes from getting ready to record my own material and get that going. This also does not mean that I'm about to stop playing with other groups. I just going to start focusing on the things I want to do, lie the method books, teaching, composing/arranging and recording.

Dealing with the personalities of other band members is just irritating. The things is that I will ALWAYS have to deal with people. I have to learn to be patient with them and myself. I will spend my entire life dealing with my issues and other people. I just can't let anything bother me so much. It's easy to be an emotional wreck. I don't have to be one.