Below you can find various categories representing some of the things I’ve done. These include drumming, conducting, playing/teaching various other instruments, singing, and producing electronic music.
Some examples of my drumming:
A recording I did with the band Heathcote Hill
and a live video with the same band, from a show at NYC’s legendary venue, The Bitter End:
An unusual cover of a Jackson 5 Song with some fellow School of Rock teachers
A playlist of videos from my undergraduate senior recital
Some drumset teaching videos…
Conducting
Some other instruments
Piano
Playing some brass instruments
Teaching my wife the trombone
For an assignment in my brass practicum class at NYU, I taught my wife (then fiancé) a beginner trombone lesson. Below, you can view the lesson plan I wrote in preparation, the video of the lesson, and my reflection on the lesson afterwards.
Reflection on the lesson:
Thursday, October 31st, 2019
Trombone Lesson Reflection
I feel that I generally met my objectives for this lesson. My pupil was my fiance, Marisa, who, without much musical experience since playing percussion in her high school band more than a decade ago, managed to hold the trombone correctly, buzz off and on the mouthpiece, then on the instrument including multiple pitches – one of which was matched to a reference pitch, and the other two of which exposed her to a basic experience of the two ways in which the pitch of the instrument can be manipulated – i.e. with the slide and with the lips (the latter of which was an extension rather than a main objective). One improvement I could have made would have been to slow down a bit, demonstrating how to put together the instrument first, then taking it apart and having her do it. Ultimately, while she has an idea of the parts of the instrument and how to put them together, demonstrating first would have re-oriented me towards the task, allowing me to eliminate the possibility for confusion or inaccuracy in my instructions. Demonstrating first would have also given her a visual reference before doing it herself and given her an experience of assembly twice rather than once (once seeing it and once doing it), thereby strengthening the concept even more. This improvement also underscores a broader point about the importance of doing what I teach as much as possible. Also, when preparing for a lesson, I should be sure that the tools I intend to use during the lesson are actually available for the intended purpose. Because I was using my phone to film the lesson, I wasn’t able to use the app I had intended to use for a pitch reference. Luckily I had my iPad nearby with working internet so that I could easily pull up a virtual piano on the web (another good thing to remember – have a backup). However, the point remains that I should ensure that my lesson materials aren’t being used for something other than the function for which I need them.
Playing some double bass
I spent most of my strings practicum learning some double bass, which was fun. I also had the chance to try out violin, viola, and cello but don’t have video of that. The videos below show me playing some scales and arpeggios, as well as a walking bass line. Beneath the videos, you can find feedback based on the videos, written in bullet points, that I might give myself if I were my own student.
Reflection/Self-feedback
G Major
- Nice job staying with the metronome
- Try to catch more with the bow on the low G
- Nice job adjusting your intonation on E (la). Keep working on hitting that note right away.
C Major
- Watch your intonation on the high C – don’t shift so far. It’s going sharp.
- Spend some time just practicing the arpeggio
- Nice job again staying with the metronome
D Major
- Keep working on your intonation during the shift
- Again, nice job staying with the metronome
Walking
- Keep working on getting this fully in time and try to speed it up a little once you do.
- Make sure you’re playing along with something – a loop or a metronome – at least some of the time
- Nice save going from the D string to the E string halfway through. Your intonation was a little off on a couple of notes but fairly solid overall. Keep paying attention to that as you go
A (vocal) portfolio within a portfolio
Using Google Sites, I created an ePortfolio for my Vocal Practicum Class at NYU. It includes videos of my singing, as well as reflections I wrote for the class. I copied it into a separate page on this website which you can access by clicking here
Some electronic music I’ve made (and analyzed)
For discussions of these tracks, as well as some other topics written about for my music technology practicum, check out the blog posts on my related Tumblr