Christmas has started for me already with the KAOS rehearsal yesterday and I’ve got the first concert this evening which I’m rather looking forward to. On the trumpet side of things, the practice over the last month appears to have worked well and I got through the 3 hour rehearsal yesterday unscathed thanks to a practice mute.

I’ve been playing with a practice mute in for two reasons, first it is a whole lot quieter and second it increases the pressure on the lips and in the lungs significantly giving me a far harder/better work out than a normal practice. I’d say 5 minutes with the practice mute in is roughly equivalent to 15/20 minutes of normal play and I’ve been doing about 20 minutes a day. Part of me wishes I’d been this disciplined 5-10 years ago, I know I’d be a far better player now but alas I was young, foolish and probably lazy!

I’m now at something of a crossroads regards playing. Thing is Kita comes up with blisters on her lips if we enjoy a kiss after I’ve been playing. She has hyper sensitive lips and anything other than vaseline is more or less a no no. I’m not sure yet whether it is the valve oil or the lacquer of the trumpet which is the problem but I’m going to get a plastic mouthpiece in the new year and see how things go. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy playing and hopefully Ben and I are going to have a bit of a jam session soon.

So its the trumpet or a kiss, what’s the bit in the Bible about serving two masters?

Anyhow, 1.5 hours left and tea time soon. I’m going to write something like a review of my 6 months so far at HP, what it’s been like working in a global company and how it’s shaping my views come graduation time over the Christmas break. Mostly for my record but also to give people an idea and hopefully it’ll be interesting, hopefully.

Dan

I’d forgotten how physical it is to play a trumpet and I don’t think my heart, lungs or diaphragm knew what hit them today. Thankfully my fingers were up to the challenge and could get around most of what I was practicing and in the end I’ve managed to play for about 30 minutes so far and hopefully do another 30 minutes a bit later.

I’m guessing to get up to speed for the concerts I’m going to have to do at least 20 minutes a day. Down side to that is no kissing the Mrs’, her hypersensitive lips mean she ends up with quite nasty blisters if I’ve been playing and I suspect this is down to the lacquer. I’ve seen a few people playing with plastic mouthpieces and wearing gloves when holding the instrument so its not the strangest allergy but I can’t imagine a plastic mouthpiece sounding that good and I think it would feel a bit weird as well.

Wonder if scrubbing my lips will help?

Dan

One of the leads Scaramouche was played by a finalist from a TV reality show and whilst normally I wouldn’t expect them to be up to much she was really excellent, arguably the best vocalist on stage. Actually reading through the program she did train at the Royal College of Music so I guess it’s not all that much of a surprise she would be so good.

The stage props were great and the costumes as well, a real feast for the eyes. I’d forgotten how big a budget West End musicals have to play with and a lot of that dough was on display in the show. Thankfully it wasn’t over the top, in a covering up failings kind of a way but rather just added to and complimented the rest of the show.

Travelling to and from London from our place is pretty darn easy and we we’re at the theatre with plenty of time to spare. Down side was travelling into London is very expensive, still that was the only downside of an otherwise perfect evening.

So from this I’m sure you can gather I’d highly recommend going to see it.

Dan

P.S. The company was perfect as well

This evening Kita and I are off to the Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road, London to see We Will Rock You, the Queen musical. Clever Kita won two tickets to see it through work, she really does seem to be performing really well at work but I’ll let her post about that.

I must admit I’m not a huge fan of Queen, still a fan of their music but not to the extreme I am of Pink Floyd or Genesis but I am so excited about this musical this evening. The music will be good, no doubt about that, the show I imagine will be fantastic and I get to spend the whole evening cuddling up to Kita enjoying it, perfect

So, heading home early from work, jumping on the train, I’ll let you know how it is.

Dan

Possibly the quietest member of Pink Floyd but for me one of it’s most important contributors. His music can be heard on all the great albums and are such a joy to listen to, I wonder what music I’d be into if Pink Floyd had packed it in after Syd Barret’s drug abuse?

No worry though as they didn’t and the music went on. Some of the best and I do mean best music I know and love, Rick Wright composed. Echoes, Us and Them, Time, Shine on You Crazy Diamond to name a few. I’m lucky enough that I saw him playing with Pink Floyd at Live 8 but I’d always hoped to get to a David Gilmour concert and see David and Rick playing again for a full, proper gig.

Alas that will not be, The Great Gig in the Sky just got a great keyboard player.

Rick, thank you for the music.

Dan

**update**

There’s a very moving tribute from David Gilmour at his official site.

Just got the following in my inbox:

David Gilmour’s first solo live album captures the magic of his concert held in front of 50,000 fans in the Gdańsk shipyards in Poland. This final performance from his critically acclaimed 2006 ‘On An Island’ tour features Pink Floyd classics never previously performed with an orchestra.

I’m quite surprised that I barely knew anything about this, if anything at all but I can’t get over how excited I am about it! Pink Floyd tracks with an orchestra, that will sound great.

Yes it’s already pre-ordered, but if you want a preview then they have these:

• Comfortably Numb – really quite incredible
• Astronomy Domine

So yeah, that was a pretty cool thing to find this morning, can’t wait for it to arrive and now I must stop tapping the table at work, people are looking!

Dan

Before, I use to use last.fm a lot but I don’t think mine has been updated for about 6 months so displaying that would be a bit pointless. Then in a really ‘exciting’ B201 lecture this morning I suggested to Ben a kind of AJAX click and edit it yourself box where I could just type what I’m listening to.

It’s quite clever and simple all at the same time and I really like the way I don’t have to go through pages of management just to change it. Obviously it could be used for anything you liked; quotes, verses, music, thoughts of the day, the list goes on.

You can download it at Ben’s main site but it should also be available on the WordPress site soon as well.

I’ll probably update mine a few times a day, give me something to do when waiting for code to compile and give you an idea as to what I’m listening to!

Happy music,

Dan

First item and arguably the most important my Bible finally arrived Mum posted it the beginning of last week if my memory serves me correctly! Needless to say I’ve been fairly nervous about it over the last week, although there was a senders address on it so things should, in theory, been all ok anyway. Now to start reading it regularly!

Second item, Genesis – Live. Mentioned in a previous post the recording from Twickenham arrived. The quality is unbelievably good, far better than I imagined and well worth the money. Sadly I’ve so far only listened to two tracks (I’m posting from work).

Third item, Genesis – Invisible Touch. Certainly not one of my favourite albums of all time but it was one of the first albums I ever had. When Chris and I first got a hi-fi it only had a tape and record deck and Dad gave us a small selection of vinyl, looking back on it I don’t think he would have minded Invisible Touch not being in pristine condition!

So yeah, a good day for the post!

Dan

In the last few days I’ve just lay on my floor for, well hours on end I guess, just reading and actually that’s something I’m going to try and continue with. It’s certainly more productive than hours of tinterweb browsing!

To the book, in short it’s fascinating, interesting and a very, very good laugh. Guy Pratt is/was the main step in bassist for Pink Floyd post Waters so obviously that got me interested from the start but he’s played with a lot more than just Floyd. Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Roxy Music, Madonna, Michael Jackson, the list goes on and on…

The insight into the music industry is truly fascinating as well, trying to get money out of managers and promoters. The drink, drugs, girls, such a crazy hectic life and yet at the centre of it all some great music and awesome concerts (ok I’m thinking here about Pulse!). The antics that he gets involved in (£50k Merc’s getting smashed etc) it’s a wonder he’s still alive let alone that some albums ever came out.

Seriously for anyone really into their music and history of rock it is surely a must read. Jon you need to read this book! I think Ben will probably read this copy next should he wish to but anyone who wants to know where the music came from, get/steal/read this book!

I particularly like “I firmly believe God protects children and drunks”. From this book you’d have to agree!

Ok, if I was any kind of reviewer I’d post some more snippets and I might tomorrow but it’s late and I need to think of another book to read, where is that Programming with Java book? Wait, found it!

Night night,

Dan

I ordered the live recording of the Genesis show I went to at Twickenham in the summer and Genesis – A Trick of the Tail.

The live recording sounds rather cool, albeit in a sad, geeky, audiophile kind of way:

Two-CD set of the complete and unedited concert recorded from the soundboard and mixed by the Genesis engineering team. These professionally mastered and manufactured CDs (NOT CD-Rs) are packaged in cardboard mini (LP-style) gatefold sleeves that add to the bootleg look and feel.

How cool is that?!? Direct from the soundboard and mixed by the very people at the concert, rather than it going back to a studio and being edited and re-edited and so on. Sad I know but the concert was that good I am rather more than just looking forward to it arriving!

A Trick of The Tail I ordered from Play but instead of their normal service I went for their Playtrade, largely because they didn’t actually have it in stock and it was a lot cheaper! In essence Playtrade is a second-hand shop but controlled by Play, hopefully it will all be a good quality, I hope so as that could save me a fair bit as I try to expand by collection!

There we go, a nice music post!

Dan