California Saw Festival 2017

The 40th Annual Saw Festival in California!

Announcing the 40th Annual Saw Festival
August 12-13, 2017, in Santa Cruz and Felton, California.

Schedule:

August 12, 2017
2:00 pm Open jam at the Scribner Statue
1520 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
6:30 pm Potluck and jam
Roaring Camp outer parking lot in Felton, CA.

August 13, 2017
10:00 am – 5:00 pm 40th Annual Saw Festival
Roaring Camp in Felton, CA.

11:00 am Musical Saw Contest on the Main Stage.
The 40th annual Saw Contest, the longest running saw contest in the world, will crown our 2017 champion.

At the festival you can jam, meet other saw players, take part in the contest, take a workshop, and hear some great saw players.

If you are planning to attend, please send an email to sawplayers@yahoo.com. Also, please let us know if you are interested in performing on the main stage either as a soloist or with your group.

We hope to see you there!

Kenny Blacklock
Secretary-Treasurer, IMSA

Copyright © 2017 International Musical Saw Association, All rights reserved.

Striped Shirts and Straw Hats – Barber Shop Quartets

There was a study recently that indicated that most individuals who graduated from college as music majors never gravitate to an occupation in music. Besides the real conclusion that a great deal of children never ever reach their levels, it brings about another less evident conclusion. And that is that there is a great deal of musical skill available that is not properly touched.

As we talked about that finding, you may have kept in mind an ambition you could have had in life to have your own singing group and to delight in preparing and performing programs, also if it was on an amateur basis. And when you view those four guys or gals on stage in striped tee shirts and straw hats and launch into Lida Rose or Good Night Ladies, the temptation to do like that on your own is quite compelling.

There is not a better time to put together your very own barbershop quartet than in your retired life years. That massive urges of concealed musical skill is practically and most certainly hiding in your retirement home or neighborhood. The probabilities are that when you put a notification up on the buliten board at the retirement community or Laundromat of the seniors center that you are assembling a barbershop quartet, you will get swamped with interested elders who intend to join in on the fun.

It will certainly take some rehearsal and maybe a few voice lessons to get those aged voices up and running but there is no factor that the vocalizing voices of four well practiced and talented senior people could not sing those tunes and get everyone’s toes tapping. And think about the gratification you will really feel that you didn’t permit your music talent go to squander given that you are utilizing it to bring music and joy to others.

Barbershop is not the only kind of music that you and your musical senior people could really want to build a team about. While they were younger, many of us don’t believe regarding the reality that John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd endured their goal when they joined with each other as the Blues Brothers. These were 2 guys who liked the Chicago beat and they took that love of songs and took together a band that offered us all a bunch of enjoyable and joyful memories. Who is to say you and a couple of “Blues Brothers” of the kind the senior citizen in your area can not assemble equally as fun to perform locally.

Let the Musical Genre guide your percussion Selection

The elements of your drum kit might differ greatly from that of any sort of other commercial musician based after the category in which you play as well as your individual preferences and financial means. If you are continuously playing small clubs, the return could not be big sufficient to fit a big number of drum parts, so in spite of your genre and individual choices, you may require to trim down your drum kit out of necessity.

Previously, making use of 2 bass drums has actually been a regular component of the drums for big band, however lately lots of commercial musicians, particularly those in the hard rock and heavy medal genres have actually utilized twin bass drums. Considering that the mid-80’s it has been typical for drummers to use digital drums either individually or as component of a typical drum set. Occasionally cowbells, gongs, tambourines, and various other percussion tools are likewise used in drum packages. A commercial traveler may also have his very own individual preferences in spite of those directed by his genre, and as a result, developing a beat that is somewhat different from every other performer in that genre. Some drummers additionally select both snares and toms, and though they may not utilize them on every tune, they come to be a subset of the drum set to be utilized whenever required or desired.

Though genre sometimes suggests the sort of drums that are formed within a kit, there is no tough and speedy rule to it, As a matter of fact, even difficult and big bands bands in some cases soften a couple of songs on a CD, and hence the need does not already existing for the more challenging audios. Also some rock-and-roll bands from the past that had hard percussive drum sounds occasionally reduced it down through using merely a bass or snare, enabling the guitars to bring many of the music noise. After all, when you’re discussing a ballad, you might not really want the powerful drum sound, however merely a slow beat and occasional cymbal sound is all that is necessary.

The secret to recognizing what you need in your drum kit is in the kind of music you will certainly play, the venues where you will certainly be executing, your spending plan, and your transport resources. Individualize your package based upon just what you could deliver and the dimension of the phases where you will certainly do instead of just what you feel you should have or what you desire. Even if you can manage it, it’s mindless to acquire something you cannot utilize except for practice.