Jump to content
Please subscribe to MPN’s YouTube Channel!

Bobadohshe

Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    6,480

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Bobadohshe

    for the pros: what do you make a year?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Yes you can make money teaching, but that falls more into the category of a job and it IS WORK teaching students. As others have stated, you can take on students, run a church program, maybe compose sound scores for film etc. But getting paid strictly for performing ones music that they love on their own terms. This indeed is the dream.

     

    For some and at a certain stage of life. It's honestly not really mine; I like being close to home and I don't think I have the fortitude or drive to flourish under the spotlight of being an artist in my own right. I enjoy the different aspects of what I do: writing, different gigs, teaching. I'd be bummed if I had to do only 1.

    for the pros: what do you make a year?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Though the OP asked quite bluntly, I don't think it's a horrible topic.

     

    I live in San Diego, an expensive city. I'm not going to put down #s. But I'll say that between doing 70 or so gigs a year with the best Top 40 band in town (yes I said it because I believe it), being LUCKY enough to have become the San Diego go to stadium organist for our MLB team, minor league hockey team and arena soccer team (bear in mind I only do 20 ball games a year, not all of them), writing the odd library cue and getting a placement here and there over the years, being able to fill in my schedule with solo piano work and jazz hits, having a steady church gig, getting called for sessions, having a small but wonderful group of students, living a modest lifestyle, being intentional with $ (I obsessively budget), and having a dual family income (wife is a speech therapist) which helps with benefits, it is totally possible to eek out a middle class living and put $ away for retirement, be on the path to home ownership, etc.. I'm 37. Any of this could change at the drop of a hat so it might seem like a 'fragile' situation. But hey if it does, I'll adapt the best I can.

     

    Diversity has always been the cornerstone of what I aspired to as a keys player and it has literally made my life possible. And more fun.

    Official MLB 2019 Thread

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Ah, Children's Corner. The first piece I worked on with Terry Trotter in'79. Dr. Gradus is a great study for five fingers and connecting right and left hand phrases.

     

    All of the six pieces within that Suite are mini - Masterpieces.

     

    Agreed! The Snow Is Dancing -- to me is one of the easiest ways to explain impressionistic music. It sounds exactly like the title.

    Official MLB 2019 Thread

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Basically these days, I root for the small market teams.....even over my Cardinals.

     

    We're small market down here, root for us.

     

    I simply don't care enough anymore to spend a night down there when I could be practicing, or doing anything else that's productive.

     

    Fortunately I am in the somewhat unique position of being able to do both at the same time.

     

    Ah, but I highly doubt that your "practicing on the gig" consists of any Debussy Etudes or looping tricky sections of Moment's Notice or Dolphin Dance. ;):)

     

    I have played Dolphin Dance at Petco. In fact I did it my very first season. Though I didn't loop and shed any part of it at the time. As far as Debussy goes --- not yet. Though I was actually practicing Dr Gradus Ad Parnassum this AM.

    Official MLB 2019 Thread

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Basically these days, I root for the small market teams.....even over my Cardinals.

     

    We're small market down here, root for us.

     

    I simply don't care enough anymore to spend a night down there when I could be practicing, or doing anything else that's productive.

     

    Fortunately I am in the somewhat unique position of being able to do both at the same time.

    Official MLB 2019 Thread

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    There has been talk that the Padres may also sign Harper. They have the money free. Crazy, huh?

     

    https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/white-sox/san-diego-padres-just-signed-manny-machado-and-they-still-might-be-looking-add-bryce

     

    People close to the team seem to be saying they won't. Even though they 'have the money' it could potentially hamper our ability to get some quality pitching.

     

    I am not sure how I'd feel if they did get him. He's a pretty incredible player. And yet it gives me flashbacks of 2015 when they tried to do too much in one offseason. But what do I know.

    Official MLB 2019 Thread

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    We do need pitching. This is not the year the team will be great, so when the Padres finish 3rd or 4th in the NL West I don't want to hear a bunch of I told you so's. The team should get pretty good in 2021. Maybe sooner ala the Astros. Or it could be a bust! But at least these owners are showing their commitment level.

    Official MLB 2019 Thread

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    So, the Padres took the plunge and gave Manny Machado $300M for 10 years, with an opt-out clause for 2023. Good move or foolish?

     

    Great move. He fills a critical hole at 3B for the Padres and with the #2 prospect in baseball Fernando Tatis Jr. slated to come up at Shortstop in 2 months and the #2 2nd base prospect in all of baseball Luis Urias at 2nd, we have a ridiculous defensive infield. And Machado hits 35 homeruns a year. And he's 26, so he's still developing.

     

    Based on history I say foolish. I think a player's motivation diminishes when he doesn't have to work for that next contract. Many of them put on weight, which leads to injuries. It's the rare player who completes the contract, nevermind excels during it.

     

    This is how the game works these days. You pay for the best early years of the contract. The value sucks towards the end. He'll be 36 at the end of this contract. Not ancient.

     

    Alex Rodriguez is the only one, and he also dropped off precipitously.

     

    So many of them do but they sure got a lot of incredible years out of him.

     

    Albert Pujols was a bust.

     

    He was 32. Manny is 26!

     

    Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw.

     

    Pitchers are a different animal in terms of shelf life and injuries. (Also, Kershaw has three Cy Youngs). A 3 year contract through 2021 given to a 30 year old pitcher is different.

     

     

    Prince Fielder was a dog.

     

    Unlike Prince Fielder, Machado hits 37 home runs while being a 2x gold glove winning defender. He's way more athletic.

     

     

    The Padres have the top ranked farm system in baseball. This year, many of those prospects will be breaking through to the major league level. They have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. Even when adding Machado's $30 mil / year salary to the mix, the Padres are still well below league average payroll. This move was not only a good idea, it was a no brainer. Even if he busts, they still needed to take this chance.

    Who Needs Classical Music?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Anyone reading this thread would think that music started in Europe 400 years ago.

     

    Having visited central Australia and experienced first Australians performing their music, on their instruments, music about the the land we were sitting on, originally composed 40,000 to 60,000 years ago, a very moving experience for me, makes this debate seem like a discussion about who did what to whom last week.

     

    I'd say that's part of MOIs point.

    Who Needs Classical Music?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I didn't read the article, but I have been known to piss off rooms of otherwise good friends by asserting that our stubborn ritualistic preservation of classical music is actually unspoken nostalgia for the days of European (white) dominance over the rest of the free world.

     

    I absolutely love classical music. I listen to it more than I listen to any other genre. And to be completely honest over the years I have also had to wrestle with a little bit of what MOI has said here. He phrases his point a bit more bluntly and perhaps incompletely than I would but I don't think his point should be waived away without consideration.

     

    When I listen to Bach I do visualize the great composer sitting at an organ in an empty cathedral in the early 1700s. When I listen to Hadyn I do think about his great gig as Kapellmeister for the duke of Esterhazy in that incredible palace in the woods where he got to write music all day for a private orchestra. I picture the servants, the splendor, the pomp and circumstance; and it is indeed part of the romance of it all. When I listen to Chopin I picture him in Paris in small salon recitals for rich Parisians on some dusty afternoon. With Debussy I see the 19th century Seine under the moonlight. Rachmaninoff, some cold Russian morning where he is practicing piano at 7 AM while snow lays on the ground.

     

    All those images of the pinnacle of European beauty are romanticized and attractive. I confess they are part of the allure for me. And yet, to put it simply, that world was one fraught with horrendous problems of every social kind. Therefore I say the issue might at least warrant some pause and consideration. It really does.

     

    Fortunately the very power of this music is that it is both of the era that it was written, and transcendent beyond it. Symphony musicians play Beethoven and we are simultaneously transported back to 1805, fully in the present, and fully in an eternal place where we are connected to every performance of that same piece and the monumental achievement that this piece was conceived of and put to paper. To me the symphony orchestra, while arising from a society fraught with injustice, is STILL one of the greatest achievements of mankind. Is that exaggeration? Not to me. It can stir visceral reactions that have nothing to do with European dominance. A vast and varied array of instruments made of wood and metal and each with an ancient heritage and evolution are brought together as one and manipulated to achieve harmony. It's almost a miracle.

     

    So I say Classical Music is vital, wonderful and indispensable. But like all things, it warrants a deeper look as we analyze our own feelings about it and ask ourselves why we love it.

    Yamaha CP88 and 73 - Deserve their own thread

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    For those that played the CP88 at NAMM, I am most interested in the action and if its as good (or better) then the CP4. The piano and keyboard sounds I can hear are good. Seems to me that most manufacturers have at least one good to great piano sound these days,maybe the sampling technology has improved so much. So, for me at least, its the action and keyboard connection that counts. Will find out soon enough when they hit the stores.

     

    I quite liked the action on the CP88. It seemed a touch lighter than the CP4 (a little more Nord like?) and yet solid enough for real piano playing. I don't know how I feel about the faux grained ebony black keys. I had a really positive experience with this board at NAMM. I've also been playing the hell out of the CP4 for 5 years and know that board pretty well. I want a CP88 pretty badly as it would give me the more robust EPs that are the CP4s weakness IMO....

     

    BUT I need some serious time to play the instrument for real, not the mere 7 minutes I got at NAMM in headphones.

×
×
  • Create New...