30. …..If You Ain't Got The Do Re Mi
"California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see. But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot If you ain't got the do re...
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Robert
Dec 6, 20192 min read
29. The Play's The Thing
And now for some drama. My first theater project was to write a musical called The Skyladder. The Skyladder was an experimental piece...
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Robert
Nov 23, 20192 min read
28. Flying Solo
In addition to getting some of my ensemble pieces performed at the Portland Conservatory, I also presented three solo piano performances....
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Robert
Nov 8, 20192 min read
27. A String Of Pearls
This blog segment deals with performances of some of my ensemble compositions during my first years at the Portland Conservatory. At...
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Robert
Oct 25, 20192 min read
26. Look Ma, No Electricity!
In my first five years at the Portland Conservatory, the third and most prominent spoke of the teaching wheel was the private piano...
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Robert
Oct 11, 20192 min read
25. The Flip Side
So now we move from a world of unfortunate kids who are locked up, to the world of Rock Camp where kids are dropped off by mom or dad in...
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Robert
Sep 27, 20192 min read
24. The Kids Are Alright
One of my first teaching assignments through the Portland Conservatory was to teach piano and music skills to incarcerated youths at...
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Robert
Sep 14, 20192 min read
23. A Turning Point
The poet Rilke said that "Heartbreak is the handmaiden of art." This was born out in my life for the next several months while I lived in...
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Robert
Aug 30, 20191 min read
22. The Invisible Man
In life as in music, transitions can be difficult, scary, and sometimes messy. Without conflict or flaws, there would be little drama. ...
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Robert
Aug 16, 20192 min read
21. For The Very First Time
As my live performance opportunities became more limited, I relied increasingly on recordings to push myself to the highest possible...
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Robert
Aug 2, 20192 min read
20. Home Game
At this point I wrote about a half dozen more songs and then switched over to instrumentals. I joined the Maine Composer's Forum where I...
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Robert
Jul 19, 20192 min read
19. Picking Up The Pieces
I was officially off the road now, secure in the knowledge that you ignore rock and roll at your own peril. During my six years with the...
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Robert
Jul 12, 20192 min read
18. I Know It's Only Rock And Roll...
As anyone who's been reading this can see, I'm all over the musical map from 12 tone fugues to jazz and funk to musicals to top 40 rock...
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Robert
Jun 21, 20192 min read
17. The Magic Kingdom
Once upon a time, there was a world where it was possible to have fun without fear, guilt or recrimination. It was a world where live...
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Robert
May 31, 20192 min read
16. What's The Rush?
My classified ad connected me with a bass player and a guitar player. The three of us were rehearsing some jazz standards, funk and...
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Robert
May 17, 20192 min read
15. The Way Life Should Be
And so the adventure continued.... I had been studying, composing, playing and working in and out of the music business in New York for...
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Robert
May 9, 20192 min read
14. NY Coda
NY has its charms. And before it got too full of itself, it had class and character. As Edna St. Vincent Millay once said, "The presence...
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Robert
May 3, 20192 min read
13. Mean Streets
So I had made a really good connection with Warner Brothers Publishing. The work was plentiful and it paid well, for a while.... After a...
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Robert
Apr 19, 20193 min read
12. "This Is A Gil Evans"
So off I went into the world of the self employed music copyist. The first job I did which was provided by my music copying teacher was...
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Robert
Apr 5, 20192 min read
11. Copy Cat
After working a year and a half or so at Portnoy's, I decided it was time to find a job closer to the music, so I found a job printing...
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