Claude Gordon???s ???The Seven Basic Items???

Why did so many people come from so far away to study with Claude Gordon? What made him unique? Why do so many people owe their careers to this man’s teaching?

The following is an overview of “The Seven Basic Items” with a few brief comments on their implications. Each item is intended to work together in harmony with all the other items. If one item isn’t working correctly there will come a day when the player will struggle.

These exact items are also found in Herbert L. Clarke’s Setting Up Drills, which shows how Claude approached things exactly like Clarke did. He studied with Clarke for ten years. Gordon’s Brass Playing Is No Harder Than Deep Breathing has been misunderstood by some as focusing only on breathing. The point is that once everything is working correctly, playing is as simple as taking a big breath, which anyone can do

read more at brassmusician.com: Claude Gordon’s Approach

 

A Beautiful End to Summer!

And so it was, a beautiful summer's evening under the twilight, the geese warming up their flight skills overhead, our last show of the 2010 summer Music In The Park season and a big thank-you to all our fans for all your support and applause over these past many Mondays.  We love this job.

Thanks as well goes out again to Linda Joch for capturing the moment; if you have photos (or recordings!) of the Owen Sound City Band, rememberances of your own tour of duty or of friends or family who have played in our group please do let us know at info-at-owensoundcityband.org -- we love to feature our history and we're hoping to piece together an exhibit panel for the Grey-Roots, so any and all contributions are very welcome.

And speaking of memories, hear here now some echos of last Monday's summer season wrap-up, and it being a bittersweet parting, let's finish on a melancholy note with Send In The Clowns

Send In The Clowns by Owen Sound City Band

The Full Sturgeon Moon

Last??Monday's??moon was so named by the Algonquians as the very best time to catch this large fish of our Great Lakes and the apropos start of the Owen Sound Salmon Spectacular??(starts today!)????A few tribes also knew it as the Full Red Moon seen through the end of summer dusty haze, also the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon and called the Fruit Moon in Cherokee lore, but for the City band last??Monday??it was a looming dark ??and threatening to be stormy night prompting a retreat up into the lighthouse castle of the Harrison Park bandshell.

And you can't have a gothic castle without some vampire music ...

ah-oooo-oooo ah-ooooooo-ooooo-oooooo!

scary stuff boys and girls ....

Bella's Lullabye by Owen Sound City Band

Scenes from the park, August 16

YIKES! Only two more weeks of summer?! ??Seems so and seems so soon, but the good news is our calendar is band-friendly this year and the Owen Sound City Band gets a fourth Monday evening Harrison Park show for the 23rd of August and then we get a fifth show tucked in that last shred of summer holiday before school begins.

Our thanks to all those who have popped out to the park all these Monday evenings; we've been super lucky the entire season with only one day's idle threat of rain. ??It's hard to beat, you have the park, the magesty of the towering trees, bird songs on the wind, children playing, teens out for a bit with friends, there's ice-cream cones and chips and the gathering geese overhead under a sunset sky dotted by the ol' devil moon while strains of Scarlatti, Sousa and John Williams tint hues at the edges. ??Wow. ??Who wouldn't want to be there!

Here's some photo scenes from the park to recapture a few kilobits of the magic; and we'll be back there next week, 7:15pm, and next Monday under a rising full moon! ??So r-r-r-romantic.

To A Woodland Rose by Owen Sound City Band