1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2

What impact have computers had on chess, chess play, and chess players (amateur and professional?) There are few on earth more qualified to speak to that topic than the current World Champion, Vishwanathan Anand, in this video.

Anand points out how computers have been the great leveller: Chess is no… Read full post »

Recently returning to tournament chess after a twenty year break I have had to book up on the openings all over again. It has made me see the openings with new eyes.

The double King Pawn openings haven't changed much in two decades ... there are players poking around at… Read full post »

Nicholas Pert vs Adam Hunt, British Championships 2011, Gruenfeld Defense

Some openings lead to violent clashes in the midgame with overwhelming material wins or checkmate (for one player or the other) the most likely result. The King's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4) is a good example. But it is impossible to…

Read full post »

Zhaoqin Peng - Annemarie Volkers, Dutch Women's Championship 2011, Queen's Gambit Declined (D07)

 

After 20. ... Nxc5 the queenless midgame is winding down and White is a pawn up with good shape.

White wants to trade down pieces into… Read full post »

I showed up late at the bluegress jam but they were glad to see me.

The singer-picker was playing the mega-cheapo standup bass he'd bought a few months earlier and was glad to be relieved of duty to return to what he did best.

We had a great session which ended… Read full post »

Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) examined classical composition and derived mathematical rules which he then carried beyond their previous bounds of application to invent the compositional form known as 12-tone, or dodecaphonic music. The collation of Schoenberg's compositional ideas is also calle… Read full post »

I recently purchased the program Mus2 as tool for composing music outside the Western 12-semitone even-tempered scale. This serendipitous occurence has precipitated my introduction to Turkish art music.

Turkish art music is the modern rendering (and extension) of a classical music continuum extending… Read full post »

Microtonal music has gotten a boost with the release of a new notational software for microtonal composition.

The software is called Mus2. Version 1.0 was released about 2 months ago. Mus2 is a GUI-based music composition tool along the lines of the two industry dominant (competing) composition appl… Read full post »

Jan Sibelius's symphony Finlandia brings home the Virtue of Simplicity in music. It has long been one of my favorites and we of the Boulder Symphony will be performing it in December.

Sibelius approaches the rhythmic turgidity of Brahms without the harmonic complexity. He crafts plainer and simpler… Read full post »

Microtonal music is my primary conservatory music passion.

My earlier posting Musical Equal Temperament Ain't dealt sufficiently with the ontology of the 12-tone system of western classical music so I won't repeat that here.

The term "microtonal music" is a western music theory pormanteau category fo… Read full post »

Thommy, the harmonica player for the Clam Daddys,  and I were discussing Equal Temperament and came to the conclusion that equal temperament doesn't exist.

The formal theory of musical scales in Europe started at lyre tunings. Lyres were tuned in something like this order: C c g G d D a… Read full post »

Thommy Knox (left) and Moses Walker constitute the earnest-yet-comic musical duo the Clam Daddys. I play with them professionally.

If you wish to skip over my prose about these veteran blues/swing/jazz popular stars of Colorado Front Range, these bearded zen bonzes, you can go straight to t… Read full post »

Last night was the first time I actually felt like a symphony musician.

 I've been a musical performer since childhood, though school band was as far as I got in  large ensemble work. I'm a competent and working pop/jazz bassist ... my main outlet there being the fabulous Clamdaddys.

 … Read full post »

Many people are suprised to see an upright bass being bowed. They ask, "Is that a cello?" But contrabass, like cello, viola and violin, is designed for the bow. Contrabass strings are about the same thickness and are tuned to the same pitch as bass guitar strings. However, the contrabass bridge-to-nu… Read full post »

Our family dinner is often parents + 1 kid. So we have modified the 3-handed card game Pinochle for dinnertime use with easier rules and more even scoring chances for a 3-deal match among three players. We have played this game for over 10 years now, and my youngest, in her… Read full post »

I should be in bed, but I'm basking in the afterglow of playing contrabass in the Niwot Timerbline Symphony Orchestra's season finale performance of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.

We also premiered with Gregory T. S. Walker's uneasy sits the king, which is a bass player's delight for its use of… Read full post »

I'm a professional musician, and no, I don't sleep in my car ...

About thirty years ago, I drifted away from professional music and raised four kids on income from hitech. But I kept practicing, studying, performing, and learning new instruments.

I always said I'd come back to music fulltime.… Read full post »