Category: Music

Day at the Beach

I have really fond memories of playing “Day at the Beach” from Joe Satriani’s 1989 opus Flying in a Blue Dream at my high school’s musical variety night way back in 1990. Sadly, that was the end of my professional career because about a year later I developed carpal tunnel syndrome in my left hand and had to stop playing regularly. Carpal tunnel syndrome is an injury due to the repetitive use of muscles in the hand. It is sadly quite common amongst musicians, particularly pianists and violinists.

I haven’t played very much since then, but I recently bought a new guitar to see if my hand was up to playing again. I’m too busy to play as much as I used to, so I think my hand will be fine. Fingers crossed.  This was one the first pieces I wanted to revisit. Although I’m still pretty rusty in this video, I was surprised at how easily my fingers seemed to remember this piece.

 

Fly Me To The Moon for Solo Guitar

When I was learning guitar in high school, I was lucky enough to have Mr. Cole Bernau as a teacher. He possessed a seemingly endless supply of great arrangements for solo guitar, and I still have boxes back home in Australia of the sheet music he shared with me. Over twenty years have passed since then, but my appreciation and respect for him has only grown. I don’t think I realized at the time how lucky I was to have Cole as a teacher.

This Bucky Pizzarelli arrangement of the classic “Fly Me to the Moon” has always been a favorite of mine. It’s an arrangement that flows nicely and really seems to play itself.

I was playing around with text-to-voice applications around the same time I recorded this video in 2008 which explains Continue reading “Fly Me To The Moon for Solo Guitar”

Google Predator!

Soon after discovering the joys of Google Earth and its flight simulator, I made this video exploring some alien special effects. The colors reminded me of the POV of the alien in the Predator movies, so I added Alan Silvestri’s masculine theme from the first Predator film as well as some alien words using some free Star Trek fonts.

Google Earth Flight Simulator is a lot of fun. If you’re unfamiliar with it, please check it out and fly anywhere you want to on Earth and on Mars. I’m flying over Namibia in this video.

A Montage of Student Presentations

I made this video in 2007 to inform my students of the Kemmys Presentation Competition.

My hope was that it would inspire them (or at least give them some ideas) for their own presentations and perhaps help them win the Kemmys and a trip to Australia. Continue reading “A Montage of Student Presentations”