Bob Arroway

YSO plays Villa-Lobos at Carnegie Hall

2009-04-22T04:29:00.006-04:00

This is a quick note about a couple of wonderful videos available on YouTube.com featuring its own YouTube Symphony Orchestra (read more about it in this article from The New York Times).The YSO performed last week, on April 15, at Carnegie Hall, New York. The 3-hour concert featured 15 excerpts of larger works. Among them was the prelude of Villa-Lobos's Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9 (see Act I,

"Bach wrote it for God" - Benjamin Zander

2009-04-10T02:00:00.011-04:00

I JUST WATCHED THE MOST AMAZING TALK!Sorry if I could not contain myself and had to shout this at you. But this is one of those times when I'm reminded of how grateful we should be that:a. engineers invented the Internet (coming from another engineer that might sound suspicious to you);b. there are a lot of smart people out there willing to share their knowledge with us; and,c. God gave us the

Harmonic musings over C and F#

2009-04-07T15:15:00.005-04:00

My fellow blogger Pete Whitfield from RealStrings made a wonderful short video showing how enharmonic chords may be constructed over C and F# using the exact same accidentals. This is indeed a beautiful fact about musical harmony.Now I don't know much about harmony, but you have to admire this:You take two chords that make up a very dissonant chord progression (a I and a sharp IV);Then you modify

Trina Shoemaker on self-production

2009-04-06T15:38:00.006-04:00

Producer/Engineer Trina Shoemaker talks about artists producing themselves. Many more videos available at ArtistsHouseMusic.org.Trina Shoemaker is a mixer, record producer and sound engineer responsible for producing/engineering and/or mixing records for popular bands such as Queens of the Stone Age, Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, Something

Bittersweet now available from CDBaby

2009-04-06T14:33:00.007-04:00

The new single is now available from the CDBaby online store. It should be available soon from other online retailers, such as iTunes and Amazon.com.That said, buying the two tracks from CDBaby will probably be the better deal. You can get both for $1! Check it out.

Glenn Hardy and piano blues

2009-03-25T02:43:00.004-04:00

I just found out about this incredible piano player: Glenn Hardy. He has many albums available from CDBaby and other online stores. In addition to being a great improv player, he's also a composer for solo piano. Check him out on the following video. Be sure to view Summertime Blues; he did a great job there.

The official website is up

2009-03-23T14:45:00.009-04:00

I deliberated a lot on this, but I've made up my mind. My official website is up, albeit incomplete. Call it a work in progress, a site under construction; whatever you want. This is the official URL, www.bobarroway.com, and it is my third point of presence in the web, along with this blog and my MySpace page.Truth is, with so many things to do and think about, I cannot afford to wait until

Drum lessons from WorkshopLive

2009-03-17T04:20:00.009-04:00

The other night I was brushing up on some music theory concepts for the piano. Those apply, of course, to most melodic and harmonic instruments. But I wouldn't just write about it if there wasn't something special to it. And that was the fact that I was doing so by watching some video tutorials on WorkshopLive, to which I've been subscribing since January, 2009. In their own words:"WorkshopLive

Drum recording with producer/engineer Ken Scott

2009-03-12T03:01:00.012-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I found this great web site that has lots of interviews with professional record producers and engineers. The name of the site, not surprisingly, is... (drum rolls...)http://recordproduction.comIf you haven't done so already, bookmark it. Then, instead of watching those boring late night TV shows, check out a few interviews with some of the world's most renowned names in the

Think like a real drummer (even if you can't play like one)

2009-03-12T01:52:00.015-04:00

One of the things I struggle with in my home recording sessions is programming drums. I'm not a drummer and therefore don't know how to think like one, but I've been trying to educate myself.My quest started with a dvd tutorial called Complete Drums. I got it from Barnes & Noble last Christmas for less than $10 (regular price is $18). I suppose, for the money, it's a good place to start,

First contact: is anybody listening?

2009-03-11T15:00:00.004-04:00

Okay, is this thing on? Testing... 1, 2... Hi, folks! Welcome to my blog. This one's about music, more specifically about my own music and how I go about making it. I'm a songsmith and my workshop is my little home studio. Trying to be a composer, lyricist, arranger, producer, performing artist, and audio engineer all in one package is not an easy task, but I do my best. I take much pride in