Check out the really neat free MP3 tracks on the Rick Torres web site (click on Music once the site opens). Rick used to play in a band called Supreme Beings of Leisure. He writes, "we played lounge-y spy-styley trip hop, drum-n-bass and various other dance influenced music."
I wonder what Rick is up to these days! (if you know, send me an email, ok?)  ¶ 12:35 AM

Visit the web site of William A. Sethares, where you can download free MP3's of such wonderful tunes as:

Rojqoq: A traditional Klingon song, played in the traditional scale conatining 60 equal divisions of the octave, and sung in the original Klingon.

An Incomplete Portrait of Gertrude Stein: Rapped by Gertrude Stein herself, this piece features a rhythmic bed set in a scale with 7 equal tones per octave.  ¶ 10:06 PM

An expensive toy that I'm drooling over right now is a Korg MS 2000 synthesizer. I had the opportunity to play with one at my brother's house and I was extremely impressed. It's a whole 'nother palette to create sound with. Check out the manufacturer's web page for some cool audio samples.  ¶ 12:17 AM

Headlining this year's Sacramento Jazz Jubilee is singer Maria Muldaur, who is described at her page at AMG Allmusic:

Best-known for her seductive '70s pop staple "Midnight at the Oasis," Maria Muldaur has since become an acclaimed interpreter of just about every stripe of American roots music: blues, early jazz, gospel, folk, country, R&B, etc.

A lengthy bio of Maria Muldaur is available on her web site (click here) and you can listen to some of her music samples at Artistdirect (here). In an interview with JazzReview, Muldaur comments,

You can be a one hit wonder and be on and off the charts so fast it will make your head spin around. By kind of forging my own unique little eclectic path I've been able to keep it fresh and keep my audience interested. I feel like part of what I've been able to do is to kind of educate my audience, not to pontificate that I know so much, but in the sense that "I'm really turned on by this particular music and now I want to share it with you."

  ¶ 11:39 PM

I've decided that I want to start tutoring, to show people how to create their own web sites. That's because I believe everyone can benefit from having a web site. Looking for a Vancouver computer tutor? Look no further!  ¶ 1:48 AM

I created a PHP email to SMS gateway form.

It lets you send me a message for free even if I am travelling out of town, and you don't know/remember my cell phone number!

It's open source under GPL.  ¶ 1:09 AM

Found an interesting biography of Robert Adler, the inventor of the first television remote control. From the bio:

Robert Adler's solution was for the remote to "communicate" with the TV by sound, not light --- specifically, by ultrasound, that is, at frequencies higher than the human ear can hear. Adler's remote control unit itself was very simple: it did not even require batteries. The buttons struck one of four lightweight aluminum rods inside the unit, like a piano's keys strike its strings. The receiver in the TV interpreted these high-frequency tones as signaling channel-up, channel-down, sound on/off, or power on/off. The necessary 30% increase in cost was imposing to consumers at first, but there was no doubt about the popularity of the system. The creator of the first practical wireless TV remote control, Dr. Robert Adler, paved the way for TV viewers to become couch potatoes more than 40 years ago.

  ¶ 2:00 AM

Craig Rosso, a percussionist as well as a radiologist in central Illinois, formed a jazz band called the "Craig Rosso Latin Jazz Project" four years ago. He is quoted in an article in the QC Times as saying:

Most jazz musicians have a generic way of approaching when they play something Latin. My goal was to take it deeper ... to understand in detail what the different rhythms are and grooves are, and how it all fits together. Jazz is kind of about knowing what came before, what tradition is and then building on it and making it your own.

Visit their band web page and you can download some free MP3 music samples from their latest CD. Don Skoog writes in his review of Russo's album Soul Eyes, "It’s as valid for Russo to introduce Latin rhythm into standard Jazz (if he does it knowledgeably, which he does) as it is for a Cuban Sax player to shed Coltrane licks and then use them in a Mambo."  ¶ 1:45 AM

I'm excited to announce the launch of the web site for "Song Search by Tapping". Using the web site, simply tap the rhythm of a song using your computer keyboard, and the program will try to guess what song you are tapping. (For example, try "Happy Birthday")

This was a project that Caroline, Mike, and I initially created for our artificial intelligence class, but we continued working on it after the class finished. We will be giving a live demo at the AAAI-05 Conference Intelligent Systems Demonstrations (ISD), taking place in Pittsburgh in July.  ¶ 3:04 PM

I was just listening to Inside Jazz radio, and heard a wonderful performance of the tune Footprints recorded by accomplished LA jazz pianist and composer David Garfield. David Garfield's web site is worth a visit - with lots of free music clips and articles.  ¶ 3:02 AM

My former high school music teacher, Jill Sparrow (Seaquam), once taught me that music can be defined as "the creation and release of tension".

There are many ways in which tension can be created and released, such as the use of chords, and the way melodies interact with the harmonies. Other ways are through dynamics, rhythms, varying speeds, and velocities. Even the use of certain tone, or a change in tone can create or release tension. I think it is very important to keep this idea in mind when playing or composing music. It's also a good framework to begin thinking about music from a critical standpoint.

As an artist, you can perform music and be the audience at the same time: you can, and should, be critical of what you play. That is why "listening" to yourself and others is such a crucial element of performing music. I find that my ability to simultaneously take on the dual roles of listener and performer make the activity of creating music a very enjoyable one.  ¶ 1:23 AM

Dave Brubeck, the famed jazz pianist who composed the popular jazz standard Take Five, is still alive and well at 84. Apparently he is giving as good performances as ever, and is still composing great tunes. From the Richmond Times Dispatch, Douglas Watts writes:

The sprightly, 84year-old Brubeck showed he can still flawlessly play the uptempo tunes as the crowd roared its approval after each of his solos. He also entertained the audience with stories of his travels with the quartet.
The band sported white hair and black tuxedos and played smooth as silk.

Read the full article here. If you are lucky enough to be in Richmond VA, he is giving a repeat performance tonight at St. Edward Catholic Church at 7:30pm.  ¶ 1:33 AM

I have recorded two more original compositions, for your listening pleasure. They are solo piano versions performed by myself.

The first one is called Sunshine (click here) and I composed it back in January.

The second one I just composed tonight, and it is called Inspiration from the Sky (click here) and I just realized that it is the same key as Sunshine. So these pieces would flow very well into each other, perhaps for a movie soundtrack.

Want more? You can listen to more of my originals on my musical sketchbook (here).  ¶ 12:57 AM

Pete Thomas's web site has a lot of information about jazz theory.  ¶ 5:44 PM

A week or two ago I made a recording of something I'm working on with the piano. It's the jazz standard "Stella By Starlight". Click here to listen to my solo piano rendition which I recorded using my minidisc player. The piano which I was using is actually a Steinway (I like to brag).  ¶ 2:20 AM

If you're a heavy user of Microsoft Outlook, you may get worried that some day your computer may crash, and you'll lose all your contact info. Here's a web site with easy to follow instructions on how to backup your Outlook data (click here). Remember to backup data frequently! I just lost some data when my computer crashed, and it is not a nice feeling, believe me.  ¶ 11:50 PM

I put together a little photo journal of my recent trip to New York City.  ¶ 5:35 PM

For your listening pleasure I have posted a live recording of myself (Geoff Peters) on piano, Mark White (bass), and Colin Defreitas (drums) performing at a wedding in West Vancouver. The song is called "Song For April 25th" and you can listen to it by clicking here. It was especially fun to play this song since I got to use the (fairly well tuned) grand piano at the Capilano Golf and Country club. This song was the first number in our first set, and we spontaneously improvised and composed the whole thing on the spot. It's basically a minor blues tune.  ¶ 12:14 AM

My friend Sigal pointed me to a very good (but very technical) free online book on the topic of digital sound processing (click here). It explains (in very technical terms) such things as how the human ear works, and how humans are able to tell the direction that a sound originates from (i.e. "Spatial Sound Perception"). Regarding pitch perception, it says:

So far, we have described pitch phenomena referring to the position of haircells that get excited along the basilar membrane. Indeed, the place theory of hearing is not sufficient to explain the accuracy of pitch perception and some intriguing effects such as the virtual pitch.

.  ¶ 12:24 PM