Minicon 43
Mar. 27th, 2008 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chasophonicIn a word WOW!
I guess I’ll start with music. (Anyone surprised?) First of all I want to thank all those who participated in and attended the music programming. I couldn’t be more pleased.
Music at Minicon has a special significance to me. I owe this community a lot. Things musical at Minicon have been going wrong, had become a source of angst and anger rather than joy for too many. Last year I decided it was time for me to pay back this community. So I set out to fix things, to make music a strong and vibrant part of the con once again. After last year’s con there was much heat generated in various forums. I called for a halt to this and the call was heeded. This convinced me that I might actually be able to change things. I think I have made a strong start. Although things aren’t perfect yet, the problems I encountered were minor and fixable. There hasn’t, to my knowledge, been a negative comment on-line about this year’s music programming. The feedback I have received has been overwhelming, almost embarrassing (I was thanked four times during closing ceremonies).
The concerts were outstanding. Every performer gave top-level performances. A special thanks to Eric Coleman for pitching in at the sound board when I realized I couldn’t be at the front and back of the room at the same time.
I didn’t know what to expect of the panels (I guess this is true for most any panel I sit on). They were amazingly good! Great discussion, good mix of views. I know, I set this up, but…Wow!
Jamming 101, I thought we might run out of tips quickly and the have little to say. This was a lively, intelligent, insightful, and informative discussion on jamming. I have never seen its likes before. We could easily have gone another hour. Well worth doing, well worth attending and certainly well worth repeating next year.
Songwriting. Another insightful panel. Fascinating conversation about the experience of songwriting. While I still can’t get my head into the “just do it,” consensus, there were many practical suggestions as well. (By just do it I mean: The way to write songs is to write songs.) Another panel that ended too quickly and also worth repeating.
The Performance Panel on Sunday afternoon was the only music event of the weekend that was not well attended. (On the whole I can’t complain given the strong attendance at all of the others.) Even so. I found this a most interesting conversation. It did a fine job of rounding out the musician’s trilogy, Playing, Writing, and Presentation.
I wasn’t able to attend the Group Sing, but I have heard many positive reports.
Nate Buckilin’s Guitar Workshop went very well. I got the most straightforward tips on playing scales ever. Now I just need to practice and I’ll be playing lead breaks in jams before you know it. Well, there is that practice thing.
In general this year, for me, there was a feel of it being a new con. There were lots of new faces, lots of young faces. Although there were plenty of familiar faces missing, there were still lots of old con friends to see. Minicon lives! I will be back as music head for Minicon 44 and continue to shape what music at Minicon is now.
Minicon 44: Musicians Welcome.
(I am posting this to both my own LJ and to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
circleofmusic. Not sure if it should go on the Minicon LJ community.)
I guess I’ll start with music. (Anyone surprised?) First of all I want to thank all those who participated in and attended the music programming. I couldn’t be more pleased.
Music at Minicon has a special significance to me. I owe this community a lot. Things musical at Minicon have been going wrong, had become a source of angst and anger rather than joy for too many. Last year I decided it was time for me to pay back this community. So I set out to fix things, to make music a strong and vibrant part of the con once again. After last year’s con there was much heat generated in various forums. I called for a halt to this and the call was heeded. This convinced me that I might actually be able to change things. I think I have made a strong start. Although things aren’t perfect yet, the problems I encountered were minor and fixable. There hasn’t, to my knowledge, been a negative comment on-line about this year’s music programming. The feedback I have received has been overwhelming, almost embarrassing (I was thanked four times during closing ceremonies).
The concerts were outstanding. Every performer gave top-level performances. A special thanks to Eric Coleman for pitching in at the sound board when I realized I couldn’t be at the front and back of the room at the same time.
I didn’t know what to expect of the panels (I guess this is true for most any panel I sit on). They were amazingly good! Great discussion, good mix of views. I know, I set this up, but…Wow!
Jamming 101, I thought we might run out of tips quickly and the have little to say. This was a lively, intelligent, insightful, and informative discussion on jamming. I have never seen its likes before. We could easily have gone another hour. Well worth doing, well worth attending and certainly well worth repeating next year.
Songwriting. Another insightful panel. Fascinating conversation about the experience of songwriting. While I still can’t get my head into the “just do it,” consensus, there were many practical suggestions as well. (By just do it I mean: The way to write songs is to write songs.) Another panel that ended too quickly and also worth repeating.
The Performance Panel on Sunday afternoon was the only music event of the weekend that was not well attended. (On the whole I can’t complain given the strong attendance at all of the others.) Even so. I found this a most interesting conversation. It did a fine job of rounding out the musician’s trilogy, Playing, Writing, and Presentation.
I wasn’t able to attend the Group Sing, but I have heard many positive reports.
Nate Buckilin’s Guitar Workshop went very well. I got the most straightforward tips on playing scales ever. Now I just need to practice and I’ll be playing lead breaks in jams before you know it. Well, there is that practice thing.
In general this year, for me, there was a feel of it being a new con. There were lots of new faces, lots of young faces. Although there were plenty of familiar faces missing, there were still lots of old con friends to see. Minicon lives! I will be back as music head for Minicon 44 and continue to shape what music at Minicon is now.
Minicon 44: Musicians Welcome.
(I am posting this to both my own LJ and to
circleofmusic. Not sure if it should go on the Minicon LJ community.)
