One of my last product designs before retiring was the Singin’ in the Rain Chime. Diane and I enjoy watching older movies and the Gene Kelly / Debbie Reynolds movie, Singin’ in the Rain, is a favorite. That song is quite familiar to people of my generation and hopefully this chime will inspire other generations to… Read more »
On the first day of music history class at the Oberlin Conservatory in 1967, our professor asked, “What is music?”. It was like a Zen kōan, and everybody contemplated it for the rest of the semester. We continued to learn music of the classical European repertoire, but I don’t remember if there was an answer to… Read more »
My wife, Diane, and I had been living in the Woodstock, NY, area for over three years in 1983. We had founded our company, Woodstock Chimes, just a few years before, in 1979, and our tuned windchimes were steadily gaining in popularity. We had a two-year-old daughter, Tasa, and another one on the way. On… Read more »
Here’s something that is fun and amazing but strange. It’s the 1st movement of Beethoven’s 5th symphony performed on body percussion by school children. The conductor is using a piano reduction score (which means that it has been simplified and condensed, making it more easily playable on piano) and when s/he opens to the music,… Read more »
I was saddened to learn of the recent passing of pianist Chick Corea, a giant in the jazz world and a pioneer in the fusion of jazz, rock and world music. Few musicians can claim to have had such an impact on future generations of artists. Having known the vibraphonist Gary Burton since the early… Read more »
I first met Ron Snider in the 1980s while touring with Steve Reich and Musicians and later while working with NEXUS Percussion. Besides being an amazing musician, a loving husband and father, an expert in world music and inventive designer and builder of musical instruments, Ron was a wonderful human being. His recent untimely passing… Read more »
In 1967, I was 17 and was about to start college in the fall. My hometown of Franklin Park, Illinois was celebrating its 75th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee on August 3rd of that year. All the men in town were asked to grow a beard for the parade, and, being the good citizen that I was,… Read more »
I’ve known from a young age that good sounds are healing, and I’ve made the study of music and sounds my life’s work. I have had a few “sound” mentors who have helped open my ears. Among them were Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, Harry Partch and Lou Harrison. Pauline taught us “Deep Listening,” whereby you… Read more »
It’s the beginning of 2020 and I am already reminiscing about 2019. Here’s a short video of the highlights and photos from our production of the Drum Boogie Festival last September in Woodstock, NY. We are very proud of it and hope you’ll enjoy checking it out. It’s a lot of work putting this together,… Read more »
Q: What’s the difference between trampolines and timpani?A: You don’t have to take your shoes off when you jump on timpani. Trampolines and timpani have a few things in common. They both have membranes, are fun to play on, and you can impress people of the opposite sex if you are good at either one…. Read more »
John Keiser presenting the award to Garry Woodstock Chimes was recently honored for its 40 years of success in the gift industry by the leading sales organization OneCoast. During their annual sales meeting in Atlanta, John Keiser, CEO of OneCoast, presented a beautiful glass sculpture / trophy to us. For our acceptance speech, we showed… Read more »
The Woodstock Chimes Fund produces the Drum Boogie Festival every other year. On September 7th of this year (the 10th anniversary of the Boogie), we held the daylong festival here in Woodstock and it was absolutely amazing. The weather was perfect and the music outrageous (Paul Winter, Jack DeJohnette, NEXUS and many more). We had… Read more »
NEXUS Playing Cage’s Dance Music for Elfrid Credit: Donald Dietz, courtesy of The John Cage Trust Long ago I knew that music would be my future. I knew then that percussion specifically would be my passion. This all started in the fourth grade when I joined the school band. Through the years I’ve come to… Read more »
A friend of ours, Anne, began a 3,000 mile bike tour from the East Coast to the West Coast on May 1st. There was a send-off gathering at a local pub where I gave her a Hohner Blues Band Harmonica for the trip. Luckily it didn’t add too much weight to her gear and she… Read more »
New style music boxes are a favorite gift for Valentine’s Day. I have a number of music boxes in my collection and one of my favorites is a large, rare Regina music box from 1899. It was made after the company moved from Germany to New Jersey. These antique instruments used large metal disks to… Read more »
