DAVID J. HAHN

Big Star on NPR

It was interesting to hear today about Big Star and the death of Alex Chilton. It sounds like Chilton was a really influential force in the rock scene of the past 50 years, but I’m just hearing about him.

Here’s a song I found on Last.fm that I dig:

Vocal Coachings

I’ve had some actor and singer friends ask me lately about vocal coaching.

Yes! I do coachings. I have a great little set up at my studio apartment in uptown Manhattan. We can also meet at any of the studios in midtown – no problem – but if you come visit me, I have:

Over 900 PDF scores to help you fill your book. We can dig through and print out anything you need.

17 days worth of cast recordings. According to iTunes, I have nearly 8,000 musical theatre recordings. Maybe there’s something in there that you need? (Or want?)

A full, weighted keyboard, a guitar, a harmonica, a shaker, spoons, knives, forks… We’ll have plenty of gear to make some noise with.

Recording equipment. If you want to record anything for demos or your website or anything, we can do that! There’s a little bird next door that sometimes squeaks too much (so you might have to record in the kitchen), but I can definitely help you with basic recording.

Piano accompaniment recordings. In the same way, I can make your piano accompaniment recordings for you to practice to.

Transpositions & transcriptions. You probably don’t want to sit around and watch me do this – but send me the music you need fixed and I’ll do it. Then come up for a coaching and I’ll help you learn it. I use Finale 2010 for notation and in the end you get a nice, clean PDF of your score. Transpositions and transcriptions start at $35 and go up depending on complexity and length.

I charge $60/hr for coachings at my place, or $60/hr + the studio fee for coachings at other studios. My apartment is a block from the 190 stop of the A train, and 3 blocks from the 191 stop of the 1 train. Email me and I’ll send you the address.

There’s also a great little Dominican restaurant/bar in my building, Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters nearby, and I’ve got a sweet record player I’m dying to show somebody.

Please use the contact page and set up a coaching today.

How to Make a Trombone

Having no natural skill myself with building things, I have wondered now and then how brass instruments were made.  The thing they use to make the bell is rad.  That looks like a ton of fun.

Scheduled writing

I have a few writing projects coming up. I think I’ll be able to put them together in the coming weeks. February is traditionally a slow month in the NYC theatre world (although I think we’re all hoping that audition accompanying gigs pick up this year).

1. Tips for Piano Conductors – This is the first MusicianWages.com article I need to put together. I came up with the idea months and months ago, and even took some interviews for it. I just need to pull it all together. Update: article posted 2/1/2010
2. Town Musicians – I’ve been slowly getting into a series on MusicianWages.com about the history of the musician career. My idea is that our industry has just come out of a long financial bubble that was created by recorded music. Now that the bubble has popped, we need to re-learn how musicians made a living before the recording industry, and how we can integrate that into our modern careers. I’ve written 2 articles on the topic, and the next one needs to be about the Town Musician career, which existed between the middle ages and early 1800s in Europe.
3. A History of the Lincoln Center Buildings – This is an article for another musician publication. They asked me if I’d be interested in covering this topic. I should be able to knock this out with a few visits to the Lincoln Center Library.

Those are the articles in the works. I have a few other ideas that would take a lot more writing:

1. One Year in NYC: What Worked, What Didn’t – Another thing I write a lot about at MusicianWages.com is moving to NYC, which I did over a year and a half ago. In that first year I made some good progress and learned a lot of things. It’d be great to bundle it up into a series of articles for the musicians that come after me.
2. # of Musician Jobs on Broadway – When the recession hit last fall I counted all of the available musician chairs on Broadway. I wonder how that number has changed in a year? Update: article posted 1/28/2010

I also have some recordings I need to make and post. I have a new arrangement of my song One Day (Argentina) that I put together last week. I have to actually work on the of the runs (!) before I can record it, but I’ll put that up as soon as that’s ready. I have a few other songs rattling around that I’ll record when I have the time.

Resume, Ordered by Year

I had to make a resume, ordered by year, for a recent job application. I decided to layout it out as a vertical timeline along the margin.

Click the image for a clearer PDF version.

Healthcare Article Published in L.A.

The musicians’ union paper in Los Angeles published one of my articles this month. This article is on healthcare reform, my experience with cancer, and why I feel insurance reform is essential to working musicians in the United States.

The article was originally posted on MusicianWages.com, and you can read it at this link.

I keep a list of my published articles at this link.

Jeff Young Interview

I’m writing drum parts for an upcoming gig and watching a Jackson Browne SoundStage concert on PBS. Band sounds incredible, with Mark Goldenberg on guitar and Jeff Young on keyboards. I don’t know these guys, so I checked them out on the all-knowing eye (YouTube). Here’s a really nice interview with Jeff Young. Seems like a great hang, and I dig the song he’s playing.

And jumps!

Fade up on a dude sitting in his jeans on a long beach. Early morning. Seems like it was a bad night. What happened? Cue this song:

Dude stands up, dusts the sand off, starts walking. Keeps walking. Walks faster. Starts running. Now he’s sprinting. Run, man, run! What’s he going to do? He tears off his shirt. Long strides kicking up the sand – go, man, go!

Now he’s running down a pier, past all the tourists. The sun is up now, the place is crowded. He’s been running for so long. He gets up on the rail. Takes off his shoes, throws them aside. Stop the music.

He looks out. Smiles. And jumps!

He hits the water – cue the music again. Play that drum Kenneth!

He swims around, playing in the waves. Dude feels so much better.

Fade out.

You do not want to be this man’s neighbor.

Richter. Man oh man. You set the bar pretty high, buddy.

It makes me think two things:

1.) This video makes me what to both practice and quit.
2.) What did the piano do to him?

My favorite part might be when he throws down the towel and just starts finger-hollering!

Dr. Who Synth Explained

This video makes me very happy. Don’t judge.

My favorite part: “It’s a very modern synthesizer…”

Runner up: “Take these two sounds here: Funky 1 and 2…” (See, it’s funny because the guy’s a total square.)