Short post today, as I’m on paternity leave from my job. Yep, paternity leave. Our son, Charles Daniel Neal, was born on 9/11/20! Even with 9 months to prepare, it still seems a little surreal that he’s here, and that I have a new title: Dad. I’ll have more to muse about in the coming months. I think it will really hit home when I need to be at work all day and come home to him. For right now,Read More→
For a change of pace on this blog, I wanted to share pictures of a few “gallery walls” I’ve put up in our house. I think I’m getting better at it. The biggest tip I’ve learned is to find your vertical center, and keep it consistent. I have hung almost all the art in our house with a center of 5 feet from the floor. That is, the center of each collection is 5 feet. Our living room and diningRead More→
I’ve worked a number of odd jobs in my life. There are loads of stories I could tell people about, but in this post, I’m reflecting on the jobs’ connection to music. I didn’t think about this at the time, but these jobs taught me some important lessons. “Nail ‘em!”: lessons in improv as a haunted house monster After finishing my PhD, I moved back to my dad’s house in the Atlanta area. I took on a few part-time jobs,Read More→
I’m working on a book which I hope to self-publish by the end of the year. It’s a collection of short essays about musical instruments and what they “mean.” One essay for each instrument in the orchestra (plus a few other common ones, like piano and guitar). I’ll go over the book itself in a future post, but in this one I wanted to discuss my writing process. It has definitely not been linear, but then again, the book isn’tRead More→
One of my “quarantine projects” was remixing my first yoga album, Yogis on Fire. I’ll back up to the beginning and then talk about what I wanted to fix. My lovely wife Candace has taught yoga for many years, primarily for CorePower Yoga. A couple years ago she convinced me to try it and we did the Hot Power Fusion class. I liked it a lot more than I expected. Yoga music Skip forward a year or so and weRead More→
Don’t wait to “get discovered” One of my biggest pet peeves are artists talking about “getting discovered.” Obviously it’s naïve, but it’s also a passive way to look at your career. I prefer to think about building an audience, cultivating a following, networking, creating opportunities, etc. etc. You won’t be “discovered” by a publisher and find fame that way. But you might be “discovered” by musicians looking for new music to play. Publishing is a topic that comes up oftenRead More→
After years of living in apartments (together and separately), my wife and I decided to rent a house this year. Since we both are musicians, we want to make noise when neighbors won’t be disturbed, and we both need home offices. I work a full-time job away from home (until the pandemic hit, when I worked at home exclusively for a few months). My home office is my creative space but also my get-shit-done space. It’s not ideal and it’sRead More→
I wrote this post about a month ago, and while some of these thoughts hold true, the whole situation gets more maddening by the day. But since we’re probably going to be in this state for awhile longer, I wanted to share my quarantine experience. Maybe you’ll find another way to look at it. -Adam The luck and blessing of quarantine Back in May, I retweeted Kathryn Vetter, which said: “If you’re ‘enjoying’ quarantine then you were burnt out pre-pandemic.”Read More→
I’m pleased to announce that I have a book chapter published! It’s part of Audio Education: Theory, Culture, and Practice, edited by Daniel Walzer and Mariana Lopez. This has been in the works for about a year and a half, but it draws on experience dating back almost 15 years. This post is less of a reprint of the main points in the article, and more of a recollection of the writing experience. Maybe it will be helpful for thoseRead More→
The term “alt-ac” was widely discussed in the mid 20-teens, and it’s problematic and misleading but I haven’t seen a better term. Essentially, “alternative academics” are folks with terminal degrees working outside of faculty roles. Either working in industry, or working in administrative positions in higher education, “alt-acs” engage in research, but their “day job” is something other than teaching. I fall into this category, and I wanted to share my experience in two pretty different jobs. Since the tenure-trackRead More→
