Mike Milnarik's..Back Row to Front and Center!

Articles, Audio, Video, Blog Posts (related to tuba, euphonium, performance, teaching and the music business), Workshops and lots of other stuff by tuba player Mike Milnarik.

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Lazy Sunday...

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GET YOUR MUSIC LESSONS ON!!

It’s the beginning of the school year and that means it’s time to get your music lessons on!  Whether it’s applied lessons at the college you attend, private lessons for the pre-college student, or private lessons for anyone else - it’s now the best time to set them up!  The earlier you start private lessons the quicker you can begin to access your true potential.  Practice, practice, practice...your most important formative years are during college and earlier. Fundamental practice provides a solid foundation to build everything else.  It’s easier to teach a person who is a great musician how to play a style than it is to teach someone who can play a style how to be a great musician!  Trust your teachers, they have experience that you don’t...that’s why you’re working with them!  Practice daily...a little every day is better than a lot all at once!  Concentrate on being the best musician YOU can be, not on the competition.  Get inspired!  Go to LIVE performances, listen to recordings, check out verifiably great YouTube videos and shoot for the stars!!

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Listen to this!

“Bicycle” performed by INNOVATA and written by Sanae Kanda

http://innovataofficial.com/track/710024/bicycle?autostart=true

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Facebook Msgr on Apple Watch!

Just sat down to watch a little of the Apple Keynote (in the background). I find it funny how the Apple Watch gets a polite applause, especially when they said the PRIVACY INVADING Facebook Messenger is coming to the Apple Watch!

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iPad Pro...Just say no.

Been waiting for a larger iPad for sheet music and pumped the iPad Pro is finally here. Really disappointed that the low end model is $799! REALLY Apple? I've been an Apple fan since 7th grade (just a few years) and am so bummed that even with the biggest previous advances the price point was never this high. Laptops have gotten waaaay overpriced (probably because you want to eventually phase them out), now the iPads are about $300 too expensive (so that they'll move into the laptop price point), especially for many "new" iPad features that other brand tablets already boast. Don't get me wrong, I love what the new iPad does and am still a fan...but not going to run out and buy one at this price point. Sorry, Tim Cook. Just not into the over exaggerated, adjective driven, lack of heart in your "let's copy Steve's'' presentations.

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“Crossy Road” seems strangely familiar...

Feeling like frog’s legs for dinner. 

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“New” from Apple - Keynote 9/9/15

Apple Watch = meh. iPad Pro = 1 thumb up / price = 2 thumbs down, way down. Apple TV = 2 enthusiastic thumbs up / price = 1 thumb up. iPhone 6s and 6s+ (or Samsung Galaxy S6+ or S6+ Edge?) = meh. 3D touch? My Galaxy S4 already is touch sensitive. Maybe not exactly the same, but not new. iPhone adds LIVE PHOTO...so that it can use up more of your storage space to get you to buy a phone with more memory. Apple, everything I use are Apple products...want to get me to switch to the iPhone? Let us add a micro SD card and swap the battery out...like the Samsung (and other Droid) phones do. Overall Keynote reaction = meh. (Similar to the live audience.)

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POSSIBLE HELPFUL TIP FOR SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 (and probably S5) USERS

Just found something useful that maybe everyone else knows about or maybe you don't. If you use the default email client - messages that you delete or that are deleted automatically go to your trash folder. What I didn't realize is that they stay there - forever - unless you delete them from there. When I looked at the trash folder I had over 5000 messages. You can select each message one at a time and then delete them (super duper ridiculously slow). You can select the box at the top of each screen view and delete a group at a time (still uber slow). OR (what I just found) you can tap the folder icon at the bottom right of your screen, find the trash folder and tap it, then use the settings button at the bottom left hand corner of your phone and select DELETE ALL! Gets rid of ALL messages in your trash folder and will probably speed your phone up a bit - depending how many messages you have, but importantly...what's attached to them, etc. I suggest plugging the phone in before you do this if there are a lot of messages in the trash folder. A bit over 5000 messages took my phone about 50 minutes to delete and used up about 25% of my battery. But with this method I didn't have to anything...just let the phone do it's thing! I looked for this information online and couldn't find it. So I thought that maybe a lot of people don't know about it. Hope it helps!

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Finally!  The new CD has been released!  Comper Sanae Kanda has released the first CD of her music called "Purple Night"!  I'm really excited about this because in one way - it's my first solo CD.  In another way - it's the first recording my group INNOVATA has done that features all of the exclusive, audience friendly music we perform.  In yet another way - it's the first recording of another group of mine called the Cosmopolitan Tuba Quartet.  It's ALL of this plus more!  Sanae's CD includes my friends Matt Brown (tuba), Brian Diehl (trombone), Mike Dobson (percussion), Mark Emery (trumpet), Adam Frey (euphonium), Roland Fröscher (euphonium), Richard Kelley (trumpet), Jeff Scott (horn), and of course - Sanae Kanda (piano)!  All phenomenal, world class musicians that I am humbled to play with!  Go check it out and see what you think!

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What are you doing?

Seriously.  What are you doing?  Where are you going?  Have you actually given conscious thought to this?  It's so easy to go into things blindly or just go with the flow.  For some people this works.  For others, it works for a while.  Yet for others, it doesn't work at all.  Figure out what you want.  Figure out where you want to be.  Plan it.  Get out a pencil and paper.  Write it all down.  Write down where you ultimately want to end up.  Once you've done that it'll be easier to figure out where to start and the steps necessary to get you there.  Give it a try.  What's it gonna hurt?

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CD Release!

Do you like tuba music? Euphonium music? Brass quintet music? Tuba euphonium quartet music? Look no further! Visit the "Shop!" section of sanaekanda.com to hear tracks from the new release Purple Night, scheduled for November 30, 2014 (the composer's birthday)!!!

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Boston Tuba Christmas!

This Saturday, November 29, 2014! Visit www.bostontubachristmas.com for details!

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"Purple Night - The Music of Sanae Kanda (Volume 1)" will be released in about a month!! It features (in order of the # of tracks each artist is on): Michael S. Milnarik, tuba; Sanae Kanda, piano; INNOVATA (brass & percussion); Roland Froscher, euphonium; Adam Frey, euphonium; and the Cosmopolitan Tuba Quartet!! Want a sneak peak? Here's a link to the title track (Purple Night)- performed by INNOVATA!! ENJOY!!

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NEW VIDEOS POSTED!

New videos posted in the MEDIA section of milnarik.com by INNOVATA, Cosmopolitan Tuba Quartet, Brass Planet and Cirkestra! Hope you like them! Enjoy!

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TUBA JAM!

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GLORIA by Sanae Kanda

written in loving memory of Gloria A. Milnarik  November 1, 1942 - November 11, 2013 Performed by Michael S. Milnarik, tuba & Sanae Kanda, piano Performed on April 4, 2013 @ Salem State University

AUDIO HERE

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FIRE DANCE by Sanae Kanda

Fun tune... FIRE DANCE by Sanae Kanda from our recital at Tufts University on March 12, 2013. AUDIO HERE