…this photo will have a whole new meaning. This is a photo of my daughter playing bass for only the second time ever. Sure, her left thumb is in the wrong place, but she’s just starting.
Note that the late and great bass revolutionary Jaco Pastorius looms in the background. Hmm. I just found this photo to be very insteresting.
Sarah likes to embrace anything having to do with Hawaii, since she was born there. Once I showed her how to play the ukulele (very basic things, a few chords and vamps and this waltz), she can’t seem to get enough of it. Here she is playing a waltz that I learned when I was a kid growing up in Hawaii. I don’t think I ever knew the title of it, so if anyone knows it, please post it here.
Sarah is also still getting used to the idea that in order to share your performance on youtube, you have to be videotaped…duh! She’s shy but she did a great job! I think we’ll keep her.
-Josh
PS - she just started learning bass guitar yesterday…perhaps she will follow in daddy’s footsteps? Heaven help us.
Here’s the before shot of the before and after comparison I would like to make at the end of 2008.
Yes, I know I stink, but I know I used to be good, so I am using this to help me see if I can improve later on this year.
I am trying to return to my roots, which is drumming. I started in 7th grade on snare drum and have played all kinds of drums since then off and on. Freshman year in high school was when I fell in love with the electric bass, so I spent a lot more time doing that than drumming. I played percussion in band and stand-up bass in orchestra at the University of Hawaii (who is playing right now in the Sugar Bowl! Go Warriors!).
So in an effort to lay down musical ideas as they come and to hopefully become inspired anew, I got this electronic drum set (a Roland V-Drums TD-3KW) and am enjoying it very much. 2007 has truly been very good to us! 
Here’s a few more examples of the drum kit sounds available, along with my rough chops.
It was 10 years ago this week that my first fanfare for orchestra, Kolob, was performed for the first and only time. I have recently digitized the performance and it is now available on youtube for all. Below are the notes as written on youtube.
This is the world premiere (I know, sounds so official) of KOLOB, a fanfare for orchestra by me, Joshua Haley. It is my first large-scale composition for orchestra, and definitely the first one that I was able to have performed. The University of Hawaii at Manoa Symphony Orchestra (of which I was a member for years on bass) was kind enough to rehearse and perform this piece.
It was performed as shown here at Kahala Mall center stage, in Honolulu, Hawaii on November 11, 1997. Theresa McCreary, the 1st chair cellist, served as guest conductor for Henry Miyamura.
I make no apology for using inspiration from John Williams and his wonderful works. He was the key inspiration for this fanfare, as well as completing my college composition assignment! :p
I must tell you, a LOT of work goes into getting to this point. It’s one thing to have the piece written, another to have all of the parts properly formatted and printed, and then be lucky enough to have an orchestra perform it for me.
I had a dat recorder and a video camera at this performance to get proper recordings, and guess what? Neither worked properly! I went through days of discouragement until I found out that a parent of one of the bass players recorded it on his camcorder and was willing to let me make a copy. Thus the focus on one of the bass players for a time in this video.
Enjoy! Feedback appreciated.
Josh
This has got to be one of the COOLEST robot meets music videos. It also makes me want to go get a theramin of my own! I love how they just threw a black cloth in the background and went for it. The percussion part seemed pretty complicated too. GEEK ALERT!!! I hope you enjoy as much as I did.
Josh
This video makes me want to go out right now and buy a guitar just to give to my kids to see what they come up with! This is brilliant! If you want to see it happen, just send me money and I’ll do it. Thanks!
Enjoy,
Josh™
P.S. - I feel like eating popcorn for some reason, too.
This documents the studio a little bit. No descriptions for now, just some music created in the very studio being shown. The monkey Ai-Ai is the inspiration for it all.
Josh™
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