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Why would you give your money to Steve Jobs & Apple (or Amazon) when you can buy direct from the artist?

Echoes Radio Interview

ECHOES RADIO INTERVIEW
Echoes Radio is going to be airing an interview with me next week. They posted a teaser on their blog today. It will focus on my latest release Radiant Sky, but include thoughts about all my music.



Their interview will air on Monday April 12th and the weekend of April 17th. To find out if you can get Echoes where you are check out their list of stations.

Chasing the Sun live video

I just sent out a notice to my Emailing List regarding a video I just posted of "Chasing the Sun" from Lost Canyons performed live on March 12th, 2010.

If you are a member of my list keep an eye out for that notice, or visit the Member's Page to find the link.

If you're not a member but would like to be you can sign up here.



In Harmony,
Scott August

Santa Fe from Radiant Sky - The Score

The song Santa Fe, track 5 from Radiant Sky, is the only piece on that release which features a Native American Style flute. This is accompanied by a lot of world instruments: Kalimba, Javanese gongs, Gamelan, Ouds and tons of world percussion. Since the flute plays a prominent part in this tune we'll take a closer look at it here.

THE FLUTE
The flute is a NAF in the key of G minor pentatonic, made of aspen wood by JP Gomez. of Heartsong Flutes This is one of my favorite flutes. It was one of the first ones I got from J.P. and is still my "go to" flute in that key. Here is a photo of me performing "Heart of the Sky" at the 2006 Zion flute festival.

I can say without hesitation that JP's flutes are some of the finest flutes out there. His sound is clear and sings, the finger holes are well placed to be very comfortable and, in my experience, they are always in tune. Now I must admit that even though I've owned this flute for some time and perform live on it every show, until Santa Fe I had not recorded it yet. This did not have anything to do with the flute, but that I wasn't writing songs for NAF much at the time, and not in the key of G. So when I began to sketch out the ideas for Santa Fe I did so with this flute in mind.

THE TUNES
There are about five tunes, or themes in Santa Fe. The rhythmic intro, the three flute themes and the recurring oud/piano breaks. Everything bounces along at a nice toe-tapping tempo and there is a lot of interplay between the instruments. For most NAF lovers however, the flute melodies are the main element that grabs the listener. Rightly so, as it plays the main tunes.

There is a lot of syncopation in the first theme. The clipped duration on the notes throughout the tune accentuate this. The second theme is more driving, although with still a lot of syncopation. The third flute theme is more soaring, with lots of trills and turns. The flute themes are in an AABBCCBBA form. We could simplify this as ABCBA just make it a little easier to get our minds around it. This simplified form, however, does not take the other themes into account, so the piece is slightly more complex.

The first A theme starts at Measure 24, the second at measure 57. Then we hear the B theme at measure 75, the second statement at measure 87. Then at measure 95 we hear the C theme. From that point on it should be pretty easy to hear the different themes.

Here is a sample from Santa Fe with the first NAF A theme and a little of the Oud/Piano theme, or interlude.

Each time a theme occurs there is a small amount of variation. This is either a change of the notes in the tune itself or a change of what is accompanying it, or both. Sometimes new material is added, sometimes exsiting material is removed, or, again, sometimes both happen. It can be really subtle, but the listener notices on some unconscious level. There are no rules.

THE NAF SCORE
For a while now people have been asking me if I'm ever going to publish some of my music in a song book.
This happens to be an ongoing goal of mine, especially the tunes from New Fire. I don't have "release" date, and am not even sure if the demand is high enough to justify it. The work is very time intensive and, up until recently, required the use of an application that I don't use a lot, so I'm always forgetting how to make it do what I want.

A few weeks ago however, I learned that with the latest version of Digital Performer I can now add the TAB finger charts directly into its notation window! So I decided to arrange the NAF themes from Santa Fe in TAB.

If the response to this is positive I'll consider putting more energy into a songbook of the tunes from New Fire.

For the score to Santa Fe I kept a lot of the ornamentation from the recording: turns, short trills, etc., but I cleaned up some of the staccato rhythms so it wouldn't look like a mass of 18th and= 16th note rests. I also didn't worry about notating the bends and chirps that I recorded. (To be honest I don't think that people should even try to play it just like I did when I recorded. Even I don't do that when I perform it live. Where's the fun in that?) However, if you play along with Santa Fe you'll be able to hear the few little bits that might not be in the score. The point, for me, was to present a clean, easy to read notation of the song. One that would be easy for most players to follow.

The NAF TAB Score

It's available for purchase HERE as a 8.5 X 11 printable PDF file for $1.99, or for member's of my Email List, for only $1.79.

If you're on my Email List already you can purchase it in the Member's Store. If you'd like to join my mailing list you can sign up on the Email List Sign Up Page.It's easy and free. Plus you get discounts on all Cedar Mesa Music products, Free MP3 downloads and my online newsletter "Echoes From The Mesa"

If you're not a member, and don't want to sign up you can still purchase it below.

If you don't own a copy of Radiant Sky yet, you can purchase a copy here or, if you're a Emailing List Member, in the Member's Store located in the Member's Section.

In
Harmony,
-Scott August

Anasazi flute

The Anasazi flute, currently recreated by Michael Graham Allen, is starting to gain popularity among players of the modern "plains" style Native American flute. It's haunting tone and ability to maneuver through the overtones of the harmonic series creates a very seductive sound. Since more people are becoming interested in them let's take a closer look at how the basic scale is set up on this flute and how it differs from the modern NAF.


First here is a quick look at how a Anasazi flute is held. As you can see the lower half of the mouthpiece end of the flute is set in the middle of the jaw. The player blows across the top part of the rim with the flute held at a 45˚ angle. We'll take a closer look at this later. For now let's take a look at the basic scale.

A DIFFERENT PENTATONICS SCALE
The Anasazi flute, like the modern Native American flute, has a pentatonic scale as it's basic scale. However, it's not the NAF's minor version of the pentatonic but the major version. A pentatonic scale has five notes (from the Greek pente: five) plus the octave.

Let's listen to examples of both these scales starting on F#.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE


© Cedar Mesa Music

Peru Journal part 6: Corn Beer, Coin Toss and River Rafting

UN DESCANSO
Day two in the Sacred Valley began with a trip to a local Chicha (corn beer) brewery, but there was more there than just beer. We got a glimpse into Quechua culture. The name of the brewery was Descanso, which means "rest" in Spanish, and the name fit it well. It was a quiet place right off the main road through the valley, where once behind it's walls you felt a sense of peace from the rest of the world. The walkways and patio had flowers growing up them. Tall trees reached high over the back patio and the mountains of the valley hung above the rooftops like sentinels. Descanso is not just a brewery but a place to go to drink the corn beer they make there, called Chicha by the Spanish and Aha in the Quechua language, have some food, meet friends, and play a coin toss game called Sapo.


Descanso: the Aha Wasi
Click to enlarge

We arrived early in the morning and were greeted by Mercedes, the Chicha maker and owner of Descanso. Like many of the Quechua we met she was shy and quiet, but very friendly too.

While things were getting set up for us to see how the beer was made and then taste some we wandered around the grounds. From the patio was a beautiful view of the Sacred Valley.


The Sacred Valley from the Descanso patio
Click to enlarge

GUINEA PIGS
One of the more interesting, and for some, controversial parts of Quechua culture is the eating of Guinea Pigs. The consumption of guinea pigs dates back to pre Inca times. During the reign of the Incas it was reserved as a royal food for the upper class. Today it is eaten on special occasions, like birthdays, holiday and any other celebration. Some of the people in our group found this really upsetting. Every culture eats something that people from outside of that culture find strange or uncomfortable. While exploring the Pacific Northwest Lewis and Clark preferred eating dogs to salomn, something I think most people from the U.S. would find bizarre and upsetting today.

At Descanso, as a small business, they raised guinea pigs for sale. They lived in their own room which opened off the patio and we were invited to look in and take photos.


Guinea Pigs
Click to play

The guinea pigs squeaked and nibbled on their food while we poked our heads through the door. Our guide Fredy tried to explain the unexplainable. They eat them, they always have, they don't think of them as pets or name them. By the end of the day those of us that wanted to would be able to taste guinea pig. But the day had just started and that was many hours from now.

SAPO
After checking out the guinea pigs we were introduced to another part of Quechua culture. The coin toss game of Sapo. The word Sapo is Quechau for Frog. The point of the game was pretty simple. There is a table on which a matrix of eight square holes is cut. Like a tic-tac-toe grid. In the middle of the grid sits a brass frog, it's mouth facing the player. Coins are tossed from a distance of about six feet at the table. The goal is to get as many coins into one of the holes, each of which has it's own ranking of points. The ultimate goal is to get a coin into the frog's mouth, which has the highest number of points.

Our guide Fredy gave us a demonstration and got a coin into the frog's mouth! He seemed as surprised as the rest of us. Then it was our turn. We grouped into three teamss: The Condors, The Pumas and The Guinea Pigs...


Playing Sapo
Click to play

CHICHA
After our game we gathered in the dinning room of Descanso where Mercedes, the lady of the house/business and brewmeister showed us how Chicha is made. Like all beer a grain, in this case corn, is malted (partially germinated) cooked to a wort and then yeast is added for fermentation. For Chicha the yeast is part of a starter, like sourdough bread, from the last batch of Chicha. It's stored into a giant pot where if ferments for a few days. Unlike beer made from barley, the alcohol is very low, around 3 percent or less, so the beer is traditionally served in a large glasses.


Mercedes holding a glass of Chicha
Click to enlarge

As we would see again and again during our time in the highlands, the kitchens of most houses are very basic, yet the meals cooked in them were complex and tasty. Descanso's kitchen was no exception, yet beer was brewed here for sale and consumption. Not what you'd expect a commercial kitchen to look like!


A typical wood burning stove
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Descanso did have a small gas stove (it said so right on the front) which was a luxery compared to the other private kitchens we saw.


The gas stove
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Notice in the photo above on the far right center of the image there is a hand holding a mano used to grind food on a metate. A tradition that stretches back thousands of years and is found throughout the Americas.

The final product is Chicha, Aha in Quechuan, which we all got a small taste of. No big glasses for us...


Chicha and the corn it's made from
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In the photo above are the different types of corn used to make Chicha along with a basket of the malted, partially germinated, corn kernels. The glass with the yellow liquid is regular Chicha. The purple Chicha gets it's color from the addition of strawberrys. It was very delious. There is also non-alcoholic Chicha made from a purple corn that is very common and can be found bottled.

Chicha has a milky taste. It's somewhat sweet with a hint of sour and goes down smooth. It does not taste like any beer you'd taste in the U.S. And that's a good thing. Something different.


The main road through the Sacred Valley
Click to enlarge

ROWING ON THE RIVER
After our Chicha taste we all said "goodbye" to Mercedes and Descanso and headed up the only road through the Sacred Valley, north past the town of Urubamba towards Ollantaytambo, where the road ended and the valley dropped down into the jungle. We were headed to the ruins at Ollantaytambo but first were going river rafting on the Urubamba. Before you get any images of raging white water let me say that even though the locals claimed the river was currently a class 3, to us it seemed like a wimpy 2. But the skies were clear, the day warm (in the sun), the snow covered mountains loomed in the distant, and that was the plan.

We met up with our guides who gave us a lesson on how to row...


Row, row, row your raft...
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Did I mention we all looked like geeks in our river gear?

Photo: Mas Yamaguchi
Wearing the latest Peruvian water gear
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So off we went down the raging torrent of the Urubamba


Photo: Mas Yamaguchi
Rapids? We don't need no stinkin' rapids!
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Okay, there were a few rapids...


Photo: Mas Yamaguchi
Oh yeah, that was a rapid...
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We were in two boats. The guide in our boat was very nice but for some reason keep yelling "Pura Vida!" I hate to admit I've forgotten his name.


Photo: Mas Yamaguchi
Pura Vida!
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Okay, enough snark. Truth be told it was a lot of fun and a beautiful day. No one fell in, heck, no one even got wet. But it was quiet on the water. The sun sparkled on the waves. There were birds in the sky and farm animals on the banks. It was very pastoral. A nice break from the rush of our trip so far.


Photo: Mas Yamaguchi
On the Urubamba
Click to enlarge

Soon enough we were back on the bus and headed to Ollantaytambo. Like Pisac in the southern end of the valley, Ollantaytambo (oh-yawn-tay-tambo) was both a living town and the old Inca fortress above. This is a major site, so I'll stop here and leave that for the next post.

Previous Peru Journals
Part 1: "Journey to Peru"
Part 2: "Lost in Translation"
Part 3: "Flight of the (Silver) Condor"
Part 4: Inca Pisac
Part 5: The Pisac Market

© 2009 Cedar Mesa Music
All Photos and video © Cedar Mesa Music except where noted.

Peru Journal

I've posted several accounts of my trip to Peru this past summer (2009) on my the Cedar Mesa Music blog. Check out the first "chapter"