Gabe’s

Alone from February Meet

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I was at a nice place today. Sat down at the piano after playing in Eb and C minor on the vibes. Sat down to improvise on new and old things, when I realized I was in a very nice place and should record. So I turned on the old beast with the clunky monitor, fired up Finale the music recording program, and it failed to work. I tried to record a little different this time, without a click going, free of time and that annoying click sound.

Now my reason in sending you this is this: I used to write my music down with a pencil and paper, seemed to be mostly painless, except for all that erasing and hand cramps, plus…I seemed to do it more than I am now. As far as how long it took, that is an interesting point. If I think back to my whole life, it seems I was more productive at ‘Getting’ things done, when I used the simplest technologies. Getting things done meant actually making music with people that I had a ‘bigger’ quantifiable role in creating. Not that I have something to prove, it’s just more hands-on and satisfying to have musicians LOOK at your scribblings and then make sound. To the point…what I do now, seems to involve less doing, less time working, more time creating, but it is less fulfilling to my body and soul. My mind is well occupied with the blue screen and the piano keyboard that can instantly record what I play, but my body drifts. Is technology helping or hurting me?

Looking back, the music then was less creative, took longer to get on paper, and I wouldn’t listen to it today. But it seems now like it was more fulfilling in a simpler way. Part of that is it was new and discovering is fun and enjoyable. But you get to a point, when you want more. More control over the music, so more complexity in the writing on paper so you get a computer and you spend time fooling with software. What you create is wonderful, amazing, the best you’ve ever created in the moment or revised to abstraction. It is good, but it isn’t music.

Is the age of the composer dead? Does the beat poet rein supreme? The highest art is one that touches your mind and body. Music does this, so do a lot of things in the realm of entertainment. Movies certainly touch my mind, and my body a little. Sometimes tears sometimes angry tension or rarely fear (Documentaries: Why We Fight, Sicko, Fog of War). The visual is grand, but it isn’t the best thing for people. You’re placid, glazed eyes take in all, you can’t separate the information like you can with pure sound. And of course, there’s getting your body into the artistic/creative process. Music trumps all for this. I include Dance with Music, but as an art to be more visual than visceral, you are entertained through the eyes or by doing. Listening to music and dancing and playing are the best things for us people. So I ask you, is technology helping or hurting us? The Word of course is great and terrible and necessary, but what is the best life among art/entertainment for people? The point isn’t moot, it speaks to our relationship with technology and therefore our future.

Now I realize this might be mostly useless for you, but maybe it will spark ideas about how to transcend this technological problem with modern times. It isn’t just how we interact with our computers, it seems to be everywhere in our culture; We seem smarter, but are we just distracted and over analyzing everything like an engineer must? Are we thinking like machines? Speaking generally about popular culture, of course.

The decline and fall of Rome started in the Coliseum. Are we so placid & apathetic that blood sport is gaining popular appeal? As a young person, I find the culture of competitive fighting among Gen X/Millennials, almost as frightening as I find our ‘electoral’ system. The trappings and honor badges of these young men and their devotees are like little symbols of fascist brotherhood of violence and dominance. Then there’s what is celebrated as entertainment on the M televisions. I don’t want to sound too preachy, but I’m with Wynton, our culture went down the pipe many years ago.

This brings me back to Music and human time. As a child, living without much intrusive technology, time seemed slower. People interacted slower, ate slower, partied slower, etc. Part of this is my perception, but I think you can see and hear it everywhere in our culture. Mostly in our language. The link between our reality and what we make of it through our speech is of course self-fulfilling. When something is repeated in the culture, it can become reality even if it was previously fiction. (See the Link Professional). Now that may sound a little ‘New-agy’ but if you look inside yourself, you will see this as truth. As an adult, technology has sped-up repetition and therefore reality can change faster and more with human whims rather than ‘Earthly reality’. So, two aspects of the term…musical time and relative time. It might be ‘truthy’ that to understand one will lead to more understanding of the other. So hold on, this will get weird…better yet. Put on some Coltrane with Elvin drumming,  or those tracks with Roy too.

In 2003, Gabriel Beach received a Master of Music from the University of Northern Colorado where he taught percussion, ensembles, jazz bands, and assisted with the Greeley Jazz festival production. At UNC, Gabe was an active performer with jazz ensembles and the Greeley Philharmonic were he received two outstanding performance awards (by recorded submission) from the famed music periodical DOWNBEAT.

After graduation, he took positions teaching percussion at Adams State College in Alamosa, CO and Western State in Gunnison and continued as a freelance performer and leader of professional bands.

Raised in Indiana, Gabe received a traditional education and enjoyed reading and music early in childhood. With an older brother Greg and father Ron both being musicians, he picked up sticks at age 12 and began studying seriously. As an active performer all through high school, he built a strong foundation that would allow him to continue his studies with the great teacher and percussionist Erwin Mueller at Ball University in Muncie, Indiana. Dr. Mueller, who studied with Ed Metzenger of the the Chicago Symphony, would expose him to all the doors of possibility that music has for the percussionist. Focusing on the Marimba as a solo and ensemble instrument in College, Gabe won the 1999 university undergraduate Concerto competition which resulted in his orchestral solo debut of Keiko Abe’s ‘Prism Rhapsody’ and in 2000, a Student Exchange with Mukogawa University (Osaka, Japan) and a subsequent solo marimba recital.

While earning a B.S. and B.M. at Ball State, Gabe was an active performer on drum set and percussion with many professional and school ensembles. The most notable being the Muncie Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Lab Band I, which toured Europe in the summer of 2000 (Vienne, Montreux, North Sea Jazz Festivals).

Currently living in Colorado, he teaches percussion to all ages at his personal studio. His philosophy of teaching is simple and informal.
Fundamentals come first, but also allowing student self direction and discovery. An active performer, Gabe continues to hone his ensemble conducting and compositional skill to create the most excellent recordings and performances allowable.