Dafür, dass The Uplifters eine Freiburger Band sind, spielen wir dieses Jahr außergewöhnlich oft in der Rhein-Neckar-Ecke. Gut für mich, denn dann ist die Anreise nicht so lang.
Am 26. August dürfen wir beim wunderbaren Brückenaward in Mannheim spielen. Anfang September geht's nach Speyer zum Nagelklotz aufs Altstadtfest.
Im Dezember spielen wir dann im Café Leitstelle in Heidelberg, gemeinsam mit meiner alten Rock-Cover-Band Marshall Pfefferle. Das wird groß werden!
I have an awesome band! In December we recorded a few songs "live" in our rehearsal room in Freiburg, both audio and video. Over the winter everybody but me put a lot of work into pulling both together and making it look and sound good. And what can I say, they did an amazing job. I'm truly impressed. Plus: everything was done using free and open source software: Ardour and kdenlive!
Well, here they are, two of our original songs, live in the studio:
Be Free
Change My Life
If you want to see us play live sometime, head over to theuplifters.de and sign up to our newsletter! We only send out emails when we have public gigs to announce. Of course you can always book us for your private garden party as well. 😃
Last week I bought a brand new trombone. Following my
teacher's recommendation, I made an
appointment at Musik Bertram in Freiburg and
spent a good few hours in their practice room trying out different instruments.
I fully expected to get a light, small-bore, jazz or pop music tenor trombone.
Instead, I somehow chose a medium-bore, classical Bach
36, with
rose brass bell and everything.
What made the difference compared to the other instruments I tried is the
incredible, full sound this instrument is able to produce. My guitarist
Max, who was with me at the store, put
it this way:
The other instruments are good, too. But this one sounds like it has a
built-in compressor.
Guitarists...
So, amazing sound, yes, but there's a drawback. This instrument is heavier than
anything I have played before. And its geometry is weird, too. I'm still
figuring how to hold it comfortably.
Luckily, there's YouTube. And there's one of my favorite YouTubers: Trent
Hamilton. Trent is a New Zealander
that collects brass instruments like others collect stamps. He also plays them
very well, and he plays all of them. Naturally he knows how to properly hold - even a heavy - a
trombone:
*: x reps of slow (!) heel drops with a bent knee, then x reps with a straight
knee. Repeat on the other side. The weight is held on the side that's doing the
drops. Full range of motion, but don't hold the bottom stretch (my damaged
achilles tendon doesn't like that).
Since my training log project is
going nowhere, I might as well log my training here, if just for a few weeks.
After a 11 day training break due to Covid I have to ramp back up slowly into my
ongoing volume cycles of clean & press and one-handed club swinging. I am also
trying to start a cycle of Goblet squats in order to add ... more squats to my
training. I think I need them.
*: 3 rung reverse ladder goes 3 left, 3 right, 2 left, 2 right, 1 left, 1 right
**: x reps of slow (!) heel drops with a bent knee, then x reps with a
straight knee. Repeat on the other side. KB is held on the side that's doing the
drops. Full range of motion, but don't hold the bottom stretch (my damaged
achilles tendon doesn't like that).
