Grate Expectations, Welcome.

First and foremost, welcome to my humble little blog, wherein you will likely come to find ramblings, musings, rantings, ravings, nerdy clarinet shop talk action and other misc. oddities. I hope you find it all to be useful, charming and readable!

Let’s get something straight here: the concept of blogging has always seemed absurd to me, and I’ve avoided the phenomenon like that Vietnamese restaurant off of Argyle that keeps being shut down by the City of Chicago for health code violations. I won’t name names.

In all seriousness, the word ‘blog’ always seemed to embody this sense of self-inflation that, despite my self-confidence, made me sour. But I now see that this is an excellent means of letting out some steam, clearing your chest, posting things for anyone to see—connecting and sharing with people—and seeing where the journey takes you. I hope I haven’t gotten all sentimental in vain. This better be cool.

It’s worth saying a few words about the title, for those of us who aren’t classically trained musicians and/or physics geeks (a physics expert I am not, but it comes with the territory of being a clarinetist that you must have an understanding of the basics of sound & acoustics). In the literal sense, “Odd Partials” refers to the way in which the Overtone Series functions on the clarinet, which is what makes the instrument both incredibly unique and a major pain in the neck (insert time-tested cliché re: double-edged swords right here). To put it simply, the clarinet only contains the odd partials (harmonics) of the overtone series(well, kind of … )—more on that later. I also see the title as analogous with my personality, which should become evident with subsequent posts. I have a penchant for odd quipping and quasi-off-color humor and repartee.

So we’ll just have to see what happens. Please feel free to comment; I love discussion. If I’m wrong, try not to rub it in too hard when you correct me, I’m a sensitive chap that likes intelligent discussion and loathes condescension.

Oh, and I’m a Taurean Oxen, which is interesting to some more than others (I fall into the ‘others’ category, mostly). It does, however, say something about my character.

Cheers!