Ricardo "Rick" Carlos

 Ricardo "Rick" Carlos
13400 Bullick Hollow Rd.
Austin, Tx. 78726
(512)250-5970
rick.carlos@sbcglobal.net

Resume of Software Professional

SUMMARY
* Object-oriented design/programming with C++ (10+ years)
* Structured design/programming with C (10+ years)
* UNIX software development (10+ years)
* Network programming with TCP/IP sockets (10+ years)
* Windows software development (5+ years)
* Client/server architectures with CORBA (5+ years)
* Distributed systems management with TME (5+ years)
* Object-oriented design/programming with Smalltalk (4+ years)
* Embedded/real-time systems (4+ years)
* Perl programming (3+ years)
* Web/Internet programming with CGI/HTML (3+ years)
* Relational database programming with SQL (3+ years)
* Object-oriented design/programming with Java/J2EE (3+ years)
* Data design/programming with XML, XML Schema, XSLT (2+ years)
* Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) certification

EXPERIENCE

Java Developer - Paypal/Ebay (w/ Apex Systems)
(2012)
Designed and implemented a sophisticated "diff" command line utility to report differences of metrics for Paypal seller transactions.  Implemented with Java, XML DOM, JSON, XSLT, Eclipse, Maven, and Git.

Software Consultant - Triand
(2008)
Designed and implemented various XSL-FO stylesheets using XSLT and Java to generate printable content (PDF) of student/teacher educational materials.

Software Consultant - Ticom Geomatics (w/ Hall Kinion/KForce)
(2004)
Designed and implemented an XML-based data specification, using XML Schema, for defining various binary data formats used at Ticom for communication and storage of signal geolocation data. Designed and implemented a code generator, using XSLT w/ Java, which produced C/C++ language data bindings for these binary data formats. Also, implemented an XSL-FO XSLT stylesheet to generate printable documentation (PDF) for these binary data formats.

Software Consultant - General Dynamics (w/ Robert Half Technology)
(2003)
Implemented a feasibility study (w/ resulting white paper) of an enhanced port of a Java-implemented online collaboration software product to a Multi-Level Security (MLS) Trusted Solaris operating system environment.

Senior Software Engineer - ClearCommerce, Inc.
(1998 - 2001)
Was a major contributor to the design and implementation of ClearCommerce's FraudShield e-commerce product, using C++ (w/ STL) on UNIX and Windows NT/2000, providing a rules-based fraud protection solution to storefront merchants. In addition, assumed a technical leadership role in developing the initial product.
Designed and implemented an e-commerce merchant administration application, using Perl with HTML/CGI/SSH on UNIX, providing Commerce Service Providers (CSPs) secure interactive and batch management of merchant storefront accounts.
Was a major contributor to the design and implementation of an e-commerce product, using C and Perl with HTML/CGI/SSH on UNIX, providing a major CSP partner (CSI - CardService International) secure batch management of merchant storefront accounts and a Web-based merchant point-of-sale (POS) application. In addition, assumed a technical leadership role in developing this product, and worked closely with the partner/customer throughout the project.

Senior Software Developer - Tivoli Systems (IBM)
(1993 - 1997)
Was a major contributor to the design and implementation of Tivoli's security/identity management product (TME SECMGT), one of the major CORBA-based TME systems management applications, using C and C++ on UNIX (SeOS security) and Windows NT (native security and LANMGR).
Helped maintain Tivoli's user/group administration product (TME ADMIN), one of the major CORBA-based TME systems management applications, using C and C++ on UNIX and Windows NT.
Was a major contributor to the implementation and maintenance of a CORBA-based TME platform configuration and change management system (CCMS), using C and C++ on UNIX, used by Tivoli's major systems management applications as a common framework for scalable systems management information propagation in TME-based enterprises.

Software Design Engineer - Texas Instruments Semiconductor Group
MicroElectronics Manufacturing Science and Technology (MMST)
(1989 - 1993)
Designed and implemented, using Smalltalk on UNIX, an application framework and GUI to facilitate wafer data collection in the MMST Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) system.
Implemented, using C++ on UNIX, an application to transport C++ application persistent objects between the ObjectStore and Gemstone object-oriented databases separated by LAN, to give Smalltalk applications access to persistent objects created by C++ applications.
Designed and implemented, using Smalltalk and C on UNIX, a framework to allow VisualWorks Smalltalk-80 applications to be seamlessly distributed across LANs on heterogeneous UNIX-based systems (transparent remote object communication between distributed Smalltalk objects residing in different Smalltalk virtual images on the LAN).

Software Design Engineer - Texas Instruments Semiconductor Group
(1984 - 1989)
Designed and implemented, using C on UNIX, a framework to allow C applications to be easily distributed across LANs on heterogeneous UNIX-based systems (transparent communication between applications provided with transport-independent [sockets-TCP/IP, TLI-OSI] API and name service).
Helped design and implement a UNIX operating system API/framework, using C, layered on top of the VRTX non-preemptive real-time operating system to allow seamless porting of UNIX-based C applications to a diskless embedded real-time system; ported this to a disk-based embedded system, and designed and implemented the disk-based file system component.
Designed and implemented reliable datagram and virtual circuit message-based network protocols on UNIX-based systems, using C, atop the XNS and TCP/IP network protocol suites, as components of a framework developed to allow C applications to be distributed across LANs on heterogeneous UNIX-based systems.
Designed and implemented a menu-based factory operator interface on UNIX-based systems, using C (w/ Curses), enabling factory operators with no UNIX knowledge to provide some degree of factory application administration.
Designed and implemented a UNIX and MS-DOS based 3270 terminal emulator and API, using C, for accessing IBM mainframes across LANs from UNIX-connected terminals (VT100, etc.) and DOS-based PCs.

SKILLS

Programming Languages:
C/C++ (Native UNIX, GNU, Microsoft), Java, Perl, PHP, Smalltalk (VisualWorks Smalltalk-80), HTML, XML, DTD, XML Schema, XSLT, XSL-FO, XPath, JavaScript

Operating Systems:
UNIX (Solaris, AIX, HPUX, Linux, Trusted Solaris, etc.), Windows (NT, 2000, XP), VRTX (embedded real-time OS)

Software Platforms:
CORBA (Tivoli Management Environment - TME), J2EE - EJB, RMI, JMS, JNDI, Servlets, JSP (Weblogic, Tomcat)

Design Methodologies:
Booch (OOD - UML), Shlaer/Mellor (OOA), E/R Model, Relational DB Model

Software APIs/Interfaces:
TCP/IP Sockets, C++ STL (Standard Template Library), POSIX Threads (C, C++), Lex/Yacc, Win32 (including native Windows security APIs),  LANMGR (Windows), RACF (SeOS - UNIX), CGI (C, C++, Perl w/ CGI.pm), SQL/ODBC/JDBC/PL-SQL, DOM/SAX, JAXP (Java-Xerces,Xalan)

Software Tools:
Eclipse, CVS, Ant, Maven, Subversion, Git

Databases:
Relational (SQL): Oracle, Sybase, Informix, MS SQL Server, MySQL;  OODB: ObjectStore (C++), Gemstone (Smalltalk)

EDUCATION
* BS CS obtained at Nicholls State University
* Currently working on MS-Software Engineering at Texas State University (>3.8 GPA)

PAPERS / PUBLICATIONS
* OOPSLA 1992 workshop presentation
Co-authored "A Pragmatic Distributed Object System"
* Texas Instruments Technical Journal - Sept/Oct 1992
Co-authored "CIM System Services, Infrastructure for Distribution"

Check out my LinkedIn profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickcarlos website. 

Check out my short story blog at the http://rickcarlos1.wordpress.com blogsite. 

Check out my music blog at the http://rickcarlos.wordpress.com blogsite. 

Music from Bullick Hollow – A Musical Journey

By Rick Carlos

Introduction

This essay focuses on my musical adventures in the recent past.  My obsession with folk music began in the summer of 1997.  In that summer I attended the Old Settlers Bluegrass festival held at the Old Settlers Park in Round Rock, Texas.  This was my first bluegrass festival.  I was working for Tivoli Systems at the time – I left Tivoli in October later that year.  The festival lineup was awesome that year – Doc Watson, The Fairfield Four, Iris Dement, Peter Rowan, David Grisman, and Jerry Douglas, among others.  This was the year that we were visited by Hale-Bopp comet, which was visible in the night sky.  So, picture Doc Watson on stage that night playing his heart out with the comet visible from above.  You guessed it – it was a magical moment!

Even though I had heard a small amount of folk/bluegrass music on my favorite radio station at the time (KGSR – Austin, Texas), it was this festival that drove this music home for me.  Also, I was fascinated by the informal jamming that was happening in the park in between sets of music.  This was the first time I got a first-hand look at a small group of musicians playing old-time/bluegrass fiddle music with fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and banjo.  I was totally blown away by this aspect of folk music festivals.  This is where I got bitten by the fiddle music bug, and I’ve never been the same since.

First Steps

Soon after attending the bluegrass festival, I purchased a fiddle from Austin Vintage Guitars in Austin, Texas.  I paid $600 for an old (1897) nice sounding German fiddle.  I was determined to teach myself folk fiddle.  I also purchased from Alpha Music my first fiddle book – The Craig Duncan Deluxe Fiddle Method (Mel Bay) with accompanying CD.  I was then ready to pursue my passion of learning to play fiddle.  Since this book had real sheet music (not tablature), I needed to be able to read music.  This skill came in short order.  The first fiddle tune I learned to play from this book was “Bile Dem Cabbage Down” in the key of A.  I later learned other key of A old-time tunes, then moved on to key of D tunes, and later key of G tunes.  The more difficult key of C tunes came even later.  The accompanying CD helped accelerate my learning of these tunes since I could hear what the tune was supposed to sound like.

Of course, before being able to play anything pleasant-sounding on the violin, I had to teach myself how to hold the instrument between my chin and shoulder, how to hold the bow, and how to drag the bow across the strings while fingering notes on the fingerboard.  I bought a shoulder rest to aid in holding the instrument snuggly against my shoulder.  I also invested in an electronic tuner to aid in the tuning of the fiddle.  In general, the violin is one of the hardest instruments to learn to play, and most people get classical music teachers to teach them the instrument.  I was too stupid to know any better!  Seriously, I thought teaching myself the kind of music I wanted to play would be much more rewarding then taking the classical route with a teacher.

I later learned that the mandolin is tuned in 5ths the same as fiddle (GDAE).  So, you guessed it, I decided to learn to play the mandolin in addition to the fiddle.  I bought my 1915 Gibson A-style round-hole mandolin from Austin Vintage Guitars (same place I bought my fiddle).  I paid $500 for this nice sounding mandolin.  I taught myself to play the mandolin by playing the same fiddle tunes I’d been playing from the Mel Bay book on the fiddle.  This came fairly easy because of the similar tuning between the two instruments.  Instead of a fretless fingerboard, the mandolin has a fretboard.  Instead of a bow, you use a pick (plectrum).  Switching between the two instruments came fairly easy to me because of these similarities.

I generally learn fiddle tunes by reading the melody notes in sheet music.  Once I get the melody of a tune memorized, I no longer look at the sheet music for the tune.  At this point, the tune is in my head and I can hear it playing in my head.  I’m able to remember enough of the tune to hum it.  Once I can hear the tune playing in my head, I can translate it to fingered notes on the fiddle or mandolin.  This is unlike most classical players who only play music by sight-reading the sheet music every time they play a tune, and are lost when they don’t have that sheet music crutch.  The only other time I look at the sheet music is if I’ve forgotten how a tune starts.  In this case, I just look at the first measure or two to get me to remember how the tune starts.  Once I start the tune, I can hear the rest of the tune in my head, and therefore am able to play the whole tune without the sheet music.

Jamming

While working at Tivoli Systems, I befriended two guys that would eventually travel the musical journey with me, Jeff Kilgore and Tom Boes.  My reasoning was if I were to improve on my playing while actually having fun, I should be playing (or jamming) with others.  So, Jeff and I started playing together on most Saturdays at my house.  At the time, I lived in Cedar Park, Texas.  Jeff played acoustic rhythm guitar (chords), accompanying my melody playing on fiddle and mandolin.  I should mention that I’m strictly a melody player, leaving the chord progression accompaniment to the guitar.  I never even learned chords on my instruments, so you can’t count on me accompanying anyone on mandolin, for instance.  And the fiddle in general is not an accompanying instrument, unlike guitar.  Yes, you can play double stops (2 strings at once) on fiddle, but this is not a full chord.  And yes, you can play full chords on mandolin, but again, in folk music the acoustic guitar is best suited for this.

Tom joined us a few months later, also on guitar.  At the time, Tom was strictly an acoustic blues guitar player.  But after joining our jam sessions, he quickly was assimilated into the folk guitar accompaniment style, while still retaining some of his blues sensibilities.  Jeff came from more of a folk/bluegrass acoustic guitar style of playing, so he had a head start on Tom for playing the kind of music we were playing.  So, what kind of music were we actually playing?  “Old-time fiddle tunes” mostly contained in the Craig Duncan Deluxe Fiddle Method book I mentioned earlier.  We mastered a few dozen fiddle tunes from this book over time.  We also played a few blues and Cajun fiddle tunes from other Craig Duncan Mel Bay books.

As a result of jamming together over time, we each improved on our respective instruments.  Playing with other people improves your sense of rhythmic timing and melodic improvisational skills.  Playing (practicing) alone can obviously improve your playing too, but you should supplement this with jamming with others to accelerate the learning process and have more fun to boot!

Practicing Fiddle Tunes

Folk fiddle tunes are not a very complex type of music.  The basic fiddle tune has 2 parts, the A part and the B part.  Sometimes, there’s 3 parts, the A part, the B part, and the C part.  Each part is typically 8 measures in length and repeats (played twice).  There are fiddle tunes that are exceptions to the rule, but in general for most fiddle tunes, it’s this simple.  The fiddle tune structure is often notated as AABB for two parts or AABBCC for three parts.  Most old-time/bluegrass fiddle tunes are in the keys of A, D, G, and C.  There are exceptions, but most are in these keys.  Irish fiddle tunes are in the keys of A, D, G, Am, and Em.  Again, there are exceptions to these rules.

Since I’m self-taught, I can learn anyway I like.  Well, I admit that I have an unconventional approach to practicing.  I don’t practice scales strictly as boring, repetitive exercises.  The way I learn scales of the different keys is to simply play as many fiddle tunes in as many keys as I can (close to 100 tunes so far - “so many tunes, so little time”).  This is certainly more fun then simply playing scales as exercises. I know – I’m weird, but this works for me.  After doing this for a time, you start to learn the scales and intervals of each key which is very important in learning to improvise on your instrument.  This also enables you to “feel” your way through a tune along with your initial memorization of the tune.  That is, you don’t have to rely solely on memory when you have your musical instinct (scale and intervals) to help guide you.  This is all I’m going to say on this subject, mostly because I’m not formally trained in music – I just know bits and pieces of music theory and am not an expert.  I just know what works for me.

Irish Fiddle Tunes

I mentioned earlier that the most significant book I used to learn fiddle initially was The Craig Duncan Deluxe Fiddle Method (Mel Bay).  This introduced me to old-time/bluegrass music.  Well, the second most significant book was Mel Bay’s Complete Irish Fiddle Player by Peter Cooper.  This book also came with an accompanying CD of the music in the book.  I have a deep appreciation for Irish (Celtic) music, and this book helped me learn a dozen or so (and counting) Irish fiddle tunes.  It’s been very rewarding to play these tunes with Jeff and Tom in jam sessions.

Even though I can learn tunes strictly from the sheet music, having the recorded music for the tune helps accelerate the learning process, especially for these more complicated Irish fiddle tunes – Irish music can be a little more complicated than the basic old-time fiddle tunes.

Workshop

Bruce Molsky held an old-time fiddle workshop in Austin, Texas a few years back.  It was actually hosted at someone’s home near downtown Austin.  I attended the workshop (my wife encouraged me to), and I’m glad I did.  I learned two major things at this workshop.  The first is that I learned a fiddle tune in alternate tuning (AEAE), as opposed to standard GDAE tuning.  The key of A tune we played sounded great in this alternate tuning.

The second thing I learned is that I’m an “ear player”.  Let me explain this further.  Bruce would have us all slowly play each tune together, sort of like an orchestra.  This was so we could all learn the tune together by memorizing the finger positions.  Well, because everyone was playing at the same time, I couldn’t hear myself playing.  This confused me tremendously, and I couldn’t play the tune this way.  I actually had to step into the next room where I could hear myself play in order to effectively learn the tune.  So, I assume that I use my scale/intervals ear training in order to finger a tune.  I don’t learn solely by memorizing finger positions on the fingerboard.  I need my ear as a guide.  Because of this, I probably couldn’t play in an orchestra setting.  Also, I don’t play vibrato on long notes on violin (unlike most classical players), although I have been known to play tremolo on long notes on mandolin.

Church Jam and Pearl

I found out about the so called “Church Jam” while looking through the newspaper.  A group of folk musicians met twice a month to play music at The Anderson Mill Baptist Church in Austin, Texas.  I started going to this religiously (no pun intended!) to help me get better at improvising on fiddle and playing rhythm guitar accompaniment.  I had recently bought a brand new 2000 Martin HD-35 acoustic guitar from Guitar Center in Austin for $1900.  It’s a very nice sounding guitar and has a great bottom end (base).  Jeff affectionately calls this guitar his “godchild” since he helped me pick it out at the store.

Jeff and Tom joined me at the church jams later on.  While there, we became fast friends with a banjo player named Chuck Middleton.  We invited Chuck to jam with us at my house on Saturdays.  A couple of years earlier I sold my house in Cedar Park, bought 6.5 acres of land on Lake Travis, and custom-built a house there.  I still live there on Bullick Hollow Rd. in Austin, Texas.

Through the folks at the “Church Jam”, I learned about the monthly bluegrass jams at Pearl, Texas.  Pearl is a couple of hours northwest of Austin.  The most fun I’ve ever had at Pearl was when I was playing swing (not bluegrass!) music with a group of musicians there.  I didn’t realize how fun total improvisation on fiddle could be.  There were two guitar players and two fiddlers (counting myself).  Most of the songs were sung, and everyone took turns taking breaks (improvised solos).  I had a blast!

Composing

I started composing my own fiddle tunes in the summer of 2000.  I think my inspiration came from my wife Linda and our residence.  Living in a house with hill country views and views of Lake Travis is very inspiring when it comes to creativity.  I also think I enjoy impressing my wife and jamming buddies with my compositions.  It’s very rewarding to have them play and enjoy my fiddle tunes.  To date, I’ve composed around 60 fiddle tunes (and counting).  I’ve also done my own arrangement of the traditional tune “Flowers of Edinburgh”, in addition to transcribing (creating the sheet music) from a Missouri-style version of this tune on CD.

I’ve registered all my current compositions with the Library of Congress Copyright office – 4 volumes worth so far.  I typically register groups of around 15 tunes in each volume.  Paying a single registration fee for a group of tunes is cheaper than paying a fee per tune.  The title of the works I’ve registered is “Music from Bullick Hollow” – volumes 1-4.

The kind of fiddle tunes I compose is mostly what I call my own style of “American fiddle tunes”.  These fiddle tunes can be a mixture of old-time, bluegrass, blues, and Celtic music.  Some tunes tend to have more of a blues sound, while others may have more of a Celtic sound.  The rest mostly have an old-time/bluegrass sound.  I’ve also composed Latin-sounding and Gypsy-sounding fiddle tunes.  Since I’m first and foremost a music lover, and listen to many kinds of music, I’m greatly influenced in my compositions by what I listen to.  I generally listen to Celtic, blues, old-time country, Cajun/zydeco, bluegrass, jazz, early R&B, world music, classical, folk, progressive rock, alternative rock, classic rock, alternative country, pop rock, etc.  I’m also greatly influenced by the fiddle tunes (mostly traditional) I’ve learned to play over the years - close to 100 tunes, and counting.  This is not counting the fiddle tunes I’ve composed.

None of my songs (actually, tunes) have lyrics – they’re all instrumentals.  Creating poetry is just not my cup of tea, although in all honesty I’ve never tried it.  I may actually try it some day, but for now I’m satisfied with just creating the music.

In general, my fiddle tunes sound old.  My blues tunes sound like they could have been written in the early 1900’s, while my old-time/bluegrass and Celtic tunes sound like they could have been written in the 1800’s.  This is an aspect of my fiddle tunes that I really like.  They can transport the listener to another place (for instance, Appalachia and Ireland) and time in the past.

My main composing instrument is surprisingly my mandolin – I’ve composed most of my fiddle tunes on mandolin.  I’ve actually only composed one or two fiddle tunes on my fiddle.  I find it easier to compose on mandolin, probably because it’s a more “portable” and “accessible” instrument.  Just grab it and go!  There’s no bow to tote around.  All you need is an optional pick – you can actually just use your thumb instead of a pick.  Also, it has frets for fingering the notes.  After learning a composed tune on mandolin, I learn it on fiddle which can take advantage of any slurs (mostly 2 and sometimes 3 notes in a single bow stroke) in the tune.

I will now attempt to explain how I actually compose fiddle tunes.  I always compose the A part of the tune first.  I then compose the B part (and maybe a C part) to fit the A part.  In composing the A part, I come up with a hook, or jingle, which catches the listener’s ear as the distinctive part of the tune.  I then build up the tune around this hook.  Note that at this point, I’m composing the melody of the fiddle tune.  Once I’m finished with the melody, I put chords to the tune.  I then put a title to the tune.  The title is something that makes you think of when you hear the tune.  This all sounds much simpler than it actually is – it’s an art and not a science (there’s no exact formula to follow).  There are probably other approaches, but this is generally how I do it.

Free Music Software Tools

For the first handful of fiddle tunes I composed, I notated the sheet music manually (using pencil and music staff paper).  This became quite tedious.  I then found out about a free software tool available on the Internet that creates professional quality sheet music.  This tool, called abc2ps, is based on a computerized music format called ABC.  ABC is a way of notating a tune, and you edit it as an .abc (suffix) computer file.  There is also a tool, called abc2midi, which allows you to generate a playable MIDI file from the ABC-formatted tune.  The abc2ps tool generates postscript, which can be converted to PDF (read with Adobe Acrobat reader) using the tools Ghostscript and GSview.  The sheet music can then be printed out either as postscript or PDF using these tools.

I’ve actually recorded a CD of most of my tunes in MIDI using other free tools, such as MidiSyn (converts MIDI to a WAV file) and Audacity (allows you to edit a WAV file for mixing purposes, and also converts WAV to MP3 format).  MIDI actually doesn’t sound that good because it’s computerized music.  Actually recording the musicians playing the music would sound much better.

I also use an ABC player called abcmus.  This allows me to hear the ABC-formatted tune on the computer.  So, while composing a tune, I’m seated at my computer with my mandolin in hand, entering the notes of the melody in ABC format while playing them on the mandolin and hearing them with abcmus.  I compose directly from my mandolin to the ABC file, eliminating the need for pencil and paper.  I’ve gotten so good at the ABC format method, that I can actually almost sight-read music written directly in ABC notation.  I can almost sight-read sheet music also if played slow enough.  In general though, I don’t sight-read good enough to play in an orchestra.  Yes, I can read notes - I just can’t play them fast enough while reading the music.  I also use abcmus to hear the chords that I add to an ABC-formatted tune.  The ABC format supports both musical notes and chords along with other musical notations that translate into the sheet music and MIDI.

Recording

Some friends and I got together a few years back to do some recording for a Plectrology VII CD.  This is a yearly collection of music put together by members of the flatpick-l mailing list on the Internet.  The music varies considerably, but concentrates on the guitar flatpicking aspect of music.  Jeff spearheaded this recording project and acted as both engineer/mixer and contributing musician.  The recording session was held at my house using recording equipment that I owned, and some contributed from Jeff.  I own a Roland digital recorder, a Bluetube pre-amplifier, and an AT4033a microphone.  Jeff contributed other microphones to the recording session and did the mixing at his house on his equipment.

A friend of Jeff’s, Cory Hicks, and a friend of Cory’s, Chris Synan recorded with Jeff and I.  We recorded three songs during the session – “Hand Me Down My Walking Cane”, “Catfish John”, and “Remembrance Rag” (one of my composed tunes).  The first two songs were played and sung, and the last one was an instrumental.  I played fiddle and mandolin, Jeff played guitar and mandolin, Cory played guitar and sang, and Chris played banjo (this was before we met Chuck) and sang.  We recorded as a band named “The Bullick Hollow Boys”.  All songs were recorded live (no overdubbing) with only a few takes per song.  We all mostly improvised our solos (breaks) on the first two songs.  On the last song (my tune), I basically played the straight melody with a little improvisation and the other guys mostly improvised.  A standout was Cory’s improvised break (solo) on my tune with Jeff backing him.  It is simply one of the better improvised guitar solos I’ve ever heard.

The Banjo Man

Chuck is a very good banjo player.  As a matter of fact, he’s the best musician I know.  A few years before I met Chuck, my wife and I went to an art gallery in Austin to see some art and listen to Leroy Jenkins play violin.  Also present was the co-owner of a local record label selling CDs.  I purchased an early Ralph Stanley CD and a Doc Boggs CD (both banjo players).  One of the women working at the art gallery asked my advice in buying some CDs for her banjo-playing brother from Lago Vista, Texas.  I recommended the very same CDs I purchased.  A while after I met Chuck, he mentioned that he had the Doc Boggs CD as a gift from his sister.  Since Chuck lives in Lago Vista, I immediately put two and two together.  As it turns out, the women at the art gallery was Chuck’s sister, and I was instrumental in turning Chuck on to Doc Boggs even before we met.  Talk about coincidences!

Fiddle Tune Composition Contest

Each year the Nebraska American String Teachers Association (Nebraska ASTA) holds a fiddle tune composition contest.  There are three judges and four categories you’re scored on – melody, rhythm, originality, and fun.  To win, you place either first, second, or third.  I entered two of my fiddle tune compositions the last two years of this contest.

The first fiddle tune I entered was “Old Victrola Waltz”.  I received almost perfect scores from two of the judges for this tune, but unfortunately, the third judge gave me only above average scores.  So, the third judge ruined my chances to place in the competition!  The second fiddle tune I entered was “Where the Shadow Meets the Eye”.  I received almost perfect scores from one of the judges, above average scores from another judge, and just average scores from the last judge.  So, I didn’t place in the contest yet again.  I may keep trying in years to come.

Other Instruments and Music Books

Besides the fiddle, mandolin, and guitar, I own other major instruments including tenor guitar and banjo.  I dabbled with these instruments off and on in the past, but haven’t spent enough time with them to be proficient.  The tenor guitar is a 1958 Martin 018T that I bought on EBAY for $500.  At one time, I learned to play some chords on the tenor guitar, but didn’t spend enough time with it in order to get good on it.  The tenor guitar is tuned in 5ths (CGDA) and makes a great accompanying instrument for Texas-style fiddle playing.

The banjo is a 5-string fretless open-back banjo custom-made by Bob Flesher.  I think I remember paying $700 for this brand new banjo, which is a great value for this well-made instrument.  People normally play the clawhammer style of banjo playing on these open-back banjos.  The fretless banjo lends itself well to the Round Peak style of banjo playing.  This Round Peak style is the type of music I eventually want to learn to play on my fretless banjo, and is generally played along with fiddle where the melody is played on both fiddle and banjo.  In other words, there is no accompanying instrument – both the fiddle and banjo are front and center with the melody.

Other minor instruments I have include a djembe (African) drum, two rainsticks for African music, a washboard and a triangle for Cajun/zydeco music, and a guiro for Latin music.  Since I haven’t done much with these instruments, they are nevertheless fun to collect.  I once had one of my nieces (Madalyn) play the triangle along with a Cajun tune (Chez Seychelles) I played on fiddle.  She did a pretty good job considering her young age.  Early Cajun music used a triangle as a percussion instrument.

I also have a substantial collection of old music instruction books for various instruments along with some books on music theory.  Although I sometimes reference some of these books, most of the books just sit on the shelf.  So, I guess I consider myself a collector of old music books.  Some of these books are worth some money.  For instance, I have a Clarence White guitar instruction book from the 1970’s that I’ve noticed on EBAY selling for over $200.  I bought it used at Half Priced Books for around $2.  I generally buy these books used and don’t pay much money for them.

My Fiddle Tune Compositions

I will now analyze many of my composed fiddle tunes.  The sheet music for all my tunes, in alphabetical order, is contained in a separate PDF file.  You can use Adobe Acrobat Reader to view or print it.

I put titles to my fiddle tune compositions mostly based on what the tunes makes me think of.  For example, a fiddle tune could make me think of a place or a person or an event, etc.  I normally just use my creative imagination to name my fiddle tunes.  The title is a hint that allows a listener to paint a picture of the tune using their own imaginations.

Beginnings

The first fiddle tune I composed was “Bullick Hollow”.  This also happens to be one of the simplest fiddle tunes I’ve composed.  Bullick Hollow is a place where I live.  It’s a creek that flows into Cypress Creek cove of Lake Travis – I live on a hillside across the street from this cove.  Bullick Hollow is also the name of the road (street) I live on.  Even though I’ve notated this tune in the key of A, it also sounds and plays good in the key of B.  Its chords are the three simplest chords in folk music – the I, IV, and V chords.

The tune “Shiller’s Delight” was the second fiddle tune I composed.  At the time I composed it, I was a regular on EBAY.  A shiller (or shill) on EBAY is the seller, or someone in cahoots with the seller, who makes a bid to get potential buyers to bid more for an item.  The B part of this tune has triplets that mimic mischievous laughter, as in laughing all the way to the bank!  This is another tune that has the simple I, IV, and V chords in the key of A.

The third tune I wrote was “High Horse”.  This tune makes me think of trotting horses and has a slight Celtic sound.  It also has a meaning of someone who thinks they’re better than others.  Its chords are a little more complex than my first two tunes since it uses the I, IV, V, V7, and vi (relative minor) chords in the key of D.  In general, the key of D is fiddle-friendly (fairly easy to play) and sounds good on fiddle.

My Wife

I named “Evelia’s Waltz” and “Evelia’s Dream” after my wife Linda.  Linda’s real name is Evelia (pronounced “avail-ya”) Serrano-Carlos.  “Evelia’s Waltz” is the first waltz I wrote.  It’s in ¾ time.  This makes me think of dancing with my wife and has an old-fashioned sound.  It’s in the key of G and makes use of the I, IV, V, and V7 chords (no minor chords).  “Evelia’s Dream” is in the spirit of the traditional tune “Devil’s Dream”, especially in the A part of these similar tunes.

The Blues

The blues-sounding tunes I’ve written are not strictly 12-bar blues even though they have the word “blues” in the titles.  They are more in the spirit of W.C. Handy, an early blues composer pioneer.  I call them fiddle blues tunes since they are blues-sounding tunes mostly in the typical fiddle tune structure of AABB (an A part played twice followed by a B part played twice).  Sometimes there’s also a C part played twice (AABBCC).  Some of my blues tunes are weird in that there are some minor chords sprinkled in them.  I don’t think true blues uses any minor chords.  I do use some 7^th chords similar to real blues songs though.  Since I always compose the chords after the melody, the chords are at the mercy of the melody.  In general, I always look forward to what chord progressions are produced (created) from the melody of my tunes.  Chord progressions may vary depending upon the person putting chords to a tune.  The chord progressions I produce sound pleasing to my ear.  Other people may come up with different chord progressions that sound good to them.  The blues-flavored tunes I’ve written are “Assimilation Blues”, “Come ‘Round Blues”, “Crowded Town Blues”, “Fascination Blues”, “Jollyville Blues”, and “Western Frontier Blues”.

“Assimilation Blues” is one of those weird blues-sounding tunes sprinkled with minor chords.  It makes me sad when distinct cultures get slowly assimilated into mainstream cultures.  When I composed this tune, I was thinking of the Cajun culture over time being assimilated into American mainstream culture.  This rings true to my heart since I myself am a Cajun, and am proud of my Cajun heritage.  The way the B part of the tunes holds on the D and D7 chords gives the listener a sense of time passing, like a tension that slowly builds.

“Crowded Town Blues” was the first tune I wrote in the key of F.  Key of F is a good key for blues, not so good for fiddle.  It’s a hard key to play on fiddle.  I named this tune to express my sadness with the fact that Austin has grown so much in the last decade or so and has become a very crowded place.  At one of our past jam sessions, I remember Tom and Cory improvising together on this tune on their guitars, and it sounded great!  This tune is very simple and only uses the I and V7 chords.

“Come ‘Round Blues” is the first blues tune I wrote in the key of C.  It is a very simple tune and uses only the I and V7 chords.  “Fascination Blues” is the first tune I wrote in the key of E.  This key is good for blues but is difficult to play on fiddle.  This tune is a more complicated blues tune that uses the I, IV, V7, and ii (minor) chords.  “Jollyville Blues” is a play on words since you really can’t be jolly and have the blues at the same time.  Also, Jollyville is a small community outside of Austin.  This is also a fairly complicated blues tune and uses the I, I7, IV, V, V7,  ii, ii7, and vi chords.  This is definitely a lot of chords for a blues tune!  Even though “Western Frontier Blues” is notated in the key of D, it actually sounds better in the key of A.  It has a cowboy sound to it and makes me think of the early American West.  I know this sounds vague, but I used my imagination to name this tune.  Also, Tom really likes this tune a lot since it does have a slight blues flavor.  It uses the I, V, ii, and vi chords.

Spanish Merchant and Hurricane

My great-great grandfather, Salvador Carlos, was a merchant from Barcelona, Spain in the mid-1800’s. This makes me 1/16^th Spanish.  I named the tune “The Spanish Sailor” after him.  He eventually married a French woman and settled in South Louisiana.  This tune is in the key of Em and sounds Irish.

The tune “Last Island” is named for a tiny island off the coast of Louisiana.  In 1856, a hurricane hit the Louisiana coast and totally devastated this small island.  There was supposedly a resort hotel on the island where wealthy people from Louisiana vacationed.  The hurricane completely covered the island with ocean water and many people lost their lives.  The A part of this tune is cheerful in the key of D.  This represents the merriment of the vacationers before the storm.  The B part of this tune turns dark and changes the key to Bm (the relative minor of D).  This represents the storm devastating the island, putting an end to the merriment.

As the story goes, my great-great grandfather was on his ship in the Gulf of Mexico during the hurricane.  A ship sailing from France to New Orleans was wrecked by the storm, and a young French woman was saved by my great-great grandfather’s ship.  They later married and settled in South Louisiana.

Also, the owner of the island hotel was supposedly an ancestor of my mother (a Landry) and lost his life in the hurricane.  So, I have two connections to this hurricane event from both sides of my family.

Back in the 1970’s, I remember my father showing me Last Island while shrimping in his shrimp boat.  When I saw it, it was a very tiny deserted island.  I could almost hear the echoes of the ghosts of the people who lost their lives a century earlier during that great hurricane.  Also, I find it interesting that I was born in 1956, 100 years after this hurricane event.

The destruction of the island was dramatized in 1889 by Lafcadio Hearn in the novelette “Chita: A Memory of Last Island”.  This is a well-written story that I downloaded for free on the Internet from the Cornell University library.  I highly recommend it.

Spanish Music

The tune “South to Matagorda” was inspired by listening a lot to Compay Segundo and Cuban Son music.  Compay Segundo is one of my musical heroes and I highly recommend anything he’s recorded.  He was part of the Buena Vista Social Club musical group which brought renewed American interest in Cuban music.  Matagorda is a small town on Matagorda Bay on the Gulf coast of Texas.

Cousins

The tune “Cousin Sue” was inspired by Sue Landry.  Sue is Canadian and is a niece of the famous Canadian fiddler Ned Landry.  She is a beginning fiddle player, and I met her on the Internet in one of my fiddle mailing lists.  Since my mother is a Landry, we joking refer to each other as cousins.  I composed “Cousin Sue” as a simple key of A tune that I knew she could easily play.  This is one of the rare tunes I composed on fiddle rather than mandolin.  It sounds good with drones - playing the open adjacent string along with the noted string (playing two strings at once).

The name Landry is a Cajun name and there are a lot of Landry’s living in South Louisiana.  The Louisiana Cajuns migrated from Nova Scotia, Canada to South Louisiana in the 1700’s.  So, Sue and I are actually related by a distant Landry ancestor.

I wrote “Sleeper’s March” shortly after the death of one of my real cousins – Tim Ange.  It has a few drones sprinkled in for good measure, and has a slow sad and haunting (dreamlike) marching quality to it.  Surprisingly, it has no minor chords in it (unlike most sad songs).  It simply uses the I, IV, and V major chords in the key of D.

Celtic Fiddle Tunes

I’ve composed a handful of Celtic-sounding fiddle tunes.  They are “Curly Tail Jig”, “Four Points Reel”, “Lightning Reel”, “The Mist of Dawn”, “Moderation Polka”, “Proud Mother Polka”, “Shores of Cumberland Sound”, “Where the Shadow Meets the Eye”, “Volente Hornpipe”, and “The Spanish Sailor”.  I’ve composed still other tunes that have a slight hint of the Celtic sound, but I don’t list them here.  Some of the tunes listed here sound very much Celtic/Irish (especially the Jigs), and some sound somewhat Irish with a strong Irish title (such as Reel, Hornpipe, or Polka).

“Curly Tail Jig” is in 6/8 time, as all Irish Jigs are.  This title has a double meaning.  The word “Jig” here has two meanings.  There’s Jig as in a type of music in 6/8 time, and there’s a jig (or hook) that is fishing tackle.  A curly-tail jig is a type of jig used for fishing.

“Four Points Reel” also has a double meaning.  There are “four points”, each a grouping of three notes, in the tune that have a similar distinctive timing.  Two of these points are in the A part and two in the B part.  I’ll leave this as an exercise for the reader to find these notes in the tune (don’t worry, they’re easy to find).  The other meaning of “Four Points” is that it’s the name of an area of town defined by a major intersection (620/2222) in Austin that I live close to.

In “Lightning Reel”, there are a few notes in the first measure of the B part of the tune that mimics thunder.  A “Reel” is a type of Irish music and is in 4/4 time and is played relatively fast.  “The Mist of Dawn” is a jig in 6/8 time that sounds very Irish, and is in the key of A.  Jigs are normally played slower than Reels.  A Hornpipe is a type of Irish music in 4/4 time played slower than Reels.  “Volente Hornpipe” is a hornpipe that sounds vaguely Irish.  Volente is the name of a community on Lake Travis close to where I live.

The two polkas I’ve written are in 2/4 time – “Moderation Polka” and “Proud Mother Polka”.  These can be considered Irish polkas since they vaguely have an Irish sound.  Two tunes I’ve written in minor keys are “Shores of Cumberland Sound” (in the key of Am) and “Where the Shadow Meets the Eye” (in the key of Em).  Both of these tunes are dark and foreboding.  Cumberland Sound is a body of water in Canada, and I envision it as a cold, lonely, and isolated region.  “Where the Shadow Meets the Eye”, in general, is meant to represent something evil.  “The Spanish Sailor” has an Irish sound and is in the key of Em.  It’s named after my great-great grandfather, Salvador Carlos, whom I mentioned earlier.

Arrangements of Traditional Fiddle Tunes

I created a unique arrangement of the traditional fiddle tune “Flowers of Edinburgh”.  Jeff and Cory wanted me to contribute to the Plectrology VI recording project.  They wanted to record “Flowers of Edinburgh”.  Since I did not want to simply play the tune straight from the Craig Duncan Deluxe Fiddling Method book, I decided to arrange my own version of this traditional tune.  The melody and chord progression is different from the original, but it’s still identifiable as the traditional “Flowers of Edinburgh” in the key of G - my arrangement is also in the key of G.  For reasons I cannot remember, my version of this tune never made it on the CD.  That’s just fine since I got something out of it anyway – I gained some experience in arranging.  I remember during one of our jam sessions, Chuck did a magnificent banjo break on my version of this tune.  It sounded great!

As of this writing, I’m arranging another great traditional fiddle tune called “Old Parnell”.  The version I’m familiar with is a Missouri-style fiddle tune.  I’ve arranged the A part of the tune and will arrange the B part eventually.  So far, my version has a different melody while maintaining the same chord progression as the original.  Even though the melody is a bit different, it’s still identifiable as “Old Parnell”.  I just love this tune!

Miscellany

I wrote “Old Victrola Waltz” in the key of G to create an old-fashioned waltz sound.  It sounds old enough to have been played on a victrola.  It has a very pleasing chord progression (one of my favorites), and uses the I, IV, V, V7, II7, VI7, and ii chords – in general, the II7 and VI7 are not my typical chords for any of my composed tunes.  In most of my tunes, I mainly stick to the I, IV, V, ii, and vi chords.

“The Pendulum’s Shadow” is my gypsy-sounding fiddle tune in the key of Dm.  It sounds like it came from an Alfred Hitchcock movie soundtrack.  It’s a spooky tune with a spooky title.

“Spirits in the Bar” in the key of G sounds vaguely Irish and has a double meaning - spirits as in ghosts and spirits as in alcohol.  “Mount Eerie Dance” is also in the key of G and sounds vaguely Irish.  It’s probably the strangest fiddle tune I’ve composed.  It’s in 11/8 time.  I think I was inspired to write this because of my love for early Genesis (the progressive rock group), which probably means that there’s a slight classical influence at work here.  It also has a very interesting chord progression (one of my favorites).

“Miss Minnie’s Mill” was written in honor of Minnie Anderson, a descendant of the Anderson who built Anderson Mill on Cypress Creek.  Anderson Mill was a gristmill built in the mid 1800’s.  Mansfield Dam was built in the late 1930’s and this submerged the mill under what is now Cypress Creek Cove of Lake Travis.  The name of the mill was later informally called Miss Minnie’s mill.  A replica of the mill was built near the original site.  With binoculars, I can see this replica (millwheel and all) from my house overlooking the cove.

“Hazel’s Waltz” and “Hazel’s Night Out” were written in honor of one of my grandmothers who’s name was Hazel.  This was my father’s Cajun mother.  She liked to go out to dances and have a good time.  She died in the 1990’s, and is sorely missed.  She lived even longer than one of her sons (my father) who died in the early 1990’s.

“The Big Green and Blue” in the key of C reminds me of a show tune from the early 1900’s.  The title represents planet Earth.  “Hill Country Flyer”, also in the key of C, is my only train song.  I can’t quite put my finger on why, but it does sound like a moving train (a locomotive, not a steam train).  The double stops sound like a train horn blowing.  The Hill Country Flyer is an actual train that regularly travels between the towns of Cedar Park and Burnet, Texas.

I wrote “Margo’s Joy” for my niece, Marissa Duswalt, who has so far accomplished much in her young life (she’s currently a University of Texas student).  Two of her many accomplishments are a Truman Scholarship award and a Rhodes Scholar nomination.  Margo is Marissa’s mom.

“Land is Near”, “Seadrift”, and “Shores of Cumberland Sound” are what I call my maritime fiddle tunes since they deal with the ocean in some fashion.  Seadrift is a small town on the Texas Gulf coast, and Cumberland Sound is a body of water in Canada.

The tune “Remembrance Rag” is not a true ragtime tune.  It only has the flavor of a ragtime tune.  It’s what I call a fiddle rag since it has the typical fiddle tune structure (AABB), and not the typical ragtime structure.  It’s similar to the traditional fiddle tune “Stone’s Rag” in this regard.

I wrote “Sunset on Cypress Cove” shortly after the 9/11 terrorist tragedy.  It has a melancholy sound to it in the key of D.  I live on Cypress Creek Cove where the sun sets in the west over the cove.  After sunset comes nightfall, and darkness…

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The following are the MIDI sound files of all my composed tunes.  To listen to any particular file, you'll need to right-click on the file link and select Save Target As... and save the file to your local disk.  Then open the saved file in order to listen to it.

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The following are MP3 recordings of some of my tunes: