John Korchok

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • 1-100 by Michael Nyman

    1-100 by Michael Nyman, Notes by John Korchok Arranger Notes: 1-100 is one of Michael Nyman’s first serious compositions. It was recorded on the Decay Music album in 1976 with Brian Eno producing and was initially released on Eno’s Obscure imprint. The tape was slowed to half speed in the mastering, so the original recording…

  • “Opening” from Glassworks by Philip Glass – Corrected Score

    I was under the impression that the Sheet Music Plus company was a reputable source of musical scores when I bought a PDF copy of Philip Glass’ Opening from them. I was wrong! The score had at least 6 mistakes! I struggled for months with it, until I listened to Glass play it (many, many…

  • The Zhaltar at Makers Day

    The Zhaltar won for Best Thing That Makes Sound on Makers Day at the Hillsdale Public Library!

  • Introducing the Zhaltar

    Introducing the Zhaltar

    I started designing this new instrument at the beginning of 2022 and finally have a playable prototype. The name Zhaltar comes from the Slovak name for a psaltery. It’s played by plucking the strings, and it’s fully chromatic, with a range just over 5 octaves (C2 to C#7). The zhaltar is a solid-body instrument and…

  • The iPhonarium 2022

    The iPhonarium 2022

    This is what the iPhonarium has evolved into. This whole rig is be 100% battery-powered, so I can make noise anywhere. Top to bottom: Vox DA-5 amp iPhonarium case with 4-channel mixer, battery pack and MIDI hardware Keith McMillen K-Board (connects to 4S) Akai EWI 4000s wind synth (I use it only as a MIDI…

  • The iPhonarium

    The iPhonarium

    A new instrument I’ve developed over a year, the iPhonarium includes 4 interlinked iPhones, mini-keyboard controllers, a wind controller interface and an audio mixer, all in a small wooden box I can carry under my arm. This photo shows an early version, when it only had 1 keyboard: In effect, I’m running 4 tiny computers…

  • Customized Sax Case

    Sometimes the case you have is not optimal for the sax that needs to fit in it: the case could be too generic, it could be old and in need of repair. It could be a low-A bari case that your Bb bari is swimming around in. The example I am using is creating a…

  • Swabbing out a bari sax

    And they said it couldn’t be done!

  • Homemade Leak Light

    For occasional home use, it’s handy for a sax player to be able to check for pad leaks. Here’s one I built for just a few dollars, it’s long enough to check my bari and skinny enough I don’t have to remove any pads to use it. I started with a coat-hanger, straightened it out…

  • Official Facebook plugin for WordPress – SSL Error Solved

    This took a day to get working, mainly because of a badly worded Facebook error message. After installing the Facebook plugin on a site, an error message appeared at the top of every Dashboard page: “SSL must be enabled on your server for Facebook Social Publisher to work.” Seems clear enough doesn’t it? This WP…

Got any book recommendations?

Get In Touch