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From Conducting to Engineering Camps

Long time no talk brothers and sisters locally and far away. How is summer and life coming along for yourself and everybody else you know/met? Keep the good times in mind when telling everybody about your adventure.
Well, this summer has been the busies one so far in my life. I have participated five summer programs: Keith Hall Summer Drum Instensive– June 16 to 21, JazzStart– June 30 to July 2, Michigan State University Drum Major Clinic– July 10 to 12, The National Summer Transportation Institute– July 13 to 25, Introduction to Robotics Engineering at Michigan State University– July 27 to 31. Each links above explains each programs that I participated.
Two of them has to do with music, one has to do with drum major, and last two has to do with engineering.
What I got to do at the Keith Hall’s drum instensive was learning how to play the drums in a jazz way. Training songs, trying methods that could help out with playing, talking with a special guest from New York, and enjoying my time there.
JazzStart was short, but it is almost similar to the drum camp, it is playing an instrument in a jazz form. However, this is just pure jazz and I got to play with a band with members from different states and cities within Michigan. What was fun about my band was that we had a name; which was called the Barbastic Batmen and the Queen (AKA BBQ). I didn’t come up with that name, someone within the band came up with it. It was funny, as you can see. We learned how to become good musicians that can go on for ever.
After a couple of days of staying at home, my dad dropped me off at Michigan State University for drum major camp, which was three days of now stop learning on being a conducting, marching, posture, doing the bending back motion, and being a leader to our band and everyday. It did go fast, but I am planning to come back to do better.
The longest camp that I have done so far was first sitting just for 14 hours on a Michigan Tech Uni. charter bus from Kalamazoo to Houghton (we went left around, instead of going straight North). Not really my favorite bus ride, but when we go there, it was nice to take a tour around campus and get started for the next two weeks. It was mainly about civil and environmental engineering, which I might take consider of looking at in the future. It was busy there, trust me, they provide good activities and teachings. If you are interesting in civil engineering, check out the link above and think about attending there during the summer. It will help you understand the importance of engineering in humans. They do want more people to attend, which I recommend.
Coming back was not too long as the first bus ride, but we got to Kalamazoo in the morning.
After a nights sleep, my bag was all packed for a trip back to MSU and stay there for five days. Robotics engineering is what we got to learn and understanding the different forms. There was hand on activities of building two different VEX robots and do coding to program the robots. Check out the links above to see what I mean.
Overall, this has been the busies summer that I have been in my life time. Right now, I am in my high school marching band camp for five days this week from 9am to 5pm everyday. I am a second year drum major for a junior. The theme for this year is Queen; Freddie Mercury is the guy that really put up a life time show in his life as many of you know that are born around his year. I will tell you what songs we will perform this year in my next post.
Well thank you for reading this and I hope all of you have the rest of the summer in a positive way.
Peace out brothers and sisters -MNM

The Mackinac Bridge
Me after 2 hours and 30 minutes of dancing on my last day @ MTU


My Last Night At Home

Tonight is my last night here at home. Tomorrow is the first day of drum major camp at Michigan State University (in the Lansing, Michigan). I am going to learn how to become a better drum major in terms of commanding, sending out my voice to the marchers, and to conduct different time signatures. What I want to gain from this camp is everything that a drum major needs to know, which I want to obtain. It is just a three day camp (7/10-7/13), but on the third day, I am going to be home around 5pm to be ready for a bus ride to Michigan Technology University.
At 8:30pm is the time when the bus will arrive to pick me up and I am going to be at the university for two weeks. It is called the National Summer Transportation Institute, which is a camp about learning engineering. That is what I what, something to start early on on my engineer career in the future. That is my dream on becoming in the future, an engineer who reuses materials to make clean, style transportation for common around the world. So this is what I am looking for.
I am not finished yet, after coming home on July 26, I will receive a night’s rest for the next camp at Michigan State. Robotics engineering is the activity there.
I am super excited for this month. I believe this summer is going to be the busiest summer that I am ever going to be in, for now. I said farewell to all my cross country friends today for my long trip and I will see them in August, until I have marching band camp and a trip to Florida with my family. That is my summer, so I won’t be able to post any more on this blog until I get back home.
Well thank you for reading this and I hope all of you have a great summer.
Peace out brothers and sisters. -MNM

The Fourth of July Week

From June 29 (Sunday) to July 7 (Saturday and it’s today), I have been experiencing jazz for three days from 8am to 6pm at Western Michigan the western campus. Those three days was a jazz program created by my high school jazz band teacher, Benje Danceman, his wife, Ashely Daneman, and a pianist, Nich Mueller (FYI, he is not part of my family).
Each one was a teacher for an instrument group, a theory group, and a band group. Benje taught the horns, Ashely taught the singers, and Nich taught the rhythm section. Three teachers for 23 students is something that is worth doing for other people to learn, play, and make new friends to play jazz. Just like how I experienced, learned and played jazz, and make new friends to play gigs with.
While that happened, on 7/2 was the Jazz Start Performance for us students at the Union. Three bands got to play two songs that is either jazz or songs that was “jazzed” up by us students. I can’t really explain everything of that night, but I got to meet new teens and adults that are either locally or far away in Michigan. I was sad when some of them had to go back to other cities in Michigan.
Fireworks is fun and dangerous at the same time at a near distance. For example, two large fireworks exploded at about 30 feet that made my head spin and ears ring by a little bit. It was fun and excited to see and light the light show. Many of you would say that you have done the same thing, got for you, as long it is fun to do.
So that is my week. I hope you all had a good week and a fourth of July.
Thank you for reading this and keep a look out for the next post of my life.
Peace out brother and sisters. -MNM

Two Parties in One Day

Two parties in one day, it not the first time that I have done that. To begin with, I went to a graduated friend of mine named Joey. He is a cross country and track runner for his four years in high school. There were many familiar faces at his party; many which are graduate friends and current high school friends. The weather was gloomy and dark clouded for about one hour, until the sun came up to settle down the scene.
Just looking at Joey’s school year pictures made me surprised on how much he has changed throughout the years. For two years I have known him through school and cross country. Now that he graduated, he is moving on to University of Michigan Dearborn.
The other party that I went to on that same day, was a concert of Keith Hall’s Summer Drum Intensive (there was a second week for pro/advanced players to participate) at the Union, same location where week one people performed at. It started at 7pm and ended at around 10:40pm; just hours of drums, piano, bass, singing, and trumpet were heard. There were two new piano players and one new bass player that I have not met before, Sam was the only bass player that stayed with the Keith Hall for the second week. The restaurant was packed with strangers and familiar faces that night. Some were my drum friends and others were the staffs [including Keith Hall]. It has been a week since I have last seen them. A pleasure welcome came from them as I stayed with the concert and to learn from the pros on the drums. Among the students, there was a 67 year old man who could really play just like that with no problem. I was surprised by that and showed me that the elder still has the stuff in playing instruments today.
I was glad for participating those two parties for a day. Seeing people that I will see again in the future through running or playing jazz. It was a pleasure in making a good friendship with them for years to come.
Thank you for reading this and keep a look out for the next post of my life.
Peace Out Brothers and Sisters- MNM

Yesterday was a
special day for a family member of mine. It was my grand-father’s birthday;
which I got to talk to yesterday. It is a pleasure to hear some family members all
the way from Texas, a state that I have lived 2 years of my life. Most of my
family members live there, which I wish I could stay for a while there.
Anyway, my family and I got to call him and
sing happy birthday. My little sister drew a couple of cute characters that she
learned to draw in her online drawing class. My dad sent it by email to one of
my uncles for him to give to my grand-father. We have another gift to send, it
is a song that I chose to play; Hey Brother
by Avicii. I play the guitar, my dad plays the piano, and my little sister
sings. We got to rehears it today in our “music studio” in our basement. We were able to record the song and we got this man. 

Along
with the present for my grand-father, I called my aunt from Colorado to check
up with her from her knee surgery and how things are going for her ever since
we left to Michigan. For the past couple of months, our lives has been
different, but hearing each other’s voice made me feel that I recently seen
her. It was good and such a pleasure.

The next post will be about what I got the do today.

Hello everybody, the name is Martin Mueller. I am a musician, a believer, a brother to many others, and an go after to goals. This is my first blog to use my new official home website to just post what I want to talk about, or just show some websites that you might want to see, or anything that is cool or important.

As some may or may not know, I have a blog called My Life as a Martin. You could check it out if you want, it is for the public to read and know what things have been going on (maybe not everything in my life). But here you go guys and gals, my first post on my new home page. Come back once in a while to see what I have in stores.

The Truth About our World

Do you think your country is “good”? Well guess what; I disagree with it. There are a very few country that are “good” in certain categories, such as Science & Technology, Culture, Int’l Peace & Security, World Order, Planet & Climate, Prosperity &Equality, and Health &Wellbeing. My dad sent me this article to read and understand which country does the most “good” in those categories.

Ideas.Ted.Com is the website that is in on.
However, just because that country does the most “good”, doesn’t mean that its people and other countries are doing “good” deeds. As the author said in two main quotes: “Countries still behave as if they weren’t connected; they still measure their performance entirely inwards” and “Countries perform better and better, but the world and planet and humanity in general are getting worse and worse.” 

Take consider and read the article above to understand what the writer is trying to tell every single on of us. I could tell you one thing, as a human being of this one only home planet, we are far from complete and perfect; we need to change almost everything in our minds and what we do towards everything. Technology, politics, culture, health, climate, world order, and much more that I could go on and on right now, needs to be fixed right now and for further on. There is a key to do that; it just starts with a step out into the world and dig your way into society to find good and mindful people that are trying to make a difference in this unfinished world.  There are people out there, such as me, that want to change the world in a way that may require some arms and legs (just a metaphor), but the reward/outcome could be or is something beyond our dreams and what we get from our “lazy-way” rewards.

Take a moment right now, and think what you could make a difference in this world; it doesn’t have to be big, start off small actions then to big actions, from yourself-to your family-your friends (locally or foreign)-your community-your state-your country-your world. Dream big that is good for yourself and to the world, both humans and nature.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” -Eleanor Roosevelt

What a Bang Good Time

Last week was nothing but drums and beat. I was in Keith Hall’s Drum Experience camp for a week at Western University campus.  I learned new drumming that will help me the next time I play drums (jazz mainly). The staffs were very nice to help and teach students how to drum like the pros. I also made lots of new friends that I hope to see them again in next years drum camp and in life. They taught me to have courage in my play, which I did on two performance dates at the Union.

This video was on the first performance date at the Union. I was playing Green Chimneys’
I can’t upload due to the slow process. Above is one of the three videos. Hope you like it. I will try it again in the future for you to see my full performance.
Peace Out Brothers and Sisters- MNM

That Was Fast, Too Fast

Sorry for the late post after school. I had plans up rolling for the summer. So to put it short, the school year was fast that I could just blink three times and that would be it. We did have some snow days that moved the end of the school day further, but not much to replace all of it. I did more activities inside and outside of school for my sophomore year; one advanced class, cross country (fall sport) and golf (spring sport), more spending with anime club, and much more jazz gigs at different locations. Those were the main activities that I enjoyed and throughout the school year, I got to learn lessons that I will need in the future and throughout my life.
Currently right now, I am in this drum camp called Keith Hall Summer Drum Intensive (you could learn more about him on this link). I learning the drum’s way of playing and feel for every hit of the drum stick. The camp is six days; four days at Western Michigan University and two performance days at the Union (the same place where my high school jazz band performed once). So far, I am really enjoying the experience of playing and learning. New friends and teachers that I make, which I call them drum buddies. I can’t explain the experience, but it is something that you should try in the future or right now.
Yeah, that is all I could say.
Peace out brothers and sisters-MNM

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