Trimpe Music Publishing

05/09/2024

Incredibly sad to hear about the passing of Sandra Bertelle. Our paths crossed mostly in the winter activity. I learned so much listening to her perspective upstairs about effect and building to a moment. Always massive loss in our activity.

05/07/2024

As a designer, there are few things I appreciate more than hearing the director say things to the effect of “I hire great people because I trust that you will do your job well without me micromanaging everything”

I can’t tell you how refreshing and liberating that is to hear. It makes me want to go way above and beyond for you and your students. I want to prove to you that your trust was well placed.

05/02/2024

Marching band folks! I have October 19th available should you need a music or effect judge for your panel. I’d love to help out if at all possible!

04/13/2024

I was fortunate enough to be asked to be a guest on the Hub Crawl podcast. We talk about Tomorrowland, the music of Disney, and my “sister sibling” theory of getting into Disney. Many thanks to Erik Johnson for the invite!

And if you are a Patreon supporter, you get to hear me go off on copyright laws! Exciting!

THC 52: Fixing Tomorrowland, Disneyland Must Sees, Disney Soundtracks, and the Disney Bug Apr 12, 2024 | Weekly Episode Join Erik and Tage this week as they are joined by JR and Matt as they discuss how they would fix Tomorrowland, what is good in Disneyland and California Adventure, their favorite....

04/03/2024

First SCV, now the Cadets.

Drum corps as an activity is in danger of going extinct, and my personal opinion is that the budgets required for electronics, props, design staff, and uniforms have played a huge role in this. Couple that with the massive costs of transportation, housing, and food… If you’ve been really paying attention over the last 5-10 years, this shouldn’t be a shock.

Not everybody can be on the cutting edge of innovation. It’s expensive. Sometimes there is value in great music played incredibly well with killer drill. Because as a judge, I’m here to tell you. Not everybody can even get that right.

Drum corps needs to survive. It may need to adapt and change with the realities of our time, otherwise this is just the beginning of more heartbreak.

03/01/2024

Have you been wanting to follow me and my thoughts on marching band, the visual arts, and my shameless self promotion of my music career without all that pesky political and social justice material? Then do I have great news for you! Follow my artist page at J.R. Trimpe - composer, performer, designer

That's where all that music, drill, judging, and TMP material will be living. Want to know more about the next album? It will be there soon!

02/26/2024

My first time judging BOA, I was paired with Bob Thomas. Talk about trial by fire! But man, I learned a ton working with him. To this day I still keep candy for the night panel judges to share. What an absolute force of nature.

Rest well, Bob. You will be missed.

01/22/2024

“Music, I feel, must be emotional first and intellectual second.”
— Maurice Ravel

12/07/2023

Cheez-It Citrus Bowl making a HUGE mistake by not allowing the college marching bands play halftime. This is just stupid. Also because of idiotic corporate naming bu****it, I now associate your snack crackers with terrible marketing decisions. Hope it was worth it.

10/16/2023

10/14/2023

How do I know I’m judging a show in the central Midwest? This right here. Deep fried Oreos. Welcome to Missouri.

10/13/2023

Just your average blustery windy day in central Missouri…

10/07/2023

THE DARK SIDE OF RHE ILLINI

I am thrilled to be able to finally talk about this. Tonight, at their game against Nebraska, the University of Illinois Marching Illini will be doing a halftime show honoring the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s album The Dark Side of the Moon. I wrote all of the drill and the music to the show. To say that I am excited about this show is a bit of an understatement. This was a pretty important album from my middle and high school years. Pink Floyd was the first band that I really fell in love with. Being able to do this show with my alma mater is really special.

If that wasn’t enough, this is also the Greg Vasich show. Greg was a trombone player in the band when I was there and a friend of mine. Sadly, his life was cut way too short when he was killed by a drunk driver who blew a stop sign. Greg was everything you wanted in a member of the athletic bands, and every year we honor his memory. That my show lines up with Greg’s show is the proverbial icing on the cake.

Below is the opening impact set of the show, the album cover made up by 337 on field performers. In the comments I have a video that I originally shared with the members of the Marching Illini about the show and my memories of Greg.

08/10/2023

A quick shout out to Hugs At Wrgg for playing my music on the radio as part of their mission to play music from unsigned artists. There is a noticeable uptick on hits and listens from my BandCamp page. Thank you for all you do, us “little guys” certainly appreciate it.

07/10/2023

Writing for tiny bands is HARD. I’m not talking small bands, I’m talking about 14 winds and 5 percussionists tiny. It’s such a delicate tower of cards to get all the sounds you want while allowing them a little time to catch their breath since they have nobody there to cover them. It’s meticulously mapping out which instruments in the front ensemble can be covered by one player without them being a literal octopus.

Tiny bands deserve love too. They deserve every opportunity their peers have. And the people that give them the tools to compete should be respected as much as the big boys. It’s very tough but rewarding work.

08/03/2022

Oreck approves! Get the new album by J.R. Trimpe that Oreck proudly refers to as “audible”!

www.burningvalhalla.com

07/29/2022

Physical CDs are now shipping! You can also stream or purchase the album digitally on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, and more.

Get the album critics hail as "an album" today!

12 track album

11/14/2016

Spartan Marching Band: "Battle Of The Bands" Halftime | MSU vs Rutgers : 11.12.2016

This was this show I wrote for MSU this year. It also marks the 20th year I've been writing for the Spartan Band. Love working for one of my alma maters.

https://youtu.be/SuyWwDdWMSw

09/08/2016

Everyone has their story. Here’s mine.

Being back in Champaign encouraged me to finally getting around to putting together this post. Everybody has their own 9/11 story. Mine involves a Sousa march.

I’m back in Champaign this week for the first time of any significance since I graduated with my masters here at Illinois. Aside from a half day for a marching competition at Memorial Stadium and dropping in on a party at 1004 one night, I’ve not been back. Being here has brought back a lot of memor...

11/17/2011

Post BOA thoughts

http://blog.trimpemusic.com/2011/11/post-boa-thoughts/

Last weekend was Grand Nationals in Indianapolis. Great weekend, and more importantly, some truly great performances. Congratulations to all the bands at the show. In thinking back to the early 90s when I was marching in those shows, it’s pretty amazing to see how far the activity has come over the ...

09/20/2011

Couldn't be more pleased or honored to receive an ASCAPlus award for the second year in a row!

01/26/2011

The 2011 marching season is rapidly approaching... at least for us designers. 4 original shows are in various states of completion, still room for a couple more drills. If you are interested, let me know. I'd be happy to talk!

01/19/2011

Going to the Michigan Music Conference this week? Stop by the Center X/Marching Show Concepts booth on Friday and say hello! I'll be there to talk marching, music, and making 2011 great!

09/18/2010

RIP George Parks (1953-2010)

The marching world lost a legend.

Raise your hand as high as you can. Now raise it two inches higher… THAT IS WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOUR LIFE! -George N. Parks

09/16/2010

ASCAPlus award!

ASCAPlus awards for the 2010-2011 season have been announced!

I got something in the mail today from ASCAP today. Usually this is a statement showing me my royalty reimbursements. For concert and orchestral writers, along with any broadcast media, royalties are collected for university, conservatory, and professional performances. Since I write mainly music fo...

09/09/2010

Massive update coming soon to the music blog. Set your alarms, mark your calendars, spay and neuter your cats, it's going to be life changing!*

*not really life changing