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Blog #3 Should Athletes Make Millions?

It's Sunday blog day everyone! This week I thought that we should talk about how much money should professional athletes be awarded with contract extensions and reaching agreements on long term or short term contracts. Currently, my favorite player in the NFL is the starting Free Safety for the Kansas City Chiefs. Eric Berry has earned his right to be named one of the NFL's best defensive players. When a team is winning and the players are having great seasons and the fans are cheering and not focusing on the next year or the next few years. People and organizations don't enjoy counting the days until a particular player's contract comes to an end and new negotiations need to begin. For the 2017 season, Eric Berry will be a free agent, unless the Chiefs can find a way to agree upon a long term deal with Berry. Also, the Chiefs could set him as their franchise tag, making Berry the franchise tag for the second year in a row. Being a franchise tag take your last years salary and adds on 15-20% for the following season. Berry has already taken to the public that he doesn't want to play as the franchise tag next season. Sources say that Berry is asking for 75 million dollars over a long term deal. Thats A LOT of money, most offensive tackles or quarterbacks don't make that much money. Therefor, this could be a break up or make up year for the Chiefs All-Pro Safety. I really hope the two find a way to agree to a long term deal. Anyways, do you guys believe that professional athletes are asking for or are being paid too much money? I honestly think that some athletes are paid way to much money and more than they deserve. For example, LeBron James is the greatest basketball player in the NBA but he isn't the most paid player in the NBA. Some athletes make more than they deserve and that is the only problem that I have with this topic. I want to know what you guys have to say! Feel free to comment and speak your mind! Thanks for reading.

Blog Post #3 Brass Instruments

Unlike stringed instruments, brass instruments were not near as popular.  One reason for this being the difficulty involved in playing these rather primitive instruments.  Later developments made them much more accessible to musical participants.  Music written during this time period was rather complex so playing any Baroque piece on top of one of these already difficult instruments would have been nearly impossible.

What is known as the “natural trumpet” became increasingly popular throughout the Baroque era.  Before the Baroque period it was used for military purposes such as announcing a retreat or breaking up camp.  Girolamo Fantini among others was one of the first that recognized this instrument’s capabilities in orchestral settings by changing the embouchure used.  By doing this he could add two notes therefore producing an entire harmonic scale.   Over the following years this instrument fell out of popularity because of its need for highly skilled musicians.  The invention of the keyed trumpet around 1815 was the final straw of the natural trumpet’s demise. 

The natural horn, an extremely popular instrument of this time, has a similar story to the natural trumpet.  It also ended its commission during the early 1800's due to the introduction of the “keyed” version.  This instrument had several notes missing in its range.  To compensate, a musician had to use “bending” or “hand stopping” to produce the missing notes.  “Bending” is changing embouchure slightly to lower or raise a pitch by just a fraction.  “Hand stopping” is inserting a cup shaped hand into the bell.  This changes the pitch as well as the timbre.  Pretty complicated methods…

Although brass instruments were not always the most popular choice during the Baroque Period, this era was again the foundation for the modern orchestra by introducing two crucial orchestral instruments: the trumpet and horn.  

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Isaac Clark Introduction

My name is Isaac Clark, I was born and raised in Bakersfield California. I am 21 years old and attended a Community College in Monterey Bay where I played 2 years of basketball. My major is communications with an emphasis in Mass Media. Communications was something that I felt I would be good at because I am very social and talkative. With the emphasis in mass media I wouldn’t mind being on tv to broadcast a sports event.  Most all of my hobbies have to do with sports I currently play basketball although I have played years of soccer, football, and ran track. I chose Washburn for a couple of reasons, Washburn is a very high academic school and a degree from here means a lot in the business world. The other reason is because I play basketball and I received a scholarship here.  After I graduate I plan to try to play professional basketball in an overseas league. It has been my dream since I was young to play professional basketball somewhere. Growing up like every kid I had aspirations of playing in the NBA, and as much as I would love to do that I feel trying to play overseas would suit me. The thought of playing a game for money sounded pretty good to me.