Mark Vail
Noah Vail Productions
Computer & Electro-Acoustic Music Improvisation & Composition
Synthesizer Programming & Performance
Music journalist, historian, teacher, and performer Mark Vail is the author of Vintage Synthesizers (1993, 2000) and The Hammond Organ: Beauty in the B (1997, 2002), both from Backbeat Books. Click on the following links to download supplemental MIDI and audio files for Beauty in the B: 25 Hammond Licks You Must Know by Dave Amels; Joey DeFrancesco Master Class by Ernie Rideout; John Medeski Master Class by Ernie Rideout; Larry Goldings Master Class by Ernie Rideout; Mike Eppley Master Class by Ernie Rideout; and Tony Z Master Class by Ernie Rideout. Mark is currently working on a synthesizer textbook due to be published by Oxford University Press in 2011.
Mark holds an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media (Mills College, Oakland, California, 1983), was a member of the editorial staff at Keyboard magazine from 1988 to 2001, and has written for Sound On Sound, Electronic Musician, Music Education Technology, Moog Music, Korg, Roland, Boss, and SoundTree Music Technology Services for Education.
He has developed an elective music curriculum based on Propellerhead Reason and has taught 6th through 12th grade students at private schools in Sacramento and San Jose, California, since 2002. In 2007, he wrote the guide for Propellerhead’s Abbey Road Keyboards ReFill.
Mark served as the moderator for Bay Area Electronic Music Pioneers, an historical panel held at the October 2004 Audio Engineering Society conference in San Francisco; sings professionally with Christy, his wife of 27 years; and has performed live improvised electro-acoustic music with Palantir, Media Blitz ’81, the Fourth Lord of Callendar, All to Noah Vail, the Instamoids, and Within Shouting Distance of Reality.
