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Timothy J. Isham

@timisham.bsky.social
68 followers 80 following 240 posts

music educator, composer, bassist residing in Webster, NY. I have taught strings at all levels, currently high school. I primarily compose works for student string orchestras. I play classical, jazz, folk, and whatever comes my way. timisham.com

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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I just discovered that there is no stank face in my bank of emojis. I feel like if I had invented emojis, stank face would have been the third one I created
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I saw that DC has published a comic book featuring Weird Al with Batman and Superman. Not a collector but I thought it would be fun to grab a copy and maybe one as a gift for my brother but EVERY FREAKIN PLACE IS SOLD OUT! Guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
There, I decorated my classroom door.
A wooden door with three sheets of yellow legal pad paper taped to it.  First says “orchestra” in block letters, second is a cartoon drawing of the teacher, third reads “music composed by humans, performed by humans, to connect with other humans.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Snakes on a Bus
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Satisfactoryman: The Movie
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I could do this all day
Rotary thermometer reading approximately 230 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Make a band bigger: Simply Infrared
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Make a band bigger: Gigadeth
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Make a band bigger: Guns N’ Sunflowers Sly and the Extended Family Stone Admiral and Tennille
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Make a band bigger: U3
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Make a band bigger: Climate Report
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Reposted by Timothy J. Isham
Mike @professorberry.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Make a band bigger: Duran Duran Duran idk…
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I made a blue pie.
A round pie with filling that is light blueA slice of pie with filling that is light blue.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I've been using Finale since v. 1.0. Doing what I want in Dorico is a process of looking up every single tiny little thing - taking forever. Need to take a step back and go through some of the basic tutorials.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Questions for string teachers: If you want to perform "alternative styles" music with your ensemble, do you expect the composer to provide written-out solos, or do you simply want an open solo section for students to improvise over? Option for either/both? #alternativestyles #stringorchestra
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Verify your age:
Rear wheel and pedals of a Sting Ray bicycle.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
I received $6.65 from the Facebook User Privacy settlement. 🎉
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Over the past several years I have been working on developing improvisation skills with my string students. One of my first pieces written as a vehicle for improv - Slipknot - is out now. Written solos are included if you would rather not have to teach improv. www.jwpepper.com/slipknot-116...
jwpepper.com
Slipknot | J.W. Pepper
Slipknot lives in the part of the Venn diagram where fiddle music intersects with the rhythms and grooves of classic funk. Students will engage with 16th note rhythm patterns and pre-shifting skills (...
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
PSA: drummers, if you know you’ll be playing with an upright bass, leave your floor tom at home.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Any New Yorkers who have successfully located the online drivers permit test and had their child take the test, please post a link to the test below. I have multiple graduate degrees and I have spent 2 and a half hours searching the NYS DMV website, but have not been able to do so.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Cleaning house - came across this folder of music I transcribed from neumatic notation for a class in grad school. Also I think I’m just going to recycle it - haven’t looked at it or thought about it since completing the class.
Green pocket folder opened up to show music transcriptions
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Depluralize a movie: Gone in one second
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Watching NASA’s live feed of the Integrity spacecraft executing its moon flyby with my NASA app running so I can track exactly where they are.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Be a tourist in your own town. Share a photo: Giant Scrabble tile in the Game Park area of the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY
A man standing next to a letter Y with a confused look on his face.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Recently had occasion to update my performance resume. Been a while.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
We made cutout Christmas cookies with our teenage boys. Left to right: a gingerbread man, a crewmate from ‘Among Us’, a figure we call ‘torso man’ which I don’t know what it was originally but is now hopelessly bent out of shape, a holly leaf, another torso man, and a sand worm.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
I started my career as an orchestra bassist, but switched to full-time teaching. After 20 years of teaching, I still feel like an imposter when I am teaching but every time I get to play bass it feels like coming home.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
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Reposted by Timothy J. Isham
Evan Ware @warevolf.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
“The piano is just a big wooden box of decrescendos” is one of the best descriptions I have ever heard.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Post your favorite Star Trek character. Wrong answers only. eskipaper.com/images/wesle...
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
I was looking through some of my old lesson books and found this: a hall pass from my high school orchestra teacher. Made me think about him. I don’t think either of us ever dreamed I would one day be doing the same job in the same district in the same building
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
My student teacher created this Orchestra House of Horrors in my rehearsal room today #halloween #orchestra
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Reposted by Timothy J. Isham
Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
The rain gutter outside my house needed repair, so the Town came and dug the old section up, severing this tree root in the process. They fixed the concrete section and filled it back up leaving the tree root in place, protruding up several inches above the soil. I thought it needed something, so…
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Just had this thought - I’ll take the $10 a month I was spending on Disney and add it to my public broadcasting pledge. Now I’m doing two things.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
These days I often feel powerless to do anything, but today I cancelled my Disney/Hulu subscription with extreme prejudice.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
Tonight at the dinner table my two teenage boys and I had a serious discussion about whether one’s overall density increases when one farts. My position is that it must. Please feel free to post your thoughts.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
I made a thing! It’s a fold-down station for my son to do his CAD work for his 3D printing.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
I saw this and it looked like fun but I am going to take it next level and not make it transactional - click in to this thread to view all my answers without having to like anything. Because when something is named MUSIC ASK it deserves to be addressed. cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thu...
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Here we go
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Slipknot is now officially available for purchase at jwpepper.com! This is the first to be published of a number of “alternative styles” tunes I’ve written or arranged. Students can improvise solos, compose their own, or use the written-out solos provided. www.jwpepper.com/slipknot-116...
jwpepper.com
Slipknot | J.W. Pepper
Slipknot lives in the part of the Venn diagram where fiddle music intersects with the rhythms and grooves of classic funk. Students will engage with 16th note rhythm patterns and pre-shifting skills (...
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
I was today years old when I learned that Mayor McCheese plays the bass. With a bow even!
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
My boys are 18 and 16 - working on cleaning out unneeded items. We got rid of most of their old toys without too much problem, but today I’m working on the kids’ books. Difficult to dispatch - each book carries a specific memory of reading it together.
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Reposted by Timothy J. Isham
Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
My philosophy and experience with students is that they can almost always do incredibly difficult work, but if you ever waste their time with soul-killing meaningless work, you have essentially poisoned the well when it comes to getting them to spend any additional effort on your class.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
I have 2 teenage boys who I can’t get interested in any kind of movie or tv show, but they will happily shout wrong answers at the screen as long as I keep clicking on YouTube trivia quizzes.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
I finished what I intend to be my last score in Finale recently. Currently learning the ropes at engraving with Dorico. It's something I previously wrote using Finale, and imported into Dorico via xml. So far, so good. Not as difficult to learn the basics as I feared. Maybe this won't be so bad.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Recently I've been writing pieces for string orchestra that offer the opportunity to improvise - like jazz band pieces but for strings. As a preview, here's the page turner video for Slipknot, soon to be published by Trees and Steel Music. youtu.be/nf48yE8tiDc
youtu.be
Slipknot for Intermediate String Orchestra by Timothy J. Isham
YouTube video by Timothy J. Isham
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
My summer studio. Finally making some progress.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
This year I transferred from teaching middle to high school orchestra, which also made me the orchestra director for my oldest son’s senior year. Having a hard time getting through writing his report card comments with a dry eye. It was amazing. He was amazing. 10/10 recommend.
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Timothy J. Isham @timisham.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
All the concerts, rehearsals and lessons are over and the children have gone home. A wise teacher will use this moment to prepare for the upcoming school year. Anyway, I feel like I’m ready now.
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