I have almost officially decided that if I do a grad program, it will not be in music. Music is a great thing. I love playing the flute. I love my ensembles, but I'm sick of everything else. :) What a great hobby to have, now that I've racked up a good amount in student loans and spent 4.5 years just in college, with 1.5 to go, devoted to this marvelous hobby.
*sigh*
It's about joy in the journey, right?
1/23/2007
1/13/2007
New Semester!
Wow. I've really not been good at posting lately, have I?
Life finally feels back to normal in terms of school. My director's back (yay!), and I moved up two chairs. It's really, really nice. (Pops Concert on Feb. 5th if anyone's interested. E-mail me or leave a comment for details. It's going to be great.) I'm taking Counterpoint & Analysis and Music History. I have the most amazing Music History professor ever, but unfortunately, he's retiring this year. Counterpoint's not terribly exciting yet, as we're being reminded about basic Common Practice part-writing rules. "Do you remember how to prepare and resolve sevenths?" "Do you remember how strong chord progressions operate, and how that differs between major and minor keys?" "Do you remember how to build and resolve chords from a figured bass?" and that sort of thing. I'll admit, it is nice to have a refresher. It'll be interesting when we're asked to write two- and three-part exercises. They seem easier than four-part writing, but they're actually harder, since you don't have the whole chord there. It seems (at least as far as I can gather from the two real class periods I've been to) that it's more about a basic tonality. This should be... interesting.
In History, we're studying the 20th century. As Dr. M put it, "It's the century that people love to hate." Schoenberg, Berg and Webern (to name a few) were brilliant, and all that, but bleh. Not my favorite thing to listen to. I probably won't be buying a Schoenberg album any time soon. Then he reminded us what was starting in America -- Jazz! I *love* Jazz. It's been really interesting to see how music has affected history, and how history has affected music. Unfortunately, I value a lot of today's pop music even less.
Flute choir and orchestra are also a lot of fun. If anyone's looking for something fun and atypical to do on Valentine's Day, I happen to be having an orchestra concert that night. We've improved significantly since last semester. We're playing a lot of cool stuff, and I have some fun solos. We have a flute choir concert in February, I think, but the exciting concert with that will be our very own concert at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in March. I'm looking forward to that.
Life's pretty good right now. I'm going swing dancing tonight, I got to sleep in (sleep, glorious sleep...) and have just been sitting here for the last hour and a half, just sitting, reading, writing, and not going anywhere. On Monday, I'll get to play MarioKart 64, which I'm really excited about. I got to spend some time with The Franchise and his family just after Christmas, and I'm looking forward to his return.
Maybe I should like, go eat something.
Life finally feels back to normal in terms of school. My director's back (yay!), and I moved up two chairs. It's really, really nice. (Pops Concert on Feb. 5th if anyone's interested. E-mail me or leave a comment for details. It's going to be great.) I'm taking Counterpoint & Analysis and Music History. I have the most amazing Music History professor ever, but unfortunately, he's retiring this year. Counterpoint's not terribly exciting yet, as we're being reminded about basic Common Practice part-writing rules. "Do you remember how to prepare and resolve sevenths?" "Do you remember how strong chord progressions operate, and how that differs between major and minor keys?" "Do you remember how to build and resolve chords from a figured bass?" and that sort of thing. I'll admit, it is nice to have a refresher. It'll be interesting when we're asked to write two- and three-part exercises. They seem easier than four-part writing, but they're actually harder, since you don't have the whole chord there. It seems (at least as far as I can gather from the two real class periods I've been to) that it's more about a basic tonality. This should be... interesting.
In History, we're studying the 20th century. As Dr. M put it, "It's the century that people love to hate." Schoenberg, Berg and Webern (to name a few) were brilliant, and all that, but bleh. Not my favorite thing to listen to. I probably won't be buying a Schoenberg album any time soon. Then he reminded us what was starting in America -- Jazz! I *love* Jazz. It's been really interesting to see how music has affected history, and how history has affected music. Unfortunately, I value a lot of today's pop music even less.
Flute choir and orchestra are also a lot of fun. If anyone's looking for something fun and atypical to do on Valentine's Day, I happen to be having an orchestra concert that night. We've improved significantly since last semester. We're playing a lot of cool stuff, and I have some fun solos. We have a flute choir concert in February, I think, but the exciting concert with that will be our very own concert at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in March. I'm looking forward to that.
Life's pretty good right now. I'm going swing dancing tonight, I got to sleep in (sleep, glorious sleep...) and have just been sitting here for the last hour and a half, just sitting, reading, writing, and not going anywhere. On Monday, I'll get to play MarioKart 64, which I'm really excited about. I got to spend some time with The Franchise and his family just after Christmas, and I'm looking forward to his return.
Maybe I should like, go eat something.
12/25/2006
12/24/2006
It's been a while, hasn't it?
Things I'm Thankful For:
* I got work off of Job1 and Job2 this next week so that I can go and visit The Franchise's family.
* I'm really looking forward to it.
* I have time to read. (My latest was Tuesdays with Morrie. I liked it.)
* I get to hang out, eat food, watch a little football, watch Christmas movies, and relax.
* I get to wrap presents. :)
* I get to play the piano and sing!
* I get to play my flute. (Wish me luck on upcoming Wind Ensemble re-auditions.)
* No more finals!
* I get to be with my family for Christmas, and with The Franchise shortly thereafter.
* People I love are patient with me.
* I have people that I love and that love me.
P.S. Congratulations to the BYU and Utah football teams on their bowl wins.
* I got work off of Job1 and Job2 this next week so that I can go and visit The Franchise's family.
* I'm really looking forward to it.
* I have time to read. (My latest was Tuesdays with Morrie. I liked it.)
* I get to hang out, eat food, watch a little football, watch Christmas movies, and relax.
* I get to wrap presents. :)
* I get to play the piano and sing!
* I get to play my flute. (Wish me luck on upcoming Wind Ensemble re-auditions.)
* No more finals!
* I get to be with my family for Christmas, and with The Franchise shortly thereafter.
* People I love are patient with me.
* I have people that I love and that love me.
P.S. Congratulations to the BYU and Utah football teams on their bowl wins.
12/03/2006
11/19/2006
Go BYU!
You may not believe me, but this title is not in jest.
I am a fan of BYU football.
No, I am not lying.
For those of you who may be scratching your head in confusion, let me help you out. Notice the placement of the word 'football.' Notice that it's there. I still say that Current School of Choice is the best place for me to be. School and football are not necessarily the same.
I was, however, raised in the home of BYU football fans. I happen to be spending a lot of time with an avid BYU fan. It's amazing how easy it can be to become interested in the things your interest finds interesting.
For those who may be confused as to why this is very significant in my life, let me somewhat briefly sketch the background.
I started piano lessons when I was five. When the kids my age were learning to play sports, I was practicing the piano. When I was in junior high and high school, I picked up the flute and was involved in a bit of drama. Still no interest in football. I have memories of watching my normally very composed and mellow father get excited, jump up and down and yell at the TV while watching a BYU game. Can we say....bewildering?
My freshman year at the Y, I was taking 16-ish (I think...) credits, was working part time, was on the swing team, and was in the marching band. I dove into all of this not having any sort of concept of the time involved with all of these things. Especially marching band. I'd plan to catch up on homework on a particular Saturday, only to have forgotten that it was a Game Day. Marching band steps off to do pre-game stuff an HOUR before kickoff, and is required to stay until the very last moment of the game. I hadn't been planning to take an entire six hours (or more, plus the six hours of rehearsal during the week) out of my Saturday to freeze to death (I also had very severe anemia). I knew that each team had an endzone, and that they were trying to get the ball to the opposite endzone to get a touchdown. That was about all I knew. Then, I'd get to the game and look around me. I'd see fans that were out of control about the goings on of the game. I quickly got to thinking that football was just an excuse for men to go back to their neanderthalic roots, and I was NOT impressed. At all. I vowed to never attend a live football game ever again if I could help it.
To make things a little shorter here, I reached the low point of my bitterness, and started to find myself a little curious. What could draw people so strongly? Why would people arrive at my place of employment (a bookstore) wearing [team's color] head to toe and still happily spend hundreds of dollars for more stuff?
Almost a year ago, Scottro hosted a football party. By this time, I'd decided that enough was enough, and that if I was going to function in the world, I needed to be able to have a basic foundation of what this sport was all about and why it ran peoples' lives. Figuring that there would be people there that I respected and that had the potential of being knowledgeable and helpful, I decided to go. (Great chili and other friends being there helped too, of course.) Much to my amazement, the men in the room did not act like neanderthals! Even better, they were willing to answer my questions! They were able to cheer, and be quite excited, but they seemed to be somewhat dignified about it. And they weren't annoyed with me, either. I was SO pleased, and had a great time.
Fast forward about five months. I started dating The Franchise, and things seemed to be going well. I decided it was really time to figure out a thing or two about sports. So I bought a cool book. About sports. Learned the basics. That created a framework, so now, I just learn from the best. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes knowing some of the inner workings of the sport. I watched my first whole football game over fall break - USC vs. Washington. It was great! I just watched the entire BYU/New Mexico game this weekend. SO fun. The more I learn, the more I can follow, and the more I enjoy.
Who knew that being a BYU fan could be so...unifying?
I am a fan of BYU football.
No, I am not lying.
For those of you who may be scratching your head in confusion, let me help you out. Notice the placement of the word 'football.' Notice that it's there. I still say that Current School of Choice is the best place for me to be. School and football are not necessarily the same.
I was, however, raised in the home of BYU football fans. I happen to be spending a lot of time with an avid BYU fan. It's amazing how easy it can be to become interested in the things your interest finds interesting.
For those who may be confused as to why this is very significant in my life, let me somewhat briefly sketch the background.
I started piano lessons when I was five. When the kids my age were learning to play sports, I was practicing the piano. When I was in junior high and high school, I picked up the flute and was involved in a bit of drama. Still no interest in football. I have memories of watching my normally very composed and mellow father get excited, jump up and down and yell at the TV while watching a BYU game. Can we say....bewildering?
My freshman year at the Y, I was taking 16-ish (I think...) credits, was working part time, was on the swing team, and was in the marching band. I dove into all of this not having any sort of concept of the time involved with all of these things. Especially marching band. I'd plan to catch up on homework on a particular Saturday, only to have forgotten that it was a Game Day. Marching band steps off to do pre-game stuff an HOUR before kickoff, and is required to stay until the very last moment of the game. I hadn't been planning to take an entire six hours (or more, plus the six hours of rehearsal during the week) out of my Saturday to freeze to death (I also had very severe anemia). I knew that each team had an endzone, and that they were trying to get the ball to the opposite endzone to get a touchdown. That was about all I knew. Then, I'd get to the game and look around me. I'd see fans that were out of control about the goings on of the game. I quickly got to thinking that football was just an excuse for men to go back to their neanderthalic roots, and I was NOT impressed. At all. I vowed to never attend a live football game ever again if I could help it.
To make things a little shorter here, I reached the low point of my bitterness, and started to find myself a little curious. What could draw people so strongly? Why would people arrive at my place of employment (a bookstore) wearing [team's color] head to toe and still happily spend hundreds of dollars for more stuff?
Almost a year ago, Scottro hosted a football party. By this time, I'd decided that enough was enough, and that if I was going to function in the world, I needed to be able to have a basic foundation of what this sport was all about and why it ran peoples' lives. Figuring that there would be people there that I respected and that had the potential of being knowledgeable and helpful, I decided to go. (Great chili and other friends being there helped too, of course.) Much to my amazement, the men in the room did not act like neanderthals! Even better, they were willing to answer my questions! They were able to cheer, and be quite excited, but they seemed to be somewhat dignified about it. And they weren't annoyed with me, either. I was SO pleased, and had a great time.
Fast forward about five months. I started dating The Franchise, and things seemed to be going well. I decided it was really time to figure out a thing or two about sports. So I bought a cool book. About sports. Learned the basics. That created a framework, so now, I just learn from the best. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes knowing some of the inner workings of the sport. I watched my first whole football game over fall break - USC vs. Washington. It was great! I just watched the entire BYU/New Mexico game this weekend. SO fun. The more I learn, the more I can follow, and the more I enjoy.
Who knew that being a BYU fan could be so...unifying?
11/02/2006
I make a very dry martini. I make a very wet souffle...
Okay, so the concert went pretty well. We did not fall apart, despite the fact that the first time the Copland was played all the way through was on stage during the concert. Unfortunately, the Beethoven was the weakest. That made no sense to me, but whatever.
What a bizarre semester. That's all I can say.
Oh, and the Gala concert is this Saturday eve. Should be a lot of fun.
What a bizarre semester. That's all I can say.
Oh, and the Gala concert is this Saturday eve. Should be a lot of fun.
11/01/2006
Symphony Orchestra
...is tonight. I don't recommend coming, but I can't stop you if you want to come. We're playing a Copland, a Sibelius, the last three of five movements of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, and a Weber concerto with Viola solo.
It'll be . . .interesting, to say the least. I'm the most worried about Copland. I don't recall having played it all the way through. Ever.
It'll be . . .interesting, to say the least. I'm the most worried about Copland. I don't recall having played it all the way through. Ever.
10/30/2006
Concert Tonight!
Wind Ensemble, 7:30. Paula Crider conducting. Should be fun. Student tix are $3. Let me know if you want to come.
10/27/2006
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
