Monday, October 25, 2010

Car Wreck

My dear friend had a wreck yesterday, and was unharmed.
I'm so glad she's safe.

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It is currently 11:45 PMp on a Sunday night. I am about to go to bed BEFORE MIDNIGHT. You guys, I'm so excited.

I'm going to switch back to piano performance. Although I like teaching, I don't like it to the point that I want it to be my job every day. So instead, I will give private lessons on the piano. That way, I get to teach, but I don't jump off of a cliff from the sheer pressure of being responsible for ridiculous numbers of children at a time.

I don't know if I've told you guys exactly how much I am in love with Ian Bostridge's voice, but he's my favorite tenor ever. Over Pavarotti. You should listen to him sing.

Friday, October 22, 2010

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Music


I blatantly stole this idea from my friend, Cat, who posted it on her tumblr. As awesome as it is, I can take no credit for it.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

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So, I'm having another major crisis (as in I'm not sure how I feel about my major, not a crisis of large proportions). I don't want to be an education major. I thought it would make sense for me to be an education major, because it blends my two passions: music and people.

That didn't quite work out the way I wanted it to.

The more I get into my education classes, the more I think that having a teaching job would be my own private hell. I really like helping my friends with their homework, and I think that I would like giving private lessons, but I do both of those on my own terms, when I want to do them, not five days a week from 8-3 (read: 730-whenever you finish, which will inevitably be after 3).

So I'm going to switch. I don't know what I'm going to switch to, but I'm going to switch. I'm going to spend next semester as piano performance again, but I'm going to take voice lessons from one of the Grad students here to see if I like it (I think that I had such a negative experience with voice lessons last year because the teacher and I didn't mesh, not because I didn't like singing).

I just wish I knew what I wanted to do. I've been considering non-performance and non-education musical careers, and I'm having trouble thinking of any.

But we'll see where it goes.

I downloaded Atomic Tom's album today, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm supposed to perform the first movement of my Haydn sonata tomorrow. I'm not satisfied with where it is.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Theory

So, here's something that bugs me. We go through two and a half years of our career as music majors learning the infallible rules that music supposedly follows.

But music doesn't actually follow those rules all the time. Some of my friends in Theory V said that the professor starts by announcing that although those rules and stuff that we learned before were nice, it doesn't really apply to real life.

So I ask you: WHY DO WE SPEND SO MUCH TIME ON IT?

I am aware that my complaints lie primarily in the fact that it's past midnight and I'm STILL not done with my homework, but I feel like they're still valid. I'm not saying that we shouldn't study theory at all, because I think it is worthwhile... but it's also kind of silly.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

EARTHQUAKE

We had an earthquake today.
In Oklahoma. It was a 5.1 on the Richter scale. Who expects earthquakes in Oklahoma?
It was like the coolest way to wake me up in my early-morning theory class...
We transitioned from "This is an Italian augmented 6 chord" to "HOLY CRAP THAT WAS AN EARTHQUAKE!"
Unfortunately, the rest of the day kind of slid downhill from there. Sad, right?

I think I'm almost finished with my arranging project. I'm going to glance over it one more time tomorrow before I print it off/turn it in.

I think I've made a few decisions about where to go with my life in the next few months to a year:

I will not continue with Music Education.
I will pursue playing piano for Wind Ensemble next semester instead of singing in Chorale.
I will not continue with Pride after this year.
I will sing in Opera Chorus and Chamber Singers instead of Chorale.

These are subject to change, depending on whether or not I feel like changing my mind.

I wish they had undergraduate degrees in conducting and/or accompanying here at OU.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Viderunt Omnes

I have problems when I get into my car, turn on my radio to listen to some music to distract me from the long day I've had, and the song that comes on the radio is one that we're studying in one of my classes. And the one that immediately follows it is a song we're studying in one of my other classes.

The radio gods are cruel, spiteful, people.

They knew that Perotin's Viderunt Omnes was JUST what I needed to make me want to beat my head against a brick wall. Of all the pieces that the classical station could have been playing... they picked that one.

Couldn't have been Dvorak. Or Stravinsky (may his fishy reincarnation rest in peace... that's right. He didn't make it through the night. Sad) or Debussy or Mozart or Haydn or Corigliano or ANYBODY else.

Had to be the one piece by Perotin that we studied.

And then one of the three Bach chorales we're conducting.

I will rebel by refusing to listen to classical music in my spare time. The only problem with this is that my non-classical library is severely lacking.

Fortunately, my dear friend and sweetheart Susan helped me out with this today by burning me a copy of John Legend's new album. She's awesome and I love her.

I'm giving her a copy of Melody Gardot's album tomorrow.

I think we'll get a beta fish. We might name him brofish. Or Phi Mu Alphish.
Or something else. But I feel like we should have an occupant for our fishbowl.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Igor

I am the proud owner of a goldfish! His name is Igor G. Stravinsky. The G is for Goldfish.

I had one of those days yesterday where I had loads of time to practice, but couldn't really stand the sight of my rep pieces.
Fortunately, today was different, and I remembered what I loved about all of my pieces. Perhaps it was because I had become the proud owner of Igor a few minutes before, and I wanted to impress him. I know he's a goldfish, but he needs music in his life just as much as everyone else does.

I should have spent time this weekend working on my arranging project, but I didn't. Oh well. I will focus on it more this week.

Sometimes, it helps to blare Fall Out Boy when things irritate you.
This is one of those times. Thank you, Fall Out Boy.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Odds.

*Sigh* Oh well.

Hey, we had a concert tonight! I freaking love Maurice Durufle. I wish he wrote more music than he did. His "Ubi Caritas" is absolutely breathtaking.

I wish I knew what I wanted to do with my life.