It was about 10 years ago that I was at college, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, and really longing for more musical training, that a prof of mine said, "I think you need to go somewhere where you can live and breathe music for a year or two." And although at the time I chose to stick it out and finish my degree, I have often thought about how wonderful that would be.
And that is the first thing I have realized this week. This school is a MUSIC school. You don't study anything else. And everyone else here had to audition to get in, which means they are GOOD. I am walking down hallways of tubas, drums and violins, opera singers, jazz vocalists and everything in between. I am hearing conversations of various weekend gigs that have either been attended or performed at. I am hearing the inevitable tension between the two "main" styles of music as a jazz student stated earlier this week that in order to cross the hallway into the classical side, you need to "remove your shoes".
I am completely immersed in music. And I love it.
For those who care to know, here are the courses I am taking this term:
- Pedagogy 1 (the text book is 3 volumes and I just read a detailed account of how sound is created. Pedagogy means "the art of teaching"...it also means a lot of scientific understanding of the voice...this will be a heavy course!)
- Pedagogy in Practice (basically voice lessons, but there are 2 of us in the class. We each get a 30 min. lesson and then observe the other lesson from a pedagogy perspective)
- Contemporary Performance Project (from what I can tell so far, we get put into groups and have to create a 45 min. gig off-campus at the end of term)
- Choral Conducting (what it sounds like!)
- Postgraduate Ensemble (I am singing in two ensembles: a Vocal Jazz group and a Chamber Choir (classical) Lots of singing and performing this term!)
And so it begins! Some of these students have been at the Con for 5 years and are continuing into their masters. They are quite familiar with how things are run and I believe I will be kept on my toes as I try to keep up. But it's exciting and I'm ready for it!
I even assembled a desk, which I am proud enough to post a photo. A whopping $59!
4 comments:
Write a song for me :) No... seriously... write a song for me. We'll rock it out together when we play some coffee shop together in the future...
Or just get your masters in some sort of music that isn't classical and at least come back to us!
Glad to see you're getting some science in there, Squidge. ;)
It all sounds so great Jules! Soak it up and have fun with all the performance stuff!
It all sounds so great Jules! Soak it up and have fun with all the performance stuff!
Post a Comment