First Week of Spring Semester Classes: a reflection

Well, I survived my first week of classes for spring semester. Wow.
It blurred by, and I actually survived it without my planner- not the first one I've lost either. This is probably one of the only weeks that will feel short. My penultimate semester of classes before student teaching. What?

I definitely have a lot on my plate this semester, but that's not exactly unusual for a music education major around here. Just to give you a little peek inside a second-semester junior studying music education at the University of Vermont:

Harmony&Form IV

I finally made it to music theory IV. This is the home stretch as far as undergrad music theory classes go, and I have mixed feelings, but I'm mostly excited. This time around, this particular section is taught by one of the most lovely/adorable/badass professors at UVM, and it's the first time I've had her as an actual professor. One of the great things about her is she is really just so excited about the material she is teaching, and it's clear that she wants her students to succeed and understand; she is encouraging, patient and helpful...qualities I am going to relish in as I struggle my way through this course.
     On the other hand, I am nervous because here-say is: Harmony&Form IV is hard- but not hard in the way that Harmony&Form III was, per-say. Harmony&Form IV is basically the study of 20th century music, i.e. minimalism, atonal music, the music of Bartok, all those lovely things. So really what has happened over the course of the four semesters of music theory is we have all worked our asses off to memorize and get used to all the rules of music theory, only to pretty much throw them out the window in the last semester. I don't doubt I'll have my hands full, but here's one thing I also know:
this semester of theory is going to be great. I base that mostly on the fact that she wanted to start the semester off with introductions and get to know everyone. Oh, and she's a jazz flautist- yep.  Check out her band's Facebook page!

Harmony&Form Lab IV

Again, made it to theory lab IV, and again, in the homestretch, as it were. Traditionally, I manage to do fine in these classes. Sure, I'm bad at keyboard- and I really mean that- but it's the singing and ear training that save me. From what my professor has been saying, we are going to focus a lot on sight-singing this semester (which unfortunately, doesn't mean that we will not be doing figured bass and other keyboard work along with MacGamut, a terrible software used for ear-training and dictation). I'm going to have to work quite hard this semester I believe, because I also believe this professor wouldn't exactly think twice about failing me thus keeping me from student teaching and graduating on time. Another reason to live in a practice room!

Choral Methods

The last of my methods classes before student teaching. Where did the time go?! I'm quite excited for this, though our class size is HUGE being that it combines the junior and sophomore music education majors. We read from the text and have discussions to learn techniques approaches etc., and also have a lab choir of sorts, so we can have a bit of solo teaching and get feedback from our peers and professor. Admittedly, one of my favorite parts of this and all of the music teaching methods courses  is of course the teaching opportunities, but also the opportunities to behave like a student whenever your peers are teaching. This is to give us all practice in discipline. (Imagine: college students behaving like elementary school students in general music methods, middle school students in instrumental, and now high school students for the purposes of this class.) However, I am not fond of our extremely short teaching episodes due to the size of our class; we get about 8 minutes..including warm-up! Crazy!

Choral Practicum

The teaching 'lab' if you will, to coincide with our methods class- again, the last one before student teaching! Through this class, I can actually practice things discussed and learned in Choral Methods. Again, because of the class size, I'll be team teaching. With two other people. Yay? We did this in general music methods, but that was okay seeing how they were fourth and fifth grade students. With high school students for choral practicum, this should be interesting. I will be teaching 10th-12th grade altos. Though this isn't my voice part, I am excited to broaden my experience and challenge myself. I'm also looking forward to teaching choir in general. Singing was something I found a real passion for my junior year of high school when I first began classical voice lessons, and I have been immersing myself in both choral and solo vocal music. It's something about the very personal aspect of singing that is the singer's instrument is intrinsic, as opposed to being controlled by pressing keys as I am used to with saxophone, that really fills some sort of void in me that isn't quite fulfilled by strictly being an instrumentalist. So I guess for all-purposes of this class, what's up, altos?

Jazz Theory&Improv I

Honestly, I am a classical saxophonist. That being said, I have also had some jazz experience. I played lead alto in my high school jazz band, auditioned for district jazz honor band my junior year of high school, played second alto in the district honor jazz band my senior year of high school, played at Burlington Discover Jazz Festival my senior year, and I gig with big bands mostly during the summer. I listen to jazz. I like jazz. But improvising?? Not much of an improvisor. (Refer to my previous post: "The Beginning: Saxophone to learn more about my fear/ineptitude of improvising.) Don't get me wrong, I certainly think it's important, but I definitely will have more learning to do than the jazz studies majors taking the class. Chances are, so will my fellow music education majors. (Sorry for speaking for y'all, but- am I right?)
I have my first quiz scheduled for Tuesday, in which I will recite the cycle of fourths (apparently otherwise known as the jazz version of the circle of fifths) at a rather brisk tempo, and play my 'seven up' scales around the cycle of fourths at a tempo chosen by my professor. In case you were curious and didn't already know- 'seven up' scales are swung major scales with a flat 7, omitting the repeated tonic at the top. Quite thankful that my saxophone teacher has had me do so many drills and studies on my major scales- though it did take a while to get used to 1) flatting only the seventh in the first place, and 2) not playing a full octave of a scale. Let's hope I do well on this quiz. Again, living in a practice room.
Oh, and I should leave you with this quote from my hilarious professor for this class:

"Please don't play right now- you play it, I transcribe it."

...this is going to be fun.

Music History&Literature II

I am most excited for this class just because I love this professor so much. He is seriously a never-ending wealth of knowledge about music. This is my third class with him- only the prior Music History&Literature I being required of my major. I would take every class offered by him if I had time, and I hope to at least take one of his composer seminars before I graduate.
A number of people have trouble staying awake in his class I hear- and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that it's early in the morning, and some of the people in this class are in it because it's a requirement. He also has that sort of voice that one might hear on public radio, and lectures as if he were crafting a well written paper. He also has a very dry sense of humor, interjecting funny little side notes as if they might go unnoticed.
   I for one love these things about him. I am constantly astounded by just how much he knows, and how effective a lecturer he is. Sure, the class is listening and listening exam intensive (and for that, I'm glad to be done with medieval and renaissance music and the difficulty of discerning between pieces) but I love this music. (Nerdy, I know.) I also never put down my pen/pencil in any of his classes, and have notebooks filled with information. I also have become quite interested in music history and have recently been thinking about continuing study of it in graduate school, but we will see.
Studying classicism, romanticism.... I could write forever.

Conducting I

Studying to be a conductor. Wow. I have been waiting for a long time to take these classes, but I am glad it worked out that I will have conducting II right before I student teach, so everything will be fresh.  With conducting comes a hefty list of responsibility. It's not really just waving my arms or a stick in the air, or standing there to look nice while my students play, it's unifying musical ideas. Ideas and intentions that you generally hope you are interpreting as the composer intended, and furthermore, successfully extending to your ensemble. Something I will be doing a lot as a teacher, whether with choral or instrumental music, and something I have always had a yearning to excel in. I will order my first baton tomorrow, though I am a bit overwhelmed by all the color choices for the bulb. I can tell that this isn't going to be a breeze of a class, but I'm ready to put in the work.

Piano Proficiency I

Part of a series of classes designed to help music majors prepare and ultimately pass the dreaded Piano Proficiency Exam. Really the bane of my existence. I struggle in piano a lot for reasons I may later detail in a separate post, but here, yet again, another reason to live in a practice room this semester. We already have a quiz on Tuesday, help us all.

Saxophone Lessons

I had my first saxophone lesson of the semester on Thursday, and didn't play at all. Instead, my teacher and I began to choose music for my senior recital, which will happen in the fall semester of next year (yikes!) before I student teach in the spring semester. When I told my teacher that I wanted to play Alexander Glazounov's Concerto en Mi b  he was initially hesitant. In case you didn't already know, this is perhaps the piece for classical saxophone and every classical saxophone should play it at some point. All-in-all, the piece is challenging, but I had been working on it at random for a while, and already had some of the tricky passages worked out- which made him more confident- so he told me, "come in next week and play for me, show me you can do this... oh, and learn the first movement of G.F. Handel's Sonata XIII." I should mention that my lesson next week will be on Tuesday rather than the typical Thursday. I'm fairly confident he will be pleased enough with my progress on the piece, but even still, I guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend...

Voice Lessons:

For my first two years, I was a music education with a double focus on classical saxophone and classical voice. At the end of last year, I was forced to choose between voice and saxophone as my primary, making the other my secondary, and I chose saxophone. Perhaps I will write more on this in a later post, but for now, I'd rather not get into it all.  Regardless of my choice, I am still studying voice, and at basically the same level I was before. I am hoping to also do a senior recital, though it would be up to my voice teacher and myself to find an accompanist, a space, etc. There were reasons I was a double focus in the first place; I simply cannot choose- and to give up studying voice with such an amazing teacher is unthinkable.

I'm already slightly overwhelmed, but I'm happy. Here's to a long, and insane semester. Do I really know anything different?

Now, to enjoy the weekend...

Happy reading,
Becky

The Beginning: Saxophone

I've been playing saxophone since fourth grade. I can remember very enthusiastically choosing the saxophone when it came time for 'instrument night' or whatever my school called it, only to be told I should start with something smaller by my parents and future 5th-8th grade music teacher (disclaimer: NOT my 4th grade music teacher in my immediate future.)  Alas, instead of going home with an alto saxophone, I went home with a flute. Though it wasn't a saxophone like I'd hoped for, it was an instrument! Despite my excitement and enthusiasm, I couldn't seem to get a sound out of the instrument -barely a sound out of the head joint even!  There were somewhere around six or seven of us in our group lessons which we were pulled out of something like reading or study hall for.. and they were all excelling far beyond me. I couldn't understand this because I was practicing, I just couldn't get it!  Seeing my peers 'get it' and begin their journeys with the flute was discouraging, but thankfully not discouraging enough to keep me from music.

Soon, I began taking saxophone lesson after school to try my luck with that- though I hadn't yet given up flute. 

I remember my first saxophone lesson like it was yesterday: I walked in to see Jaimie Bernstein (my first instrumental teacher) sitting on the floor with two paper cups, and a box of reeds....

Well, I suppose I could go into detail about the entirety of my first lesson, but I think it will suffice to say that I showed natural ability for the saxophone, and after two or three after-school lessons, I stopped taking flute lessons to focus on saxophone.

I was indeed nervous for my first group saxophone lesson. Everyone else started on saxophone as they chose, and  now it was time for me to play catch-up.Thankfully, I didn't struggle to catch up. This instrument I got. What a relief it was to little fourth grade me to realize that I could play an instrument after all, and maybe the flute was just out to get me or something ?

Disclaimer: I picked up the flute again in high school, taught myself and helped out the elementary band, and also had fine time in woodwind methods. Perhaps little me was subconsciously set on saxophone as well, sabotaging my flute playing? Had I not had issues in fourth grade, I could be a flautist today(!!) 

I continued to play saxophone even as my peers stopped due to things such as braces, sports, and other reasons. By the time I was in eighth grade, the number of young saxophonists had dwindled quite drastically, though my friend Casey and I were still quite attached to the saxophone. We started doing extra pieces in lessons and concerts. I remember specifically playing a duet arrangement of "The Can-Can" full of eighth notes at a spritely tempo (daunting at the time) for a concert, despite our music teacher's reservations and concern for our success earlier in the day.  Well, we didn't give up the idea of playing that duet that we had worked so hard to prepare, and had a successful concert that evening, but I will say that was one of my more nervous performances in middle school.


When it came time for me to register for classes in high school, I knew I wasn't going to have any trouble fulfilling my fine arts credit and accepted that I would probably in fact, surpass the requirements.  I soon realized I would have to make a choice that I wasn't used to making.  Choir and band were during the same block, and students had to choose whether they were going to sing or play. Initially I was quite frustrated. Why would any high school force you to choose between band or choir? They're both so wonderful yet different musically.  After the initial struggle it seemed simple: I'd play in band. I could still sing, but at this point in my musical career I didn't have much solo repertoire to play so band it was!
I was shocked to find that here band seemed to be the cool thing to do. It was great to have so many people to play with but I soon found out that this particular director had favorites. Needless to say that's how band worked for my first two years of high school.

Coming into my junior year of high school we had a new band director. Turns out she was a friend of mine from a music camp I had done a few years back, and a UVM graduate. Unfortunately, many of the people who were involved with band before had now left on sheer principle that the old band director had gone.  Being the one of the only serious musicians in the band now brought me a lot more responsibility. I was now playing principal alto, which meant playing solos not just for saxophone, but to cover for our lack of oboes and/or horns. I was leading the ensemble, in a way- so I practiced my music so I could be a better example to my peers.  My teacher signed me up for district auditions in both classical and jazz, and started a jazz band and requested my participation. Never before had I had so much musical responsibility!

I was incredibly nervous for my first district audition. I hadn't played any solo repertoire up to this point, and being a perfectionist, I of course wanted to get in. Results came in and I received principal second.  Out of the many people who auditioned I was pleased with my results.
In my senior year of high school I was once again accepted into the district honor band.

Being forced (without an incredible amount of resistance) to audition for jazz districts was something else entirely.  My experience with playing jazz was basically nonexistent up until my junior year of high school when my teacher started an after school jazz band.  I could read quite well and knew the concept of swing so that was no big deal, but improvising was a different beast entirely.

Wait..improvise?! You mean, play something that isn't notated, just, making it up on the spot?!

(I know, classic 'classically-trained musician' syndrome.. but on the plus side, that made me a skilled reader!)

I recall getting into many an argument with my teacher about improvising because well, I was being slightly childish and afraid of going so far out of my comfort zone. Admittedly, I never dug deep enough to understand the full theory of the whole improvisation thing, but I just tried to stay in the key and play what I thought could almost work.  In jazz band, I hardly improvised if I could get away with it, especially because there were some students who had the opportunity to get their feet wet in the jazz pond, or studied privately and were therefore pretty good at improvising. On occasion that I did solo, I tried to read from the suggested notation, or- if that wasn't available, chugged along, holding my head above water.

Our jazz band played at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival my senior year- one of the pieces being an arrangement of Harlem Nocturne, a piece mostly for solo saxophone. This I loved, because any soloing I had to do was either melody or notated in the piece :) 

Junior year I did not make jazz districts and wasn't particularly surprised. A lot of saxophonists auditioned, and they usually only take two alto saxophonists.

Senior year however, I made it into the district jazz honor band as second alto, and I was surprised, because so many people had auditioned.

Also in my junior and senior years, I auditioned for the all-state band. (Something I now understand to be ridiculously competitive in the area of classical alto saxophone). I didn't make it in junior year, and was quite discouraged, but determined to make it in my senior year.  Unfortunately, I missed getting in by one point my senior year (and at the discretion of the professor of saxophone at one of the colleges I was looking into, who later sent me an acceptance letter to the program and to this day tries to get me to transfer any time I see him!) 

Not making all state was probably my most discouraging moments musically at that time.  To work so hard at something so personal only to have it not be good enough is really tough, but it taught me a lot, and it definitely helped to later learn just how competitive classical saxophone is!

Before I knew it, I was preparing college auditions, and wondering how the heck I came this far with saxophone. Whether or not fourth grade me realized choosing the saxophone meant choosing my career I can't be sure. It's funny to think back of how in fourth grade picking an instrument taking lessons and playing in band was just the thing to do...and now look where I am: a second semester junior in college, preparing to become a music educator, and studying saxophone.

Happy reading,
Becky