Thank you.
So, you should know that I'm writing what will soon be a beautiful blog entry from the comfort of my dorm room, serenaded by the beautiful tones of Miley Cyrus's Party in the USA (which, for the record, is coming from my next-door neighbors, not my dorm.) I am lying somewhat seductively on my futon under my bed in a dimmed setting, next to two empty Coke Zero cans and a bowl that has already held plentiful amounts of Beef-Flavoured Ramen and Easy-Mac. I am also sitting next to a huge bottle of hand sanitizer, which has, so far, helped me through the epidemic of bubonic plague that has been spreading like wildfire through this campus.
In fact, I think I'm going to use a little right now. Give me a second.
...
Ok. I'm back.
For those of you who are new to my blogosphere and/or do not know me and are simply stalking me because my profile picture is unbelievably sexy (it happens to the best of us), I am a Classical Vocal Performance major. This means that I sing a lot of classical music, including a lot of opera. As such my classes (which you will get a full report on in due time) are mostly music-oriented (surprise!) Some are more enjoyable than others. All of them are, in themselves, intriguing to their own respective extents. That's a good thing, too, because if I dip under a 3.0 GPA, I'll lose my academic scholarship and either have to take out loans or say goodbye to my beloved palm trees. Which is something I don't want to do. Because palm trees are beautiful and tropical. Like me.
Anyway.
All of my friends who are Engineering or Pre-Med or Microneurobiochemistry majors (if that's a thing) may look at me and scoff when I say that being a music major is not easy. I am currently enrolled in no less than 11 classes, not counting my extracurriculars. I have 8am (6am MST, mind you) classes EVERY BLOODY DAY and minimal naptime, and it looks like that's not going to change much over the next four years.
My first class is Music Theory, which meets Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8-8:50 am. And, just FYI, there's a lot more to theory than one might think. After a quick review of key signatures (which, due to my background in piano, I took to pretty easily) and different chords, we jumped straight into Bach Chorales. As in, creating chords with different voice types. At first, I found this extremely challenging, but I've reached a point where it is not nearly as difficult to avoid creating Parallel Fifths and Octaves (which are bad), leaving leading tones unresolved, and other fun things. It's definitely a structure that is kept very much inside the box, but we must learn the rules of music before we can break them. And, for the laymen reading this... there are a LOT of rules of music. And I know that we've barely scratched the surface.
My other 8am class (8-9:15 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays) is Skills Ensemble, or Aural Skills. Yes, we've already made a fair amount of "Oral Skills" jokes. Most of us are still fresh from high school, remember. This class involves ear-training- that is, recognition of certain steps of a scale, certain chords, improvisation, sight-reading, and pretty much everything else. And let me tell you. For everything that I don't know in Music Theory, there are ten things I don't know in Skills Ensemble. You could say I am aurally challenged. (Admit it. You laughed.) So, yeah, definitely a difficult class, especially at 8am, when my brain still isn't quite functioning.
After music theory on Mondays and Wednesdays I have Keyboard Skills. Luckily, due to nearly thirteen years of piano from the most awesome piano teacher in the world, I have a pretty good grasp of piano skills, so I placed a year ahead in piano. I would have placed out, but I didn't have a lot of basic technique (contrary and parallel motion two-octave scales and other such tomfooleries) that kept me in the sophomore program. The unfortunate thing is that I was recently displaced from my last keyboard class into one that is about a week ahead, so it's been a little weird catching up and adjusting to an entirely different class setting five weeks into classes. But such is life.
Immediately preceding Keyboard on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10:10-11:00 am is one of the highlights of my day, Symphonic Choir. This is the largest audition-required ensemble at my school, and is actually a lot of fun to be in. Right now, we're going in the opposite direction of any college choir that I could ever imagine and are singing excerpts from the Baseball Cantata (yes, there exists such a thing) called Casey at the Bat, based on the famous poem. Yes, they wrote, in essence, an entire opera out of a poem. Talent. And, for our first concert, we will be wearing t-shirts and jeans and be singing on bleachers instead of risers. #reasonswhymyschoolisprobablybetterthanyours. I'm assuming we'll be returning to my traditional choral music after the Casey concert, but I'm glad to see that the choral studies program here is so open-minded.
After choir on Mondays and Wednesdays I have a short break, after which I have my fourth class, English Diction. This is the class that I was placed in five weeks into classes, so it's been interesting catching up to the rest of the class. The main focus of the class is on learning IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), which is, naturally, actually very useful for singers, but kind of a slow topic to learn. I do enjoy making sounds, though, so I'm making the most out of the class.
The final class on Mondays and Wednesdays is Opera Theater. In this class, we basically work on presentation from a singer's perspective. Essentially, acting while maintaining singing posture. Definitely a fun class. Mondays we are at the school wellness center for Movement with a dance professor (including a lot of yoga as well as some beginning dancing) and on Wednesdays we are in the classroom, learning about staging and other such trivialities necessary for an opera singer.
Also. Fridays. I have Voice Forum. This is "Listen to Pretty Music and Occasionally Hear Important Announcements From the Voice Faculty" Class, so it's fairly enjoyable. I'm planning on singing a La Bohéme aria as my first forum performance next Friday. We we we so excited. :D
Back to Tuesdays and Thursdays. After Skills Ensemble, I have Experiencing Music. I will leave it at the name. It definitely had a slow start at the beginning of the semester, but since then we have learned a lot of different cultural music, which is at least interesting to me. It's definitely a class I would take if it weren't required for my major, but since it is, it feels more monotonous to me. But we're starting some more classical studying, which pertains more to me as a classical singer, so I'm definitely looking forward to that.
And then... I have two non-music classes, both meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Solely for my own amusement, I'm taking an Intro to Psychology class, which I'm enjoying very much. It's the one class in a lecture hall setting, so I actually feel like I'm in college when I'm in that class. And thanks for IB Psych, I'm finding a lot of this to be review, so I'm enjoying myself quite heartily. I then have my Intro to Acting Class, which also serves as my honors credit for the semester. It's definitely a lot more challenging that I would think, and the instructor definitely requires professionalism from us, so there's not a lot of fun improv moments in the class, but overall it's a good skill for me, as a performance career hopeful, to have.
And then, I have my private voice lessons... easily the highlight of my week. My voice instructor is absolutely amazing. My first voice lesson he already had me singing high G's and A's like no one's business. I'm already working on several different songs in multiple languages, way more than is required of a Freshman, and I'm enjoying every second of it. Every time I come out of a voice lesson, I'm on a high for the rest of the day. Which is good, because my lessons are on Tuesdays, which, being only a step above Mondays, are not great days for me as a person who enjoys his sleep.
In addition to this maddening schedule, I'm also in the chorus for the opera and in the university co-ed a cappella group, which still does not have a set name. I'll let you all know when it does. And it will be glorious. It's definitely interesting balancing the classical nature of the opera with the contemporary nature of the a cappella group. But versatility is beautiful. And so am I.
So there's my update on college. I'll try and blog more so that way not all of my blogs have to be so long. If you actually read to this point, I commend you. And let's play a trick on those who didn't. If you did read this all the way to the end, then write your favorite fruit as a comment on the LINK to this blog on my Facebook Page and see if some confusion ensues. Tomatoes count, but assorted squashes do not. Besides, whose favorite fruit is a squash? Gross.
(Also, if you are reading this and you understand what I mean when I say "plump squash," then you're cool. If you're from UM, you shouldn't understand that. So don't feel bad.)
So, to conclude. College is awesome. Much too awesome. I am eternally grateful to be given the opportunity to study here and am hoping to milk the university for everything it's worth.
♫ ♪ ♫!!
(In case your computer is dumb and is showing BOX BOX BOX, those were intended to be music notes. Sucks to be you. Thank you. Bye.)
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