Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Chock Full of Notes
Kevin was up until 12:30 last night working at his desk, which kept me awake. He doesn't make much noise, but I'm an exceptionally light sleeper (always having had my own room) and all it takes is Kevin's little desk lamp to keep me up. I had to get up for 8:00 physics...I was pretty groggy through class today. But by 10 I was back in my room, completing my nightly 8 hours. In physics we finished the chapter that was supposed to be done last week. I hope we don't get too far behind...In music theory we started learning about the different clefs. You know, treble and bass and whatnot. Challenging. Although there were some tidbits that I didn't already know, and we did learn about the alto and tenor clefs, which were previously unknown to me. We have a quiz on Friday. A multiple choice quiz. I should think that I won't have much trouble with it. After class I ran some errands, which I won't bother you with because you got enough of that yesterday and also because I have more interesting stuff to write about today.
What interesting stuff, you ask? Band stuff, of course! Music story the first: I went to the music department office and was assigned a locker. (#11, in case you were wondering.) I walked back to my dorm to get my trumpet, and then walked back to the music building to put the trumpet in my locker. It doesn't fit. My state-owned trumpet doesn't fit in my state-owned locker. I went back to the department office and asked for a different locker but the woman behind the desk refused to assign me a new one until I had specific dimensions of my trumpet case. This spurred a call to Jenna, who happens to be using my trumpet at the moment. (I called around noon, expecting to get Mrs. Santy on the phone who (whom? I'll never get that right...) I was hoping could get the measurements for me. But after a short chat, she told me she was going to get Jenna. At noon. On Wednesday. Shouldn't Jenna be in school? I always thought she was more ambitious than that...Well it turns out that RB had one of their random "professional growth" days today. I'm all for that. My hard-working class of 2005 friends deserve some time off. Anywho, Jenna said she'd take the measurements for me and also promised to drop the trumpet off at Mom's house so she can ship it to me here. I feel kinda bad, though...Jenna seemed to really enjoy playing on it. (I'm sorry Jenna! You can play it at the Christmas concert, I swear!) At any rate, that's my music department administration story.
Music story the second: I practiced trumpet for about a half an hour in one of the practice rooms in the music building. It was quite nice...there was even a baby grand piano in the room with me, so when I needed a break from trumpet I could play a ragtime tune or two. After I had sufficiently warmed up, I went in to see Bill Johnson, conductor (who shall henceforth be referred to by his alias around Cal Poly, "J"). He needs every student to interview (not "audition," "interview.") so he knows where to place them in his bands. I had no pieces with me to play for him, so I sight read "The Blue Bells of Scotland" for him. (That's right. Quarter notes and half notes.) Then he had me sight read a couple of more "pieces," which weren't so much "pieces" as they were double- and triple-tonguing exercises. He seemed thoroughly impressed by my articulation prowess. This is surprising because I don't have much prowess at anything when it comes to trumpet. Anyway, he said I had beautiful tone and that I played perfectly in pitch (we'll get into a discussion of his standards in a moment), and that he thought I was probably better than all of the trumpets in wind orchestra (which is the lower band, below wind ensemble). But he placed me in the middle of wind orchestra because he "doesn't want to put too much pressure on me." And that's fine by me. I still don't know how much work my classes are going to become...everyone keep your fingers crossed! (Although I do want to make wind ensemble next quarter because they're playing Candide. Whoo!)
And finally, music story the third: we had our second full-band rehearsal tonight. I think it should be a requirement for everyone in one of Tom Cole's bands to sit through a couple of rehearsals of an inferior ensemble. You know how you hate it when you spend half an hour working on one section of a piece, and it seems like it's impossible to play more than five or six measures before Mr. Cole stops you? That's frustrating, right? Well, J (the conductor, remember? Bill Johnson?) generally plows through a piece, deems it played wonderfully, and then moves onto the next piece. It's disappointing, to say the least. When we play, there are parts that I screw up that I want another chance at. The trumpets as a section botch a good number of things. And other sections do the same. But they just slide right by, unnoticed by J. Or, at least, uncommented upon. There are some passages that could be so easily fixed, but J doesn't take the time to stop us and point them out. And let me tell you, when your section plays something so horribly that everyone almost cringes at the sound of it, it hurts to let it go unfixed. So, I guess I'll just have to get used to the standards around here. It's funny really. While I was "interviewing" with J, he knew so many phenomenal students, so many musicians that you wouldn't believe. Every one of them was absolutely astounding. All of them. He had nothing critical to say of any of them. You know how when you audition for Mr. Cole, it's 100% impossible to get a perfect score, because "you can always improve"? Not around here.
But hey, 80% of us in the band aren't music majors, so a lot of it is just for fun. And I have been having fun, and I still think I made a good decision in joining band. But I hope you all appreciate the directors at RB, because they really do run a phenomenal program.
One last story. (It's not music-related. Yay!) I had to run over to Sequoia Hall today to pick up my new bedsheets that Mom had sent. (These sheets came in a huge box that also contained two huge bags of candy, a beach towel, and a light-up pumpkin (batteries included!) to get me in the spirit of Halloween.) On my way back to Yosemite I was having a little trouble carrying the package because the bottom was loose. Some random guy who happened to be passing by stopped and asked if I needed help. Incidents like that always make me feel good about the common man. Hooray for random acts of kindness.
And on that note, which was non-musical (ha ha), I'll cease this interminable sputter.
Josh
PS - I think it would be fun for us to play a post-script word game. Every day I'll give a pair of words or objects, one that "is" and one that "is not." And you get to figure out the rule. (Those of you who stood in long lines at Six Flags with Andrew Goldman may already know this game. I played it during WOW.) If you figure out why things "are" and why things "are not," don't give it away. Instead, post a comment with a few of your own examples, which will prove you know it without sharing the secret with everyone. All right? How fun! (I know, I'm a dork...but you don't have to play if you don't want to.) So tonight's pair is actually the name of this game: deep but not profound. Have fun!
mood: pretty content
music: none
location: dorm
What interesting stuff, you ask? Band stuff, of course! Music story the first: I went to the music department office and was assigned a locker. (#11, in case you were wondering.) I walked back to my dorm to get my trumpet, and then walked back to the music building to put the trumpet in my locker. It doesn't fit. My state-owned trumpet doesn't fit in my state-owned locker. I went back to the department office and asked for a different locker but the woman behind the desk refused to assign me a new one until I had specific dimensions of my trumpet case. This spurred a call to Jenna, who happens to be using my trumpet at the moment. (I called around noon, expecting to get Mrs. Santy on the phone who (whom? I'll never get that right...) I was hoping could get the measurements for me. But after a short chat, she told me she was going to get Jenna. At noon. On Wednesday. Shouldn't Jenna be in school? I always thought she was more ambitious than that...Well it turns out that RB had one of their random "professional growth" days today. I'm all for that. My hard-working class of 2005 friends deserve some time off. Anywho, Jenna said she'd take the measurements for me and also promised to drop the trumpet off at Mom's house so she can ship it to me here. I feel kinda bad, though...Jenna seemed to really enjoy playing on it. (I'm sorry Jenna! You can play it at the Christmas concert, I swear!) At any rate, that's my music department administration story.
Music story the second: I practiced trumpet for about a half an hour in one of the practice rooms in the music building. It was quite nice...there was even a baby grand piano in the room with me, so when I needed a break from trumpet I could play a ragtime tune or two. After I had sufficiently warmed up, I went in to see Bill Johnson, conductor (who shall henceforth be referred to by his alias around Cal Poly, "J"). He needs every student to interview (not "audition," "interview.") so he knows where to place them in his bands. I had no pieces with me to play for him, so I sight read "The Blue Bells of Scotland" for him. (That's right. Quarter notes and half notes.) Then he had me sight read a couple of more "pieces," which weren't so much "pieces" as they were double- and triple-tonguing exercises. He seemed thoroughly impressed by my articulation prowess. This is surprising because I don't have much prowess at anything when it comes to trumpet. Anyway, he said I had beautiful tone and that I played perfectly in pitch (we'll get into a discussion of his standards in a moment), and that he thought I was probably better than all of the trumpets in wind orchestra (which is the lower band, below wind ensemble). But he placed me in the middle of wind orchestra because he "doesn't want to put too much pressure on me." And that's fine by me. I still don't know how much work my classes are going to become...everyone keep your fingers crossed! (Although I do want to make wind ensemble next quarter because they're playing Candide. Whoo!)
And finally, music story the third: we had our second full-band rehearsal tonight. I think it should be a requirement for everyone in one of Tom Cole's bands to sit through a couple of rehearsals of an inferior ensemble. You know how you hate it when you spend half an hour working on one section of a piece, and it seems like it's impossible to play more than five or six measures before Mr. Cole stops you? That's frustrating, right? Well, J (the conductor, remember? Bill Johnson?) generally plows through a piece, deems it played wonderfully, and then moves onto the next piece. It's disappointing, to say the least. When we play, there are parts that I screw up that I want another chance at. The trumpets as a section botch a good number of things. And other sections do the same. But they just slide right by, unnoticed by J. Or, at least, uncommented upon. There are some passages that could be so easily fixed, but J doesn't take the time to stop us and point them out. And let me tell you, when your section plays something so horribly that everyone almost cringes at the sound of it, it hurts to let it go unfixed. So, I guess I'll just have to get used to the standards around here. It's funny really. While I was "interviewing" with J, he knew so many phenomenal students, so many musicians that you wouldn't believe. Every one of them was absolutely astounding. All of them. He had nothing critical to say of any of them. You know how when you audition for Mr. Cole, it's 100% impossible to get a perfect score, because "you can always improve"? Not around here.
But hey, 80% of us in the band aren't music majors, so a lot of it is just for fun. And I have been having fun, and I still think I made a good decision in joining band. But I hope you all appreciate the directors at RB, because they really do run a phenomenal program.
One last story. (It's not music-related. Yay!) I had to run over to Sequoia Hall today to pick up my new bedsheets that Mom had sent. (These sheets came in a huge box that also contained two huge bags of candy, a beach towel, and a light-up pumpkin (batteries included!) to get me in the spirit of Halloween.) On my way back to Yosemite I was having a little trouble carrying the package because the bottom was loose. Some random guy who happened to be passing by stopped and asked if I needed help. Incidents like that always make me feel good about the common man. Hooray for random acts of kindness.
And on that note, which was non-musical (ha ha), I'll cease this interminable sputter.
Josh
PS - I think it would be fun for us to play a post-script word game. Every day I'll give a pair of words or objects, one that "is" and one that "is not." And you get to figure out the rule. (Those of you who stood in long lines at Six Flags with Andrew Goldman may already know this game. I played it during WOW.) If you figure out why things "are" and why things "are not," don't give it away. Instead, post a comment with a few of your own examples, which will prove you know it without sharing the secret with everyone. All right? How fun! (I know, I'm a dork...but you don't have to play if you don't want to.) So tonight's pair is actually the name of this game: deep but not profound. Have fun!
mood: pretty content
music: none
location: dorm
