5/4 - What I've Done So Far

Today I had two classes. That's it. No African, no study groups, no rehearsals. I still have practicing for my jury on Friday and some studying for finals to do, but other than that, I'm free. It's starting to feel like the end of the semester, and I like that a lot.

Not that I haven't done some cool things this semester. Let's see...

In Composition I learned about modes, atonality, polytonality, microtonality, serialism and all sorts of cool devices to possibly include in my music. But the real lesson was this: find things that sound good and use them, and if it doesn't sound good to you, don't do it. We've learned about all sorts of awesome music and it's changed me a lot. This was probably my most significant class this semester.

I had African and Gamelan, and those were a cultural learning experience both musically and, well, culturally. African was a lot of fun, sometimes surprisingly complex, but it was also interesting and pretty cool to see how laid-back Gideon was and how the class and the ensemble functioned as a community, just like it would in real life. Gamelan wasn't as much as a cultural eye-opener since Ed isn't from Java, but the music was really entertaining and as the class got to know each other better, we sounded better as a performing group.

Singers was a lot of fun. Even with a different rhythm section, we sounded pretty solid. I should have things we recorded up here soon.

Scarborough Fair by mason-lynass

My little percussion ensemble was a lot of fun too. I thought it was cool how different groups of people, whether it was my Sharpened Stick group, or the whole ensemble, or even the difference between this and Singers... we all had different things to listen to, and valued certain aspects more than others. I grew as a player and a team member this semester, thank goodness.

My lessons were really good this semester. Last semester, not gonna lie, I didn't take them as seriously as I should. But as soon as I was a disappointment to Christopher Deane, one of the nicest, most plain-spoken and knowledgeable people I've ever met, it really hit me that my lessons are what I need to focus on most if I'm going to be a good performer and a musician in general. And so I spent more time practicing and listening, and so far it's paid off, since I passed my timpani jury. We'll see about mallets... I'm a little more nervous for that, but hopefully it will go well.

And Senor Fin has really picked up this semester. We've played lots of free shows in houses and bars and on roofs and all sorts of cool places, and it's a lot of fun for me even if we don't get paid. Sometimes we did get paid, and even when it wasn't much, it was cool to be a professional musician finally, and it meant a lot for people to appreciate what you do so much that they'll pay you to keep doing it. That's pretty sweet.

We're recording this week and next week, and hopefully we'll have some cool stuff put up while I'm on tour. We recorded one of our newer songs yesterday, and I'm responsible for drum parts, snapping, some background vocals, piano, and throat singing. It should be pretty sweet after Jesse's done mixing it. I'll put it up here.

New Song!!

Contented Slumbers by mason-lynass

It's nice to look back on all of the stuff I've done, all of the hours I've been awake when I should have been asleep, and all of the extra rehearsal and practice time and see how much it's done for me.

M