Skip to main content

Day One Hundred Forty Seven (Year Three)

It was back to the high school tonight, this time for the high school band/chorus concert.  I was so excited to go tonight after hearing the steady and consistent growth that was evident from 5th-8th grade, and tonight, for the choirs involved built on the successes if yesterday. 

Listening to the band, on the other hand, made me grateful for the wonderful music education I received in high school.  Tonight, the different sections of the band couldn't play in time with each other.  When I was in orchestra in high school, we had a conductor that, if we were off, would stop us and add in one part at a time until he heard what he wanted to hear, and perhaps more importantly, until we heard what he wanted to hear.

Bottom line tonight, the band didn't seem prepared, but they got better as they went along, and all of the choirs were fantastic.  Their harmonies and sense of togetherness were what the younger kids from last night need to see, if only to have something else to shoot for.

Taught my last lesson for the next couple of weeks today, too, earlier than usual because I had the afternoon off.  We ran through the same chords that we started to delve into last week.  Apparently there wasn't much time to practice this week.  I can't really lay the blame too much, though, because I didn't play as much as I should have either.  Still, I gave my student what seemed like a lot of stuff for a two week period.  Let's hope she practices it all and comes back ready to take on what I have planned for her in the new year.

In the meantime, I'll enjoy the break, and the holidays, and have a chance to spend more time with my own playing.  Can't wait for that!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day Two Hundred Six (Year Four)

Today was the first official day of the second half of my "album-in-a-month" challenge. As for today's goals, I wanted to see what I could get done in regards to track order, and get at least a little bit of a start on the lyric writing process. I spent more time working on the track order question than I did on the lyrics today, but as a result of that, I ended up with something that I think will work in terms of order. I did sit with the notebook for a few minutes at the very end of the day, and got a solid starting line of lyric and some other ideas that I hope will be jumping off points for lyrics. What I'm thinking I might do, however, is switch my focus from the lyric writing part of the process directly to the recording part of the process.  That way, if I can get the music recorded and burned onto a CD, I can take the music with me in the car, and listen and try to see what images and thoughts the music brings up.  It's a tactic that has worked for...

Day Two Hundred Ninety Nine (Year Four)

Tonight was one of those nights where absolutely nothing went right, but somehow, some way, I managed to get into the studio for a little bit, and make what felt like good progress, all things considered. I went back through the second half of last night's chapter in The Guitarist's Guide To Scales Over Chords , just to make sure that I had a decent grasp of everything that was covered, and then made the move to the next chapter. After the theory-heavy chapter I had just gotten through, it was a great relief to have the next one be more music (playing) centered.  It was all about putting the scale examples they cited in the early chapters to use in a musical context. I've seen a great number of books try to do this in a successful manner, and end up failing spectacularly, but so far I'm liking what this book is putting forward.  They give you "starter" examples, that don't necessarily make the best use of note choices, etc. and then present you with an...

Day Two Hundred Ninety Two (Year Five)

Today was the last seminary village cookout of the year. While we were all sitting around the picnic tables eating dinner, I got a chance to talk with a few of the Mrs.'s classmates about guitar related stuff. As it turns out, more than one of them wants to be more proficient on guitar. I'm not saying that this will lead to more teaching opportunities, but I told one of them that I would throw a folder together for them. Essentially, anytime I get a chance to talk shop is a great chance for me to reinforce some of the things I have been focusing on. If nothing else, it gets me thinking ahead to tomorrow's day off and a chance to get into the studio for a decent amount of time.