School Update

Jazz Class: She figured out what an augmented chord was and played it sucessfully in class and then she quit coming. Hope she didn't read this blog, ha! Were it not for rule #1 of internet mechanics (if you write something bad about someone, no matter how random that person is they will end up reading it), then I would feel pretty in the clear.

Music of Indonesia: Whoa this guy is blowing my mind on a regular basis. It turns out he is German. Very German. He was demonstrating a pattern and said something to the effect of "and this other part plays the same thing an octave higher so its..." and then he had to stop and laugh hysterically for a while before going "do do do do do do" in a really high voice. Wow! Constantly refers to an analogy from the first class involving Gamalan music being like a cake.

Music of the African Diaspora: I should have known after my History of the Civil Rights class that the students attracted to this course would be somewhat "problematic" (aka annoying). The teacher is a white male, which would also be annoying if he weren't such a sweetheart and openly but understatedly gay. One problem though, he defers to the students, and we have one in particular who wont shut his goddamn trap and never has anything important to say. He doesn't raise his hand, either.

Jazz Improv: Whoa, this is my favorite class, because its just "go home and learn this, and youd better learn it, you stupid kids!" and you have to learn it and then you come back and if you haven't you get one of two treatments, treatment one for the jazz majors being getting yelled at for not practicing in front of everyone, and treatment two for the non-jazz being raised eyebrows, and shook head and an "okaaaaay." I should post some of my notes from this class, I promised this one kid I would email it to him, cause he missed class. They're funny, just shit the prof says that I know makes sense, but wouldn't unless you already knew what he was talking about. Things like "you've got to get the dominant reality in your mind! That's just what's there! What's there's what's there, and that's all there is!" Gems like that

Jazz History: Colorful stories about colorful characters. We're just now at Louis Armstrong (total badass), and so far 80% of jazz musicians have tried to take credit for "inventing" jazz. Pretty interesting. Would be a better course ("richer learning experience") if i was doing the reading.

School Related Extra-Curricular: I'm learning Clair De Lune. David Salines told me in the architecture library yesterday (which I was at totally randomly) that that one is going to kill some ladies for me. That's not why I'm learning it, but when I think about it, it would make a better reason than most. It's just one my granddad played and I'm pretty much on a mission to learn his repertoire, or at least the ones he would play most often and are easy enough for me to play. My ultimate goal on the piano is to be able to play Rhapsody in Blue. Anyways, M-F I am playing alot, like a couple hours a day and making quick progress on it. Also, I'm trying to learn what I'm learning on guitar for jazz improv on the piano, so when I zone out, I have something else to play.

so yeah!!!!