Day 106 and 107: Practice

The joke on how to get to Carnegie Hall is practice, practice, practice. While it isn't necessarily a goal of mine to play at Carnegie Hall, I have been practicing all weekend. Part of my piano lesson requirement is recording my practice sessions. I must practice at least four hours a week. Back home it was challenging because to use a good piano, everyone had to hear me play and no sane person would want to listen to scales and Hanon being practiced. There are dozens of practice rooms here though with some sound limitation. They are filled with Steinways or other high quality pianos whether they are grand or upright. The rooms are open til 2 in the morning so I practice every night at 10 or 11 when I'm the most focused and awake. Also, I had my first practice in the Les Mis Orchestra today. It was an interesting experience because of the pit but more on that later. Now, I will sleep because in the morning I have my piano lesson, and I will see how much the practice paid off.

Day 105: A Trip to the Library

The classic golden-age musical "She Loves Me" has a famous song called "A Trip to the Library." Normally, I hate the library because it is so quiet that I could go deaf. The silence is eerie and drives me crazy. Also, I talk loud generally and no matter how soft I speak I'm too loud for a library. Plus, everything is turning to electronic media including books. However, with that being said, I've grown to appreciate the SU library. There are a ton of helpful people and places to print things or copy music. It's a four floor library. It's huge with archive library that include old SSMT performances, legal library, reference library, whole floors of fiction and nonfiction, and most importantly, a whole floor of the music library. There are shelves and shelves and shelves of music scores. Vocal scores, full scores, sheet music for every instrument. Then there were CDs and other recordings of all of the music that is stacked on the shelves. I was a kid in a candy store. It was like sheetmusicplus.com in person. I'm still in awe of it. While I'm still a proponent of buying my own music, it's musical resource heaven and I will visit it often. If you think I'm exaggerating, here are photos. The last photo shows my favorite section of vocal scores which includes, like in the photo, musical vocal scores for tons of shows including Mame and Hello Dolly!

Day 104: My Name

In Oliver, the worst song is sung by the villain Bill Sykes. It is called My Name. It talks about how people shutter with fear just by hearing his name. From birth, we are identified with a name by our parents and it is with us forever. The reputation we put with our name is established on our own. When people hear your name they identify what they know. When we hear Bill Gates we think wealth. When we hear Obama we think president. After two weeks of being here at SU, I'm finally starting to make my name known. I'm playing for voice lessons where the students and teachers are very impressed. A lot of people know me as the smart one in class. Im known by the staff in the caf and other buildings on campus. I've also made a lot of friends. People hear my name now and know who I am. They know that I'm the talented smart musician. You have to put yourself out there for people to learn your name. You have to overcome your fear and be social by making yourself friendly. What do people associate your name with? If people don't know your name in the world, go share it and next thing you know the whole world will be a place where everybody knows your name.

Day 103: Day by Day

Today was the best day of school yet. The others were great but today was phenomenal. I learned some new stuff in my theory class. Now I finally understand why the melodic and harmonic minor scales are written the way they are. I used to think it was because the music teachers said so. Next, I had a phenomenal piano lesson (more on that in tomorrow's blog). After that I learned a ton about sacred music of the 17th and 18th century. It was fascinating and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the phenomenal Zadok the Priest. I had a great lunch in the caf. They have the best soups (more about those in a later blog). This afternoon, I played for two phenomenal singers voice lessons. I can't even begin to describe how amazing they were. The students here are so talented. The professors are talented in the fact that they are great at there job. And I get to enjoy every minute of it. There's another great day in store tomorrow, so as I go day by day things get better and better. I can't wait to see how tomorrow can too today. Each day I'm here if love this school even more. I've said it before but I'll say it again with extra emphasis: I LOVE THIS SCHOOL!!!!!

Day 102: Smile

One of my favorite songs is the classic Nat King Cole hit "Smile." It talks about being happy through the good times and the bad. There is one class that I have which has a person in it that I don't get along with but even with that bad fact I smile. I grin like a Cheshire Cat widely from ear to ear. I can't get over how much I love my American Musical Theater class. I love the topic. The professor could not be better. He knows so much and he says some of the most profound things. I learn. I always thought I knew a lot about AMT but I still learn. I could sit in that class among all the enemies of my life and still smile because that class brings me so much joy. Joy equals smiling. If I haven't mentioned it before, I love this school!!

Day 101: Labor Day

Labor Day is the laziest day of the year. We are meant to do nothing. Therefore, I followed the American law of being completely idle today. It's after midnight and now it's supposed to be another normal productive day. Although, until class starts in the morning I will stay in the Labor Day mindset and do nothing, or like I did today, sleep more. Goodnight.

Day 99 and 100: W is for Winchester

To revamp the Gershwin tune "I Got Rhythm" here are new Winchester lyrics. I got Chilis, I got Perkins, I got SU, who can ask for anything more? I got old town, I got rite aid, I got SU, who could ask for anything more? I love this school, and I love the fact that it is in such a great town. There is a long list of restaurants that even exceeds Conyers. There is also a mall, a down town walking shopping district, community theater, comedy clubs, etc. etc. etc. There is so much to do. Whether it's school related or town related, there is always some event going on. On Friday I went to a show on the lawn filled with awesome music of the male music greek society on campus. I went to the comedy club on Saturday night and I went to the residence hall block party tonight. There's never a quiet night here on campus and in town. It's impossible to be bored. I love it here at the school. I love it here in the town. It's an awesome two in one package but this three day weekend is devoted to the town. So as the classic cartoon character might say if he lived here, I wuv Winchester. Here's some photos from the weekend.