Thursday, January 20, 2005

Update on my classes so far: Instrumental Methods is fun, Writing and Rhetoric is wretched (See? My adjective has cleverly added to their cute title alliteration!), orchestra is super, choir is okay, chamber music will be enjoyable (Bach and Brahms... what more could you want?), violin lessons have been good so far, and Instrumentation and Arranging starts tomorrow.

Last night I had a violin lesson. I played Dont No. 4 and the 1st movement of Scotch Phantasy. The lesson was interrupted midway by the fact that my highly unusual teacher decided that a good thing to do amid four-degree weather would be to open the window. His efforts were to no avail; the window appeared to be frozen shut. After many and varied attempts (flipping the lock levers up, flipping them down, putting one up and one down [???], and putting them both in the half-way-up-and-half-way-down position [?????]), he finally called campus safety and asked them to send an officer over to get the window open. The officer arrived, banged on the window, went outside, scraped snow and ice away and banged some more, and then came back inside to demonstrate that voilĂ !, the window would now open. At this point, my teacher expressed enthusiasm which was in my opinion utterly disproportionate to the task which had been accomplished, thus affirming my suspicions that he is just a little bizarre. He exclaimed, "Good! Good!", and then turning to me, "Sweetie, I'm just so encouraged." Now what was all that about?

In other news:

This morning I got a phone call from a woman who wants me to teach piano lessons to her six-year-old daughter. I'm excited, and a little nervous too, because it's been so long since I've taught piano. I'm hopefully going to pick out some method books and stuff tomorrow. Yay!

Today I got a flute. My current assignment for Instrumental Methods is to learn fingerings and basic principles of tone production.

Also, FavoriteBoy got a job as organist at a Methodist church in Salem. We went last Sunday to check it out, and he starts playing this coming Sunday. It's a very unique church, but I have to say that in the end, I liked it. It's not at all what I expected of a Methodist church (they've got the Spirit, for sure), but the pastor was interesting and funny and I actually felt engaged and involved in the whole prayer time, which is rare for a non-liturgical prayer that goes for over ten minutes. Also, the entire congregation seems to be filled with staunch supporters of the GOP; at least half the prayers were for President Bush, and the congregation murmured with amens throughout. So yes, attending this church will be an interesting experience, but I am not altogether opposed to the adventure.

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