(Apparently this is my 100th blog post... I'm not sure if I should do something auspicious.)
Guess what we're playing for jazz band this semester? My housemate and I just had a miniature dance party to Proud Mary, and I'm hoping it will just be an amplified experience at our concert in May.
Jazz band is one of the most challenging classes I'm taking in my overly busy, overly stressed semester, but I can't imagine dropping out... even though I almost did. Twice.
Last semester, I went from hiding underneath the xylophone (it's comfy under there) when I wasn't playing to being on stage with a microphone. It was a big deal. This semester I have a compatriot, two solos, and four more instruments!
We lost piano players, so I'm also playing keyboards and and grand piano for a song. I also play the shaker and upright bells, which requires me to hit things with hammers. I do not mind this at all. Now, I've played piano for 16-17 years now. It shouldn't be a big deal. But when the conductor hands me 9 pages of music and tells me NOT to play what's written on it... I get a little anxious. Jazz is all about the improv. I can improv on a xylophone; I'm getting good at it. Piano is hard.
On the other hand, I feel like I've learned more about music in one and a half semesters than I have in 15 years of piano. This is NOT true, and I have an excellent background on theory and musicality that supports all this new thinking stuff... but it feels like it.
The other day I forgot music to a song, tried to play it from memory, and ended up accidentally improvising something that sounded pretty cool. I was shocked... and couldn't do it if I actually tried. Really, really frustrating.
Kapili is a little bit similar; I've been in choirs for forever, but I learn a lot about harmonies (being an alto) and how to make them by listening rather than being told what to sing. I've gotten a lot better just from being in chorus and voice class, and it's why I switched back to being an alto this semester - I want to practice singing soprano more, but I got bored. I like harmonies. And altos are just cool.
It's been a kind of intense semester, music-wise. Same with dancing. People tease me for not being a performing arts major, but I kind of like not being required to do something that I love for credits and grades and whatnot. And I don't have to take acting.
Besides, everyone knows Linguistics is the best major. :)
Over and out!
Having never really sung in a choir before I'm learning all kinds of things about music by being in the church choir, especially because I'm kinda in between bass and tenor but I'm pretty much the only guy who can really sing bass, so I try to do it as much as possible to stretch myself.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, I've had people teasing me for not being a Linguistics major, and I've been mistaken for a seminary student at church twice in the last few months. Something about reading the New Testament in Greek.