A brief segue and then to my main post. I really appreciate when long time readers take the time to send me an email. Have you all seen the movie A Beautiful Mind? There is a scene were Dr. John Nash (Russell Crowe) asks a student if someone is real and the student replies, “Yes, sir, he is real.” I received an email and it made me feel the same as Dr. Nash. It was kind of a call to reality. Sometimes with schizophrenia reality and imagination can become blurred. You need a trusted outside source to tell you what is real and what an illusion is. Thanks for that email and you know who you are.
The topic of this blog post was the main theme for my music appreciation class tonight. In 1990 and 1991 I was a music major at the University of Montevallo. I auditioned for a scholarship with my high school choral teacher and my piano teacher accompanying me and I got it. My major was in voice performance and my minor was in piano. I also took 13 years of piano as a child so I am no novice when it comes to music. I was still lost tonight. It had been a long time. Somehow, long ago, I sat my musical talents aside and never picked them up again. I just don’t have an interest in it any longer.
Tonight the instructor went full speed on forms (patterns in melodies and harmony). We spent a majority of the class studying the sonata and rondo forms. We listened to several classical pieces to hear the themes, bridges, developments, recapitulations, and codas. I looked around at my fellow students and saw that everyone else was kind of lost for a beginning introductory music course. I am amidst a young crowd and they were afraid to speak up. I held my hand up.
“Yes?” The instructor asked as he pointed to me.
“I have had two years of music education at a college level and this is pretty deep stuff for an introductory music class.” I replied. “I need to know if this kind of material will be on the first exam so I will know what to study.”
The instructor laughed nervously and smiled pointing to me again.
“That is a good question.” He said. “You will not be tested on this kind of material until about late March or April. This will not be on your first exam.”
A collective sigh of relief arose from the ranks in the class.
“I just want you all to start early with getting familiar with the forms of music. I have found that if I start now you will not be as lost come two months from now when you are tested on this.” He further replied.
Sometimes it pays to ask hard questions and when you feel you are taking a risk of looking stupid. I didn’t give a shit thought. I was a music education major years ago and this was the only class I was starting to grow nervous about and it is a subject I have a lot of experience in. I knew all my other fellow students were even more lost than me.
No comments:
Post a Comment