Because I totally overworked (but not really) my Ear Training classes on Tuesday - honestly, I just efficiently got through two planned days of lesson and exercises in one class period - so that they (and by "they" I mean "I") could have today off. Praise Jeebus, Hallelujah!
So I totally stayed up watching bad television until 2am and then slept in this morning...until 7am.
Speaking of Ear Training, in So Unexpected That I Think Hell Actually Froze Over news: I am really enjoying teaching Ear Training, you guys. And this was the class that I was dreading the most. Because, honestly. Who wants to teach freshman college music majors how to be able to sing specified intervals and written music on sight and notate music on a sheet of manuscript paper after listening to it only a few times? Especially when you virtually faked your way to your A in Sight Singing in undergrad? And let's not even talk about solfege, mkay? But I totally like it. Mainly because I actually think that my students are actually learning from what we do in class. And I actually think they are starting to appreciate more and more what we do in class. And I am totally kicking the metaphorical butt of the tenured professor who teaches the other section of Freshman Ear Training and who has been on faculty at the university for over forty freaking years. In fact, just this week, I had one of the students in his class transfer into mine because she was getting so frustrated and had heard that my students were doing well. Yay. Pat self on back.
See, here's the thing about Ear Training: Unless a student has perfect pitch, or just a naturally acute sense of aural skills already (which few people do), I fully believe that you have to do a tremendous amount of very basic, fundamental, steady, and very gradually cummulative exercises that involve a lot of interval, scale and arpeggio singing. All before you even introduce the idea of melodic dictation to the class. Because if you stand up in front of a class of young students and jump right in on the dictation (which I think is what the other class did), without setting down the foundation first, there's no way for them to succeed. And knowing what I believe to be the common pitfalls associated with beginning Ear Training, such as a student's discomfort with singing in general, or especially the 18 year old males who don't even know what register their voice is comfortable with and, hence, can't match a pitch with the piano to save their life, make it easy to identify and confront those issues first in order to make the students comfortable and not overwhelmed right at the beginning. Blah blah blah. I'm talking too much.
Okay, and this is totally going to be my last blatantly self-congratulatory story (for today): A week ago, I passed by the flute professor in the hall and she stopped me and said, "Ysabel. My students just looove you." And I was all, "Really?! Who? What class are they talking about? That's weird...Haha..." And she specified one of the flute students in one of my Ear Training classes. Because this was before I had heard the horror stories about the other Ear Training section, and because I constantly assume that I am doing, at best, a mediocre job compared to someone who has decades and decades of experience, I said, "Oh, haha...well, we haven't covered too much yet. The semester is still young..." And she said, "I don't think she meant that you were easy. The students just feel like you really want them to do well and it shows in your teaching." And I DO, you guys! I guess this is what makes people decide to become teachers. It's certainly not the 6am wake up calls and $800 per credit hour per semester adjunct instructor salary. Anyway.
And on the flip side (life is all about balance, after all), I went to the post office this morning to mail a piece of music to a friend of mine and my debit card was totally declined. You guys. I swore I had [more than $5.90] in there. So I embarrasedly (?) apologized to the very nice gentleman behind the counter who offered to hold onto my package while I went to the Bank of America down the street. Apparently, they had gone ahead and completely invalidated my debit card that doesn't expire until November, even though I hadn't even authorized the new debit card that I got in the mail two days ago. Ugh. Getting denied at the post office and then going back with my tail between my legs and a bit of cash in my wallet (hooray for the two clarinet students who paid me for their lesson this week!) and explaining that I wasn't a deadbeat was SUPER FUN. I highly recommend it. NOT.
Anyway, now I'm licking my wounded ego by sitting in Star*ucks where I have used part of my lessons money to buy myself a Grande Soy Peppermint Latte.
ps. So, I'm pretty sure that my thoughts about applying to the University of Hawaii for my PhD went from an "Initial Flight of Fancy" to "Totally Serious Plan." Here is my Top 3 list:
1. NYU
2. Stanford
3. University of Hawaii at Manoa
Here is my general list of other schools, in no specific order:
USC
UCLA
UC Berkeley
Michigan
Oregon
Washington
Columbia
Harvard
Yale
Thoughts? Give them to me. Along with your milk money.
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