Is it's ran by morons.
School's are businesses, and the only way to get anything done is to treat them like businesses.
This is now my THIRD school I have attended since I graduated from High School, I think I have figured this out to the point of insanity.
EXAMPLE: I want to do a recital this semester. By UNT standards, I need to sign up for "Dissertation" hours in order for it to count towards my degree. This makes perfect sense, I have to do 4 recitals including a lecture recital and I need 12 hours in dissertation credit to complete the degree.
You also need 16 hours of lessons to complete your degree... so that means... 2 set of credits are geared toward the same material. Obviously in "Dissertation" I am working on recital prep... as would I be doing the same if it were just classified as "lessons".
Excuse me, are you charging me extra for the same instruction? I thought I was being paid to play at this school, NOW I have to pay for 3 more credits on top of lessons to play a REQUIRED recital for the degree. I am being paid to play music for a school in which I have to pay money to play????
Oh I get it, you are trying to get your money back aren't you? That isn't how a business is ran!!!! You hire someone and then expect them to pay YOU!??
Furthermore, to soften the blow, administration tells you " at least you get to break the dissertation hours up over the course of 3 years, other Doctoral majors have to take it all in their last semester"
WRONG!! I guarantee anyone who is a Doctoral candidate is spending as many hours in the library and in the field as I do in the practice room and analyzing music. The only difference is... I get to pay a little every year, and they pay a lump sum at the end of their degree...
WAIT A SECOND!!!! We all know tuition goes up every year... so I am paying more on the credit every year since I am breaking the total 12 dissertation credits up 4 times... as opposed to paying the flat rate tuition for a total of 12 hours. I AM PAYING MORE FOR MY DEGREE OVER A LONGER PERIOD OF TIME!!!!
Obviously I am pissed, these are the obstacles you go through that this business doesn't warn you about.
There are high school kids busting their asses taking AP courses and retaking the ACT and SAT to get higher grades so that schools will HELP pay for tuition. (not including the bullshit fees) Let's face it, its the United States Education System... when those unsuspecting freshmen come in bright eyed and a little nervous to take the entrance exams to hopefully place out of remedial courses... their education and hard work still isn't good enough for you... therefore.. they have to take the remedial courses before they can take their major classes... thus keeping them there longer and making them pay more and more each year.
FUCK YOU!! you are robbing kids of their education... Let me remind you, you gave us that "great" president who started "No Child Left Behind" and look where that got us... yeah yeah.. there are some perks of course... but now the kids are getting left behind because they can't afford to go to school anymore!!!!!
AND ON THAT NOTE!! Why in music, will I have to take MORE theory classes... what else is there that I haven't learned in my undergrad or master's??? let me rephrase that... WHAT INFORMATION ARE YOU KEEPING FROM ME WHERE I HAVE TO PAY YOU AND STAY IN SCHOOL FOR 3 MORE YEARS TO GET SAID INFORMATION?
The Education system is broken just like everything else in this country... then you drive down the road and see someone homeless... and you are thankful that you had the opportunity to get an education.
This is a rant, no time to consider syntax, phrase structure or anything along those lines. You see these posts all the time about individuals complaining about school... to only find the essay littered with flaws of grammar and such... I understand now... when people are mad... they can only speak the way the feel... it is raw and emotional... and you can't grade that.. so put your pens away and take me off of your 4.0 scale... I'm done with that... our greatest minds spent years in school... then spent the rest of their lives trying to forget everything they learned.
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."-Einstein
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
I got a new toy.
It's a contrabass trombone. I don't really have a "how low can you play complex" I just like the way the damn thing sounds!!I've been attempting to figure all of it's little twists out and all that noise. But here is what I've been able to accomplish in a few hours.
That video is kind of a response to Colin Stetson doing his thing on bass sax
The power is nothing without control
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Beautiful Music
Alarm Will Sound posted this on their page this morning.
The ideas of a mathematician and wanted to create a piece of music with no repetition. Little did he know that Schoenberg and Boulez and others were already attempting this. Although he does mention Schoenberg... it is kind of done in a haphazard approach... not giving credit where credit is due.
Instead, he tries to explain through mathematical phenomena of how to compose a piece of no repetition.. yet isn't random. (I know... serialism vs. indeterminacy... the old battle)
The funny thing to me is that at one time in history, music and math were 2 sides of the same coin...
Yet, musicians and composers over the years have seemed to figure out things about our craft by using math and science and nature (Hello Varese, Bartok, Berg) but the mathematicians are just now discovering how to do the same.
Oddly enough they use proofs that correlate with the piano, or did the piano come first based on fantastic engineering... again, 2 sides of the same coin.
At about 7:52 seconds you can hear the piece played on piano. A piece that could be played on any instrument, provided it has the same range the piano does. You'll notice a lack of harmony, dynamics, articulation... there is pitch and duration. So it is missing a few key components of total serialism.
I'm sure the piano player was told to play it exactly as it is written, and that it is meant to be "Ugly"
If someone told me that, I would play it just as aggressively and emotionless as he did. Which says something about my ideas of beauty.
This just proves there is more to music than playing the notes on
the page. Being a slave to the black dots is what keeps musicians
from reaching their inner emotion. Piss on adding dynamics,
phrasing, style, etc. Just play the way the music and tell a story... all
the other stuff will follow naturally. Besides, when composers write
specific detail (with a few exceptions) it is truly left to the
performer to realize the intention.
The issue lies in the conventional, the conservative. Although I find this very interesting, I think it can say a lot about the current music state of "play what's written and nothing more" There are no more freedoms and liberties people are willing to take. (Not all inclusive) Learn to let go, and I can guarantee that music will be amazing
"I try to free music from the barren traditions that stifle it" - Debussy
The ideas of a mathematician and wanted to create a piece of music with no repetition. Little did he know that Schoenberg and Boulez and others were already attempting this. Although he does mention Schoenberg... it is kind of done in a haphazard approach... not giving credit where credit is due.
Instead, he tries to explain through mathematical phenomena of how to compose a piece of no repetition.. yet isn't random. (I know... serialism vs. indeterminacy... the old battle)
The funny thing to me is that at one time in history, music and math were 2 sides of the same coin...
Yet, musicians and composers over the years have seemed to figure out things about our craft by using math and science and nature (Hello Varese, Bartok, Berg) but the mathematicians are just now discovering how to do the same.
Oddly enough they use proofs that correlate with the piano, or did the piano come first based on fantastic engineering... again, 2 sides of the same coin.
At about 7:52 seconds you can hear the piece played on piano. A piece that could be played on any instrument, provided it has the same range the piano does. You'll notice a lack of harmony, dynamics, articulation... there is pitch and duration. So it is missing a few key components of total serialism.
I'm sure the piano player was told to play it exactly as it is written, and that it is meant to be "Ugly"
If someone told me that, I would play it just as aggressively and emotionless as he did. Which says something about my ideas of beauty.
This just proves there is more to music than playing the notes on
the page. Being a slave to the black dots is what keeps musicians
from reaching their inner emotion. Piss on adding dynamics,
phrasing, style, etc. Just play the way the music and tell a story... all
the other stuff will follow naturally. Besides, when composers write
specific detail (with a few exceptions) it is truly left to the
performer to realize the intention.
The issue lies in the conventional, the conservative. Although I find this very interesting, I think it can say a lot about the current music state of "play what's written and nothing more" There are no more freedoms and liberties people are willing to take. (Not all inclusive) Learn to let go, and I can guarantee that music will be amazing
"I try to free music from the barren traditions that stifle it" - Debussy
Friday, January 20, 2012
As a follow up.
To my whole diatribe about the moon, a friend linked me to this video. Strange, vocal like sounds coming from no where. Some reported that these sounds get so rowdy that it shakes their houses. The earliest record of THESE sounds comes from November of last year.
I did a little research.. and found this sound is related to ocean waves.
"When two waves of opposite direction but similar frequency collide, they create a pressure wave that carries energy to the ocean bottom. As these waves pound against the sea floor, they generate a constant vibration with a frequency of about 10 millihertz, much too low for humans to hear but easily detectable with seismometers. "
My question is how can we hear it? Supposedly, it is too low of a frequency to hear... so maybe something is changing rapidly. Remember my moon post and how it is changing rapidly?? Ocean tides are directly related to the moon, right?? Maybe we should start paying attention to what is going on around us that is amazing and natural... then focusing on man made chaos like war and SOPA.
I think a new age is coming of some sort. Not the end of the world completely, but the end of the world as we have become familiar. I think phenomena like this are showing that the earth is more dependent on the moon than we are of it.
As a follow up.
To my whole diatribe about the moon, a friend linked me to this video. Strange, vocal like sounds coming from no where. Some reported that these sounds get so rowdy that it shakes their houses. The earliest record of THESE sounds comes from November of last year.
I did a little research.. and found this sound is related to ocean waves.
"When two waves of opposite direction but similar frequency collide, they create a special kind of pressure wave that carries energy to the ocean bottom. As these waves pound against the sea floor, they generate a constant vibration with a frequency of about 10 millihertz, much too low for humans to hear but easily detectable with seismometers. "
My question is how can we hear it? Supposedly, it is too low of a frequency to hear... so maybe something is changing rapidly. Remember my moon post and how it is changing rapidly?? Ocean tides are directly related to the moon, right?? Maybe we should start paying attention to what is going on around us that is amazing and natural... then focusing on man made chaos like war and SOPA.
I think a new age is coming of some sort. Not the end of the world completely, but the end of the world as we have become familiar. I think phenomena like this are showing that the earth is more dependent on the moon than we are of it.
I did a little research.. and found this sound is related to ocean waves.
"When two waves of opposite direction but similar frequency collide, they create a special kind of pressure wave that carries energy to the ocean bottom. As these waves pound against the sea floor, they generate a constant vibration with a frequency of about 10 millihertz, much too low for humans to hear but easily detectable with seismometers. "
My question is how can we hear it? Supposedly, it is too low of a frequency to hear... so maybe something is changing rapidly. Remember my moon post and how it is changing rapidly?? Ocean tides are directly related to the moon, right?? Maybe we should start paying attention to what is going on around us that is amazing and natural... then focusing on man made chaos like war and SOPA.
I think a new age is coming of some sort. Not the end of the world completely, but the end of the world as we have become familiar. I think phenomena like this are showing that the earth is more dependent on the moon than we are of it.
As a follow up.
To my whole diatribe about the moon, a friend linked me to this video. Strange, vocal like sounds coming from no where. Some reported that these sounds get so rowdy that it shakes their houses. The earliest record of THESE sounds comes from November of last year.
I did a little research.. and found this sound is related to ocean waves.
"When two waves of opposite direction but similar frequency collide, they create a special kind of pressure wave that carries energy to the ocean bottom. As these waves pound against the sea floor, they generate a constant vibration with a frequency of about 10 millihertz, much too low for humans to hear but easily detectable with seismometers. "
My question is how can we hear it? Supposedly, it is too low of a frequency to hear... so maybe something is changing rapidly. Remember my moon post and how it is changing rapidly?? Ocean tides are directly related to the moon, right?? Maybe we should start paying attention to what is going on around us that is amazing and natural... then focusing on man made chaos like war and SOPA.
I think a new age is coming of some sort. Not the end of the world completely, but the end of the world as we have become familiar. I think phenomena like this are showing that the earth is more dependent on the moon than we are of it.
I did a little research.. and found this sound is related to ocean waves.
"When two waves of opposite direction but similar frequency collide, they create a special kind of pressure wave that carries energy to the ocean bottom. As these waves pound against the sea floor, they generate a constant vibration with a frequency of about 10 millihertz, much too low for humans to hear but easily detectable with seismometers. "
My question is how can we hear it? Supposedly, it is too low of a frequency to hear... so maybe something is changing rapidly. Remember my moon post and how it is changing rapidly?? Ocean tides are directly related to the moon, right?? Maybe we should start paying attention to what is going on around us that is amazing and natural... then focusing on man made chaos like war and SOPA.
I think a new age is coming of some sort. Not the end of the world completely, but the end of the world as we have become familiar. I think phenomena like this are showing that the earth is more dependent on the moon than we are of it.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Prison
I've been able to read up on some great articles, like one by Dave Douglas, or this awesome set of
re colorizations. At any rate, it's given me a perspective that comes every once in awhile. When you take a break from real life and all your focus is on ONE bad thing keeping you from living that life... you start to think that things aren't so bad. That maybe if you can just get over that one obstacle... things really are amazing. I got over that superficial obstacle today and I am going to try and keep this sense of revelation throughout the year.
Things are great... yes some bad things happen... but just be prepared and the light over that mole hill isn't too far off.
(I felt Darwin was a good representative of this evolution for me)
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