New Musical History

My Old Post

So as I was thinking about our discussion after the first draft of this blog I thought about how I would change my last blog. I decided I didn’t want to focus on what got me here, today, as a student at DePauw School of Music, but rather to focus on what formed me as a musician in general.
I grew up as the daughter of artists. Ever since I was little I have been exposed to more of the arts than some people will see in their lifetime. As a toddler I spent my afternoons in the dressing rooms, lighting booths or studios of theatres. My mom’s a dancer, my father’s a techie, the arts was something I was just born for, or so I like to think. I started taking dance class at the age of 4, which doesn’t seem to relate to the topic of musician, but I think it does. The early years of my exposure to any type of the arts began to form me as an individual. In elementary school I was always ridiculously excited to go to music class. I was the little dorky girl who sat in the front row in class and sang her heart out, even if it was out of tune. Through out elementary school I did a lot of stupid performances, Lullabies and Sing A Longs, musical theatre class and things with my mom’s classes. I played piano for two years in early elementary school, but with the combination of me not wanting to practice and my teacher graduating I didn’t stay with it very long. It wasn’t until fourth grade that I actually began to learn music. I decided and I may or may not have been encouraged to play the cello. Yes, my teacher wanted me to play cello because she was a cellist and also needed cellos in her orchestra, however, my mother wanted me to wait until fifth grade and play flute like she did. I couldn’t wait.
Now, in the rest of elementary school I played cello with the advanced orchestra and went to ISSMA and all the other fun stuff, but thinking back on the situation I realize that I was singing the whole time as well. The first time I went to ISSMA for voice was in sixth grade when the general music teacher was Mrs. Butler. She decided that it was time for me to take singing more seriously so I began to come in after school to work with her. I don’t even remember what I sang at ISSMA that year, but I do remember her having a group of girls perform “It’s a Hard Knock Life” from Annie for the talent show.
Then I moved and went to middle school where I knew no one. I especially didn’t know the music teachers, unlike if I had gone to Clay like I was supposed to. Well, I signed up for orchestra and somehow I ran into the choir director and by eighth grade she had started a “swing choir” as a zero hour class so that I could sing with her. I hated it; it meant I had to get up at 6 a.m. just to go to school and sing with a group of people who didn’t want to be there either. Eighth grade was the year my parents bought me my own cello and that I started private lessons.
I loved cello. It was my passion for quite awhile, and somewhere it got turned around. I began to get exposed to musicals. In my seventh grade year I was in Saint Mary’s College’s production of Gypsy. I don’t know what my mother was thinking. I don’t’ know any other parents who would encourage their children to be part of a show about strippers, but I was. The one middle school kid amongst 20 college students and 2 high school students, it was interesting. Well, as I was leaving middle school I was encouraged to audition for the “show choir” at Adams, but I didn’t. If you haven’t figured this out by now I am a shy person. I don’t often get stage fright because there is a huge gap between the audience, and me but just singing in front of people really makes me nervous. I figured I would be content with just sticking with the orchestra thing. And I was content, until auditions for the musical Mame came around. Mame was one of those musicals that I had seen ever since I was little. My family was weird, instead of Barney my sister and I watched the Sound of Music. I grew up with Oklahoma, Gypsy, Mame, Sound of Music, Singing in the Rain, the list could go one forever. Sorry, that was just a random side not. Anyway, I had told my parents I was going to audition for the show and when I finally showed up for the audition I chickened out and left. I decided I would be content just playing in the pit. I wasn’t. I wanted desperately to be onstage. Well, again, somehow through the grapevine I got connected with the choir director and before I knew it I was singing with the “show choir” for ISSMA, something a freshmen never does, especially a freshmen that wasn’t even in choir. He also threw me into two other ensembles two weeks before contest and gave me a solo to learn. This man was insane, but I did it.
Sophomore year I was able to actually fit both choir and orchestra into my schedule. I loved choir, those stupid dresses and even stupider music. Orchestra began to slip to the side a little. I was still taking lessons and playing but I had stopped practicing, so I had stopped making progress. Well this year when musical auditions came around my friends who were seniors refused to let me not audition. So I went, signed up to audition for the chorus and came out with the lead, much to my senior friends disappointment. Well, I had the lead for a total of two weeks, I went on vacation and came back and one of the seniors had brought her mother in and my part was now double cast, which I didn’t really care about because I was still going to be on stage.
Junior year I was unable to take choir as a class so I worked on music on my own and occasionally with my director during our 17-minute homeroom class. I had auditioned for All-State choir and was working on that music on my own as well. My junior year I felt like I was very empty when it was coming to music because I was no longer in orchestra either, math and science had taken over my schedule. I decided to join the choir, bell choir, and praise band at my church. This had me singing every Sunday and Wednesday. I loved it. Singing with my church allowed me to be exposed to two different types of music, praise music, which I usually just, got to have fun with, and choral music again. There was no musical that year, instead we did Macbeth, I was pretty miserable. That was the year I decided I could never see myself being happy without music. The next year I was not going to let anything stand in the way of doing what made me happy.
Senior year I joined choir again, I still didn’t have time for orchestra but I was able to take Cadet Teaching my second semester. Senior year was probably my happiest year of high school. I was allowed to sing with the Saint Mary’s Women’s Choir so I was finally being challenged. I also sang with All-State again and continued to sing with my church. I took cello lessons until around Christmas time and then stopped because the musical began to take up too much of my time. My second semester of senior year was when I was able to Cadet Teach, first semester I had to take Econ, and I asked if I could teach at Edison with my orchestra teacher. I was allowed to and spent an hour and a half everyday with kids who were in the same spot I had been four years before. It was great, but I also learned that I would probably be driven insane if I ever tried to be a teacher. We also did the musical Grease, which was probably the show that I had the most fun with in high school. During first semester I did take voice lessons for a short while in order to prepare myself for auditions, but other than that I was pretty much on my own.
Music is my passion and I feel like that’s why I’m here. I’m sorry that was so long, but I don’t think I ever really realized all the steps I took to get where I am today. I’ve still left out quite a bit, and please let me know what more you think I should cut or expand on.

An Ordinary Life Take Two

When I was young, I did all the normal kid things. I starting dancing at age three, and I started playing softball and soccer when I was five. I played with barbies and I loved to watch cartoons. But there was one thing missing.
My mom sang in the church choir for as long as I remember. I would live for Thursday when I could go to practice with her. I loved being there and hearing the music.
Finally, in third grade I started taking piano lessons from a lady from my church. It was great for awhile, but eventually I wanted more. I went to a private school, so we didn't have band or orchestra, but my mom had a clarinet, and in fifth grade, after a while of me scaring the animals with my squeeks and squawks, she asked her friend's daughter to teach me. I loved it from day one!
Elementary school came to an end and my parents sat me down and told me I had three choices- I could continue with sports, dance, or music. The choice came easily, I had to go on with music. So I enrolled in public middle school and joined band and choir for the first time in my life. Half way through the year my friend convinced me to start cello, and after the first playing test I seated first chair, ahead of people who had been playing for years, but all obviously hated it. I did my thing for awhile, joined jazz band to play piano in 7th grade, and continued on with that and all three ensembles until I was done with middle school.
When it came time to try out for marching band, it just kind of seemed like it was already set in stone. I had been planning on it, along with my parents, so I tried out and got in. It was probably the best choice of my life. I had a whole new group of friends before highschool even started. We bonded quickly and it was like we had always been friends.
Freshman year started and I joined orchestra, chamber orchestra, jazz band, and pep band. Marching season ended and I was one of a few freshman placed into our highest band. We travelled to Florida and got to march down Main Street in a Disney World parade. It was one of the most amazing experiences in my life, seeing the castle in front of you and knowing all these people are watching I you. At the end of freshman year I was selected for pit orchestra, which meant I was now in all the ensembles I could possibly be in. I was THE band geek. But it didn't bother me. People would call me one, and I would say "Yeah, so?". I had found my passion.
I continued on with all my music through highschool. I went through some private teachers in the area, eventually quit taking piano lessons, taught myself saxophone and bass, and then it was time to select a college.
I knew I wanted to continue with music, but I had no clue where. Luckily, I did know that I did not want to be more than 4 hours from home and that I wanted to study music business. I did some research and found there was really only five or six colleges that fit that criteria. I had three in mind-University of Evansville, Elmhurst College, and Millikin University. I visited all three and was set on Evansville. I was going there, no doubt about it. Then one day my mom asked why I never looked at DePauw University, since they sent me mail about five days a week. I said I didn't know and so she decided we should just go look at it and I could just use it for a practice audition if nothing else. Well, obviously, my visit changed my mind, and here I am.
I have led a pretty ordinary life. I haven't studied with any famous concertmasters or recorded with anyone from an amazing band. But all the same I am here for the same reason as everyone else. Music is my life, and I can't imagine doing anything other than continue with it.

First Draft

Some housekeeping

1. Remember to make at least five comments each week, besides your own blog post. Your blogging grade is lowered if you don't have enough comments.
   
2. For your autobiography revision this week, please include a link to the first version. Click "Permalink" under your post, and the URL of that page will be specific to your own post. Remember that the revision can be anything from small fixes to a completely different writing.
3. In two weeks the blogging assignment is "Creative writing. How do I write musically?" For this assignment I want you to write about music in a creative way. It could be a poem, a screenplay, a short story, a word puzzle, or even a song. I'm giving you advanced notice so you have time to think about this.
4. A little lesson on how to refer to musical works:

• "Song Title" goes in quotes, with each important word capitalized (unless the poetry specifically calls for lower-case words).
  
• Album Title or Title of Multi-movement Work is italicized except...
• A multi-movement work whose name is a formal description is not placed in quotes or italicized. Symphony, String Quartet, Piano Sonata, anything that describes the genre of the piece.
• Do include things like Opus numbers, the key of the piece, etc. that are part of the formal title, at least for the first mention of the piece. If the piece has a nickname, like "The Tempest," that nickname is placed in quotes after the rest of the formal name: Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, "The Pastoral." After the first mention the nickname can be used to refer to the piece for the rest of the essay.
• Distinguish between a song and a piece. A song is a very specific musical work, typically with lyrics, that is a single movement. A piece is any complete musical work.
  

Debating music fo shizzle

How does anyone debate music? Is debating Deerhoof any different than debating Mozart? Of course, but not really. You could take a monstrous potato-picking woman from Idaho and have her debate Nickel Creek and take a suave potato-eating man from Florida and have him debate Shostakovich, but what to debate? This is where y'all can get creative.

What are the things to debate? Style? Format? Creativity? Substance? Everything, really. First you got to start with a gooood question. A question such as "Was that composer actually creative, or did he just rip off the work of someone else?" Boom. There's a question. But for more contemporary things, like Deerhoof, one could ask "Is this music queer, or just understated?" Boom. There's another question.

Debating music isn't as hard or obscure as some people make it out to be. It's simply like debating anything else, but there's more subjective things to talk about, like sound. With writing or painting, everything is right in front of you and concrete, whereas music is constantly changing, like one piece of music can sound completely different based on the person performing it.

Just ask a question about the music, and there's the beginning of your debate. Happy eating.

how to masterfully debate music.

I just wanted to put a cool title.

Music is made for interpretation, and everyone on the planet hears and interprets things differently. The idea of debating such an open ended subject almost seems pointless. No one person can ever have the final say and the right opinion. There is no wrong way to hear music, so in turn there is no wrong way to form an opinion about a piece/song, w/e.

BUT. If you absolutely HAD to debate music, I think certain things should be taken into consideration. For instance, it would be kind of ridiculous to compare the musical integrity of Brahms vs. Daddy Yankee, so you would have to debate within genres and styles. I think the master music debating should also be between people of equal musical intellect, so both positions would be respectively cognizant of what they're discussing.

To warp it up (because its almost midnight), there is no music guru who can tell you clear cut whether on style or artist is better than another. We each form our own opinions based on not only what we've heard, but where we're from, our families, our friends, etc.


-dennis

My debating history for all to see

Q: How do I debate about music?
A: The only way I can talk about how I debate about music is to discuss how I have debated about music in the past. I hate contraversy and hate debating, so I can only remember two instances where I have debated about music, besides 2 weeks ago about EMI.
The first musical debate I remember having was with a few kids on my bus who said rap was the best kind of music ever. I know that whatever someone likes is their own choice, and in this case, thier own fault, and that in someones opinion rap can be the best THING ever. What we debated about that day was whether or not rap was music. The term "rap music" is the biggest oxymoron ever. I told them what I thought about it, and that just because you're talking in a rhythm doesn't mean it's music. I don't remember what they said, or if they said anything at all - it was a long time ago. All I know is I'm right.
The other debate I had was with my older brother AJ. We were listening to Coldplay in my car this summer, and he asked me why I listened to that crap. He listens only to jazz and jazz legends. His point was that - why would i listen to this stuff that has been modified and computerized over actually raw talented musicians. I went on to say that I do respect and enjoy listening to raw talent, but i also enjoy listening to other music that makes me feel good. I said as long as music gets me in the mood I want to be in, and It makes me feel good and sing along, I couldn't care less how computerized or edited it is. He went on to say that he can't enjoy it if it isn't raw talent. We both acknowledged eachother's opinions, and we both have our own views on music and we respected that.
So, that answers the question of how I debate music, because you have the two instances when I have debated music. And that's how I do it.

A Musical Debate

When I thought about what I was going to write for this week, my plan was to go off on this big ordeal about how you can't really debate about music. But then I realized I would be a hypocrite because I have debated about music many times.
While reading the previous posts I saw that many people decided to go at this from a subjunctive point of view, how they would debate about music. But I thought of it as more of an experience, how I have debated about music.
I know that this is completely a matter of my own opinion, but when arguing with someone about which band is better, I usually start off with the fact that, assuming the song is in English, I think it is best that the lyrics can be understood, and do not just come off as a bunch of mumble jumble screaming. I also like to bring up the question of if I can enjoy the music, or if it gives me a headache. I then continue on with points like these, obviously only expressing my opinion, but I feel that this is really the only true way you can debate music. I don't feel you can use research when it comes down to the question of which is better, because nowhere in the encyclopedia does it say that Backstreet Boys are better than *NSYNC. Sure, you could always compare record sales and concert attendence, but this really only shows whose fans are more commited(or have more money). It does not prove one is better than the other.
So in essence, my view on debating about music is that you should stick with your opinion. Of course in reality no one will ever be right, but really can anyone ever be right?

The confused answer of how to debate music....

So I may seem like a slacker when it comes to this weeks post because I have waited until Sunday afternoon to write this. But honestly, I had absolutely no idea of how to start this blog. I waited, hoping that someone would write something that would spark the thoughts flowing in my head, and yes, people wrote things, but I still don’t exactly understand the assignment. ☹ All I can say is that I don’t often debate music. If you can see the comment that I left on Mo’s blog it says something about “discussing” music. In order to understand what I am going to say about “discussing” music, you have to understand how I deal with music. I deal with music, for the most part, on an emotional level. Yes, technique is amazing and theory is wonderful, but I cannot say that I know enough about technique or theory to have an educated debate about that aspect of the music. I “debate” music on the level of how it makes me feel. Yes, I enjoy lyrics and I enjoy harmonies, but in the end those also lead to the way you feel about a piece.
Now, the other posts that I have read have kept mostly to the classical aspects of music, but when I first read this assignment I took it to mean more in general. How do you debate the differences between classic rock and country? Rap versus jazz? The answer, I don’t know. So, I guess you could say I’m dodging the question. I don’t think you can debate about something that, at least in my case, is based mostly on emotion. I was always told that a feeling is not wrong, it just is. So, music, which I believe to be based on feeling, whether it be the feeling of the composer, conductor or musician, can not be wrong, so therefore there is no way for it to be debated. Every piece of music somewhere was liked by someone or else it would not have been created. Yes, in my opinion there is some music that is superior to others, but that is my feeling. Others may disagree, but there is no way to prove that one is better than the other.
I hate to bring this up, but in Katz’s book Capturing Sound, there is a section in Chapter 2 about how everyone felt that America was being left behind because the majority of the citizens were not being exposed to “good music” or classical music. They were hearing more modern things. Music played in piano bars or at home. However, looking back I bet that there were many people who considered the music they had been listening to before the recordings of “good music” were available to be wonderful. (I think that was an awkward way to write it, but I don’t know how to word it to make sense.) There is no way to debate with these people that the music they were listening to was inferior simply because it was not the “good music” of Europe. They were still enjoying themselves and experiencing music in their own personal way.
Again, I apologize if I dodged the question. I answered it in the best way I knew fit, which was really no answer. Please, leave comments so maybe I can understand your thought processes more.