Safety Dance randomly popped into my head as I was trying to think of a title for this post. Don’t ask how or why because not even I know that.

Today was a long day, but I survived it! …which is good because Wednesdays are even longer, so, if I can’t survive a Monday, I don’t stand a chance on Wednesdays.

I had six classes today, two of which met for the first time today. The first of these was woodwind fundamentals, in which I’ll learn to play both the clarinet and the flute. The professor for this class is Dr. Dye, who’s an assistant director for Goin’ Band, so it’ll be cool to work with him in a more personal, less physical setting. He taught us a few basic fingerings that are universal across most woodwind instruments, but we don’t get our instruments until Wednesday. I’m learning to play the clarinet first, which I’m actually kind of excited for; I’m ready to have the chance to learn to play another wind instrument! I’ll keep you posted on how this course progresses throughout the semester.

The second class that met for the first time today was also my final class of the day: piano. I’ll be honest: in past semesters, piano class has been far from my favorite, not because I don’t enjoy learning to play the piano but because I hated how everyone would play on their own during class when the professor was trying to give instruction and other similar circumstances…very rude. However, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem this semester. Why, you ask? Because there’s only five people in my class! …and that number includes both the teacher and me. The reason the class is so small is because the four of us students have busy schedules that didn’t fit with other available piano class times, so a new one was created just for us! So, hopefully, this semester should be a lot better as far as piano goes.

The rest of my classes are just getting back into the swing of things. Nothing of particular interest happened in music theory, and we just had another lecture in our music history class. Our teacher did mention that our topic proposals for our research papers will be due in a week, so I started thinking about what I wanted to write a paper about; I think I’m going to do a paper over the Beatles, comparing and contrasting their early and late albums in terms of style and composition. I’m hoping that the professor okays this topic because the Beatles are a group that I’m passionate about, and I certainly have enough research materials to last me. In my closet, I currently have a 1000-page biography over the Beatles, a songbook providing lead sheets/chords for over 100 Beatles songs, a detailed encyclopedia that covers their entire tenure as a band, and a book that tells the story behind every single one of the group’s songs. So here’s hoping that I can write a paper over them!

For lunch today, I braved my second salad, again from Chick-Fil-A. I’m not sure of the exact name of this salad, but it had the chargrilled chicken in it, which definitely helped. Though I didn’t completely finish it, I ate the vast majority of it. It didn’t even take me an hour this time! Aside from the chicken, my favorite part of the salad is the broccoli; I would even dare to say that I actually enjoy the broccoli, rather than just tolerate it like I do for the lettuce. Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll turn to broccoli as a healthy snack (to my family: no, this does not mean I want broccoli all the time…haha).

Symphonic Band met for the first time today! I’m playing 4th part on everything for the first concert, which was expected, and I’m actually kind of looking forward to it: I’m used to playing mostly higher horn parts, so the opportunity to play a few lower horn parts will be a good challenge. One of the songs we’re playing for the first concert is John Mackey’s “Strange Humors”, which I played my sophomore year of high school at Poteet for the TMEA Honor Band concert we did in February of 2008. I was really excited that we were playing it…until we started playing it. Turns out, nobody in the band can count, so everything sounded awful. I was crying inside as I remembered my previous experience with the song (albeit on a different horn part, of course) and how Mackey himself like our performance so much that he used our recording as the demo recording of the piece on his official website…and still does. I have no doubt that we’ll be sounding good in the near future, but today hurt a lot. In Matador Singers today, we mostly worked on our blend throughout the choir and on learning the Star-Spangled Banner. We haven’t touched any new music just yet, but we should get to that on Wednesday when Prof. Dent passes out folders. Can’t wait!

Tonight was my first rehearsal with the cast of the play I’m a part of now. I didn’t mention in yesterday’s post, but the show is titled You Can’t Take it With You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1937. It was later adapted into a film directed by Frank Capra (of It’s a Wonderful Life fame) that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. My character’s name is Mr. De Pinna. Anyway, rehearsal went well. We ran through Act I a couple of times, and tomorrow we will be running Act II. I’m having fun with it so far; it’s nice to be back onstage with a speaking role again. Just gotta get my lines memorized!

Now, it’s time for bed. I get to sleep in a bit tomorrow since class doesn’t start until 9:30, and I’m definitely ready for the 4-class schedule after today’s 6 classes. Also, Academy Award nominations are announced in the morning! I’m super excited! Here’s one quick prediction that I’ve already tweeted: I think that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be nominated for 2 Academy Awards, and I think those two will most likely be Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Mixing. We’ll see how accurate my predictions are when 7:30 comes tomorrow morning!

Goodnight and sweet dreams, everyone!

Chad