Mark's Music School Diary.

OK. Final grades are in:

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I had to petition for a retroactive add for my combo class so that won't be on my transcript for a month or so but thats also an "A". You have to kill a professors cat to get anything less in one of those classes.

The biggest drag is that 48 year old me has 19 year old me's GPA to contend with. my 3.95 has to pull up my 3.15 GPA from the 80's. I'd like to graduate with some sort of "CUM laude" so that I can get a cool cake from Publix.
 
Dudeman1967 said:
Good work. Now let's all go get some ice cream! :grin:

Seriously though, in my family you would get to pick where we go to dinner tonight. (Please!, oh God please don't pick Pizza Street!)
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lol.

I got to pick last weekend when we went to Huntington Beach without the kids. Plus this mornings breakfast with Mrs Wein after I dragged her to school to turn in some paperwork:

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Mark Wein said:
OK. Final grades are in:

View attachment 41076

I had to petition for a retroactive add for my combo class so that won't be on my transcript for a month or so but thats also an "A". You have to kill a professors cat to get anything less in one of those classes.

The biggest drag is that 48 year old me has 19 year old me's GPA to contend with. my 3.95 has to pull up my 3.15 GPA from the 80's. I'd like to graduate with some sort of "CUM laude" so that I can get a cool cake from Publix.
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cum whatever is good. Good job! I just finished my first year grad program with a 4.0. I get stressed about it at the end of each semester waiting for grades to be posted. One of my classes was almost entirely graded on an original research paper I turned in on the last day of class. Yep, I'm hoping to graduate with "distinction" (that's all they say for Masters degrees, no cum).
 
rickenvox said:
cum whatever is good. Good job! I just finished my first year grad program with a 4.0. I get stressed about it at the end of each semester waiting for grades to be posted. One of my classes was almost entirely graded on an original research paper I turned in on the last day of class. Yep, I'm hoping to graduate with "distinction" (that's all they say for Masters degrees, no cum).
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Nice!

I’m a little dysfunctional about checking my grades until they are posted. Entirely unhealthy.
 
rickenvox said:
cum whatever is good. Good job! I just finished my first year grad program with a 4.0. I get stressed about it at the end of each semester waiting for grades to be posted. One of my classes was almost entirely graded on an original research paper I turned in on the last day of class. Yep, I'm hoping to graduate with "distinction" (that's all they say for Masters degrees, no cum).
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Also, do you know any people our age who return to school that don’t get good grades? @Poparad got a 4.0 for his entire masters program.
 
Mark Wein said:
Also, do you know any people our age who return to school that don’t get good grades? @Poparad got a 4.0 for his entire masters program.
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that's true. May be from years of learning to follow instructions. I also think when you're our age and choose a field of study, it's something we've spent some time thinking about.
 
rickenvox said:
that's true. May be from years of learning to follow instructions. I also think when you're our age and choose a field of study, it's something we've spent some time thinking about.
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Yeah. Plus at 48, I don't have time to do shit twice.
 
The first GE class of the summer is in the books with an "A" - "Digital Media Literacy" ended up being a great class for me in terms of not only being a catalyst for my new blog but also in how the class discussed mindfulness and bias:

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I'm starting to win the GPA war against 1992 Mark. There is no chance I'll get "summa cum laude" because of my earlier efforts but I'm close to "magna":

HONORS AT GRADUATION
Honors designations at graduation are awarded to baccalaureate recipients based on overall performance and have been defined by the Academic Senate in three classifications:

cum laude GPA 3.50-3.74
magna cum laude GPA 3.75-3.89
summa cum laude GPA 3.90-4.00

This stuff means fuck all to anyone but me but I want to do the best I can, and I'd like to have something to show my kids at graduation :)
 
Well, summer school is over. I got A's in "Digital Media Literacy" and "World Civilization to 1600", and I'm sure I'll get an A for my lessons. So far this is what the Fall semester looks like:

Fall Semester 2018 (Senior)
Dept/No Course Title Unts GR GP Footnotes
BIOL 101L Elements of Biology Lab (1.0) WORK IN PROGRESS
MUS 320 20th-C Techniques to 1945 (2.0) WORK IN PROGRESS
MUS 351C Hist & Lit - Westrn Mus (3.0) WORK IN PROGRESS
MUS 408J Jazz Combo (1.0) WORK IN PROGRESS
MUS 451 Jazz History and Style (3.0) WORK IN PROGRESS

I'll have private lessons, another combo and a large ensemble to play in. I don't think it will be a particularly difficult semester other than trying to actually be able to make a living since a large part of my schedule will be in the evenings this semester. Other than the biology lab I am back to all music and that one GE is my final one to take.
 
Tomorrow starts my third week of school.

I dig all of my classes except for my biology lab, which is full of kid s who look at me like I'm a child molester. At least it's once a week but this has to be my least favorite thing I've done since I started school.

MUS 320 is "20th Century Techniques to 1945" - we are studying the breakdown of tonality from late romantic period through the mid-20th century. Our first topic was the "Tristan chord".



I had to analyze a section of this for tomorrow:



A component of the class is that w have to compose using the techniques we learn so be on the lookout for some whacky shit from me.

MUS 451 is Jazz History. We started learning a bit about African music the first week and the discussion of racism will be an ongoing theme.

MUS 351c is Music History from late romantic to 20th century. My term paper will be on a piece of music written after 1970.

I have three performing groups this semester:

Jazz Chamber Orchestra - basically the "2 band". The main big band has a schedule that I can't maintain so I requested the lower group. Still going to learn a lot. The director is Grammy winner-Bill Cunliffe, who among other things was the pianist and arranger for Buddy Rich in the 1980's.

Guitar Jazz Combo - my private instructor teaches this. It is basically guitars arranged like a sax section with lots of reading and ensemble playing.

Jazz Combo - this is a "normal" combo. I actually put together my own group to make something fit in my schedule. I'm very excited about this one because I was able to get a really good drummer and bassist for a trio and then when they asked to add some horns I asked them just for a trumpet player because I've been digging the Jim Hall/Art Farmer recordings. We're going to try and write and arrange bunch. I'm going to suggest booking a gig for the group outside of school just so that it is more than a class. I sometimes feel like I don't play enough music in the classes or school in general to actually learn how to play jazz. Our director is Kye Palmer, who was the trumpet player in the Brian Setzer Orchestra for a number of years and also played in Branford Marsailis' Tonight Show band for quite a while as well.

This is the first semester where I feel like I'll be making music throughout the entire week.
 
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