Mark's Music School Diary.

Flamencology said:
Levine's work is getting a bit dated now, from an academic's perspective - and thus, I'd advise you to read critically, since that's probably what your prof is looking for - but he's interesting and entertaining.

Especially his Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America, which is totally essential.
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We've been reading dated stuff all semester. This is still pretty interesting though.


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Mark Wein said:
I am but it's fairly stressful. The big lesson learned this week (and one that my private instructor has been trying to drill into my head) is that even though I play at a pretty high level for where I'm at I can't expect to nail everything and b able to do everything every week. From my own teaching I should know this but I felt like I should be doing more and better. I probably would be but for the lack of time to spend on every subject every day. I never feel like there is enough practice time.


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I've been very critical of my playing in the jazz groups, too. Anytime I make the slightest mistake (even ones only I notice), I feel like I'm hacking it, because as someone who's done this professionally for years, I shouldn't be making those kinds of mistakes. I'm also having issues with confidence in my playing that I didn't previously have (or have to this degree). Because I'm a "student" again, I'm hyper-critical of everything I'm doing to see what I can improve, so I'm constantly unsatisfied with how I'm playing, more so than usual. All of the professors are cool and supportive, so it's entirely coming from within my own head.
 
Poparad said:
I've been very critical of my playing in the jazz groups, too. Anytime I make the slightest mistake (even ones only I notice), I feel like I'm hacking it, because as someone who's done this professionally for years, I shouldn't be making those kinds of mistakes. I'm also having issues with confidence in my playing that I didn't previously have (or have to this degree). Because I'm a "student" again, I'm hyper-critical of everything I'm doing to see what I can improve, so I'm constantly unsatisfied with how I'm playing, more so than usual. All of the professors are cool and supportive, so it's entirely coming from within my own head.
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You're exactly in my headspace right now. I have an incredibly supportive private instructor though who went back to school at about my age so he totally gets where I'm at. That helps quite a bit. It's amazing how I'm crushing it it grade-wise but I still feel like I'm not doing good enough because of this need to do everything perfect. I'll probably always have an element of that going on but this week was a tipping point in terms of me realizing what was happening in my head with my expectations. And just like in your case all of my professors have been super cool. Even the majority of the students have been nice to the "old guy".


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I should add that I've never been very confident about my jazz playing so that right there has been an element of my discomfort. My reading is improving but still not where it should be. At least I play time and swing better than the kids. Overall I've been pretty insecure about my skill set but it's improving and I'm discovering that a lot of it isn't that bad, just kinda rusty.


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When did you start to feel\notice that the epiphone sounds like cardboard?
And if it sounds like that, why not use one of your awesome solidbodies for your jazz playing?
(I have a feeling that I already asked this question or some variation of it, so sorry if you've already answered...)
 
Highernoon said:
When did you start to feel\notice that the epiphone sounds like cardboard?
And if it sounds like that, why not use one of your awesome solidbodies for your jazz playing?
(I have a feeling that I already asked this question or some variation of it, so sorry if you've already answered...)
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I've never felt like like sounded that great to start with but i figured it was something I could deal with. Spending so much time playing it in a group context pushed me over the edge though. I practiced on it unplugged for an hour or two last night and for that it's ok. Maybe I'll
Look into pickups for it. And I've spent the last few days using my electrics in class. The professors don't really seem to care one way or another if I can make it sound good. Another way school has changed since my last time around.


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OK. A bit of practicing on "Beautiful love":



Shooting video for Facebook has been good because in a way it forces me to think in "performance mode" and try to keep my head on straight while being creative. I can hear in my lines where I have to think about what I'm doing and the melody is not really musical because I was thinking about something else. I'm going to keep working on this until I can just clear my mind and create.
 
It was mentioned that we were encouraged to write music for the ensembles and that they would like for each student to have at least a CD's worth of original music done by graduation. I doubt most students do that but I figured I could get a start by arranging the head for my tune "Roar" for the two horn combo. We'll see how that goes later today :embarrassed:

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Mark Wein said:
Shooting video for Facebook has been good because in a way it forces me to think in "performance mode" and try to keep my head on straight while being creative. I can hear in my lines where I have to think about what I'm doing and the melody is not really musical because I was thinking about something else. I'm going to keep working on this until I can just clear my mind and create.
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That sounds like what this guy is trying to teach. The thinking part...
I'm not sure if he's a good teacher or not, but I think he knows what he's doing with the guitar. :tongue:

 
I really don't want to break it to the kid working on his comp homework here in the choir room before chorus rehearsal that his piece sounds suspiciously like "Foolish Games" or whatever it is called by Jewel :embarrassed:


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Mark Wein said:
I really don't want to break it to the kid working on his comp homework here in the choir room before chorus rehearsal that his piece sounds suspiciously like "Foolish Games" or whatever it is called by Jewel :embarrassed:
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You should. Plagiarism is serious business, with or without intent.
 
I didn't get a chance to share this in Tuesday but I had a pretty cool experience. I have no prior choral experience and all of my singing is through a microphone so being able to sing with forty other voices in a concert hall that apparently rivals the Disney one in LA was a pretty sublime experience.

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Cool! This semester has been my first experience playing bass in an orchestra and not in a jazz or theatre setting. Hearing a whole string section up close is magical.
 
Poparad said:
Cool! This semester has been my first experience playing bass in an orchestra and not in a jazz or theatre setting. Hearing a whole string section up close is magical.
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It's definitely been cool getting to have some new experiences. Today's experience has been playing this A7#5(#9)/C chord in one of my classmates' charts for my small group:


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