Musicianship is OVER!!

Woo Hoo!! I am super excited! I never have to take Musicianship ever again. AND I got 91% in that class! I'm so happy :) Yes!

That class was so hard for me because it was the first time I had ever had any ear training of any kind. But I have survived two years of it and now I'm done!

For the final in Musicianship IV, I had to sing three songs that were totally awful. Ick! I'll show you them.

First I sang this one:

Then I sang one which we lovingly refer to as the demented child song. Luckily I cannot find a good recording of it. We did record our class singing it while I played the demented bells part but I can't steal it from Kevin so you have all been spared.

Lastly I sang this one:
http://youtu.be/Acvwo1-ABNk

(I don't know why it's not downloading but you get the idea.)


AND NOW I'M DONE FOREVER!

Transcription Project

In Musicianship 4, the very last semester of Musicianship, our teacher decided not to have a written final. Instead we had to pick a song (at least we got to pick our poison....) and transcribe two minutes of it. I did not want to do this assignment. I would have rather had the written test. But... I tried to pick something simpler with only a few parts to write out. So I found -

The Piano Guys
Bring Him Home

It wasn't too bad. In fact, the cello part was super easy to figure out. The piano kinda kicked my butt. I just had to realize that Jon Schmidt makes things sound harder than they really are. So I survived it. And this is what I came up with -

Don't look at it too closely..... I probably missed something. Poor Spencer had to endure me asking him to check what I was doing all night. He was a good sport about it and helped me a lot. But this was one of the hardest things I have had to do in college.

After this, I will never have to take Musicianship again! Woo!

That Darn Clarinet Again...

So... I have been struggling with my instrument. I feel like I have hit a major block. I don't feel myself getting any better. If anything my playing and technical skills are getting worse. At this point, I honestly need a new instrument! Mine right now is really holding me back. It has served me well thus far, but I cannot progress any further with the clarinet I have now.

I am really hoping to get a Buffet R13 very very soon in my future. I want to audition with the Utah Wind Ensemble, but I don't have a prayer with my current horn. I need a new instrument. (Can you tell I'm just venting now?)

Buffet clarinets do not run at a very low price. The R13, specifically, does not run at a low price. It runs about the same as a little run-around car you would get for your teenager. So here starts the Brooke-Needs-A-New-Clarinet Fund. Ha. Just kidding. We'll just have to do some planning and saving and looking into that. Like..........this summer. So yeah. Hopefully.
I want to be good.. And I want to play really well.. And right now I really feel like I'm struggling. I'm fighting with my instrument. We are not getting along. It is time for me to move on and find a clarinet who cares about me and will help me be a better musician.

Luckily, I already have a fantastic mouthpiece. That thing alone improved my sound like crazy! I still struggle with the keys on my instrument, but the sound is improving because I got a Rossi mouthpiece. (Rossi = big deal!)

Clarinet-ing

This semester I have two jury pieces. I'm playing numbers 2 and 3 of the Robert Schumann Fantasy Pieces. I played the first one my .... first semester at the U. But I really like them. They will definitely take a lot of work but it shouldn't be something that I can't do. (...did that make sense..?) I should be able to get these down in a semester.

This audio has Fantasy Pieces One, Two and Three. But they are all good anyway :)

My goal for myself this semester, is to mentally pretend that I am a Music Performance Major - instead of a Music Education Major. So basically I will be putting more focus into my playing. That will become the priority, instead of leaving practicing on the back-burner. We'll see how it goes.

Music Moment

I was looking for a specific song that I remember Josh Wright playing at Women's Conference two years ago at BYU, and I found it! It's amazing. And this recording is pretty sweet! So I had to share.

Pretty stink'n awesome! ps. He went to the U :)

New Semester

Well... classes have started. I don't have as crazy a class schedule as I usually have. I'm hoping that will make things a lot easier with work this semester. Classes so far look like they will be ok. Form & Analysis scares me a little bit and I still really don't like Musicianship... but this is my last semester of Musicianship... and piano... and Concert Attendance... and then I'll only have one methods class left. Yay! I'm getting closer!

Work is going pretty well for me too. It's not stressful and I like that I can work at my own pace. I'm hoping I can keep working there for quite a long time. It is a really fantastic student job. Best one I have ever had.

AND :) we have water in our kitchen again!! Yay!

The thing that is going to be hard is that I'm not home between 7:30 am and 10:20 pm. I'm gone like all day. But... tis life. I'll just have to live with it. Spencer doesn't like that I'm not home at all. I'm really not a fan either, but my weekends are completely free and that will be really awesome. Fridays I don't work and I only have two classes. I officially really love Fridays! Woo!

Surprise!

Yesterday I did a lot of cleaning and organizing and cooking and cleaning while Spencer was at work. But he surprised me by bringing me flowers when he came home.

Aw... Cute! :) I am one lucky girl.

Breakfast in Bed

Lucky me. Guess which girl got breakfast in bed this morning. :) This one did. My husband is fantastic. I had a headache last night and went to bed early. But this morning I woke up to this:

Isn't he amazing. Waffles and Hot Chocolate. :) Thank you Spencer!

So I think the apartment is pretty much put together now. I'm getting things put away and finding places for all of my... stuff... so all is well. This place now looks nothing like it did last semester when there were four guys living here. Mwahahaha. I really like it though. Like a ton! (not just a lot) We've made a couple of trips to Wal-Mart. I now have a step stool so I can actually reach things :) haha and I have most of my cute decoration stuff all over on the walls now. Yep. Nothing like the bachelor pad it used to be.

Bridal Pictures

Lori Trujillo took my bridal pictures for me. The first day we tried taking pictures it was snowing pretty hard. Kaitlyn and my mom had to follow me around with an umbrella and a sheet to put down for me. It was super cold!! They would hold the umbrella over me and then run away long enough for Lori to snap some pictures. Sadly, after all that, none of those pictures turned out because it was so dark.

It always seems to be snowing when I try to take pictures.....

We tried again the next day and got some pretty awesome pictures. Just in time too! We took those pictures on Wednesday and I got married the next day. Luckily we had time to get some prints before the reception on Saturday!

The only thing was the stupid cat that followed me everywhere! I was so mad at that dumb thing after..not very long. It would come up and try to sit with me. Once it snuck up behind me and jumped on the back of my dress and got mud on it. So I picked up that flipping cat by the back of its neck and chucked it as far as I could. Luckily for me Lori was laughing too hard to actually get a picture of that.

Turned out pretty great :)

New Year - New Life

I don't even know how to adequately express how fantastic these last few weeks have been for me.

On December 20, 2012 I married my best friend in the Salt Lake City Temple

On December 22, 2012 we spent the night with lots of supportive friends and family and had a great time.

....and had quite a bit of fun with the cake :)

.....and danced the night away.

 Our brothers had a little fun too. Jayde and Cole will one day forgive me for making them wear red all night. Maybe :)

One Week

My fantastic finance surprised me with flowers today. :) He was really worried that I wouldn't like them. But he is amazing and I love daisies. Spencer has never given me flowers before and it sure meant a lot to me. One of the sweetest things he has ever done. I am so looking forward to spending the rest of my life with him. I really appreciate the way he treats me and hope I can be a good wife for him.

Top Things I Am Thankful For

Giving that it is Thanksgiving, (ha) I am going to list some of the things I am very most thankful for:

1. Spencer! I sure love him :)
2. My family. They are the greatest. (I learned tonight that my siblings pray for me to "be safe at college" every day.) ((tender!))
3. My parents specifically. I owe them... everything.
4. My In-Laws to be. Thank you for raising the man of my dreams.
5. For the testimony I have of Christ.
6. That I have been able to obtain an education. (and am still going)
7. For the love and support of so many friends and extended family members.
8. My awesome student-friendly job. (Thank you Kevin!)
9. Music. I read somewhere that "music is what emotions sound like".
10. .......did I mention Spencer? :)

Loving My Classic Smooth Jazz

For my wedding reception, I have been looking for good old classic jazz music. Like Michael Buble (number one!), Frank Sinatra, Harry Connick Jr., Nat King Cole and the like. Isaac suggested I check out some Mel Torme too. So... I took a trip to the Marriott Library to find as much of this music as I could. Well guess what. I found tons! It sure took a while, because apparently no one looks for this music on a regular basis, but I got it. Actually, I found 5 cds of Frank Sinatra (between all there are 6 song duplicates), 1 Nat King Cole, 1 Harry Connick (that I liked), 1 Dean Martin (that I liked), and 6 Mel Torme cds to go through. So I think I will have plenty of music for my reception. It will be awesome.

Here is the type of stuff I'm looking at:

Totally classy! :) Love it!

Taking 5 for a Music Nerd Moment

Ok! :) I just got done with my practicing a few minutes ago and I'm feeling really good about that one. I felt like I made a lot of improvement and made some really great progress on the pieces I'm playing. Since I took my clarinet to Bob Joffs (highly recommend! He's amazing!) it has been playing a lot smoother for me. And I think I sound pretty good. Now.... I realize that my ears suck... and I'm probably hearing what I want to hear, but I was happy with it. (.....still would love to have a Buffet R13... just saying)

I reeally like my jury piece for this semester. It is a Brahms concerto. Brahms Clarinet Sonata #2 In E Flat, Op 120/2 - 2 Allegro Appassionato to be precise. It's so pretty! I love it. And it's starting to come together for me too.

I know I still have a lot to work on but I am impressed with myself and the point I am at now.

So I've been listening to it for the last few.... months. ha. But now I really really like it. A lot. 

I've also been doing quite a bit of reading on Brahms himself. (Mostly because I have a Music History assignment where I need to write two pages of concert notes on my above jury piece.) I really like this one biography that I'm reading. The author does a great job of telling the story without being completely boring and textbook like. It's more story like and I have really enjoyed learning about Brahms. He lived a very simple life and was on his own for a lot of it. And of course he has several tragic love stories because he lives a I'm-a-musician-and-have-to-establish-myself-off-on-my-own kind of lifestyle. I decided I could never lead the life of a musician like that. But he obviously did well with it. ha.

Now.... to just write those two pages on it.... Oh I mean:

"Yes Dr. Rorke, I'm almost done and have already given my paper to a peer for review today!" ................

Princess Bently

I got to hang out with Princess Bently at Karson's wedding yesterday and now we're like best friends :) So we took a bunch of pictures.

Home for the Weekend

Just watching conference with my bros. And I love that President Monson just said how he wished he had stuck with the piano :) Awesome!

I love conference weekend. The leaders of the church always have great messages for us.

Last night was pretty fun. I got to hang out with Koli Poki. We watched Union play against Judge. Jayde had to sit the bench because of a recent football injury. (The poor kid plays quarterback and it's his senior year.. and he broke his left hand.) It was a cold game, but Koli Poki kept be ..sorta.. warm. haha. Cole and I both just slept the whole way home though.

When I got home last night all of the little people were gone because they stayed at grandma's. But Brynne had her bed all set up for me, with an extra blanket and everything. (Cause she knew I would need it) :)

It's exciting being home too. I haven't seen my family in a long time! So the little people were crazy loud and excited this morning. But they're great. Cache really wanted to show me everything he could play on the piano. And that little kid read to me this morning too. He read a verse from Alma. Pretty awesome.

Being around family is pretty great.

Conducting: the 1st of Many Errors

In my conducting class, the teacher has filmed us conducting a couple of times. The first time we were working on the conducting patterns. A legato pattern and an impulse beat pattern. The second time we were supposed to be focusing on pick ups and cut offs. Today I got my videos back and I have to say... I struggled more with the second one. I will have to keep working on that. But I want to keep all of my videos from throughout the semester so I can hopefully look back and see how much I have improved. A personal self-assessment kind of thing.

Sadly, the second video, I can get to upload. It's not very good though.

I've noticed in my conducting that I seem way too serious and I need to be more engaged in what the ensemble is doing. I come across as serious..yet passive. It doesn't really make sense. I'll be working on it though.

...AND I'm conducting with my very own baton :)

Recruiting

Yesterday I spent the day up in Logan at the Bridgerland Band Invitational. It's a High School Marching Band competition (which I have never before attended anything of the sort) and it was pretty cool. I wasn't exactly there to just watch the high schools perform though. I was there to tell them about the Marching Ute Experience 2012. (Which I think I rocked at.) But it was a long day up in Logan.

I couldn't believe how "into it" everyone at the competition was. The atmosphere of a marching competition was totally foreign to me because I came from a high school that only cares about athletics and where no one thinks marching band is cool. At this competition, it wasn't just cool. It was a really Big Deal! All these kids were serious about what they did, but they all really loved it and had tons of fun with it too. And I couldn't believe how big some of these high school bands were! Totally new concept for me.

So I got thinking, because every high school except mine is big into marching band, I won't really know what I'm doing if I was put into a high school with a marching band reputation.... It would be a little out of my comfort zone because I wouldn't know what I was doing or even how to do it. I've never been in a competitive marching band situation. I guess that's something I'm going to have to figure out. Because I really don't know how that works.

Amazing How Some Thing(s) So Simple...

Welll.... for the time being, I have almost completely lost my voice. It's just gone. Poof! Tim and Haley found it pretty funny last night. haha. Welll... it is pretty funny. I sound awful.
But...
I can't believe how horrible this simple head-cold has left me feeling.

                  Dear Mononucleosis,
                         I hate your stink'n guts.
                         You've made me sick.
                         You are the reason I have no immune system left.
                         And I really don't appreciate it.

                                Not Love,
                                      Me

The other thing is that I've been letting too many little things get me down, and I've been having a hard time picking myself back up. Thursday was particularly bad. Just with a combination of feeling really sick and awful and down and yeah.... But luckily for me, I know several outstanding men who without hesitation, were willing to give me a priesthood blessing when I really needed one. I don't feel comfortable repeating some of the words that were spoken in the blessing because they were very personal for me and deeply touched my heart. I know my Father in Heaven was speaking to me that night and I am very grateful for that priesthood holder was in so in tune with the spirit.

Since then I've been gradually doing better. In fact right now, I feel pretty good. Other than the fact that I have no voice. So I guess this is just my way (for now) of showing how grateful I am.

Just Another Day

Well..... I've been sick the last few days. And that is because.. (STORY TIME)




First, On Monday, I rode trax to Sandy where I went to "work" on 100000 South and picked up the paperwork I needed and got the information for the drug test I needed too.

Turns out the closest place for a drug test is like a mile away... but it's in West Jordan.

So I rode my bike up 100000 until I reached Redwood Road (to 16000 West from about 300 West) and 

proceeded to 90000 South. Which really was not a bad bike ride. It just took me a little while.

I got to where I was going, got inside, started filling out paperwork... and it started to down poor.

In the mean time... this guy (also there for a drug test) started talking to me.. and wouldn't stop.

But. That is when I started texting people to make it look like I was busy.

Then they called me back into the clinic...

I went was done and went back outside to my bike... That guy was waiting at my bike for me..

Asked for my number (which I did not give him.)..

I had a call that I missed in the middle of this which I promptly called back as I stood next to this guy while waiting for the rain to stop...

Luckily, the rain lightened up a bit.. so.. I left on my bike..

It started raining again.

So I stopped close by and tried calling Parker, because I knew he lived in West Jordan.

Only... Turns out, he was at work.

Which just happened to be across the street. Literally.

He walked out of the building and I could see him.

So super lucky me, I just waited there for it to stop raining.

While I was there, Parker was kind enough to fix my glasses for me so they wouldn't be crooked or fall off my face so much...

Before I left, Parker gave me instructions to the nearest trax station..

I rode my bike there just in time to catch the next train..

And I finally made it home. (all of this happened between 2:30pm and 8pm....)

The end.

Phew...!

On Tuesday morning, I tried waking up. But I felt awful and nothing really happened. So I managed to stumble back into bed and I slept like all day.

Moral of the story: Don't get caught in the rain on your bike!