So, I arrive at school on Monday morning, ready to get to work. I open my office door, only to be met with the dankest, wettest, cringe-worthyest air quality every experienced by humankind. I felt like I needed a knife, no a sword, no a light saber (because only the best of tools will suffice) to cut my way through the air and enter my office. Apparently, there is a problem in the boiler room and everything in the basement of the building is now subjected to a moist environment because of it. Just to paint you a picture of how bad it is: when I put on my coat at the end of the day on Friday, the insides of the sleeves were wet. Yuck! So, all of us are complaining and the answer we have been given is, "they are working on it. In the meantime, get a fan." Which really means, "you are grad students. Who cares about your office conditions?"
On Tuesday, I was fixing a clarinet and dropped a pivot screw. Pivot screws are tiny screws that hold the keys on the instrument as well as acting as pivot points so they can toggle up and down. Well, I couldn't find the screw, which is not surprising since I often can't find things like my keys which are so much bigger than a pivot screw. No biggie, though. They are super cheap and I put a pack of pivot screws on my list of things to buy. On Thursday, when I was in the Pet Shop (where I fix the instruments), I stepped on something sharp and it stuck through the sole of my shoe and poked the bottom of my foot. Guess what it was... You got it; it was the pivot screw!
The contra is broken.
So, when I play, some of the low notes vibrate at such a slow frequency that I actually experience my eyeballs shaking in their sockets. It's neat to watch the world vibrate while I play. So, I was playing and I thought, "how cool. I can see my instrument vibrating when I play low b. That's this note for anyone keeping track:
I know there is no sound file with that note. Just imagine the lowest note you can think of and then think of a note lower than that note. That note you are now thinking of is not quite this note. This note is still one note lower than that. Anyway, I digress. As I was looking at my instrument shaking, which is usually just my eyeballs shaking, I realized that in this case, the instrument actually was shaking! The low b key was not sealing properly and it was flapping open and closed on the very low notes. Gaaaah! So, now I have to take the contra to the shop. I have gotten a name of someone very reputable up here. But, I am very apprehensive about taking my horn to a repairman I have no prior experience with. If you have some time, offer up a prayer to Hephaestus, the Greek god who smithed the weapons of the gods, of which the contrabassoon surely is one.
Ready for that big reveal? Well, it is not quite time yet...
Remember that time Dan told me he and Rachel were pregnant with Baby Ben and I didn't realize I was the only one who knew and I blabbed to people? I should just tell people when they meet me that if something is sensitive information, they need to be explicit about it to me. One of my professors told me something this week about one of my other professors. It came up in casual conversation, so I didn't think it was a big secret. But it turns out it totally was! And of course, I opened my mouth to someone about it, not maliciously, of course. I was just hoping to get some more information about the scenario. Luckily, the person I talked to was one of the very few people who knew the information already, so I didn't let the cat out of the bag. But, the person I told went and told the professor that I now knew the sensitive information and all of a sudden, I was caught up in this rumor mill and unable to get out of it! It felt like middle school all over again, that is if I had been popular enough in middle school to have been part of any big rumors.
Monday night, I played in a concert. It wasn't uber fantastic, but I think it was decent. Here is the link. Check out the contrabassooning! Even with the broken key!
https://drive.google.
The piece I am on starts around 1:04:00.
This week, I have been doing some more reading on auditions in school settings. I ran across a master's degree thesis which looked at the effects on student musicians of auditions which result in ensemble and seating placements. The study found that there were only brief negative impacts on motivation and self-esteem based on audition results. The study also found that the overall motivation and self esteem of students with higher placements was not significantly better than any other group and that the overall motivation and self esteem levels of students with lower placements was not significantly lower than any other group. The study concluded that ensemble directors need not be concerned with the negative effects of the audition process, because they seem to be short lived and not significant in the long run.
Daniel, J. J. (2006). Effects of band and seating placement on the motivation and musical self-esteem of high school wind musicians (unpublished master's thesis). Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH.
As you know, I am concerning myself lately with the appropriateness of seating placements in ensembles of developing musicians. My contention is that by assigning parts based on seating auditions, we essentially "track" certain players into the 3rd clarinet parts and out of the potential for being a life-long musician. The results of this study concerned me because I expected to find a more detrimental effect to the psyche of high school musicians who do not do as well on the auditions. But, after further thought, the results of this study actually jive with what I know about tracking. Students who are tracked into any educational track, more often than not, do not switch tracks, especially in the upward direction. If students' self-esteem and motivation remain unblemished by placement in poorer tracks, this may be part of the cause for students not actively trying to reach the upper tracks after poor placement. However, I need to do much more reading before I can properly argue this position.
Ok. Are you ready for the big reveal? Move That Bus!
Remember back to the end of last semester and possibly the beginning of this semester when I was preparing that session proposal to speak at a conference and I told you that I was unable to reveal the contents of that proposal because it was still in the works? Well, I have been invited to speak at the National Association for Music Educators (NAfME, formerly MENC) National In-Service Conference in October 2015 in Nashville, TN. My session is entitled, Transcending the Notes and Rhythms: Fostering Creativity in Instrumental Ensembles. Want to know what will be in the session? Then you better get your butt to Nashville in the fall!
Well, folks, it was a jam packed week and I am sure you are done reading about it just as I am done living it. Until next week,
Future Doctor Mitch, out!
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