a dream job

well, i missed a lesson this week. i've been running around a lot so i didn't have time to finish my counterpoint stuff. oh well. it's not that i said, "lets me tommarow" and then i didnt show up...i just didn't call lloyd and say let's meet this week. but i did call him and left him a voice message so we could mee this coming week.

how is counterpoint? slow. ha ha. i think i am starting to understanding CONTROL. although, it's difficult. last lesson i was scrambling to finish and carl came over, which is distracting, and i wrote some pretty horrible stuff. the stuff i'm working on right now is better. more controlled. but not so stuffy. i started second species which is a blast. not really. it's counterpoint. how much of a blast could it really be? at least it keeps my brain thinking like a musician.

i was recently hired as a score reader for an upcoming web art magazine. they pay me 35 dollars an hour to tell the main music writer what is happening in the music of some dead composer. my first assignment? bach six partitas. i'm looking forward to working with this guy. i mean, it really is a dream job for someone who has just graduated from college with a degree in music history and theory. apparently, my responses to his questions were what got me the job over some "stiff competition". i suppose i have lloyd to thank for that! or maybe just the collective thought of the bad news bears. or maybe i should give myself some credit? yeah. i'm a genius. yeah yeah.

carl is jealous. he wishes he had the job and not me. can you blame him? i told him i'll give him the job when i leave to england. i mean, i'm leaving the 23rd of september! i found the job, if you are wondering, on craigs list. opportunities are everywhere.

i need to remember to turn in my student visa application to the british consulate! i paid the fee for it. i just need to print it out and take it in. i must do this monday. must must must.

i hear there is a pbe concert coming up in august...see you guys there. i'll be in the crowd.

what do i care about more...?

i am taking counterpoint lessons with lloyd rodgers. i had my second lesson today. so far, lloyd says my counterpoint is good, my voice-leading is fine, but that my melodic lines are stuffy. i smiled when he said that because i was being so conservative when i wrote them, of course they were stuffy. but that is fine. i did not want to do what my old roommate used to do with her counterpoints. i guess i was a bit traumatized.

i have to say that i really am enjoying the work. lloyd asked me if i was getting out of the lessons what i had expected. i told him that i am and that i was having fun doing it. i don't know if most people have fun doing five exercises above and below each cantus firmus, but i do. i'm learning a lot and it's really changing the way i listen to intervals. i'll probably get more out of this in terms of musicianship than i did out of the three semesters of musicianship at csuf. woop woop. at last, i can't stop being mediocre!

i'm currently working out of 2/3 books. the jeppeson, the swindale (an out of print british book that is really quite good and has all of lloyd's highlights of important stuff in it), and the fux. i write '2/3' because we really aren't using fux so much. swindale and jeppeson both agree that fux's scholarly approach was a bit off base. i brought that up with lloyd in my lesson today and he said it was true and that fux is good basis for learning 18th century counterpoint.

why am i studying 16th century counterpoint? well, i wanted to take the class but it was not offered the semester i was planning on taking a counterpoint class. so i took 18th century counterpoint. that was a mistake because lloyd teaches it almost as a continuation of 16th century counterpoint (which it is but...the class i mean). so since i hadn't take the class, i was clueless. "species? what? 5th species? grid??? you mean this isn't like my theory class where you realize the bass line?!!!!" apparently not since i tried to do the same things i was doing in my theory class in the 18th century counterpoint and getting D's! ha. don't worry, i got a B in the class in the end. the only B lloyd has ever given me!!! it was literally a sink or swim situation for me and for a moment, i was drinking water. but somehow i learned that if i kick my legs and i use my hands to keep me afloat, i would survive.

when carl took 16th century the following year, i was jealous because he seemed so into the class that he was ignoring me! i didn't see what was so fab-u-lous about 16th century counterpoint. come on, give me a break. i'm way better looking than any of those dead guys, in the first place. anyhow, i soon came to realize that carl was actually learning what the hell first species was, second species, third, fourth , fifth, tenth, one-hundreth...(ok so there really aren't that many) and i was pissed off. if i had taken 16th before 18th i would have received an A in the class, not a B!!! hmm, perhaps that last statement reveals something about me that isn't neccessarily a positive quality in some circles...

furthermore, i began to realize that carl seemed to suddenly have this insight into music that i was lacking and what's more his musicianship was suddenly genius. what happened?!!!!!! then, of course, everyone i know who has studied with lloyd has taken 16th century counterpoint with him. i wanted to be a part of the in-crowd, too.

so there you have it. i like writing music. i would have studied composition if it weren't for the fact that i wouldn't graduate in four years. screw that. i can learn outside of the institution more than inside.

other than that, i've been working on trying to make oboe reeds. it's hard and boring. i gave a couple of weeks ago but i'm gonna start again. i really shoud learn how to make a decent reed. i suck. :)

carl and i are done house-sitting for another one of our professors (comp prof., as well...go figure). today was also my last day at the law office. somewhat of a depressing day.

oh well. i'll get over it!