We are getting ready to head to the UNT area where we will be spending the holidays with S. The semester grades have been finalized, and S is in good shape in that regard. He has been practicing in the winter housing dorm. There is more time to do so with classes being over and with having no winter-break homework. We will try to leave him along enough to practice while we are there, but we have a few activities planned out. He will have us out of his hair for about a week before the spring audition occurs.
Happy Holidays to @GoForth Family!! Enjoy your time together!
We have been visiting S here, but he has major parts of the day carved out for practice. We chatted a bit about the preparations for college versus what he sees now. It seems that many of the steps taken were good. Not all of them were essential. Some of the folks do not come prepared with as much arco, so they might be that far behind in it, but they still can get in and work on it. The knowing of a lot of tunes seems to be a great thing according to S. You might be a great player, but then someone says, “Hey, let’s play Shooba Doo,” and you have to sit it out.
S now has more vision about what classes to take. He is signed up for a secondary jazz vocal class next semester, bringing him up to 14 credit hours. He is also going to audition for a second lab band.
There do not seem to be many students staying over the winter break, but we thought to try it out. S has been putting the time to use, noting that without classes, he has much more time, so he has made a couple a breakthroughs. I think he likes doing that. He seems to have plans about what he wants to overcome next. He did say that some of the things he wanted to conquer at the start of the semester got replaced by other things he wanted to conquer.
We found another vegan restaurant in town called Spiral. He was overwhelmed by the amount of choice there. I’d have to say for a vegan student, this place is pretty nice.
Great great info @GoForth! Enjoy your holiday time with S. D just became vegan from having been vegetarian for almost 4 years. It’s a real challenge for us at the moment. I had told her all along that she could make the switch in college when she has to be responsible for her own nutrition but then when she kept pushing the issue I caved and figured it’s better she starts figuring it out now so that she is well versed by the time she gets to college. Many people have suggested meeting with dining managers on our college visits so we will do that. Our flight to Cali yesterday for the holidays was made more interesting since we knew she would have to pack her iown food for the plane which she did.
Also great advice regarding knowing a lot of tunes. As D has moved through this process updating her artistic resume she has been continually adding tunes to her repertoire. What you said makes perfect sense. Especially the importance of knowing “Shooba Doo”…my favorite song! Haha! Happy Holidays to you and your family!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday! SO NICE to have that kid back home… and they all made it through first semester! Including us parents!!! Hooray!
I guess the Christmas card needed to be analyzed. S had a Christmas card on display with musical notes on the front cover, and it had been marked up. I wish I could post a link to the picture, but I do not know how to accomplish that link or attachment here.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Photos and links to photos are not allowed.
Thank you, Moderator. If anyone wants, I can reply to PM with the link if that is good.
The second semester of the freshman year has started for S at UNT. That is quite a long journey from the starting point of S’s journal.
Jazz auditions occurred recently, and I must say, based on the results that any member of the public could walk into the building and see, it seems that nobody is “safe” in the lab band rankings (I compared to the previous one for relative movements to see what the flow looked like). Some shuffled up, some shuffled down, some shuffled across to other band types. I was pretty excited, in as much as one’s band rank might mean something, that S had moved up a couple bands into the 6 o’clock one. We didn’t see that one coming, but I think it suggests that S has been fitting in with their program. This is not only a moment of bragging, but a note about how all past preparation you may read about have fit in with this program, like a piece of calibration data for the reader.
Book prices are mighty nice. The music theory books mostly carry over, some small collections of song purchases are required, and there is an English book, so that part of the cost is very low this time around. There is one less 3-hour class this semester and more 1-hour classes and lessons, so it should be a little less bookish and more performing.
It seems like there is plenty of networking opportunity there as well. There are always new people to meet. The next interesting thing to me is to see what S comes up with for this summer.
Congrats to S @GoForth ! I know that higher ranked band is well earned from hard work and practice.
Congrats to your S, @GoForth ! Well done!!!
NICE! @GoForth
Very exciting - congrats to your son.
For those auditioning, here is an interesting post from the UNT College of Music Facebook page:
Good luck to all of our prospective students auditioning this weekend!
We will welcome 96 graduate applicants from 31 states and 11 countries tomorrow, and 331 applicants from 35 states and 12 countries on Saturday.
It is almost midway into S’s second semester at UNT. We will be going to visit UNT for their spring break in a couple weeks.
Recent conversations reveal the following:
Secondary jazz voice lessons are eye-opening for S. S had voice lessons before college, but he is learning for the first time about “physiology” (?). He learns how to stiffen his soft palette (if I got that right), then he learns that the next step is to lower his larynx or some such. We just never knew these were “things”.
He is very impressed with his lab band. He hears things (from the horns) towards the director such as, “When we were practicing together since last rehearsal, we noticed the written music we have was different than the original recording in this area. Should we…”
At this time of the year, many of you all here are waiting on audition results just like we were last year. I hope it goes well.
We are almost ready to wrap up our spring break visit with S in his second semester here at UNT.
My sneaky secret parking formula and technique was finally busted, and I got my first parking ticket.
Each day we ask S when he wants us to meet up with him the next day. It might be anywhere from noon to 4pm, and we meet for a couple or few hours. That way, S gets his practicing, exercise, or chores done each day. In the meantime, we are on vacation.
We did lay out a plan for the summer. Some organized audition opportunities were missed a couple months ago for amusement parks and cruise ships, so this will be more of a wood-shedding summer. S will stay on campus and take a couple summer core classes - a couple of the very few non-music classes remaining on the degree plan. He has a plan for practice and exercising. There is opportunity in the schedule to add in gigs and jams with some people S has met who will also be in town. There was a summer camp coaching opportunity that was in S’ grasp, but it conflicted with a class schedule, so could not happen.
So, I feel like there is ‘a’ plan. Nothing that one brags about to impress people, no festival attendance, but it’s something. There are some RA interviews coming up, and S hopes to have that as a job for the remainder of college, but probably not this summer, unless they are short on staff and have a special training session available.
S says that if he had to advise himself from a tear ago, he would have advised more transcribing. But he says he feels happy that this is the advice he would have given himself, as opposed to something more drastic. He plans to transcribe more over the summer, but also to learn more tunes, and also to do a couple of technique improvements.
My D came home the first summer and worked for her spending money. I can’t even remember if she took lessons with her old teacher…probably. It was an uneventful summer and nice to have her home (but I’m not sure she would agree).
Maybe we need a "what did they do with their summers’ thread to capture some ideas.
Great idea @GoForth ! I think your S’s summer plans sound great. D will be coming home this summer !!! (We are pretty excited about that since she spent the last two summers away.) I think it is quite normal to spend the summer after Freshman year NOT doing a festival ( @bridgenail ?) . D’s teacher said “save your money” for when 1) you’re more “ready” and 2) you can get a better placement/role/scholarship. Said teacher said “if your parents had more money I might suggest …”, but as it stands, this is a good plan. Oberlin doesn’t offer summer classes! Otherwise it might be nice to get some credits out of the way… D will be taking lessons and practicing here at home, and doing some special work (maybe with lessons) on Aural Skills and piano to beef up her skills. Exercise has also been mentioned, lol. I think D is looking forward to some rest and relaxation, will work part time at least, and is planning to learn how to drive, as well! She has already been invited on a short trip with a new College friend from the other coast, and that friend will be coming to stay with us for a week or so, as well.
Funny you mentioned “save your money” for this summer (rising sophomore) because that is exactly what my D’s teacher also indicated. Maybe it is an Oberlin thing? 
Of course I’m not complaining. My pocket also needs a break!