Through a refreshingly random turn of events, I will be teaching a music theory class to six students between the ages of 11 and 15 for the first semester of this school year. I am both excited and a little apprehensive about this. Excited because music is my obsession and passion and I love sharing it with other people. Apprehensive because while I've taught classes on various subjects before, I've never taught music theory officially and I've never taught anything where I had to write my own syllabus.
Fortunately, I see music theory as pleasant rather than as a chore (most of the time), so writing the syllabus has actually been quite fun. Music theory is nearly impossible to teach in a group larger than ten, so having a class size of six is very comforting. The class only goes until early December, so if I find myself horribly and surprisingly unsuitable for this job I won't make my students hate me for the whole school year. Just for half of it.
All in all, I'm rather looking forward to it, despite my mild anxieties. This should be an interesting learning experience, and of course I always am pleased to find more ways to share music with people.
And thus concludes the second post of today. I wrote and published two today because I feel guilty about not posting for so long.
~Naddie
Side note: Not that I'm going to actually wear one, but what do you think a music theory teacher's hat should look like? Boater? Fez? Fedora? Dunce cap?
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Friday, August 31, 2012
Bohemian Rhapsody on Ukulele (Jake Shimabukuro)
~Naddie
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Ukulele + '50s Music = Made of Win
I found this cover of Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling In Love by Twenty One Pilots on Tumblr. I have a serious thing for ukuleles, and this is one of my favorite songs. Watch and be amazed.
~Naddie
Monday, July 23, 2012
Inspiration
Inspiration is a fickle thing. A lot of people write about
it in rhapsodic and often schmaltzy terms, making it sound a lot more wonderful
than it actually is. Personally, I get a lot of ideas, all day long, about all sorts of
things. But not always how and when I want them.
Being creative can drive me absolutely mad sometimes.
Sometimes, when I’m in the middle of, say, math, I’ll get a wonderful idea
about a novel I could write and I have to abandon 2√x±4y and scribble it down on
whatever paper-like surface happens to be nearby so I don't forget it. This, needless to say, can be
very annoying. And when I’ve got all my homework done for the day and have sat
down in front of the piano to finish the walking base motif I’ve been thinking
about all day, NOTHING HAPPENS. Inspiration, that flighty, easily offended creature, has abandoned me in my hour of need.
So how should you deal with inspiration coming at
inopportune moments? I’ve found it’s helpful to carry around a notebook and
small pen or pencil with me wherever I go. I keep sticky notes, a tape recorder
and a pencil by my bed in case I have an idea late at night. As soon as I get
an idea for anything, I record it. Even if I never use that particular idea, at
least writing it down gets creative juices flowing, which may lead to other, even better ideas.
I know everyone says this, but inspiration can be found
anywhere. I once got an idea for my NaNoWriMo novel by noticing that my piano
teacher’s pen was running out of ink. Once I was in the laundry room, and very
randomly I began humming. Now I’m in the process of turning the melody I
was humming into a jazz piece for piano. As long as you keep your eyes open and
let your mind wander, inspiration will eventually strike. Very unfortunately,
at about age 12 it becomes uncool to be curious about everything and ask
questions. Personally, I don’t really spend a lot of time being cool anyway, so
that’s not an issue for me. If you stay curious, you stay creative.
As you read this, I will be in New Mexico in the wilderness.
Maybe I’m hiking, riding a horse, shooting a rifle, or collapsing in a tired
heap after hiking ten miles up and down a mountain in the heat all day while carrying a twenty-pound pack (don't you just love Scouting?). Whatever I’m doing, I hope
that I’ll use that experience in my art someday.
Good luck finding the inspiration for the things that you like to do!
~Naddie Boyne
Sunday, May 27, 2012
April Waltz
At long last, here it is!
I wrote April Waltz not, as the title suggests, in April, but in February. I called it April Waltz because the sound suggested April to me. (I have synesthesia, which for me means that among other things I hear music in color. This piece is mostly blue and yellow with green and red, in pale-ish shades that remind me of flowers. I dunno, that's just the way that my mind has always processed sound). I've been editing it since February, and have finally arrived at a final version. Today I was at my church and choir practice finished early, so I thought hey, why not record good old April Waltz on this awesome concert piano here at the church? It's about time I posted it on my blog. So here it is. Please ignore the faint sound of screaming children in the penultimate phrase. Unfortunately, the church was far from empty while I was working. Oh, and the sound quality is kinda lousy because I had to record it on my iPod, but I deemed it good enough to post. I thought it was far better than no waltz at all, considering how long I've been promising to post this :)
~Naddie
I wrote April Waltz not, as the title suggests, in April, but in February. I called it April Waltz because the sound suggested April to me. (I have synesthesia, which for me means that among other things I hear music in color. This piece is mostly blue and yellow with green and red, in pale-ish shades that remind me of flowers. I dunno, that's just the way that my mind has always processed sound). I've been editing it since February, and have finally arrived at a final version. Today I was at my church and choir practice finished early, so I thought hey, why not record good old April Waltz on this awesome concert piano here at the church? It's about time I posted it on my blog. So here it is. Please ignore the faint sound of screaming children in the penultimate phrase. Unfortunately, the church was far from empty while I was working. Oh, and the sound quality is kinda lousy because I had to record it on my iPod, but I deemed it good enough to post. I thought it was far better than no waltz at all, considering how long I've been promising to post this :)
~Naddie
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Trash Cans, Procrastination, and Joseph Glidden
Four million African-Americans were freed from slavery due to a Union victory in the Civil War. The Solomon Island Leaf Frog has no tadpole stage but emerges from the egg as a fully-formed froglet. There are ten semitones in a diminished seventh, Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire in the late nineteenth century, and David Tennant played the Doctor for three seasons of Doctor Who.
...And you're probably wondering about now why on Earth I have just supplied you with a string of mildly interesting but almost certainly useless facts. Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. These facts are meant to have the same effect as a magician's flash of light or colored puff of smoke: I would like to distract you from what is actually going on here.
"What is actually going on here, Naddie?" you say. Well, dear reader, in response to your excellent question, you may have noticed that I haven't posted in a little while. Ok, fine, a large while. I had an excellent arsenal of excuses all ready to go, but I have decided to spare you the tedium of the precise nature of my procrastination and instead educate you with useless facts while simultaneously distracting you from my laziness. Two birds with one stone!
Oh, don't worry. I actually do intend to include some worthwhile content in this post, not only distractions, excuses and similes. And no, I'm not posting the waltz I wrote. Not yet. I still haven't figured out how to imbed a sound clip in a post (if you haven't guessed by now, my talents lie outside the perplexing realm of computers and technology). The waltz will have to wait a little longer. However, I recently became very bored quite late at night and the following writing resulted:
Six Good Reasons Why Every Room in Every House Ought to Have Two Trash Cans
1. You don't have to take out the trash so dreadfully often.
2. Each trash can needs another trash can to talk to. This is important. It can get to be terribly lonely, sitting there day after day while everyone's filling you up with trash. Only another trash can can really understand and sympathize with a trash can. Sometimes a really good actor wearing a convincing enough costume can do it, but it should be noted that this is not a good substitute for getting a second trash can for each room because most actors will not put up with sitting still all day while people throw things away in them.
3. If one of your trash cans gets burnt to ashes because some idiot thought it would be good fun to throw away a lighted match, then you've got a spare can all ready to go.
4. If you have to throw away something really big, you can cut it in half and share it between the two cans. Teamwork!
5. If you have a sudden urge to play a game of indoor soccer, pour out the trash from one can into the other. Then proceed to kick the empty can around the room until the game ends or you get bored or dizzy or all three.
6. If you are confronted with a bare light bulb, if you're at a New Year's party, or you find yourself for any other reason in need of an emergency lampshade, empty one trash can into another as discussed in reason #5. Then place the empty can on the light bulb or head. Note: This only works with lamps and cans that are of compatible sizes. Please do not attempt to place a very large trash can on an average-sized human head.
And thus I shall conclude this long-ish post. I hope to be able to post more often now, as many of my scholastic commitments this year have ended or are soon to do so.
~Naddie Boyne
...And you're probably wondering about now why on Earth I have just supplied you with a string of mildly interesting but almost certainly useless facts. Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. These facts are meant to have the same effect as a magician's flash of light or colored puff of smoke: I would like to distract you from what is actually going on here.
"What is actually going on here, Naddie?" you say. Well, dear reader, in response to your excellent question, you may have noticed that I haven't posted in a little while. Ok, fine, a large while. I had an excellent arsenal of excuses all ready to go, but I have decided to spare you the tedium of the precise nature of my procrastination and instead educate you with useless facts while simultaneously distracting you from my laziness. Two birds with one stone!
Oh, don't worry. I actually do intend to include some worthwhile content in this post, not only distractions, excuses and similes. And no, I'm not posting the waltz I wrote. Not yet. I still haven't figured out how to imbed a sound clip in a post (if you haven't guessed by now, my talents lie outside the perplexing realm of computers and technology). The waltz will have to wait a little longer. However, I recently became very bored quite late at night and the following writing resulted:
Six Good Reasons Why Every Room in Every House Ought to Have Two Trash Cans
1. You don't have to take out the trash so dreadfully often.
2. Each trash can needs another trash can to talk to. This is important. It can get to be terribly lonely, sitting there day after day while everyone's filling you up with trash. Only another trash can can really understand and sympathize with a trash can. Sometimes a really good actor wearing a convincing enough costume can do it, but it should be noted that this is not a good substitute for getting a second trash can for each room because most actors will not put up with sitting still all day while people throw things away in them.
3. If one of your trash cans gets burnt to ashes because some idiot thought it would be good fun to throw away a lighted match, then you've got a spare can all ready to go.
4. If you have to throw away something really big, you can cut it in half and share it between the two cans. Teamwork!
5. If you have a sudden urge to play a game of indoor soccer, pour out the trash from one can into the other. Then proceed to kick the empty can around the room until the game ends or you get bored or dizzy or all three.
6. If you are confronted with a bare light bulb, if you're at a New Year's party, or you find yourself for any other reason in need of an emergency lampshade, empty one trash can into another as discussed in reason #5. Then place the empty can on the light bulb or head. Note: This only works with lamps and cans that are of compatible sizes. Please do not attempt to place a very large trash can on an average-sized human head.
And thus I shall conclude this long-ish post. I hope to be able to post more often now, as many of my scholastic commitments this year have ended or are soon to do so.
~Naddie Boyne
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Comment troubles: no more!
Hey everyone,
This is just to let you know that if you have ever had any trouble leaving comments, I fixed the problem and it should work just fine now. However, if trouble persists, lemme know and after some initial forehead slapping I will troubleshoot this irritating conundrum again.
Also, look out for an upcoming post about a waltz that I wrote for piano. Coming soon to a browser near you!
~Naddie
This is just to let you know that if you have ever had any trouble leaving comments, I fixed the problem and it should work just fine now. However, if trouble persists, lemme know and after some initial forehead slapping I will troubleshoot this irritating conundrum again.
Also, look out for an upcoming post about a waltz that I wrote for piano. Coming soon to a browser near you!
~Naddie
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