Midterms:
So I'm about half way through my first semester at Berklee and I think I'm planning too far ahead and forgetting about what I'm doing tomorrow, for example. I do have big plans for my time at Berklee, but I need to remember to make the baby steps to try and break down these big plans. Like I want to test out of as much as I can at the start of next semester. Testing out basically means that I take a test saying that I know all the material that will be taught in the class so I don't need to take it, but I still want the credits. Remember, American universities run a credit system and you need to collect enough credits to graduate. So I want to test out of classes like both tonal harmony classes (because it's just Bach Chorales, which I've been doing the last 2 years) and both conducting classes because their course description seems basic enough and I want to try and make some spare time for a Conducting Minor in my later years. I was also going to try and test out of the earlier harmony classes here, but apparently the first one I will have to take already jumps straight into hardcore jazz theory and I have never touched any of that in my life. Go old-fashioned England! So I'm slightly slowed down there, but if I take an Acoustics class, that would be a class that counts for my Natural Science, Liberal Arts requirement and I'm required to take it before being allowed to declare the Music Production & Engineering Major and that is where a dilemma begins...
So I am having a slight identity crisis. I am having trouble deciding between the riskier passion or the safer, more solid career. The riskier passion would be taking the Performance Major and as everyone knows, being a musician is a very risky, difficult business, but I would feel more confident in myself if I felt like I could hold my own as a drummer at this school, but I feel like I have a lot to do just to catch up, so I could either risk it, put my head down and work till I get to where I feel confident in my abilities or I could go for the apparently safer option which would be the Music Production & Engineering Major. I wasn't even considering this option coming into the Berklee (especially after the U in my Music Tech coursework, which on a remark is still a U...! Went up 20 ums though), but after randomly doing some techy stuff here and there, such as, working on my drum covers; help mixing a friend's project; help people with their music tech homework without even knowing how to use the program and the fact that I tested out of the music tech class here. After that, I appeared to collect a fair collection of generous compliments, which got me thinking that maybe this could be a viable option for me. So yeah, I can't really decide right now. The most likely option seems a Performance Major with MP&E minor, but I don't know if that will give me enough MP&E knowledge. I don't know if it will go far enough in depth. Another problem is that I want to take the Conducting minor, but I don't know if I will get the time to do so if I do the afore mentioned plan. Also, I don't know if it will work with the career plan, but I don't even know where I am as a conductor. If I could make it or not. I have never had the chance to see if I'm good or not (thanks Hills).
Anyway moving onto funner stories. The World Series was in town... That was alright I guess. <Biggest understatement ever< The city went crazy! For a couple of weeks prior, we got emails from Berklee Public Safety warning about all of these games, but then they won the whole competition and the city erupted! I went busking at that game with my Alaskan friend, Kirsten, only made $20 but that's not the point, we got kicked out of the general area of the stadium at like the 6th or 7th innings to start crowd controlling because a lot of people were already out because they were 6-0 up already. After that I went back to Berklee to watch the end of the game and we went outside as soon as it finished just to see what all the hubbub was about. The streets were already full of party people! Throughout the evening I heard about cars being flipped, people climbing the traffic lights just to jump from them into the crowd, windows broken, people jumping on taxis and the riot police was pretty intense looking. They were all dressed in full armor with effectively baseball bats and like every other one had a dog and they just lined up along the street with an armored vehicle behind them and just walked the city away from Fenway. My friends and I stood and watched them although our Bostonian friend was extremely scared. I didn't see the police have to get anyone, but they did have to get a bit rattled up to make sure people kept walking! Also, there were police in every type of vehicle you could imagine just making sure everyone stayed sensible. It didn't work entirely, but realistically, compared to past parties of this kind, apparently this one was rather tame. People just had a good time and celebrated! It was awesome to watch!
Back to why I'm here... School! This past week was our Midterms. In America they have the workload spread out so basically every homework and even class participation and attendance counts to your final grade, but then they still have Midterms and Finals to be the bulk of your grade. I had it pretty easy. I only had midterms in Music Application and Theory (MAT) and Ear Training 1 (ET). They were both pretty easy. I got 97% in the ET practical portion and that's the only result I have so far. I would expect 100% in everything else, really. As I've said before, these classes are pretty easy so far. So no worries with my school work.
Now that's it's been around two months away from ex-home (now that my parents have moved to Belgium) and also because the Christmas holidays are coming closer and closer I really can't wait to get home, by which I still mean England. I've never been in Belgium longer than a day yet and I've never seen the new house so obviously not calling that 'home' yet and I also think about going to England when I think about the Christmas holidays. I will be staying with Hannah in England for the Christmas period, but our semester end on the 21st of December, here. After that my flight to Belgium has been booked for Boxing Day, I believe, for Hannah and I. So that means I don't have long there, which really sucks! I do miss England. I miss having my drum kit just upstairs to play whenever I want; having my TV and Playstation just there; being able to drive around and see all my friends; the generally more relaxed atmosphere; not worrying about life yet; waking up on a Sunday morning to go play rugby (I miss rugby way too much!); I missed cricket before I even left, didn't get to play enough in the summer. Most of all I do miss just hanging out with my friends. Hanging out in on my sofa with Hannah or in the gallery or at rugby on a Sunday or around Shelford or Parker's Piece etc. with all the people that meant something to me in my time in England. Hannah, my Hills Road friends, Leys friends, Rugby friends, Cricket friends, Guildhall friends and even as far back as St. Faith's.
I really do miss you all and I can't wait to get home and I really want to see as many of you as possible when I'm briefly at 'ex-home'
I thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I hope you find anywhere near as exciting as I do. I just want you to see how amazingly contrasting and interesting this world can be.
Please stay tuned for the next installments and I will try to get them out more frequently, but I'm trying to make sure I get enough content in and I spend enough time to thoroughly write this.
Hope your life is well :)
So I'm about half way through my first semester at Berklee and I think I'm planning too far ahead and forgetting about what I'm doing tomorrow, for example. I do have big plans for my time at Berklee, but I need to remember to make the baby steps to try and break down these big plans. Like I want to test out of as much as I can at the start of next semester. Testing out basically means that I take a test saying that I know all the material that will be taught in the class so I don't need to take it, but I still want the credits. Remember, American universities run a credit system and you need to collect enough credits to graduate. So I want to test out of classes like both tonal harmony classes (because it's just Bach Chorales, which I've been doing the last 2 years) and both conducting classes because their course description seems basic enough and I want to try and make some spare time for a Conducting Minor in my later years. I was also going to try and test out of the earlier harmony classes here, but apparently the first one I will have to take already jumps straight into hardcore jazz theory and I have never touched any of that in my life. Go old-fashioned England! So I'm slightly slowed down there, but if I take an Acoustics class, that would be a class that counts for my Natural Science, Liberal Arts requirement and I'm required to take it before being allowed to declare the Music Production & Engineering Major and that is where a dilemma begins...
So I am having a slight identity crisis. I am having trouble deciding between the riskier passion or the safer, more solid career. The riskier passion would be taking the Performance Major and as everyone knows, being a musician is a very risky, difficult business, but I would feel more confident in myself if I felt like I could hold my own as a drummer at this school, but I feel like I have a lot to do just to catch up, so I could either risk it, put my head down and work till I get to where I feel confident in my abilities or I could go for the apparently safer option which would be the Music Production & Engineering Major. I wasn't even considering this option coming into the Berklee (especially after the U in my Music Tech coursework, which on a remark is still a U...! Went up 20 ums though), but after randomly doing some techy stuff here and there, such as, working on my drum covers; help mixing a friend's project; help people with their music tech homework without even knowing how to use the program and the fact that I tested out of the music tech class here. After that, I appeared to collect a fair collection of generous compliments, which got me thinking that maybe this could be a viable option for me. So yeah, I can't really decide right now. The most likely option seems a Performance Major with MP&E minor, but I don't know if that will give me enough MP&E knowledge. I don't know if it will go far enough in depth. Another problem is that I want to take the Conducting minor, but I don't know if I will get the time to do so if I do the afore mentioned plan. Also, I don't know if it will work with the career plan, but I don't even know where I am as a conductor. If I could make it or not. I have never had the chance to see if I'm good or not (thanks Hills).
Anyway moving onto funner stories. The World Series was in town... That was alright I guess. <Biggest understatement ever< The city went crazy! For a couple of weeks prior, we got emails from Berklee Public Safety warning about all of these games, but then they won the whole competition and the city erupted! I went busking at that game with my Alaskan friend, Kirsten, only made $20 but that's not the point, we got kicked out of the general area of the stadium at like the 6th or 7th innings to start crowd controlling because a lot of people were already out because they were 6-0 up already. After that I went back to Berklee to watch the end of the game and we went outside as soon as it finished just to see what all the hubbub was about. The streets were already full of party people! Throughout the evening I heard about cars being flipped, people climbing the traffic lights just to jump from them into the crowd, windows broken, people jumping on taxis and the riot police was pretty intense looking. They were all dressed in full armor with effectively baseball bats and like every other one had a dog and they just lined up along the street with an armored vehicle behind them and just walked the city away from Fenway. My friends and I stood and watched them although our Bostonian friend was extremely scared. I didn't see the police have to get anyone, but they did have to get a bit rattled up to make sure people kept walking! Also, there were police in every type of vehicle you could imagine just making sure everyone stayed sensible. It didn't work entirely, but realistically, compared to past parties of this kind, apparently this one was rather tame. People just had a good time and celebrated! It was awesome to watch!
Back to why I'm here... School! This past week was our Midterms. In America they have the workload spread out so basically every homework and even class participation and attendance counts to your final grade, but then they still have Midterms and Finals to be the bulk of your grade. I had it pretty easy. I only had midterms in Music Application and Theory (MAT) and Ear Training 1 (ET). They were both pretty easy. I got 97% in the ET practical portion and that's the only result I have so far. I would expect 100% in everything else, really. As I've said before, these classes are pretty easy so far. So no worries with my school work.
Now that's it's been around two months away from ex-home (now that my parents have moved to Belgium) and also because the Christmas holidays are coming closer and closer I really can't wait to get home, by which I still mean England. I've never been in Belgium longer than a day yet and I've never seen the new house so obviously not calling that 'home' yet and I also think about going to England when I think about the Christmas holidays. I will be staying with Hannah in England for the Christmas period, but our semester end on the 21st of December, here. After that my flight to Belgium has been booked for Boxing Day, I believe, for Hannah and I. So that means I don't have long there, which really sucks! I do miss England. I miss having my drum kit just upstairs to play whenever I want; having my TV and Playstation just there; being able to drive around and see all my friends; the generally more relaxed atmosphere; not worrying about life yet; waking up on a Sunday morning to go play rugby (I miss rugby way too much!); I missed cricket before I even left, didn't get to play enough in the summer. Most of all I do miss just hanging out with my friends. Hanging out in on my sofa with Hannah or in the gallery or at rugby on a Sunday or around Shelford or Parker's Piece etc. with all the people that meant something to me in my time in England. Hannah, my Hills Road friends, Leys friends, Rugby friends, Cricket friends, Guildhall friends and even as far back as St. Faith's.
I really do miss you all and I can't wait to get home and I really want to see as many of you as possible when I'm briefly at 'ex-home'
I thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I hope you find anywhere near as exciting as I do. I just want you to see how amazingly contrasting and interesting this world can be.
Please stay tuned for the next installments and I will try to get them out more frequently, but I'm trying to make sure I get enough content in and I spend enough time to thoroughly write this.
Hope your life is well :)
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