It's 8:12, and I should really be studying for my midterm at 10. But, this test and this class encompasses many things that I've grown to truly hate about formal education, so I feel a need to take a break and talk about it a little bit. I'm taking this class in orchestral bowing, which has had a few interesting insights but for the most part has consisted of analyzing to death things that any decent orchestral player does instinctively (Thing I Hate #1: analyzing things that I feel don't need to be analyzed). I know this is for the benefit of the non-string players in the class (mostly conducting and music ed majors), but I dislike being used as a guinea pig to demonstrate bowings that I know before we even try them will sound stupid (consider that Thing I Hate #2). But anyway, our tests always consist of his handing us an exact copy of the test the week before it's going to happen, usually a sheet basically direstly out of the book that he wrote for the class, which we fill out, memorize, and regurgitate back at the next class. That's definitely Thing I Hate #3: Vomit Education. It's pointless, annoying, and time consuming, and really I'd rather be learning something useful, thanks. Grrr.
Anyway, back to memorizing the ideal speed for sautille bowing, at least according to my teacher.
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2 comments:
I misread orchestral "bowing" as "bowling," which was a fantastically hilarious momentary image.
Hang in there! :)
In the orchestra office where I work filling in bowings on parts, we always used to have a sign un saying "Let's go Bowing!" with a small "l" subsequently added in to make it bowling instead. And bowling is also inexplicably illegal in Evanston, so unfortunately such a class could never exist :-(
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