UM Music
We got our assignments for sax quartet, but it was very disorganized. Our instructor, Cindy Cripps (doctorate student in woodwind studies), just picked people whom had open schedules at certain times. No ability placements or anything. So our group consists of Allison, a freshman music therapy major - nothing special in playing ability, Jenny, a junior doing BA in Music like myself with a great sound but poor techinique, and Andre, a sophomore tall black guy, not like TJ at all, still have yet to hear him. From the looks of it, I would be saying the same thing as Mark over at UCF; the sax quartet is nowhere near JPT quality (Me, Mark, Daniel, TJ) or even the following year's group. Freshmen can't be in the top band...and one of the two alto spots is taken up by the instructor...The level of saxophones in the classical department is overall way below the level of my junior year ALL-COUNTY saxes (4 all-staters of 7!!!). However, the jazz department is incredible. The players are amazing, listening to them in the practice rooms, it's scary to think that they're just students. UM is the place to go for jazz, really. The jazz saxes...wow. It's not gonna take long to become the best classical sax at UM...gotta audition at better universities or else I won't develop as much as I could. Just gonna make the best of it this year since Dale Underwood, a great professional performing classical saxophonist, is instructing classical saxes this year as well.
Was able to skip 2 semesters of theory through the placement exam. Mr.Chase's 3-hour-day-before-the-AP-Theory-exam cram session with CC helped a lot; trying to learn it in one day and night was not easy... I got not even half my classes worth of books and already spent $361, for 4 books. Never felt so poor when I went shopping at Target and was trying to find the cheapest but efficient items of need, scathing every penny. Everyday, 8:00 classes, 20 credits, no time for a social life if I were to get a job and yeah, I need money. Not even time to practice much. Haven't touched the sax for more than an hour and a half daily since classes started. High school is so much easier, even with marching band. And our fuckin LAN is restricted so no Peer-2-Peer programs like Napster, eDonkey, WinMX, etc. are allowed. That's, for lack of a better word, gay. Speaking of which, ladies and gentlemen, if you're looking for a social life, UM is THE place becuz of multiple parties everyday and the people; the ratio of the fine looking people to the unfortunate (personal preference) is roughly girls 8:1, guys 2:1. You just cannot not find someone of your type. If anyone has a piece of music whether sheet music, score, or recording that they can't find and want, drop me a line and I'll look through the music library, where I spend most of my time at UM.
Was able to skip 2 semesters of theory through the placement exam. Mr.Chase's 3-hour-day-before-the-AP-Theory-exam cram session with CC helped a lot; trying to learn it in one day and night was not easy... I got not even half my classes worth of books and already spent $361, for 4 books. Never felt so poor when I went shopping at Target and was trying to find the cheapest but efficient items of need, scathing every penny. Everyday, 8:00 classes, 20 credits, no time for a social life if I were to get a job and yeah, I need money. Not even time to practice much. Haven't touched the sax for more than an hour and a half daily since classes started. High school is so much easier, even with marching band. And our fuckin LAN is restricted so no Peer-2-Peer programs like Napster, eDonkey, WinMX, etc. are allowed. That's, for lack of a better word, gay. Speaking of which, ladies and gentlemen, if you're looking for a social life, UM is THE place becuz of multiple parties everyday and the people; the ratio of the fine looking people to the unfortunate (personal preference) is roughly girls 8:1, guys 2:1. You just cannot not find someone of your type. If anyone has a piece of music whether sheet music, score, or recording that they can't find and want, drop me a line and I'll look through the music library, where I spend most of my time at UM.