A Daily Dose of Peculiar People

Really, though, this makes me want to play brass.
Sorry, double reeds. Just prove to me we can have this much fun, too.
And be this weird.
And brilliant.

This is the kind of ... oddness that I found with my lesson with Robert Sheena. (If you're reading this, I mean that in the best way possible. Really.) And it's precisely what makes my dream to play with these guys.
I wonder if the NY Phil has this much fun.

Cynicism, est. Birth

I really need to stop thinking so much; there's no way it's good for me.
What I was thinking about today, however, was my mom's suggestion for me to double major in journalism and music and become a music critic as a backup. And, whilst thinking, suddenly it didn't seem so outrageous after all.
One story my mother absolutely adores telling - one of many - is how, as an infant, when a particular violinist we know* would play, instantaneously smiling baby me would go to screaming, crying, baby me. Keep in mind, she was not the best player. Then, at my grandmother's funeral a few years later (I think I was around two years old, possibly three, I don't exactly remember), a singer performed "Ave Maria", and apparently did it well: from the audience came a small, "Again!" courtesy of, well, me.
She finds it funny that I've been a music critic, though not a very refined or subtle one, since I was barely walking.
I think it would be rather cool: my job is to go to concerts, and when I make comments on how I think it went, people (theoretically) actually give a damn. Assuming I do well in the profession, anyway.
My first and most ideal career would still be - and is - music performance. I don't think that a backup wouldn't be a bad idea, however; this one also works in tandem with studying music, more so than previous thoughts of geology or astrophysics. (I still think they're awesome, though, don't get me wrong. I read Scientific American and National Geographic just like the other nerds next door.)
Still no word on the Pre-College, for those of you wondering. Everyone around me is thinking optimistically, and it's becoming extraordinarily difficult for me to not get my hopes up, as much as I desperately want (and need) to.

*they shall remain anonymous for the protection of their pride

An Experiment

As anyone who's been to a concert an has not coughed knows, the audience always coughs - and it's more than slightly annoying. (Not maybe as annoying as clapping between movements or photographers with obnoxiously loud shutters snapping photos constantly, both of which I experienced today. But, still.) I thought of a hypothesis during the concert I saw today. As the good science student I also am, I decided to come up with a type-written experiment, even though I can't actually execute it.
The concert featured Branford Marsalis, and it was incredible. Just for the record.
But, the experiment:

Hypothesis: It is only a few audience members that create the coughing that distracts and annoys performers and audience members alike.

Materials:

• Orchestra (with conductor and full program)
• A suitably grey-haired audience
• Concert hall (large preferred for large audience size)
• Several ushers
• Pencil
• Paper
• Counter device (optional)
• Cough drops (several dozen)
• Funds for refunds that will inevitably be demanded

Procedure:

1. Commence concert as typical.
2. When an audience member coughs, escort them from the hall and provide them with cough drops. Provide refund if demanded. Do not permit them to reenter the hall.
3. For the duration of the concert repeat step 2.
4. Calculate percentage of patrons who were removed from the concert out of the total. If a small amount, hypothesis is likely correct.

Being as I can't exactly do this, I have no actual data. In the meantime, I'm just going to assume I'm correct, and will glare in the direction of the assumed few who cough during the Adagio.

Rambling, Most Likely Uninteresting to Anyone With More of a Life than Me

While I'm working on the "Reedmaking for the Non-Oboist", I'd ordinarily like to post funny musical anecdotes just to keep this thing alive, or at least showing minimal life signs.
Clearly, that isn't happening.
I'm willing to blame the lack of anything remotely interesting (or, funny) happening on the fact that two weeks of AP exams just concluded, AND every single performance group has concluded its season, and so I have absolutely no rehearsals to go to anymore. On a note, though, I received a 100 on both of my NYSSMA auditions. Hopefully, I'll be blogging from Rochester again(!). Maybe this time I'll have people that I know to dodge the parties with, rather than just my lonely self. I swear, I'm not that much of a loser. ... Kind of.
Tomorrow's my Juilliard Pre-College audition, theoretically at 11 AM, though maybe not theoretically. Unlike some places, I figure these auditions will be more likely to be on time. Hopefully I'll have some self-depreciating (but funny, to all of you sadists) comments about how the audition went. Or, maybe, I'll have some decent stuff to say about myself and my performance. Meh. It's also my tuba-playing friend's senior recital, but I'll refrain from concert reviews because I know I can be harsh. (I don't try to be, though.)
Speaking of reviews, that brings up an interesting thing I've been thinking about. My mother, most conveniently, has been suggesting numerous double majors that I could consider that wouldn't be completely irrelevant to my music performance major. (I'm already set on that one.) Since I have an almost unhealthy obsession with Russian culture and history, a Russian Studies major could come into use.
No, seriously, stay with me. There's actually a connection here.
With the two degrees, and maybe some grad school work, we were thinking hey - I could use this to teach. I haven't seen any courses - though we have found one book - that were like what we were thinking of: Russian musical history. It'd be like any other music history course, except concentrating on Russian composers, and God only knows there are a lot of them.
The other idea, this one more recent (a.k.a., suggested a few hours ago) was journalism. Now, this woman had never even encouraged a degree in anything but science, so this one was just a little (a lot*) out of the blue. But, she had a point: I'm a good writer, and I'm naturally hypercritical, and so maybe a career, or a side one, as a music critic could work. At least, I'd like to think I'm a good writer, and I've been told many times - but you all can judge that for yourselves. The hypercritical part, I'm 100% sure I am. I'm not exactly a kind reviewer to my own performances.
All of that aside though, I'm definitely not going to be choosing a college based on what sort of enhanced musical career I want, if I decide on one. University of Rochester (that I'll refer to as U of R from now on) offers a Russian Studies major, while Boston University (now BU, because I'm lazy) doesn't. I haven't gotten a chance to check on which offer journalism, but since journalism is journalism I'm more or less assuming that both schools have programs in it.
In all though, I still really want to study with Robert Sheena.

Reedmaking for the Non-Oboist

Okay, I know this is the first time I've posted in ages. But, I promise: it'll be worth it.
I came up with an idea as the billionth person asked me how an oboist makes reeds: why not create a sort of series that explains how reeds are made? In no way do I consider myself an expert on the subject, but I at least know enough, I'd think, to describe it well enough for those who have no idea what I'm talking about.
I'm hoping to publish the first segment of this by the end of the week at the latest. I don't know how long this will take, and I can go only so in depth (it's pretty in-depth, but still) as I don't have a gouging machine or anything -but that's near an equivalent of AP Reedmaking, so I'll leave that for another day.