Not a Spare Moment

wow! BYU is amazing. I love it up here. The music program is insane, however. I knew it would be really hard and a lot of work, but oh my gosh. I think they're trying to kill us! Ok, well, things are going slightly better. The past two days they have, anyway. Don't get me wrong, things are great up here, i love the people, and the musicians here are AMAZING as are the professors, but last week and the beginning of this week were terribly difficult. I always have SOOO much work to do. I can't ever seem to get everything done. I study 24/7. One night I stayed up till 3 working on music theory (it was a ridiculously long assignment and I didn't understand it very well and was trying hard to learn it). My roommates always say the feel bad for me because i am ALWAYS studying and they don't seem to have that much to do. And they aren't slackers or anything. They keep telling us this is one of the hardest majors. And one of the ones you get the least credit for. So after this insane week, today was a lighter day as far as classes go. Robert and I had planned on working really hard today to try and get all caught up and ahead (if possible), so we could relax this weekend, but I think we met our breaking point. I wasn't terribly productive today. I have just been working sooooo hard nonstop, and I just couldn't take it any more. i had to take a break. i couldn't even focus anymore. So we took the late afternoon and night off and went to a movie (haha, $1 movies at the Wilk are amazing), ordered pizza, and relaxed at his place. It was really nice to take some time off. so ya. But some of my professors have told us that the first couple weeks are terrible and then it suddly eases up, so hopefully that will prove to be true.
Music Theory is my hardest class. By far. Because of all of the stuff they are shoving down our throats in a small amount of time. I have so much stuff to learn/memorize by our test monday. It's hard because everyone's at different levels. You have people in there that took AP music theory classes in high school or are pianists/guitarists and are automatically good at it. Then you have people like me who are completely overwhelmed and don't know how they are going to survive life because music theory is swallowing them whole. Sight Singing has also been a bit of a challenge for me. It's one of my least favorite classes. the choir kids are really good in there. We pretty much do two kinds of exercises: rhythm (we have to conduct with one hand, tap the subdivision with the other hand, and count outloud with two different counting styles), and melodic (this is where I have issues. you are sight singing it and you have to use solfege when you sing it and use the hand signs. The only note we get to hear is the A440 from our tuning forks. the rest we have to figure out). This is the class that's supposed to get easier though. We've had to do exercises every day till they are perfect, but the exercises are an overview of the whole semester and harder. Next week we go back to square one and it's easier. Dictation is not too bad of a class for me. It's all listening. We do four different exercises: 1) you listen for the intervals, write them, and name them, 2) you listen for rhythm and write it, 3) you listen for the melody and rhythm and intervals and write it down, 4) you listen to a series of chords and you notate the bass note (for now) and write what kind of chord it is. The last one I've had a harder time catching on to, but the first 3 have come pretty well for me. Music civilization is more like a history class in relation to all of fine arts (mostly literary). Book of Mormon is amazing. It's my favorite class. Our professor is teaching here for the first time, and was previously a seminary teacher at Provo High School, so he's still in the seminary mode instead of the detailed historical mode that the other BOM professors are in. In class we have really deep/spiritual discussions. He told us he wants to focus on the principles of the gospel in the BOM and applying them to our lives. Now don't freak out, but I had been trying to get into an english class, but failed (I tried FOUR english classes that could have fit my schedule but they were all full with waiting lists), so I got into a class recommended by this acquaintance. It's called Strengthening Marriage and Family. It's basically a class centered around the Family Proclamation. it's a really cool class. Our professor is a therapist. It's kinda just like another religion class. then i have my masterclass every week with all the violas in the studio. I'm in Philharmonic orchestra (which is amazing, by the way), I have private lessons every week ( I just had my first one today. it was a planning meeting), and I am supposed to practice 2 hours a day. so ya. there's my whole life in a nutshell. A very big nutshell. I appolagize. lol. There's just so much to say and so few opportunities to write in here. Sorry it took me so long, as i said before, I don't really have free time. Just on weekends. ish. haha. Well, I can't wait for Mom and Dad to get home so i can call them!! I miss them sooo much!!! I better go, seeing as it's 2:30 in the morning. I just had to sacrifice some sleep so i could post on here. I love and miss y'all!