Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well, one of the main reasons I'm not really on Gaia anymore is because I'm currently attending a prestigious University, taking music as my major... though I thought I'd come on now and talk about it a bit.

Firstly, it's a lot of work. You have to really love what you do to keep at it. I'm at the school for 13 hours out of the day, just for class and practicing. I spend more time in a teeny closet-sized practice room than I do in my own bedroom nowadays, and that is no exaggeration.

But if you're willing to work that hard for what you love, then you learn to enjoy even the biggest challenges.

I'm majoring in drum set and percussion right now, and the classes couldn't be better.

About 90 drummers auditioned last year to get into this program, and only 16 were picked to go through. This means that our level of performance is not only expected to be high, but also workable. The entrance exam consisted of playing a snare solo (grade four RCM), various styles on the drum kit (Bossa nova, rock, 16th rock, swing, jazz waltz, shuffle, 12/8 blues, and a couple of Latin beats), matching pitch with voice, sight reading music, a thorough theory test on all scales, keys, melodic and harmonic minors, etc, and chords, and an ear training test to distinguish between different qualities of chords (major, minor, and dominant), degrees of a major scale, and the difference between intervals (maj2 vs min2, p5 vs octave, etc). It took up most of the day and at the end of it I wasn't sure I ever wanted to drum again! Haha.

However, once school started it all came back. I wanted nothing more than to learn more about music.

Last term I had theory, ear training, drum pad, drum set, individual, and history of jazz classes. This semester I have all of those, except history of popular music replaced history of jazz, and I have percussion ensemble and improvisation classes.

The work load is outstanding.

Right now I am prepping for scale juries, which means I am practicing this stuff for about 5 hours every day. It's a bunch of drum set styles with different exercises on them (ie, play a simple written-out rock pattern while reading a very NOT simple rhythm and playing it alternating between your snare hand and kick foot, or playing the short notes on the snare and long notes on the kick. This stuff happens for swing, shuffle, jazz waltz, and many more styles), a bunch of concert snare rudiments (dragadiddles, flamacues, ratamacues, inverted drag taps, etc), and scales, chord spelling, and music reading on a mallet instrument like a vibraphone, xylophone, or marimba.

Besides that, I have to balance English homework, theory homework, and improv homework. On top of that, I still have to practice daily for drum pad class, which is hard and trying every class, I have to prepare mallet pieces for percussion ensemble, and I have to practice ear training. Also, every other Friday I have to put a band together and perform a song in a pre-set style. Last week I did 16th note rock, this upcoming week I'm doing shuffle. I have to put a band together and schedule all the rehearsals, write out the sheet music, etc.

All told, I practice for about 9-10 hours a day, not including classes. So if I have 4 hours of class in a day, which I did today, I'm there for 13-14 hours, and today I was there for 13. On Wednesdays, I play drums for the piano ensemble class, so all told I have 5.5 hours of classes, so... Wednesdays are LONG.

All of this kind of seems overwhelming to read about, and I agree I give myself a headache thinking about it.

I often go in on weekends to catch up and get some jam time in.







But to look on the GOOD side of it...

Right now, in History of popular Music, we are learning about Elivs and Johnny Cash. By the end of it, we will be diving into punk rock styles and even go deep into the sub-genres of metal. Now, how many of you would love a class like that? I know I do.

I play drums better every day.

My FINAL EXAM last semester consisted of me playing a swing song, and then rocking out to the song Yesterday by Staind, and Evil Angel by Breaking Benjamin. I played those two as a final exam, was graded on them, and performed them in front of a live crowd.

Most kickass final exam ever? I think so.

Last week my drum teacher graded me on Duck and Run by 3 Doors Down. How many of you can say your tests literally rock?

Best yet, I'm making money in the music industry with a side project band of mine.

I think music school is alright after all!