Facebook notes...

"I may be a nerd, but the circle of fifths is pretty awesome."
March 6, 2008
Why perfect 5ths are my favorite interval:

The circle of fifths has a connection with EVERY aspect of music!

Most contemporary music begins with a I-chord, then proceeds to a V-chord (why this is even relevant is beyond me, but I find it interesting that this is usually the case in contemporary music)

Transposition- some of the most common band instruments are tuned as follows:
Alto Sax- E flat
Trumpet- B flat
F Horn- F
flute/ trombone- C
Notice that from Alto sax to trumpet is a perfect 5th, trumpet to F horn is a perfect 5th and so forth. Nice.

Physics----
An overtone is a higher natural frequency for a given note. The overtones are "harmonic" if each occurs at an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency----5 being the most relative to 1, for example, C and G are more closely related than C and D.

5ths invert to 4ths---4 chords are the third most important chords in popular music today, next to the tonic (one) and the dominant (five)...

The circle of 5ths is as follows: C G D A E B/Cb F#/Gb C#/Db Ab Eb Bb F C---notice below on the circle that as you go around it, the number of flats or sharps in the key signature increase or decrease to a certain pattern.

Also, the perfect 4ths and 5ths of each note are on either side of the key note--- for example, C and D are on the left and right of G. C is the 5th in the key of G major, and D is the 4th.

Anyways, all aspects regarding music connect to each other and is always applicable to playing an instrument or singing... Just another reason why music is so fantastic!


"Weird math...actually, another one of my crazy ideas"
April 29, 2008
I've decided that there's a better math that is rediculously confusing but actually useful--- I call it "music"...

I'm making this stupidity up as I go, so you should only read this if you have nothing to do:

In music, 6-2 can actually equal 5....I'll explain---

On a keyboard, you have in order- C D E F G A B C

this is a C major scale- A is the 6th note, D is the 2nd note, the generic interval from D to A is a 5th, therefore 6-2=5....

4-3 would still equal 1.

5-4 would also remain 1

3-1 is 3

7-5 is 3

7-4 is 4

5-2 is 4

4-2 is 3

6-3 is 4



We should teach this in schools as a revenge towards "regular" algebra. It would confuse the crap out of everyone, just like algebra confuses the crap out of me......YAY music!



"Recent life update"
August 4, 2008
Finished with teaching band camp. It was pretty fun. I am really glad that I am out of high school and away from most forms of pointless drama that I don't prefer to hear about, like people throwing cheap Avon engagement rings off of the balcony because high school couples breakup on a daily/hourly basis and can't seem to control themselves (pretty stupid). I may as well get used to it since I'm going to be a teacher. Fun experience for a little money. I think I have a hidden mean streak that erupts when people outwardly don't pay attention. My only complaint is missing the DCI show in Charleston on the 28th...Phantom Regiment was there.

Ooodles of fun for the next week, since Dave is coming to the house. He's taking his last class online for his surveying degree because he got a job surveying for CSX railroad for the next 14-18 months. I'm excited for him, since he can pay off his student loans and then some with this job, but I'm going to miss having him 3 minutes down the road.

I move out in 10 days. Sheesh. I'm excited for school to start, just not moving out now since I know Dave won't be here all the time. I have a feeling I'm going to get really good at piano this year because most of the people I know fairly well here are busier than I am and I usually just see them in music classes or something. Rarely did I just hang out with people last semester because of erratic schedules and most of my time away from class and practice was spent with Dave. I'll have a few new professors to get used to as well.

My fish died while I was away working band camp. I'm debating on whether I should get more fish or not. If I do, it will probably be cheap feeder goldfish that won't get stuck to the internal filter that killed my beautiful/expensive neon, lemon, and rummynose tetras. Cheap goldfish- lots of color for a small amount of money. I'm just mad because I spent $16 total on 9 tetras that were too stupid to stay away from the filter. Aargh.

I have a tan line from my watch. Lots of sun and the resulting nausea/dizzy feeling last week. I'm dreading band practice because my issues with sun poisoning seem to be much worse this year. I can put on SPF 35, re-apply long before the directions say, be outside for an hour, and still burn.

Anywho, that's all...more to come after next week.


August 20, 2008
A new fall...

Back again to school....

I've been arranging music for 3 part marimba. My first attempt went toward the super mario brother's theme song and I managed to finish it in 2 days. I've yet to show it to Mr. McKinney on a count of my fear of harsh criticism... I guess I'm just going to have to suck it up and give him a copy to see what he says. Good luck, me.

Mrs. White all of a sudden seems to like me for some reason. I'm glad we no longer hate each other's guts. I was really happy when she said "I'm impressed!" after I played a bunch of 1,4,1,5,1 cadences in quite a few more keys than I left being able to play at the end of last year. She actually said "I'm impressed"....wow. Shocker.

Band is yet again, awesome. So far, it is very loud and well, loud. We sound much bigger than we look. Pretty well-balanced this year:
6 flutes
3 clarinets
2 alto saxes
8 trumpets....8...
3 mellophones
around 5 baritones
maybe 2 trombones
5 tubas
lots of pit percussion
lots and lots of battery...

LOUDNESS!!

I'm excited mostly because we're playing "Firebird" and it gives me that fuzzy feeling/goosebumps I get when I hear nicely balanced chords in a particular order.

A lot of people are getting married around me. I'm still dating on a serious level...There should be a level in relationships between dating and engagement because if there was, this would happen to be where we are. Dating seriously, but not engaged or ready to get married. Dave is definitely a keeper.

There's some randomly cool girl that transferred to GSC... English major sophomore that plays guitar and sings, and is very good at her "hobby" of playing guitar and singing. This seems like an interesting person so far, and she's super friendly. Too bad more people can't be friendly like this and awesome at guitar at the same time.

Anywho, I've yet to meet the new voice professor, but she sounds cool from what Sheri said. We'll see tomorrow.

Tired. Going to bed. Band on the field tomorrow! WOOOOOOT!

"16 facts about me"
December 4, 2008
THE RULES: Write down 16 interesting facts, goals, or anything interesting about yourself. Tag 16 people, but make sure to re-tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you it means I want to get to know you better. :)

1. I'm one of those "bottle it up, explode later" kind of people.

2. My favorite color is purple.

3. One of my favorite places is Summit Lake.

4. I once tried out for the basketball team when I was in 7th grade. I'm actually glad I didn't make it, otherwise I wouldn't have joined the band.

5. One of these days, I'll visit Ireland.

6. I have a chocolate labrador named "Patty"....

7. I use Aussie shampoo...most of the time.

8. I like the idea of kayaking.

9. I tend to have a need to be by myself occasionally. Haven't figured out why.

10. Church pianist.

11. I'm usually pretty busy throughout the day.

12. I've been known to skip meals to make time to play piano.

13. I really miss my high school band geeks.

14. I once worked at wal-mart. Not for a while, anymore...

15. I'm almost finished with this.... I had trouble coming up with some of these....

16....I love Dave....that was an easy one.

"Heck yeah"
December 11, 2008
The concert band reading session was yesterday. I'm very very very excited, mostly because of the decision to include Gustav Holst's First Suite in E-flat, but also some other grade 5 "war horses". Woot. I love it. I'm definitely a Holst geek, since he pretty much started the REAL idea of concert band rather than just writing for symphony orchestras and the like. First Suite, Second Suite, The Planets (particularly Jupiter)... I could listen to Holst ALLLLL day. We're also playing some pieces by a guy from Nicholas Co. named Paff. His stuff seems OK. Definitely not Holst, but it's OK. We're eventually supposed to have chair tryouts after, but I've decided that since flute is not my main instrument, I have no chance with Jess Jaffre around to kick my butt. :) Practice remains.

This semester is OVER, thank God. Tomorrow is my last final, then I'm home free for a month. I've been waiting for this for a while. I'm immensely excited to get out of my Educational Psychology class, since it seemed to be more about arguing about pointlessness than psychology. Next semester with piano will include the 2nd and 3rd movements of Kabalevsky's Sonatina in C Op. 13, and more endless amounts of Czerny exercises. I'm beginning to warm up to the Czerny exercises though. I suppose it's for the better....My fingers on my left hand are actually starting to work independently now...

Colored Christmas lights in my room have really made this place a little bit warm and romantic, and less like a hospital room. The incessant buzzing of the fluorescent light was beginning to annoy me. I believe the Christmas lights are here to stay for a long while.

I miss Dave, loud conversations, and holding his hand.

I've decided that God really intended for me to be here. There's just so many people that I've met that are literally life-changing. I actually wonder where I would be without them. With my darling being gone with work, I was a little weary of being by myself with nobody to actually sit down and have a serious conversation with, then I met some truly phenomenal people (you know who you are...little buddy and shivvertwitch). Thank God for that.