Goin' is one syllable

Well, so much for daily updates! I had no idea how busy I'd be here. It really shouldn't have been a surprise, but I'm constantly doing something.

Monday, Wednesday:
Theory 4
Eurythmics 4
Solfege 4
Lunch
Acting
Voice Class
Recording Techniques
Voice Lesson/Coaching
Dance

Tuesday, Thursday
Choir
Lunch
Music History
Jazz Choir
Composer's Forum/Convocation
Musical Theatre
Recording Techniques

Friday is another Theory/Eurythmics/Solfege bloc, another Musical Theatre, and a Composition Lesson, then the rest of the weekend is free. However, four days a week I have classes almost continuously until 7 or 8 at night, not including homework and practicing.

The students here have bonded so quickly too. After the first day of classes I felt completely comfortable with my "group," which is mostly vocalists and a pianist from Milan, Italy. I'm also good freinds with about a half-dozen other people, and I'm still getting to know more people every day.

I think I'll start by describing a couple of my classes in each blog, so here's a couple that come to mind:

Jazz Choir is fairly self expanatory, but it's a lot of fun. There are four guys (two voice majors) and about twenty girls, jamming to "Everyday People," "Sir Duke," and a couple of others, including "Survivor," by Destiny's Child. Everyone thinks it's hillarious that the guys have to sing it too, but I'm more worried about the vocabulary. Every time I see goin', I end up pronouncing it "GO-in," when it should be something more like "gohn".

In recording techniques, we each brought in a sample of text to record. Most brought in poetry or song lyrics, though Johann read a Nazi-resistance speech. One of the Jazz Choir guys had forgotten, so he decided that he was going to read the lyrics to "Survivor" aloud. He didn't have the same problem I did, but he proved to me that no matter how hard we try, goin' isn't going to sound natural coming out of a white guy's mouth. I have to give him credit, he read it without cracking up and even added some emotion to his delivery. The rest of us were cracking up from the recording booth, but he couldn't see or hear us.

We also found out about some people's habits, as their whistling, tongue clicking, and murmuring were amplified into the control room before the recording began.

I'm having a lot of fun here, but I'm looking forward to the rest of a relaxing weekend before classes start again on Monday!