school talk

Disclaimer: this is a really long post containing lots of feelings about going back to school. Mostly very happy feelings. but if you're not interested in what I'm doing at the Academy of Music, you probably don't want to read this. I've trown in some pictures from my walk earlier today, though.

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I went down to the school today to take care of some schedule stuff (since I had applied for a year off and sent in all the papers, I had to get myself back in the system now), and it just made me so happy. Going back now almost feels like what I felt when I first found out I had gotten in, two years ago. I could not believe it at first. I knew they only take two. Two! How could there not be two people better than me?

But I was good enough.

And today I got the feeling that I'm still good enough. And it was quite wonderful, I tell you. I feel giddy with excitement and I'm so very eager to make this a better semester than the last one. To keep my love of music this time. Stay happy.

I'll get my classical singing teacher back (anything else would have been a small disaster and I would have been unhappy, but I was quite sure I would get her - I knew she would protest, too, if they tried something else) and I'll get another, hopefully great, singing teacher in this new course I'm taking, jazz singing. I'm thinking and hoping it's going to be great. Hard work taking two different singing classes, but I feel so inspired!



Here's what I'm taking this year (all of these are mandatory except the jazz singing which I've chosen):

The two largest courses are what we call "reading courses" - you know, the ones where there's a teacher standing talking in front, and then you go home and read a lot in thick books. I guess this sounds a lot like the university to most people, but when studying music, these classes are really kind of rare. Actually it's rare that I'm in a class with more than five or six students. Anyways I read wuite fast and I usually understand and learn what I read, so I don't mind this kind of classes.

- Klassisk musikhistoria med musikantropologi (classical music history with music anthropology); this is rumoured to be the heaviest course of the whole education. Lots and lots to read.. But I think music history is fascinating. If only I could start studying in time for once in my life ...!

- Musik, genus och mångfald (music, gender and ... don't know what that's called in English), some kind of sociology thing, rumored to be hopelessly uninsteresting, but I don't like starting a new course thinking that, so I've decided to be super excited about it (so far not working).

And the more practical ones ...

- Klassisk sång (classical singing); nothing more to say than that I just adore my teacher. We've been working hard for two years and I look forward to being a lot more focused than I was during spring.

- Jazzsång (jazz singing); I haven't worked with this teacher before, but I heard she's great and I really want to be better at jazz singing.

- Kammarmusik (chamber music); if only I can get a good ensemble this year too (good as in people I like, not as in people who play well, because they all play extremely well), it's going to be swell.

- Sångmetodik (singing methodology?); it's been interesting before so I'm hoping it will be now, too. And I'll get to have a pupil of my own, which was lovely last time. Teaching singing is so much fun!

- VFU (practical training); a whole month (November) at the high school in Kungälv. My instructor/ supervisor (good translation for handledare, someone?) is amazing and feels more like a friend. I can ask her tons of stupid questions, and she really is a great singing teacher, so I know I have a lot more to learn from her. It's going to be hard to get up before six in the morning for a whole month to get there, though. (That may be the worst thing about the whole fall semester.)



And that's that I think. Doesn't look so much. But I know I have a tendency of burying myself in musts - there's always so much that seems fun. There's the lindy hop social night on Mondays, Tuesday night is choir practice, aerobics on Wednesdays, modern dance on Thursdays; three times a week I need to get to the gym and do my back exercises for an hour, some weekends I'll teach lindy hop ...

Why are there so many fun things to do - that will all become a burden if I don't take time enough to rest?