So it has been over a month since I have written here. This semester has been a whole lot smoother then last semester. I never realized how draining teaching a Saturday class was. I also have all my lectures on power point with listening guides for the music I play during class. And all the power points, listening guides and music for each lecture are in their own folder. This might sound a little anal but it makes things so much easier when having to teach 6 classes. This year it is all about making things easier.
This semester I am teaching 3 Music Appreciation classes, a History of Jazz class and 2 Pro Tools classes. After spending a semester fixing and cleaning up the mess that was left for me in the studio (including computers and mixing boards not working) before I started teaching last semester, I finally have more than half of my problems solved. I added 3 more workstations (which in the original class formation was not able to fit them), updated all the software and finally replaced the large recording board. Now the class is much easier to teach.
Now that I have made things easier teaching, I have more time for myself. Now I have the daunting task of making new friends and new contacts. I have moved to 3 different states in the last decade and it is getting old having to start over again and again. Having more time for myself has giving me a lot of time to think. Think about where I am, how I got here and the past mistakes I have made. The mistakes were the things I should have done but did not take advantage of and things that went on longer that it should have.
From now on, I am going to take advantage of everything around me.
Now that I have a little time to write here is my schedule this semester.
So here is my load.
Monday
9:30-10:45a - Music Appreciation
11-12:15p - Fundamentals of Music
Lunch down in the college cafe. I eat with a regular group of faculty and staff members. Even the new president of the college come down and eats with us.
2-2:50p - Piano Class
3-3:30p - Private Piano Lesson with Leticia
4:30-5p - Private Piano Lesson with a faculty member Dale
Dinner with my friend and choir accompanist Ron. We have been picking a new restaurant every week.
7-9p Choir Rehearsal
Tuesday
9:30-10:45a - Music Appreciation
11-12:15p - History of Rock
Lunch down in the college cafe.
2-2:50p - Piano Class
3:30-5p - Steel Drum Band Rehearsal
5-5:50p - Piano Class
6-6:30p - Piano Lesson with Junghee
6:30-7p - Piano Lesson with Kelsey
Wednesday
9:30-10:45a - Music Appreciation
11-12:15p - Fundamentals of Music
Then home for lunch and I do not come back for the rest of the day.
Thursday
9:30-10:45a - Music Appreciation
11-12:15p - History of Rock
Lunch with my friend George
3:30-5p - Steel Drum Band
I have made it a point this semester, with the exception of Mondays, to be home by 7p so I can have a life at home. Wednesdays are my to grocery store, relax, compose and clean apartment day. My program is getting slowly growing and next semester it might grow more with the college introducing the fields of studies. It is a full teaching semester and I have to really work on my own projects of cleaning and composing.
Being a teacher, sometimes my students bring me presents. I got bought cookies from one student and I got homemade fudge and cookies from another.
Yummy!
Today I started teaching the 6 week long summer classes. This summer I am teaching 2 classes. Music Appreciation is from 12p to 1:50p and Fundamentals of Music is from 2p to 3:50p. I am having fun teaching both classes.
Now that I have a little time to write here is my schedule this semester.
I added another section of Music Appreciation last semester to make it easier to make my load but it was not in the schedule. This semester it is.
So here is my load.
Monday & Wednesday
9:30-10:45a - Music Appreciation (The new section)
11-12:15p - Fundamentals of Music
Lunch
2-2:50p - Piano Class (Only Mondays)
3-3:30p - Lesson with Josh. (I am teaching him composition and piano.)
3:30-4:45p - Music Theory
5-5:50 - Piano Class (Only Wednesdays)
Home for dinner on Mondays. On Wednesdays I stay home.
7-9p Choir (Only on Mondays)
Tuesday and Thursday
9:30-10:45a - Music Appreciation (Different section and students)
11-12:15p - History of Rock
Lunch
2-2:50p - Piano Class (Only Tuesdays)
3:30-5p - Steel Drum Band (I have 8 players this semester)
5:30-6p - A piano lesson with Max
Then home. I have made it a point this semester, with the exception of Mondays, to be home by 6p so I can have a life at home. So if there is anything I can to the next day then I will leave it and go home to relax and compose. I have a lot of classes to teach so I need my evenings for myself. It should be a productive semester.
Today is graduation day. Most people only have to go to a few graduations: theirs, maybe their family and friends but that is it. As a professor in academic, I have to go to one every year. Now add on to the fact that I am a musician. And since musicians play at graduation, I have been to a lot including 3 during high school (I sang in the choir in high school and we sang at every graduation).
At Galveston College the graduation day begins with a breakfast with all the graduates. Then rehearsal. This year they had a baby grand shipped to the convention center for me to play on during graduation. So while they practiced, so did I.
This evening, the actual graduation began. I played Pompous and Boring while the graduates processed in. Then my choir sang a gospel song, Soon I will be done with the troubles of the world. It seems appropriate. I wore my masters robe with the hood I received at my graduation. Thus ending another school year of students, teaching and music fun.
This year the college Christmas party for the faculty and staff was at the Fish Tails restaurant. I of course had to bring my girlfriend Jennifer. I wanted to bring her to have some nice company and, ok, to also show her off. She said when I asked her to come "So I am your ornament for the evening." I would say a very shinny ornament. She looked very pretty and wore a long, soft, suede looking skirt. Everyone seemed to like her. Even the president said she looked lovely.
The evening itself was ok. The food was buffet with ham and beef but not fish. I was surprised. This is a fish place. There were 2 rooms people were in and they all had to bunch into one room during the announcement of the door prizes. I won one of the door prizes, a poinsettia which I gave to Jennifer. It was still a fun evening.
The title of this years winter concert with the Galveston College Choir was the Sounds of Christmas.
The concert went well and my girlfriend Jennifer was there also. The pieces on the concert were:
Regem Natum - Handl
Caligaverunt Oculi Mei - Victoria
I Cannot Conceal It - Certon
My Bonnie Lass She Smelleth - PDQ Bach (with a bunch of antics I added)
Kde Su Kravy Moje - Schimmerling (a slavic tune about a woman trying to find her cows.)
Bidi Bom - Eddleman
Then an audience sing along with Christmas carols.
After intermission:
Carol of the Bells - Leontovich
A Winter Medely - arr. Fry
The Holy Infant's Lullaby - Dello Joio
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Eric D. Sharp (I wrote in the style of the early 20th century doo wap).
The Christmas Song - arr Ringwald
'Twas the Night Before Christmas - arr. Harry Simeone
I am ranked very high as a professor on RateMyProfessor.com.
Coolness!
My Rate Entry
Wow, It has been awhile since I have written here. After the hurricane all that people were asking, "So where did you go?" Translation: Where did you go to escape from the hurricane? Everyone here on the island realized how lucky we were. Since then we all have busy trying to catch up with the week and a half we lost. This semester for me is really busy and is something that will not happen next semester. I had 2 part time piano instructors last semester and they both left at the end of the semester so this semester I get to have 20 piano students on top of teaching other class. So on Monday and Wednesdays I teach Fundamentals of Music (a basic theory class that teaches students how to read music), a small day choir, an Ear Training & Sight Singing class and on just Mondays the community choir. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach Music Appreciation, History of Rock and Music Theory. The rest of my time is filled with piano students. Next semester I will offer a Piano Class so I will not have so many private students. So on to more teaching.
In the morning was the president's breakfast for all the graduates. I was one of the few faculty/staff to be invited to the breakfast and we sat at the president's table. I felt pretty special. In the evening was the Galveston College graduation ceremony so I got to wear my masters robe and hood. Since I had to play and conduct music during it, I did not wear that stupid square hat. I know, I have to be different. My choir performed and did great. I had to play that stupid march that everyone plays. Of course after playing it 2 times march style I got bored. People should learn to never let a musician get bored. So I started playing it like Liberace, very dramatic style, Mozart style, I was waiting for someone to come behind me and slap the back of my head and say, "What the hell are you doing." Even had the choir started sing the melody on 'Oh'. I got complements after the ceremony how great I played.
I gave my last final of the semester and the year. This ends a successful year of being a college professor. It took many years to get to this point. I knew I wanted to be a college professor when I was going tp school at Long Beach City College years ago. I would sit in the classes and want to some day be that professor teaching the class. To be someone that the students looked up to and to be the professor who the students thought knew everything about the music.
One never does know everything, but to a young student, you do. Now I am that professor that students look up to, who they think knows everything about music and who they respect and will really listen to. This past year there have been students who have or are having very difficult lives and because of me, were really touched and saw the kind of person they can and would like to be. That has a profound effect on me. To have the power to make one person begin the path to make their life better. It made me realize that for now this is were I am suppose to be.
Yesterday I was asked to give a talk during the Black History Celebration that included speakers and soul food. I was one of the speakers. I talked about the African influence on American Music. Instead of the speaking about the blues which is a typical one that everyone knows, I talked about funk. I first talked about South African Drumming and the polyrhythms between the drums. I then explained how James Brown used the polyrhythmic drum patters of South African Drumming to create funk. I had a lot of fun talking about music in front of a crowd. After the celebration was over, I received many complements and some came up to me to say they really learned something. It was nice to have that influence.
That title says it all. Though the 1st week of this semester was easier than last semester since this time my stuff is not on a truck somewhere between California and here. Let us flashback to that time period.
My 1st day as a Professor
The 1st Week as a College Professor
A Trip to the Past
This semester I hired two part time music teachers. They are both going to teach private piano lessons so I will not have to teach so many like I did last semester. I will actually have some free time that I can use to build up the program. My classes this semester are Music Appreciation and History of Rock and Roll (the same classes I taught last semester) and two new classes which are Fundamentals of Music and Class Voice. I am also conducting the choir and our 1st rehearsal is on Monday.
My Music Appreciation class has 25 students. That is more that last semester and I had to bring in a couple of desks from other classrooms so I could have enough for all the students. It should be a fun class since I like teaching to a big crowd.
Last Monday I went to The Original Mexican Restaurant with my friend Ron. It was real Mexican food. I had been there before but this time I had a blue margarita with my enchiladas and I had the Tres Leches Cake for dessert. It was so good and it completed my incredible dining experience. It was one of those few times when you go out to eat and everything tasted so good and worked well with each other to create a pleasurable dinner. Tres Leches literally means three milk cake. It is made with cream, condensed and evaporated milks. It was so good.
Today I went to an Art Walk in downtown Galveston with my friend Beth who is an art professor at the college. There was one exhibit that used mixed media. It was very interesting to see a showing of mixed media. Most of the time you see paintings or if the work used mixed media it is usually on a canvas or wood. This one used material such as dolls and branches to create a 3D work of art. It was nice seeing the art though a visual artist eyes.
This week I have been busy doing preparations for my classes which begin next week. This includes buying music, creating syllabi and of course free food. Today was the ribbon cutting of the renovated college library. Following that was vegetables (I had black olives and these little pickles), cookies and 3 different cakes (I had a piece from 2 of them). Yum.
On the 5th I went to the college to check email, voice mail, make sure the books for my classes were in the bookstore and to make sure my office was still there.
The 6th was the General Assembly. The assembly starts at 8a and ends at 4:30p. This is a big meeting with the faculty, staff and administration. It includes reports, a state of the college address by the college president and a couple of outside presentations. Some of the faculty and I acted out some scenes during the assembly. They were work related situations in which we showed the wrong and then the correct way to deal with a situation. For example, one of my scenes was talking to my supervisor about respect saying that I give my dogs more respect than she gives me and the scene ended with each of us at each others throats. The audience got a big laugh out of it and it was a really fun to do. This assembly also included free breakfast and free lunch. The quest for free food has begun in the new year.
Today was a not so exciting meeting that went from 9a to about 3p. One good thing about the meeting was the free pizza. I went back to my office to work on Syllabi for my classes. It should be a fun semester.
Here are current pictures of my office.
Musicians and performers know when you just finished a major performance and you are high in energy, when the performance has ended you begin to feel down and depressed. To resist that feeling, performers will go to Denny's or some other 24 hour restaurant to hang out, unwind and drop in energy together in the company of friends.
After an intense but exciting semester, I also needed to hang out, unwind and drop in energy in the company of friends. So I hung out with Ron and George. We hung out at Ron's house and I improvised a little on his pipe organ. It really is a great sounding organ for only having under 200 pipes. For dinner we walked to The Original Mexican Restaurant. That was real Mexican food. During our walk back, I was in the mood for some desert (ya I know, when am I not). We walked to the Mosquito Cafe and saw the Lemonade Lemon Cake. It looked so good I had to have a piece. We walked back to Ron's and I ate that cake. It was so good. I left before midnight because both Ron and I had to work tomorrow.
Well my finals were given, graded and class grades submitted to admissions. This officially completes my 1st semester as a college professor. It had its ups and downs but over all it was fun. I was told by many of my students that they really enjoyed my class and the way I taught the class. They also said they have recommended me and my class to other students. That was the coolest thing about this semester. I made an impact and opened students minds to other kinds of music that they had not heard before. Some of the students had never been to an orchestra or choir concert before. They enjoyed the experience and thanked me for forcing them to go to one as a class assignment. So I leave my office and the school for the last time this calendar year. It will be ready for more teaching adventures next year.
Today was the Faculty Christmas Party. The party takes place in the college arboretum were the culinary art students cater the party. The food was very good. My choir performed at the party singing 3 pieces. A jazz arrangement of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," my arrangement of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and the cool arrangement of "Twas the night before Christmas." I just realized this, all 3 of those pieces have long titles. Huh. The choir sang well and I ate lots of food.
This evening was my 1st concert with the Galveston College Choir and also my 1st as a college professor. The concert went very well with about 70 people attending the concert. That is pretty good for a Monday night. I even arranged for free food (cookies, water and coffee) during the intermission. The concert had a lot of variety. I had them process in twice, once in the beginning of the concert with a improv "ad lib" on a pentatonic scale and the 2nd time after intermission, after singing the chant "Puer natus est," with the Coventry Carol. Other pieces on the concert were:
3 Renaissance madrigals -"My Heart is offered still to you," "Weep O mine eyes" and "Sicut Cervus;" a nice arrangement of "Twas the Night Before Christmas," and an audience Christmas Carol Sing Along. The choir also performed 2 of my Christmas arrangements; "God Rest Ye" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."
Hey! I am mentioned in an online newspaper.
Gulf Coast E-news
A few weeks ago my name bar was put outside of my office. It is so cool.
Here is a picture of my office. This was taken near the beginning of the year when it was used as a storage room since there was no full time music professor at the college in 4 years. It is a big office and it is much cleaner now but I wanted you to what it looks like.
And here is my classroom. I can say it is my classroom because this room is only used by me and next semester by other professors in the music department.
Today I hired a new adjunct piano instructor which will alleviate the large amount of piano students I currently am teaching. It will also be nice to have another music professor around.
Hey. I am on the cover of the Galveston College Schedule of Classes.
The Cover.
The close up of myself conducting the choir.
And the Galveston College web site.
Galveston College
It is shocktober 1st. That is what we called today at my high school after the big 5.9 Whittier Narrows earthquake in California on October 1, 1987.
First, some Galveston background:
The City of Galveston is located on the eastern end of Galveston Island, a 30 mile long barrier island 2.5 miles at it's widest point (61st Street) and 2 miles off the coast of Texas.
There are lots of things to do on Galveston Island.
Now to the College:
Galveston College is on Avenue Q.
Pictures I took of the college
The school has four three story buildings that are connected by indoor hallways. The buildings are Moody, Regents, Northern and Fine Arts.
I teach in the Fine Arts Building. My office is on the 2nd floor in room FA-217. My office is quite large. It is bigger than my second bedroom/studio is. I have a big window that faces south. I teach my lecture classes like music appreciation in FA-216 which is right next door to my office. The classroom is not real big and has only about 25 desks and chairs. The classroom does have a 4 speaker surround sound system from which I play musical examples with.
The other room in which I teach in is FA-207 which is just down the hall from my office. It is a large room with a stage. This is where I rehearse the college choir. The choir is currently small (which will change now that I am here) but a very good choir.
Other areas I might mention is the gym, which is also just down the hall from me, the faculty wing (which is where I call the area where a number of the faculty offices are located) is on the 3rd floor of the Northern Building. That is all I can think of for now. More later as the year progresses.
I had planned on documenting the events of each day from the move from Greenbrae to Galveston. At first, it was not a difficult task and I could spare a few minutes to write the events down. With school starting and my stuff coming 2 days later, I seemed to have very little time to write between planning for my classes and unpacking nice brown boxes.
DD left on Labor Day (Monday) so Mom and I went off to unpack and fix up my bedroom. We finished the bedroom and my bathroom on Monday. During the rest of the week Mom would unpack books and stuff and I would go teach then come back and help her. By Saturday were almost done.
Saturday we went to the Ashton Villa.
Link to the History of Ashton Villa
Another link with some interior views
An amazing house. While on the tour we could actually go into the rooms not just look at them behind a rope. It enabled me to imagine living in that house during that time period.
We then went to the The Strand National Historic Landmark District which is downtown Galveston. Still looks like it did at the turn of the century.
We ate at Yaga's Cafe. Really good food. We then went to an Ice Cream place and I got birthday cake ice cream. It was so good. Yummy.
Ok. Let's try to sum up all the fun and chaos I have gone through this past week. Well, On Sunday, DD and I want to the aquarium at the Moody Gardens here on the island. Moody Gardens consists of 3 pyramids; the aquarium, the rainforest, the discovery museum, a paddlewheel boat (like on the Mississippi River) and IMAX theater. It was fun seeing the fishies. There were also penguins there which are also cute.
Monday was supposed to be my Monday/Wednesday Music Appreciation class but not enough people signed up for it so it ended up being cancelled. At 6p that evening I was honored with a reception. It was a way to announced to the community that Galveston College finally has a full time music professor. This was followed with the 1st community choir rehearsal of the year. It is a good group and it will fun rehearsing and conducting them during the year.
Tuesday was my Tuesday/Thursday Music Appreciation class at 9:30a. I have 19 students in this class. That is a big for a music class for a college this size. This was followed by the History of Rock class at 11a. This class has about 12 students. I really enjoy teaching and talking about music in a college setting. It is still amazing to me that I blab away about music and people are taking notes on what I say. It is almost surreal.
Wednesday I have the hard drive of the computer in my office taken for a day. It has Microsuck 2000 instead of XP. Since the school is networked with XP they needed install it on my computer.
Thursday I have my Music Appreciation class and History of Rock class, same time as on Tuesday. I also have a Music Application class from 6-9p every Thursday once a week.
During the week between teaching classes, DD went around the island and explored. He went to the Train Museum and walked around the History Downtown. Also during this week when I was not teaching classes we moved around the heavy boxes and furniture around or upstairs. By Friday we had finished with the heavy stuff.
Today was the 1st day my contract starts and it begins with a general meeting with all the faculty, staff and administration. This went from 7:45a to 4:30p. During the assembly we were served breakfast, lunch and deserts, which were brownies and cookies. The people I talked to during breakfast, lunch and breaks were very friendly. I felt like I was part of the college community not just some teacher that teaches fun music classes. After the assembly was a faculty meeting which are always so much fun. I also just met another new faculty member, that just got hired in June, who was also from the San Francisco area. I do not think it has completely set in that I am actually a professor at a college not just some music teacher in a high school. I feel like I can make a difference.