#music masters degree

[purplemilkadraws]

My fave moments!

(click/tap for better quality view)

[artfulacrostic]

WHY DID I AUDIBLY GASP. welcome back king

[widevibratobitch]

btw we need to start gatekeeping mozart and especially nozze from music academies

[colemckenzies]

do NOT talk to me about gifted kid burnout unless ur parents constantly criticise you for not Living Up To Your Potential regardless of what you achieve

[shiveringsoldier]

The thing about music library jobs is that virtually every listing is trapped in the “need experience to get the job, need the job to get experience” loop

[supercantaloupe]

apparently i'm already halfway done my musicology degree??

[rulesforthedance]

Dear four people who followed me after reblogging that Sondheim post, you are going to be very disappointed by my usual blogging habits

[pandora15]

চারিদিকে এত English এর মাঝে একটুখানি বাংলা লেখা বা পড়ার আনন্দই আলাদা। তাই না?

At least, I think so.

Much to my own shame, my Bangla knowledge is extremely limited, even more so by the fact that I learned the alphabet a long time ago and barely remember how to write simple sentences.

I tried my best, but ultimately had to put this in Google Translate, which I feel like partially defeats the purpose of your ask, so I'm sorry! Not just for having to do that, but for answering in English because, again, I can barely formulate sentences in Bangla. I can understand it well when people speak it to me, but speaking it and reading/writing it is really tough for me.

Anyways,

Yes, I absolutely agree. Even though I know so little of the language, I think it's absolutely beautiful. I'm very proud to be Bengali. And reading or writing what little I know does feel really nice :)

I hope to get back in touch with the Bengali/Indian part of me once I have a bit more time — I used to take Hindustani Classical Music lessons when I was a child and I learned a lot of Bangla songs, especially Rabindra Sangeet from my old teacher. I have a lot of memories that I cherish from that time, like learning to pronounce Bangla words and understanding what these songs actually mean while expanding my knowledge of music. My voice isn't what it used to be (thanks, puberty), but I think I still have it in me, and my love of music always reigns eternal.

Anyways, this probably isn't the answer you were hoping for, but I hope this gets across what it means to me to be Bengali, even though my language skills are horrendous 😅

[hearts-hunger]

every time i put my peaceful army vibes playlist on i genuinely wonder how i haven't been wifed up yet with a music taste this good

[mihai-florescu]

Ok ive decided i will move to galați and start a new life there

[misskamelie]

Experiencing different education systems is such a fascinating experience, would highly recommend it to everyone. Will update you on this in the following weeks (when I'll have to work on my assignments lol)

[akaessi]

the sounds of construction leaking over the metal blasting in my headphones is pissing me off. I just want to finish editing this chapter

[sibyl-of-space]

grad school feels below readmore, last semester is coming up

I have an advising session tomorrow, and registration opens next week, for my last semester here. Holy fucking hell that went by fast. Almost 2 years already. Gonna graduate and have a Master’s in music technology and composition. That’s actually not something I think I saw myself doing when I graduated undergrad ~6 years ago... I was so done with school at the time, and had done such a shit job networking because I was treating it like high school and just trying to Get Good Grades, that my bachelor’s in music felt like a paperweight. A paperweight that I thoroughly enjoyed the studies it took to obtain, but a paperweight nevertheless.

And now a bitch (almost) has a master’s. I mean still, after all this, a paper that says you have a degree is just a paper - but I’ve worked my ass off and learned so much these past 2 years. I haven’t done the internships etc that you’re “supposed” to do, but I have made a lot of friends, some of whom I am sure to continue collaborating with when I graduate, and I think I’ve met at least a couple teachers who I might be able to keep in touch with too. My lesson teacher in particular. And I’ve gotten the #1 thing I wanted which was a better grasp on what tools are available to me to create music and sounds, and a better ear to figure out what sounds I like and how to make them. I’ve become a MEASURABLY better artist.

So now.... really the question is, how do I get the most out of one final semester here? I absolutely cannot do another 17-unit semester like I’m doing now, because I need to spend a LOT of time OUTSIDE of school preparing to transition into The Real World (TM). In order to do that I need time that I do NOT have right now drowning in this many units. But I don’t want to take the bare minimum units and coast, either -- I KNOW I’ll regret that. It’s about finding the classes that really matter to me and being completely certain that I am getting the skills I want from my education.

(I think I’ve done a really good job of that so far. It required more or less fistfighting my advisor on certain topics, but I know myself well enough that I was able to make what - in retrospect - were definitely the correct decisions for me. There is one last thing I want to fistfight my advisor about tomorrow, and I have a backup plan for if I lose that battle, but I will not go down without a fight.)

I still feel nervous about how I’ve continued to have such a Jack Of All Trades approach - I've bounced between being obsessed with recording and being obsessed with sound design and being obsessed with scripting/implementation and being obsessed with arrangement and being obsessed with composing. Even took a stint in being obsessed with early 20th century French newspaper articles. But finally thanks to my lesson teacher (and my Unity/C# teacher) I feel like I have met a few people who see my approach to things as a strength and not a weakness, and I really hope I can find a way forward through them.

Going to be very scary facing that job market with not one but two music degrees though. Oh well yolo

[exopelagic]

talking to him more very much achieved. we just talked for like 4 hours in the kitchen holy shit I need to sleep

[supercantaloupe]

how many classical/opera people on this site are secretly like super science/math guys and classical/opera are just like a hobby for them

[rulesforthedance]

I’m not amazing at any one musical instrument, but I’m decent at many, because that is what’s expected of music teachers (which is what I was for nine years) and because it is my nature to be proficient at many things and great at none (I’m not saying this derogatorily, I actually think it’s a fine and useful way to be). And when people find out that I play a bunch of instruments, they’re always wistfully like “oh, I wish I’d learned to play an instrument. I always wanted to play [specific instrument].” And I’m like, do it! Learn to play an instrument! It’s not that hard. There’s this misconception that you can only do it as a kid and that’s so far from the truth. You probably won’t become a world-class prodigy if you start as an adult, but the vast majority of people who start as kids won’t either, lol. And there are advantages you have as an adult. You have intrinsic motivation. You have a greater ability to stick with something that doesn’t immediately yield your desired results. Even if you feel like you don’t and are frustrated with your attention span and executive function, you’re still almost certainly better at those things than a five-year-old. You have mature motor skills. Depending on the instrument, you’ll likely sound ok sooner than you would have as a kid. Learn an instrument! Defy the fallacy that you’re stuck with only the skill set you’ve acquired by your mid-twenties!