Ok so some how every time I go to add pictures to this thing I sit down get out the cord, look in my bag, and realize oh thats right in my ever continuing attempts to get more pictures I forgot to take the camera out of my ( Insert either Gym bag, truck, bedroom, practice room, locker, instrument locker, trombone case ).
So some updates. The jazz festival was great. 
The three days were filled with some awesome bands, some bands that we were definitely able to to learn from, meaning what to and not to do, and of course many of us got to see old band directors and friends. Friday was my big day and of course I woke up very late threw on my clothes rushed over to campus. One nice thing about commuting is after 4 years you know a few ways to get to campus depending on what you need, there is the standard gas saving way, the way you can speed without fear of cops (not that I’m promoting that), the scenic route, the way where if you want you just happen to miss the exit for Rowan and find yourself heading towards the beach, and last but not least the way to avoid traffic. In my situation I of course took option B. So I arrived at Rowan just in time to get to see my old high school and to hear some of my private students. Proud would definitely be the answer for how I felt after hearing the bands play. They brought with them an energy and an amount of fun that lightened up the mood of the festival, especially being that they were the first band of the day to perform.
Odd side story here. For those of you coming to college one shocking little thing to get used to is the use of laptops everywhere. I have become a fanatic I must admit, I take and utilize my laptop everywhere, and with Rowan having a wireless campus it isn’t hard. But as normal as it is for us to use I can see that some professors dislike or at least distrust the whole idea. I was watching my old high school, where I still teach regularly ( be there tonight in fact ) and not really even looking down at my computer, I only had it out in fact to find out what instrument one of the adjudicators played, and I had a professor come over and kind of hint that he wanted it gone because he didn’t like people having them out while watching bands and stuff and he didn’t know what I was doing. So i put it away not looking to rock the boat plus I had the information I needed anyway, but what I couldn’t believe was how something that had no impact on the band I was watching, nor on how my professor was watching the band, nor how the audience was watching the band could be a big deal. I suppose there is a moral to this story somewhere but Im at a loss for it.
The rest of my friday was awesome, I went to Pitman High School where I did a clinic with their Jazz Band and got to talk to some of the students afterwards. Had an awesome time there and finished the day with the concert.
(a little view from on stage)
I took my solo of course and apparently did well. I was very happy to see one of my private students came out with his mom and grandmother to see the concert. Its always awesome to see some new faces at the concerts as well as young faces really enjoying themselves.
So this now brings me up to last week, worked monday ( yup with many of my classes cancelled I took the opportunity to work) I don’t know if I have mentioned before but I pay for college on my own and until this year had no loans. So when the chance to work comes around I take it. And after 13 hours of painting I came home, prepared a speech for my Contemporary World Theater Class (yup thats right even as a music major I still have to take an arts intensive course, as long as its non music related) and then went through tuesday fairly well.
Wednesday I got to practice for an awesome four hours and really made a lot of progress. Wednesday night got to witness an amazing concert by the dean of the music department, Doc Rawlins. His name isn’t Doc, its Robert but I don’t think I hear anyone call him anything but Doc. I mean the man has like 3 degrees and an electrical contracting certificate, pretty much the stories of this man are mythical. But back to the concert. He played the music of Be Bop legend Tadd Dameron, who unless you are perusing the Real Book you might have never heard of. So not only did we listen to the amazing and ridiculous talent of Doc on Alto (oh yeah and he played Clarinet and Flute, you know just because) we got a little history lesson as well since the man has a more encyclopedic knowledge of jazz then anyone I have ever seen.
Thursday and Friday were not worth mentioning really and now this brings us up to the weekend and today. Which well to be honest Ill talk about another time, Im in the middle of my warmups for the day and need to get some practice in before my orchestration class (followed by a trip to the gym). So yeah once again I promise, pictures with the next blog!
