May 2011
6 posts
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.:propinquity:.: Musicians' Brains Highly... →
st-rita:
javiercarrete:
New research shows that musicians’ brains are highly developed in a way that makes the musicians alert, interested in learning, disposed to see the whole picture, calm, and playful. The same traits have previously been found among world-class athletes,…
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“The prophet is engaged in a battle for language, in an effort to create a...”
– Walter Brueggemann from The Prophetic Imagination
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It doesn’t matter what you teach or how many kids are in your class; they will talk when you’re talking. And sometimes in band, when you have a minimum of 30 kids in class, that can be overwhelming. During my part time student teaching at a middle school, there was one alto player in the seventh grade who could not go a minute without disrupting at least the students next to him. It...
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“The same royal consciousness that makes it possible to implement anything and...”
– Walter Brueggemann from The Prophetic Imagination
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Holy crap, brain, why are you weird?
I was getting my clarinet out of my music locker so that I could practice, and I decided I was fed up with how poorly the lock on my locker was working. I wanted to fix it, so I went to the music office and asked for a big screwdriver. My jazz instructor was there and asked why I needed a big screwdriver (instruments require almost exclusively little screwdrivers).
What I said: My locker isn't locking.
What I thought: My locker isn't locking. Which would make it an un-locker. Which would make it the antithesis of itself. Therefore it cannot exist. And I need to fix it before my instruments disappear with it.
Sometimes a musician's brain is a scary place to be.
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“In seeking to provide an alternative to the royal consciousness, we need to ask...”
– Walter Brueggemann from The Prophetic Imagination
April 2011
64 posts
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My junior year of college, I was taking Instrumental Techniques. The class was being given an introduction to flute. After learning how to hold the instrument, we were taught that the easiest way to describe proper flute embouchure is to simply say ‘poo’. Of course, this brought out a few giggles, but the class stayed on task. Next we were encouraged to have a steady stream of air...
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Thanks for the follow, twisted-dream!
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“[The Song of Miriam] is only a poem, and we might say rightly that singing a...”
– Walter Brueggemann from The Prophetic Imagination
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My full time student teaching required an hour long commute one way. I didn’t mind the drive so much; it gave me a chance to think and transition from student to teacher, work to play. But because jazz band was a zero period, it meant I would wake up at 4:30 every morning. Because I had a roommate, I’d usually get dressed in the dark, so as not to wake her up. After getting ready,...
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Philippians 1:6 “…he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ.”
Ecclesiastes 3:14 “…whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it.”
I cannot be changed by my own efforts, but by God’s work in my heart. He will keep working to change me until perfection; I just have to...
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While student teaching, I would arrive about 20 minutes before 0 period jazz band started to mentally prepare for class. The band room usually wasn’t opened until about 10 minutes before class started, so a group of students would collect in the hall, waiting. One morning I overheard a conversation between a couple of my trombone players. One of them was explaining how he learned the...
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