Collectively, A thread to celebrate our kids Non-Athletic accomplishments. (1 Viewer)

[Gally]

We had our 5 y.o. grandson over at our house (his usual Friday with us), and while having lunch, he suddenly raised his hand to shut off conversation. After some silence, he explained that Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight was on the radio (which I hadn’t noticed) and he had to hear the drum intro. Some life skills just can’t be taught.

Seinfeld - Desperado

youtu.be

 

[El Floppo]

My 16yo HS Jr son is in Juilliards pre-college program as a percussionist.

Will be playing with the NY Philharmonic at Lincoln Center in a couple weeks, and JUST found out that next year Stuart Copeland (the Police) will be in-house writing a piece for the percussion ensemble!!

Hey GB - FYI, I almost went into music instead of business as a career …as a percussionist (band/orchestral). But I wasn’t skilled with mallet instruments, and went with accounting. No major regrets, but I always wonder…

I’ll always be interested to hear about your son’s development with it!

He also had his Juilliard percussion ensemble performance that evening... A looooong day.

Percussion ensemble music is waaaaaaaay out there.

One of the pieces' instrumentation was 4 kids on matching mixing bowls with handles covering cell phones playing a drone. Bowls lifted and lowered at different speed and whacked with sticks.

 

[Todem]

My son was on the Deans list for his Freshman year in college. Being a student athlete......I was extremely proud of him for making this huge transition to being away (750 miles from home), playing ball and taking care of his grades and himself in fine fashion.

He has his last week of classes this week......looking forward to having him home in a few weeks (once baseball season is over) for the summer.

 

[Rustoleum]

My 16yo HS Jr son is in Juilliards pre-college program as a percussionist.

Will be playing with the NY Philharmonic at Lincoln Center in a couple weeks, and JUST found out that next year Stuart Copeland (the Police) will be in-house writing a piece for the percussion ensemble!!

Hey GB - FYI, I almost went into music instead of business as a career …as a percussionist (band/orchestral). But I wasn’t skilled with mallet instruments, and went with accounting. No major regrets, but I always wonder…

I’ll always be interested to hear about your son’s development with it!

He also had his Juilliard percussion ensemble performance that evening... A looooong day.

Percussion ensemble music is waaaaaaaay out there.

One of the pieces' instrumentation was 4 kids on matching mixing bowls with handles covering cell phones playing a drone. Bowls lifted and lowered at different speed and whacked with sticks.

You could add 50 more aaaaa’s in there and it would still be an understatement.

My daughter is a sophomore percussion/music Ed major at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.

Last week she was the tympani player for a 500 singer/musician performance of Carmina Burana at Music Hall.

3 days later for percussion ensemble she played….. a dinner plate and a water glass that she had to tune mid performance by drinking some of it. It was a piece called Dining Room Music, which was an homage to an earlier piece called Living Room Music,where among the things she played was… a deck of cards against a coffee table.

I’ve watched them “play” 20 radios by randomly tuning them at different times, smack bowls of water and submerge tuning forks , etc. for 10 solid minutes.

And then 2 weeks later they put on an amazing steel drum concert.

The “out there” stuff is awesome in its own weird way, but fortunately there are enough Carmina Buranas and steel drum concerts to keep me from questioning where exactly the tuition money is going.

 

[Manster]

We got our kids doing chores with minimal complaining

 

[Rustoleum]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

 

[El Floppo]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

We need to talk.

 

[Rustoleum]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

We need to talk.

Any time. And if CCM is under consideration when college season happens, let me know and I’ll tell her to try to be assigned to “shadow”. But, holy cow, hope Juilliard comes calling first.

 

[El Floppo]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

We need to talk.

Any time. And if CCM is under consideration when college season happens, let me know and I’ll tell her to try to be assigned to “shadow”. But, holy cow, hope Juilliard comes calling first.

He doesn't want to go the conservatory route. Where he went for middle school becomes a conservatory prep HS, so he made the decision then (as well as shifting to the Juilliard program).

That said, he's looking at colleges that have relationships with conservatories so he can keep his feet wet at a high level while studying whatever he ends up studying.

It's so, so cool your daughter is in percussion. There are so few women in it- they need lots more.

How did she get started? What are her plans for it afterwards?

 

[Rustoleum]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

We need to talk.

Any time. And if CCM is under consideration when college season happens, let me know and I’ll tell her to try to be assigned to “shadow”. But, holy cow, hope Juilliard comes calling first.

He doesn't want to go the conservatory route. Where he went for middle school becomes a conservatory prep HS, so he made the decision then (as well as shifting to the Juilliard program).

That said, he's looking at colleges that have relationships with conservatories so he can keep his feet wet at a high level while studying whatever he ends up studying.

It's so, so cool your daughter is in percussion. There are so few women in it- they need lots more.

How did she get started? What are her plans for it afterwards?

CCM is really part of the University of Cincinnati. If I understand it correctly, the conservatory merged with the university a ways back but kept the name. (But the UC bands are a whole separate entity. Some, but not many, of the music majors double-dip.)

My dad is a retired 30+ year veteran junior high band director, their other grandpa played guitar in bar bands for 30ish years, and I play trumpet and piano, so my kids were doomed from day 1 (son is a senior music Ed major at Northern Ky University and a sax player.)

Daughter took piano lessons from 1st grade through 8th grade. In 7th grade, in probably the last thing she agreed with me for 6 years, I convinced her she would have more fun in band than chorus. She was apprehensive about starting a wind instrument basically a year behind since band starts in 6th grade most places here. I told her, look, you’ve been playing piano for years. You can walk in there blindfolded and start on mallets, it’s like 8 less fingers. And wa-la, a budding percussionist was born. Added bonus was her high school has a fantastic percussion teacher. They won National WGI championship in their class her sophomore or junior year, and marching band and leading the “pit” transformed her from a quiet, anxious little mouse into a rockstar (albeit one that can play literally every percussion instrument except an actual drum set. Yet.. lol)

She also did a year with the Cincinnati Youth Symphony Orchestra that convinced her that was what she wanted to do in college.

Now, she does stuff with 4 mallet technique that my eyes can’t even track in between bouts of banging on flower pots or some other “found” percussion instruments for the ensemble pieces.

She is double majoring in performance and music Ed, so she could go into teaching, but she has the chops and desire to do grad school and make a living performing I think. She’s a practice fanatic, while her brother is the king of “good enough” most days, lol, He’s more of a jazz/rock band player type, and is really good, but he likes to jump between alto, tenor and then I’ll hear trumpet for more days than sax, which is allegedly his “main”. He’ll make a great band director being able to start kids on everything that way, but he likely won’t be sitting in with the Cincinnati Pops.

 

[El Floppo]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

We need to talk.

Any time. And if CCM is under consideration when college season happens, let me know and I’ll tell her to try to be assigned to “shadow”. But, holy cow, hope Juilliard comes calling first.

He doesn't want to go the conservatory route. Where he went for middle school becomes a conservatory prep HS, so he made the decision then (as well as shifting to the Juilliard program).

That said, he's looking at colleges that have relationships with conservatories so he can keep his feet wet at a high level while studying whatever he ends up studying.

It's so, so cool your daughter is in percussion. There are so few women in it- they need lots more.

How did she get started? What are her plans for it afterwards?

CCM is really part of the University of Cincinnati. If I understand it correctly, the conservatory merged with the university a ways back but kept the name. (But the UC bands are a whole separate entity. Some, but not many, of the music majors double-dip.)

My dad is a retired 30+ year veteran junior high band director, their other grandpa played guitar in bar bands for 30ish years, and I play trumpet and piano, so my kids were doomed from day 1 (son is a senior music Ed major at Northern Ky University and a sax player.)

Daughter took piano lessons from 1st grade through 8th grade. In 7th grade, in probably the last thing she agreed with me for 6 years, I convinced her she would have more fun in band than chorus. She was apprehensive about starting a wind instrument basically a year behind since band starts in 6th grade most places here. I told her, look, you’ve been playing piano for years. You can walk in there blindfolded and start on mallets, it’s like 8 less fingers. And wa-la, a budding percussionist was born. Added bonus was her high school has a fantastic percussion teacher. They won National WGI championship in their class her sophomore or junior year, and marching band and leading the “pit” transformed her from a quiet, anxious little mouse into a rockstar (albeit one that can play literally every percussion instrument except an actual drum set. Yet.. lol)

She also did a year with the Cincinnati Youth Symphony Orchestra that convinced her that was what she wanted to do in college.

Now, she does stuff with 4 mallet technique that my eyes can’t even track in between bouts of banging on flower pots or some other “found” percussion instruments for the ensemble pieces.

She is double majoring in performance and music Ed, so she could go into teaching, but she has the chops and desire to do grad school and make a living performing I think. She’s a practice fanatic, while her brother is the king of “good enough” most days, lol, He’s more of a jazz/rock band player type, and is really good, but he likes to jump between alto, tenor and then I’ll hear trumpet for more days than sax, which is allegedly his “main”. He’ll make a great band director being able to start kids on everything that way, but he likely won’t be sitting in with the Cincinnati Pops.

Amazing family!! Thank you for sharing that. Do they ever play together?

Hitting the sack, but so many more questions/comments..

Fwiw... Here are the other pieces played in this last performance (not them performing). Rusty already gets it, but for anybody else- this is the world he and I are in now

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtu.be

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtu.be

Juiliiard has a strict no-recording rule for all performances, so we get nothing. Sucks.

 

[Rustoleum]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

We need to talk.

Any time. And if CCM is under consideration when college season happens, let me know and I’ll tell her to try to be assigned to “shadow”. But, holy cow, hope Juilliard comes calling first.

He doesn't want to go the conservatory route. Where he went for middle school becomes a conservatory prep HS, so he made the decision then (as well as shifting to the Juilliard program).

That said, he's looking at colleges that have relationships with conservatories so he can keep his feet wet at a high level while studying whatever he ends up studying.

It's so, so cool your daughter is in percussion. There are so few women in it- they need lots more.

How did she get started? What are her plans for it afterwards?

CCM is really part of the University of Cincinnati. If I understand it correctly, the conservatory merged with the university a ways back but kept the name. (But the UC bands are a whole separate entity. Some, but not many, of the music majors double-dip.)

My dad is a retired 30+ year veteran junior high band director, their other grandpa played guitar in bar bands for 30ish years, and I play trumpet and piano, so my kids were doomed from day 1 (son is a senior music Ed major at Northern Ky University and a sax player.)

Daughter took piano lessons from 1st grade through 8th grade. In 7th grade, in probably the last thing she agreed with me for 6 years, I convinced her she would have more fun in band than chorus. She was apprehensive about starting a wind instrument basically a year behind since band starts in 6th grade most places here. I told her, look, you’ve been playing piano for years. You can walk in there blindfolded and start on mallets, it’s like 8 less fingers. And wa-la, a budding percussionist was born. Added bonus was her high school has a fantastic percussion teacher. They won National WGI championship in their class her sophomore or junior year, and marching band and leading the “pit” transformed her from a quiet, anxious little mouse into a rockstar (albeit one that can play literally every percussion instrument except an actual drum set. Yet.. lol)

She also did a year with the Cincinnati Youth Symphony Orchestra that convinced her that was what she wanted to do in college.

Now, she does stuff with 4 mallet technique that my eyes can’t even track in between bouts of banging on flower pots or some other “found” percussion instruments for the ensemble pieces.

She is double majoring in performance and music Ed, so she could go into teaching, but she has the chops and desire to do grad school and make a living performing I think. She’s a practice fanatic, while her brother is the king of “good enough” most days, lol, He’s more of a jazz/rock band player type, and is really good, but he likes to jump between alto, tenor and then I’ll hear trumpet for more days than sax, which is allegedly his “main”. He’ll make a great band director being able to start kids on everything that way, but he likely won’t be sitting in with the Cincinnati Pops.

Amazing family!! Thank you for sharing that. Do they ever play together?

Hitting the sack, but so many more questions/comments..

Fwiw... Here are the other pieces played in this last performance (not them performing). Rusty already gets it, but for anybody else- this is the world he and I are in now

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtu.be

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtu.be

Juiliiard has a strict no-recording rule for all performances, so we get nothing. Sucks.

Yeah, CCM is the same with the recordings, but sometimes they film and release on YouTube like the steel band concert. I did sneak a voice memo recording of the 1st movement of Carmina Burana (the famous part everybody has heard even if they don’t know it) I’ll see if I can link, along with a picture of the hall filled with so many musicians and singers. It was crazy.

I hear them upstairs clowning around together all the time, usually on different instruments than their “mains” or trying to flex their music theory muscles and stump each other on chord progressions, which all goes over my head. Sometimes I hear my son playing recorder over discord while he’s playing online games with friends, He says he does it because it drives his friends nuts and it gives him an edge, lol. otherwise they usually are doing separate stuff (aside from 2 years of high school band that overlapped) though theydid sit in together and make some side cash playing graduation band stuff for his college because they were short handed.

Also, I liked that wah wah tube piece. That other one may have triggered a little PTSD though. Not enough time has passed since I watched 15 minutes of 4 students playing multiple triangles. (A lot of the time, I appreciate the concept and crazy focused counting, but feel they could chop 5 minutes off almost every piece.)

 

[Rustoleum]

So today, in only her second solo driving excursion, my brilliant daughter navigated downtown Cincinnati, then sent me a photo of her perfect parallel park job…..directly in front of a fire hydrant.

I did manage to give kudos for the excellent placement before telling her to move it immediately.

 

[Chadstroma]

A cool thing from my older son today....

At lunch one of his friends all of a sudden slapped him really hard on his shoulder. He looked over and his friend was hunched over. He realized he was chocking and instead of panicking or running to get help or whatever else, immediately hit his friend with the back of his palm hard in his back. The food dislodged and his friend could breath again. My son is 11.

 

[bigbottom]

Holy crap @Rustoleum and @El Floppo - your kids are so frigging cool! Amazing!!!

 

[bigbottom]

As a non-engineer, I honestly didn’t think my kid was actually going to make it through an engineering program without switching majors, but not only did he make it through and graduate in four years while playing in a couple bands and apparently partying his butt off, he just started his career as an engineer this past week and is now off my payroll!

 

[AAABatteries]

As a non-engineer, I honestly didn’t think my kid was actually going to make it through an engineering program without switching majors, but not only did he make it through and graduate in four years while playing in a couple bands and apparently partying his butt off, he just started his career as an engineer this past week and is now off my payroll!

Awesome!

 

[belljr]

As a non-engineer, I honestly didn’t think my kid was actually going to make it through an engineering program without switching majors, but not only did he make it through and graduate in four years while playing in a couple bands and apparently partying his butt off, he just started his career as an engineer this past week and is now off my payroll!

My daughter secured her first co-op (internship) working for the Navy. Shes supposed to start next week but is still waiting for the final security paperwork

 

[bigbottom]

As a non-engineer, I honestly didn’t think my kid was actually going to make it through an engineering program without switching majors, but not only did he make it through and graduate in four years while playing in a couple bands and apparently partying his butt off, he just started his career as an engineer this past week and is now off my payroll!

My daughter secured her first co-op (internship) working for the Navy. Shes supposed to start next week but is still waiting for the final security paperwork

Very cool!!!

 

[belljr]

As a non-engineer, I honestly didn’t think my kid was actually going to make it through an engineering program without switching majors, but not only did he make it through and graduate in four years while playing in a couple bands and apparently partying his butt off, he just started his career as an engineer this past week and is now off my payroll!

My daughter secured her first co-op (internship) working for the Navy. Shes supposed to start next week but is still waiting for the final security paperwork

Very cool!!!

Shes took her first semester of sophomore year this past summer and supposed to work during the fall

 

[bigbottom]

As a non-engineer, I honestly didn’t think my kid was actually going to make it through an engineering program without switching majors, but not only did he make it through and graduate in four years while playing in a couple bands and apparently partying his butt off, he just started his career as an engineer this past week and is now off my payroll!

My daughter secured her first co-op (internship) working for the Navy. Shes supposed to start next week but is still waiting for the final security paperwork

Very cool!!!

Shes took her first semester of sophomore year this past summer and supposed to work during the fall

Remind me again where she is at for college?

 

[belljr]

Small local school near Philadelphia

 

[bigbottom]

Small local school near Philadelphia

Unfortunately co-ops weren’t very emphasized at my son’s school.

 

[El Floppo]

Tryouts- they split the varsity group up into returning and new players... She was with new. Said there was a 9th grader who was good, but in their ladder drill floppinha beat everybody she played and moved as fast as she could up the ladder. She never got to play with the returning players group.

Afterwards, the coach gave her a "pep" talk... Good group of returning players, but 2 of the 3 are graduating- so you're going to be in a great spot next year (as a 9th grader freshman). Sounds like the coach had made his mind up before the tryouts that floppinha wouldn't be one of the 3 starting singles players this year... But hopefully he gives her the opportunity to match up with them this week to see if she can.

 

[belljr]

Tryouts- they split the varsity group up into returning and new players... She was with new. Said there was a 9th grader who was good, but in their ladder drill floppinha beat everybody she played and moved as fast as she could up the ladder. She never got to play with the returning players group.

Afterwards, the coach gave her a "pep" talk... Good group of returning players, but 2 of the 3 are graduating- so you're going to be in a great spot next year (as a 9th grader freshman). Sounds like the coach had made his mind up before the tryouts that floppinha wouldn't be one of the 3 starting singles players this year... But hopefully he gives her the opportunity to match up with them this week to see if she can.

Take it to the athletic thread nerd

 

[Gally]

Take it to the athletic thread nerd JOCK

I mean, this thread is for the nerds

 

[belljr]

Take it to the athletic thread nerd JOCK

I mean, this thread is for the nerds

Lol i almost changed it

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

I'm sitting in my home office, mindlessly getting through my e-mail inbox, and I decided to divert myself for a few minutes to read this thread.

Now, I'm sitting in my home office, mindlessly getting through my e-mail inbox while listening to some kick-*** percussion music in the background.

Thanks @Rustoleum !!!

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

Tryouts- they split the varsity group up into returning and new players... She was with new. Said there was a 9th grader who was good, but in their ladder drill floppinha beat everybody she played and moved as fast as she could up the ladder. She never got to play with the returning players group.

Afterwards, the coach gave her a "pep" talk... Good group of returning players, but 2 of the 3 are graduating- so you're going to be in a great spot next year (as a 9th grader freshman). Sounds like the coach had made his mind up before the tryouts that floppinha wouldn't be one of the 3 starting singles players this year... But hopefully he gives her the opportunity to match up with them this week to see if she can.

I read through that thinking El Floppo was speaking of his daughter as part of the band or something...."returning player" was referring to her as a flute-player or saxaphone-player or something....

Re-read it in that mindset and maybe you understand my initial confusion. I mean it made sense until I read a couple other posts further down.

 

[Senor Schmutzig]

My son starts his second year of college this week; however, it's his first year in the business school at Florida State University.

Basically, he skipped a year of college because he had taken many dual-enrollment courses in high school. We didn't even realize it until mid-year last year that he would be in the business school this year, as a sophomore. Now granted, he's not the best student (he's kind of like his old man who wanted to get through college so he could get a decent job where the REAL learning happens).

However, I give him credit for working hard and being where he is. He wasn't really happy when he realized he was going to skip a whole year of college, meaning the FUN part of college, but I just told him he could go on and get a Master's degree if he wanted to stick around that bad.

 

[El Floppo]

Tryouts- they split the varsity group up into returning and new players... She was with new. Said there was a 9th grader who was good, but in their ladder drill floppinha beat everybody she played and moved as fast as she could up the ladder. She never got to play with the returning players group.

Afterwards, the coach gave her a "pep" talk... Good group of returning players, but 2 of the 3 are graduating- so you're going to be in a great spot next year (as a 9th grader freshman). Sounds like the coach had made his mind up before the tryouts that floppinha wouldn't be one of the 3 starting singles players this year... But hopefully he gives her the opportunity to match up with them this week to see if she can.

I read through that thinking El Floppo was speaking of his daughter as part of the band or something...."returning player" was referring to her as a flute-player or saxaphone-player or something....

Re-read it in that mindset and maybe you understand my initial confusion. I mean it made sense until I read a couple other posts further down.

Dueling banjos!

 

[snellman]

Tryouts- they split the varsity group up into returning and new players... She was with new. Said there was a 9th grader who was good, but in their ladder drill floppinha beat everybody she played and moved as fast as she could up the ladder. She never got to play with the returning players group.

Afterwards, the coach gave her a "pep" talk... Good group of returning players, but 2 of the 3 are graduating- so you're going to be in a great spot next year (as a 9th grader freshman). Sounds like the coach had made his mind up before the tryouts that floppinha wouldn't be one of the 3 starting singles players this year... But hopefully he gives her the opportunity to match up with them this week to see if she can.

I read through that thinking El Floppo was speaking of his daughter as part of the band or something...."returning player" was referring to her as a flute-player or saxaphone-player or something....

Re-read it in that mindset and maybe you understand my initial confusion. I mean it made sense until I read a couple other posts further down.

It is interesting because my son's band camp is almost as grueling as football camp, just in a different way. The first week, they went from 8-12, 1-4, and 6-9 every day. Then football camp started so they could only go in the morning from 7:30-9 until school started this week. Band season is in full swing with competitions starting in 3 weeks and they have their first Robotics meeting in 2 weeks so travel season will be in full swing shortly. Not to mention my grandson's football games every Tuesday start in 2 weeks.

 

[nirad3]

The 13-year old daughter had her first day of 8th grade today (last year of middle school).

The 11-year old boy had his first day of 6th (first year of middle school).

Apparently he came home super grumpy, went straight to his room, slammed the door and did not want to talk to my wife about what happened.

My wife texted me a pic of my daughter sitting on my son's bed talking to him about what happened. Apparently he ate $hit on his bike and an 8th grader laughed at him. Oof. Well my daughter is telling him it's OK, and gave him one of her old organizer/planner books and they're going over his class schedule together.

Real proud of her. She has (sometimes) been challenging, especially from ages 11-13, but over this past summer she's really matured, chilled out, and is becoming quite the awesome little human.

 

[cj*]

My Daughter turned 23 in May. She just finished her Masters in Animal Sciences from Purdue. Her thesis was on Dairy cattle production using Thermal imaging cameras and other stuff that is way over my head. I watched her thesis defense and it was intense lol. Her internship turned into full time employment fully remote.

 

[Zow]

This really shouldn't be celebrated and I type this out mostly in jest, but my recently turned 7 year old is, per her teacher, the most impressively sophisticated organized retail thief in her school's history. Apparently, she has been working some sophisticated scheme on her school's little bookstore (involving some plan whereby she buys something small then trades it in and has some other kid distract the volunteer or whatever) and ripped them off for over $100 over the course of that time. She only got caught because she enlisted some minions to assist in her scheme and one of them rolled on her after being caught. When school admin and her teacher called my wife and me to tell us, they only spent about 10% of the time telling us the total amount owed back and her punishment and then 90% of the time gushing about how "resourceful" she is.

My takeaway is that she is either on her way to being President or being some successful cartel leader.

 

[El Floppo]

This really shouldn't be celebrated and I type this out mostly in jest, but my recently turned 7 year old is, per her teacher, the most impressively sophisticated organized retail thief in her school's history. Apparently, she has been working some sophisticated scheme on her school's little bookstore (involving some plan whereby she buys something small then trades it in and has some other kid distract the volunteer or whatever) and ripped them off for over $100 over the course of that time. She only got caught because she enlisted some minions to assist in her scheme and one of them rolled on her after being caught. When school admin and her teacher called my wife and me to tell us, they only spent about 10% of the time telling us the total amount owed back and her punishment and then 90% of the time gushing about how "resourceful" she is.

My takeaway is that she is either on her way to being President or being some successful cartel leader.

Better get her counsel stat.

 

[El Floppo]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

We need to talk.

Any time. And if CCM is under consideration when college season happens, let me know and I’ll tell her to try to be assigned to “shadow”. But, holy cow, hope Juilliard comes calling first.

Hey... Floppinho did a 5 week intensive summer program at Berklee and applied/auditioned while he was there. While he had a blast and met some great kids, the experience reaffirmed to him that he didn't want the conservatory only route. He's looking at it in connection to other Boston schools that have affiliations where he could do both.

Gonna be a crazy couple months while he's applying.

 

[El Floppo]

Oh! He is a National Merit Semi-finalist! And will apply to be a finalist.

 

[Rustoleum]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

We need to talk.

Any time. And if CCM is under consideration when college season happens, let me know and I’ll tell her to try to be assigned to “shadow”. But, holy cow, hope Juilliard comes calling first.

Hey... Floppinho did a 5 week intensive summer program at Berklee and applied/auditioned while he was there. While he had a blast and met some great kids, the experience reaffirmed to him that he didn't want the conservatory only route. He's looking at it in connection to other Boston schools that have affiliations where he could do both.

Gonna be a crazy couple months while he's applying.

I just love to see kids keep making music. First concert of the season coming up Sunday night, where I will sitting through and entire Mahler Symphony/Chorale, and only caring about the cymbal parts…

That’s awesome on the National Merit too! That’s a big deal. I was fortunate enough to be named a finalist, which somehow worked out to be a disadvantage because the semi-finalist scholarship money my college offered was actually more than what the national foundation paid to finalists.

 

[El Floppo]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

We need to talk.

Any time. And if CCM is under consideration when college season happens, let me know and I’ll tell her to try to be assigned to “shadow”. But, holy cow, hope Juilliard comes calling first.

Hey... Floppinho did a 5 week intensive summer program at Berklee and applied/auditioned while he was there. While he had a blast and met some great kids, the experience reaffirmed to him that he didn't want the conservatory only route. He's looking at it in connection to other Boston schools that have affiliations where he could do both.

Gonna be a crazy couple months while he's applying.

I just love to see kids keep making music. First concert of the season coming up Sunday night, where I will sitting through and entire Mahler Symphony/Chorale, and only caring about the cymbal parts…

That’s awesome on the National Merit too! That’s a big deal. I was fortunate enough to be named a finalist, which somehow worked out to be a disadvantage because the semi-finalist scholarship money my college offered was actually more than what the national foundation paid to finalists.

I was a semi finalist, which I only found out when the school photographed all of us for the yearbook and I was asked to join them. Had no idea. Had no idea you had to apply to be a finalist until just now with my son... Just assumed it was people who did extra extra well.

My son is so over the culture at Juilliard. He loves playing music, but the BS the percussion heads do with and to them... Including a kid as young as 11.. awful power trippy mind game undermining BS.

My son instituted a fledgling "buddy" system for new kids last year, so they and their families would have a better sense of what was going on and what to expect... because through my son's first couple years there were lots of tears and confusion from kids, including him having to field a ton of phone calls and texts from kids at all hours after they'd been chewed out (at all hours, at home!) by the heads.

The main guy told my son this summer that it had been a failure. Why? Because he didn't see that the kids play had improved. Totally missed the point of it.

 

[Gally]

awful power trippy mind game undermining BS.

Nice to see this happens in more than just youth sports.....hahahahaha

 

[Gally]

The main guy told my son this summer that it had been a failure. Why? Because he didn't see that the kids play had improved. Totally missed the point of it.

Wow, that is terrible. Amazing job by your kid to try and impart his knowledge and experiences to kids going through what he went through. He has a bright future with that kind of empathy and initiative to start up that kind of program.

 

[Rustoleum]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

We need to talk.

Any time. And if CCM is under consideration when college season happens, let me know and I’ll tell her to try to be assigned to “shadow”. But, holy cow, hope Juilliard comes calling first.

Hey... Floppinho did a 5 week intensive summer program at Berklee and applied/auditioned while he was there. While he had a blast and met some great kids, the experience reaffirmed to him that he didn't want the conservatory only route. He's looking at it in connection to other Boston schools that have affiliations where he could do both.

Gonna be a crazy couple months while he's applying.

I just love to see kids keep making music. First concert of the season coming up Sunday night, where I will sitting through and entire Mahler Symphony/Chorale, and only caring about the cymbal parts…

That’s awesome on the National Merit too! That’s a big deal. I was fortunate enough to be named a finalist, which somehow worked out to be a disadvantage because the semi-finalist scholarship money my college offered was actually more than what the national foundation paid to finalists.

I was a semi finalist, which I only found out when the school photographed all of us for the yearbook and I was asked to join them. Had no idea. Had no idea you had to apply to be a finalist until just now with my son... Just assumed it was people who did extra extra well.

My son is so over the culture at Juilliard. He loves playing music, but the BS the percussion heads do with and to them... Including a kid as young as 11.. awful power trippy mind game undermining BS.

My son instituted a fledgling "buddy" system for new kids last year, so they and their families would have a better sense of what was going on and what to expect... because through my son's first couple years there were lots of tears and confusion from kids, including him having to field a ton of phone calls and texts from kids at all hours after they'd been chewed out (at all hours, at home!) by the heads.

The main guy told my son this summer that it had been a failure. Why? Because he didn't see that the kids play had improved. Totally missed the point of it.

At CCM, there definitely are some conductors that think you teach by browbeating kids too, but the percussion department heads aren’t in that group. One just retired and the students had a lot of input on evaluating applicants to replace him.

My daughter was actually complaining that enough wasn’t been done to sort of “encourage” someone to maybe choose a different major. The students support each other, but apparently there is one who just doesn’t have the chops and they are frustrated because there are some pieces they’ve wanted to play with the philharmonic groups that have been cut because that student couldn’t get the part quickly enough and the conductor wouldn’t reassign it. For some reason there is sort of a “tread lightly” policy towards critiquing just that one student.

I didn’t apply for anything beyond National Merit Sem-Finalist, unless my school counselor did it for me and didn’t tell me. But that in ancient times so I’m sure it has changed. Actually, I don’t think I applied for any of that at all, so good old Mr. Feldman must’ve done that too. First I knew about it was when the whole school got called to the gym and I’m sitting there wondering what the heck was going on with everybody else when they called me out and I noticed my mom was there.

 

[snellman]

This weekend will start another busy year of being busy every Saturday from now until March. First band competition is this weekend, including a Bands of America appearance next weekend, the as soon as band is over, robotics will start until March. It is going fast though because he is already a junior and we only have 2 more years of this.

 

[bigbottom]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

We need to talk.

Any time. And if CCM is under consideration when college season happens, let me know and I’ll tell her to try to be assigned to “shadow”. But, holy cow, hope Juilliard comes calling first.

Hey... Floppinho did a 5 week intensive summer program at Berklee and applied/auditioned while he was there. While he had a blast and met some great kids, the experience reaffirmed to him that he didn't want the conservatory only route. He's looking at it in connection to other Boston schools that have affiliations where he could do both.

Gonna be a crazy couple months while he's applying.

I just love to see kids keep making music. First concert of the season coming up Sunday night, where I will sitting through and entire Mahler Symphony/Chorale, and only caring about the cymbal parts…

That’s awesome on the National Merit too! That’s a big deal. I was fortunate enough to be named a finalist, which somehow worked out to be a disadvantage because the semi-finalist scholarship money my college offered was actually more than what the national foundation paid to finalists.

I was a semi finalist, which I only found out when the school photographed all of us for the yearbook and I was asked to join them. Had no idea. Had no idea you had to apply to be a finalist until just now with my son... Just assumed it was people who did extra extra well.

My son is so over the culture at Juilliard. He loves playing music, but the BS the percussion heads do with and to them... Including a kid as young as 11.. awful power trippy mind game undermining BS.

My son instituted a fledgling "buddy" system for new kids last year, so they and their families would have a better sense of what was going on and what to expect... because through my son's first couple years there were lots of tears and confusion from kids, including him having to field a ton of phone calls and texts from kids at all hours after they'd been chewed out (at all hours, at home!) by the heads.

The main guy told my son this summer that it had been a failure. Why? Because he didn't see that the kids play had improved. Totally missed the point of it.

Yikes. Maybe Whiplash isn’t so far off.

 

[El Floppo]

Rusty...One of my sons classmates at Juilard (same HS class) is basically that kid. At best, she gets to play the triangle which seems ridiculous and kinda cruel to me. There have been a couple kids like that over the years who end up leaving on their own... because screw taking the abuse and the that being the payoff. But she's stuck it out (excellent student- perfect SATs) I think because she's using it as college resume fodder.

 

[El Floppo]

And Juilliard reached out to, I assume, all the precollege kids about getting to skip a step and audition for American Idol.

I don't how many of instrumental kids sing, but my sons in his HS Acapella group, musicals, bands, etc and has always sung, even if not necessarily in a trained American idol way. He's neck deep in college applications (and Juilliard), but I think is going to go for it.

 

[El Floppo]

Steel band concert

(Mine’s the blonde next to the giant right in the middle).

We need to talk.

Any time. And if CCM is under consideration when college season happens, let me know and I’ll tell her to try to be assigned to “shadow”. But, holy cow, hope Juilliard comes calling first.

Hey... Floppinho did a 5 week intensive summer program at Berklee and applied/auditioned while he was there. While he had a blast and met some great kids, the experience reaffirmed to him that he didn't want the conservatory only route. He's looking at it in connection to other Boston schools that have affiliations where he could do both.

Gonna be a crazy couple months while he's applying.

I just love to see kids keep making music. First concert of the season coming up Sunday night, where I will sitting through and entire Mahler Symphony/Chorale, and only caring about the cymbal parts…

That’s awesome on the National Merit too! That’s a big deal. I was fortunate enough to be named a finalist, which somehow worked out to be a disadvantage because the semi-finalist scholarship money my college offered was actually more than what the national foundation paid to finalists.

I was a semi finalist, which I only found out when the school photographed all of us for the yearbook and I was asked to join them. Had no idea. Had no idea you had to apply to be a finalist until just now with my son... Just assumed it was people who did extra extra well.

My son is so over the culture at Juilliard. He loves playing music, but the BS the percussion heads do with and to them... Including a kid as young as 11.. awful power trippy mind game undermining BS.

My son instituted a fledgling "buddy" system for new kids last year, so they and their families would have a better sense of what was going on and what to expect... because through my son's first couple years there were lots of tears and confusion from kids, including him having to field a ton of phone calls and texts from kids at all hours after they'd been chewed out (at all hours, at home!) by the heads.

The main guy told my son this summer that it had been a failure. Why? Because he didn't see that the kids play had improved. Totally missed the point of it.

Yikes. Maybe Whiplash isn’t so far off.

I'm ready to give that guy the "not QUITE my tempo" speech.

 

[Cowboysfan8]

This really shouldn't be celebrated and I type this out mostly in jest, but my recently turned 7 year old is, per her teacher, the most impressively sophisticated organized retail thief in her school's history. Apparently, she has been working some sophisticated scheme on her school's little bookstore (involving some plan whereby she buys something small then trades it in and has some other kid distract the volunteer or whatever) and ripped them off for over $100 over the course of that time. She only got caught because she enlisted some minions to assist in her scheme and one of them rolled on her after being caught. When school admin and her teacher called my wife and me to tell us, they only spent about 10% of the time telling us the total amount owed back and her punishment and then 90% of the time gushing about how "resourceful" she is.

My takeaway is that she is either on her way to being President or being some successful cartel leader.

 

[Rustoleum]

Rusty...One of my sons classmates at Juilard (same HS class) is basically that kid. At best, she gets to play the triangle which seems ridiculous and kinda cruel to me. There have been a couple kids like that over the years who end up leaving on their own... because screw taking the abuse and the that being the payoff. But she's stuck it out (excellent student- perfect SATs) I think because she's using it as college resume fodder.

Yeah, it isn’t ideal for sure, but I think there is a difference in that in this case, it is college, and these are performance majors who will be eventually looking to earn a (probably meager) living. So at some point, I do think it should fall on the faculty to have to be the dream killer and just say “you need to improve here, here, and here or really think about an alternate career path”.

It doesn’t seem like the students have iced this girl out or anything, but I think they are getting frustrated that she gets the kid gloves while the rest of them do get dinged (haha) for the slightest miscue on even the triangle parts. Probably because the conductor knows they will go off and spend hours working towards getting it perfect. The strings and horns get all the glory in the big ensembles as is, so the percussionists do have a little bit of a chip on their shoulders about avoiding getting called out in rehearsal to clean something up.