Final Post

I really have enjoyed this class. I liked Mrs. Mills and my classmates, and I learned a lot more about music. When I was in high school, I remember picking songs for the recitals that my piano teacher, Mrs. Cross, used to put on. During the performances, we would always pick pretty songs, songs that we liked and caught our eye, or in this case, caught our ear. She would play them for us and then we would choose. But then we had to pick songs for a contest for our high school. This was a little different because the songs that we picked had to be formal. She would still follow the routine and play the songs and we would pick our favorites, but this time she would comment things like, "This isn't really from the classical period," or "This is actually from the Baroque period." I would then ask her what she was talking about. She would try to answer, but I kept getting confused, so I eventually just started nodding at her and pretending that I knew what she was talking about. Now I understand what she was talking about, a little late, but better then never. Then, before all of this conversation, we learned how to conduct. I have done this a couple of times in band and festivals for band, but ever since Joanna told me an interesting story about conducting, I have never really thought about it the same. The story was that when we went to IMEA, a band festival for a day, she went to the orchestra, and I went to band. Her conductor was pretty bad. He made a clarinet player that was in our band cry, and sometimes he would sit back in a chair, conduct, and ask people in the band how he was doing. This was a real thing. He would literally be like, "How am I doing, Joanna?" This has been a hilarious reference ever since, and has made my family crack up whenever we see someone conduct anymore. These thoughts had been running around all throughout this class, and I just thought that I'd share them. Overall, this class was really fun, and I hope all of you have a nice rest of the summer!(: