It's the most wonderful time...

If you're anything like me, you feel a slight (overwhelming?) sense of dread this time of year. You haven't started your Christmas shopping yet. You don't celebrate Christmas and you hate hearing the music in every single place you walk into (I celebrate Christmas and I still can't stand the music). You're a gigging musician and you're stretched waaaaaaaaay too thin next month. Or perhaps you have lectures and tests to prepare and exam time is looming.

Whatever the reason, there has to be at least ONE thing that you can look forward to during this crazy season! Maybe it's the work party where everyone gets to let their hair down. Or a big family dinner where you can stuff yourself with food right before you join the gym for New Year's...

I look forward to the time off from school, but not because I'm away from the students! It gives me time to review the previous semester and figure out how to make the next semester better. During the break between this Fall and Spring I'm going to brainstorm new ideas for my Music Appreciation class. I'm always looking for ways to get more interaction. This semester I tried some new things and my students absolutely loved it, so I'm also going to work more of that into my Spring plans.

So what about you? What are you looking forward to this holiday season?

Fall 2010 - Favorite Moment

This is my favorite moment from the semester and quite possibly from my entire career at Pellissippi:

ME: What was I going to say next?
STUDENT: [Answers correctly] Do we get extra credit for being inside your head?
ME: No, you get counseling!

Career Choices

If you've known me for more than 2 seconds, you know that I love music. As one friend put it, I live music. I've spent my entire life, including the time in my mother's womb, surrounded by music. I was never told that I had to make a career in music; in fact, my mother asked me specifically not to become a music teacher because she basically wanted me to make a living in which I could afford nice things. *Side Note: Mom's a retired music professor. ;-)

Believe it or not, I actually started out looking at colleges for engineering. I had one or two schools offer me a full ride if I majored in engineering! I courted a few of them during my junior year of high school but by senior year I knew it was music for me and nothing else. I didn't even want to major in one thing and get a music minor, or  work toward a double major. I wanted to absorb more music--as much as I could--into my brain and soul for the next four years.

I changed my major from Music Performance to General Music so that I could focus on theory (UNCG doesn't have an undergraduate theory degree) and prepare for a Master's degree in theory. But wouldn'tcha know it--I got to UT, started off in music theory, then switched back to performance. I came full circle!

So here I am with a BA in Music and an MM in Viola Performance. I teach part-time at Pellissippi State Community College, teach privately (violin and viola) in my home, perform with symphonies and chamber groups in the area, and manage my own group (Robyn James Trio).

But I want more. I'm happiest when I'm creating music in smaller settings (read: not on a huge stage with 100 people) with other people who eat, sleep and breathe music like me. Occasionally I see glimpses of a life like this--when I perform with my friends and colleagues in the faculty recitals at Pellissippi, when I record and perform live with talented artists like Adam Whipple and the Dirty Guv'nahs, and also when I'm writing transcriptions or arrangements for assorted gigs and whatnot. The more I get involved with projects like these, the more I get compliments and encouragement from complete strangers (like students I cross paths with at Pellissippi), friends and peers, and even mentors (i.e. a former teacher from my graduate work saying "I didn't know you had 'rocker' in you. Don't hide it!").

So my non-rhetorical question is this: How do I make this happen? How do I go from doing this occasionally to doing it regularly and making a living with it? I don't want to give up teaching because I enjoy it, but I have lots of free hours during which I'd love to be making the music I teach people about every day. I'm open to suggestions, reprimands, cookie recipes...basically anything. Take the mic (aka the comment box)!

What if I don't wanna be 20 again?

As I approached my twenty-tenth ;-) birthday many people tried to encourage me with words like "30 is the new 20!" I don't know what their college days were like but I don't want to be 20 again! I was awkward and underweight and trying to find myself. I do miss having time set aside to practice though. And late night Papa John's and TV with Beth, one of my BFFs. If I could just have that part, I'd totally do 20 again.

To celebrate the beginning of a new decade in my life I had a party. I mean, really--what better way to do it? The theme was game night, as this is my favorite pastime. We sat around and talked, listened to music from Arrested Development*, watched the extended pilot from said show and ordered pizza. Once we actually got to the game part of game night (Apples to Apples, one of my favorite games) the pizza arrived. But we had fun! And I think we got through 1.5 rounds of Apples to Apples.

All in all, a good time was had. And I have photographic proof here! Enjoy.

Jeannine and Anne are all smiles!

*One of the best shows on the planet, in my humble opinion. I own all three seasons thanks to a ridiculous sale on Amazon a while back

Special Requests

Some of you may not know this but I not only teach and perform music--I also arrange it. Sometimes for fun (yes, I'm that much of a music nerd) but more often than not it's because of a request, usually for a wedding. I try to honor all requests, as long as they're logical. I once had a friend ask if my string trio could perform "Rhapsody in Blue" and I had to politely decline.

Thankfully, ninety-nine percent of the requests are doable and I've had a BLAST with all of them. I just finished working on a couple of tunes for a friend's wedding next month--a theme (the main theme??) from A River Runs Through It and "The Blood of Cuchulainn," aka the Irish tune from the movie Boondock Saints. I think the bride and groom will be happy with my versions (arranged violin/viola, cello and piano).

My very favorite arrangement of all time, hands down, is "The Throne Room" from Star Wars: A New Hope. The bride sent me an mp3 and I purchased an arrangement for brass quintet. I changed some keys, re-worked some modulations, threw in some doublestops to fill in the harmonies and voilà--a totally friggin' AWESOME arrangement was born. And I'm not just tooting my own horn--you should've been there the first time we rehearsed it. We stopped somewhere through the first run-through because my violinist and cellist were majorly geeking out!! This arrangement is several years old but had never been recorded until yesterday. So here it is for you to enjoy!



I've also written arrangements for show choir. Boy, is that a different beast than string trio! I've done a few "oldies" as well as more recent pop tunes (couple of *NSYNC songs). A friend just asked if I'd arrange some current hits for her string orchestra, so I'm looking forward to that as well!

I really enjoy the process of learning a piece inside and out--really living with it--and then reworking it to fit whatever new configuration it is I'm arranging for. I've had the "Blood of Cuchulainn" stuck in my head for about five days now, but I love it! Any other arrangers out there have words of wisdom they want to give? Any other musicians have arrangements you'd like to share/geek out about? And of course, if you have any requests send them my way. I'll do my best to honor them!

I dream of... a music composition seminar?

I found another fun dream in my old blog and I had to share it with you. It's from about four years ago but as I read it, it feels like I dreamt it yesterday. It involves a little music composition/theory AND a former boy band member. Gotta love it.

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I was at a HUGE church (we’re talking the size of a nice mall) with my friend Tyra for some kind of seminar. I guess it was on music composition or choral music because I remember having sheet music with "Ode to Joy" on it (although it was in Renaissance notation?!). I also remember a large overhead projector-type thing being set up and "Ode to Joy" being projected on the screen. One of the speakers (or maybe the only one?) was JC Chasez, formerly of NSYNC. He was very energetic and excited about the subject he was discussing, and he reminded me of a couple of teachers I had in college and grad school*. During his discussions, he would practically run around the room (a HUGE sanctuary) in order to make eye contact with more of the attendees, and several times I got to interact with him (*schoolgirl squeal*).

At one point we were discussing harmonization, and he sang a simple motive on the words "Alleluia, alleluia." Before harmonizing it, he wanted someone to change it up a little bit. I immediately thought of a simple change that would make it really awesome (and make whatever we wrote after it that much cooler) but of course, being me, I hesitated. He was RIGHT next to my pew (which was on the "stage left" side of the church, right next to the wall and windows; Tyra and I were sitting all the way on the end) when he asked, too. I finally got up the courage to raise my hand when he was on the opposite side of the sanctuary. I think he was actually hoping that I would raise my hand, because by that point several other people's hands were raised, and he looked around (right past some people directly in front of him who were volunteering!), craned his neck, and finally pointed across the sanctuary back to me!

Since I’m a music nerd I actually made visual aids. Here's what he sang:

As I said, I made a slight change, but it totally made it more interesting, harmony-wise:

After I sang it I explained that I'd changed the last note to give more possibilities for harmonies and he got all hyper and went "Yes! That's great! I'm so excited that I want to finish the whole song right now!" [This scarily reminds me of my own teaching style…!]

I remember two other things happening besides that:

1) At some point I ended up at the front of the room with JC, and I think Tyra was up there with me (maybe he was using us as assistants?). He mentioned that he needed to eat something during the upcoming break, and I JUMPED on that—no hesitation this time, haha—and in a split second I went "I can go with you if you'd like." Unfortunately he didn't seem to hear me (I think he went on talking about something else, or maybe I said it too quickly). So I turned to Tyra and said "He didn't catch that, did he?"

2) I wanted to go find my viola so that I could show off my instrumental skills to JC (since I'd already wowed him with my vocal prowess, HA!). So I went outside to find my car, hoping that I'd left my viola in there from a gig I had earlier [in real life it would’ve been inside with me, geez!]. But it was pitch black outside and I'd arrived when it was still light, so the parking lot looked very different. I could NOT find my car. I ran around in the cold and rainy night, dodging past the few people who were standing out in the lot talking (what were they doing?! It was COLD, and raining!). I started to panic and maybe even cry a little, and this sinister-looking guy asked me "You're afraid, aren't you?" (implying that I was afraid of getting mugged/attacked). I told him that I wasn't afraid; I just couldn't find my car.

Then it took me forever to find my way back into the church. Oh sure, there were lots of doors, but which one led to the sanctuary?? I finally found some big double doors that looked unfamiliar but safer than the smaller side doors I kept finding, and I asked someone nearby where these led to. They said "to the stage," in a very "duh" manner. Well exCUSE ME!! So I pulled back one of the huge doors, walked in, and ended up in the very middle of the pulpit in the sanctuary. That's right—on stage, front and center. But I didn't let it phase me. I just hurried to some stairs, hopped down, and ran to someone (but I don't think it was Tyra?) to tell them that I couldn't find my vacuum.

That's right. Somehow I'd gone from looking for my viola to looking for a vacuum. Some nosy guy overheard me and said "Since you're wanting to vacuum, could you use ours and vacuum the church?" I couldn't believe he'd just asked me that, and in front of all those people (although the group size had gone down, since we were apparently on a break)! I panicked because I didn't want to vacuum this place (wouldn't a church that big hire like, a team of people to do that work?), but I was afraid that it would get back to JC that I was a selfish and lazy person...?! But I still said no. The end.

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What’s unique about this dream is that so many elements of it were taken from snippets of actual situations in my life. I guess sometimes my subconscious runs out of fresh, crazy material and uses actual memories and events!


*In case you were wondering, the aforementioned teachers are Dr. Walsh, my theory teacher from undergrad, and Clay Higgins, a Spanish teacher from grad school. Two of my favorite teachers!

We didn't start the fire...

This is an entry from an old blog (from summer a year or two ago), and I thought I'd share it with you all. It reads a little bit like one of my crazy dreams but it's a true story!
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Okay, so yesterday was cool. I went to the KARM Thrift Store off Western and got an AWESOME coffee table and end table. They are all nice and dusted and Windexed now, and in my living room. My friend Glenn helped me pick them out and then had to run somewhere, so another friend Erik helped me move them. I then treated Erik to Ben & Jerry's to thank him for his help.

And that's when my car caught on fire.

Well, not the entire car. Just the alternator. But it was totally on fire. I smelled something funny as we approached Ben & Jerry's, so once we got there I popped the hood. We saw smoke, and then we saw the flames inside the alternator. Fun times. I called AAA for a tow, but they said that before they could tow it the fire had to be put out (duh). I was told to call the Fire Department, get them to okay it, then call AAA back. I called the Fire Dept. and then called my dad, because I didn't really like playing the Wait and Watch Your Car Go Up In Flames game. Dad said to put dirt on it. I was panicking and going "There's no dirt, I'm on a paved parking lot!" Then I had an idea. "Wait--Erik, go grab some of that mulch!!!" So he did, and I know it could've been a disaster, but the fire eventually snuffed out. And of course it was out by the time the Fire Dept. arrived to okay the car to be towed. *sigh*

So long story short--I went home (after Erik and I had B&J's sorbet, YEAH!), then this morning around 9:00 AAA towed me to Gabby's Alternator Repair. Thank God for living on Sutherland--it seriously has everything you could ever need. And I got my car back around 2:00. How awesome is that?
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I'd say it's pretty nifty. Unfortunately I don't live in that uber-convenient part of town anymore but I still take my car to Buckner's, which is also off Sutherland. They're trustworthy guys and they do great work (and the same goes for Gabby's).

So, any memorable car/truck/bike moments from the peanut gallery? ;-)