On the Road Again

If you know my family, it comes as no surprise that the Geriatric patients and I are making our way to Texas today. It’s time to head to southeast Texas to visit family north of Houston. We will spend a quiet week by the lake. Dad will do plenty of fishing. Mom and I will split our time between the couch and the kitchen before returning to Arkansas for the last few weeks of my summer break.

To make this a true vacation, I’m also going to take the week off from blogging. Look for Livin’ Life to return on July 18.

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Paperwork is the Pits!

I absolutely love making music. I love getting to work with young students and presenting performances to showcase their hard work and talent. I love the fact that I get paid to make music daily. However, I hate filling out paperwork in order to get paid.

Let me give you a little background before I launch into this rant. I have been contracted to accompany a few instrumental students from Plainview High School for an upcoming competition this weekend. I did some similar work for another area high school a few weeks back as well. For that school, I simply had to provide my social security number and my fee; a check was cut and sent right away. That’s the situation that I am used to when working as a contracted professional in high schools in Arkansas, Tennessee, California, and now — Texas.

But wait! Plainview is going to need additional information. I spent a significant chunk of my lunch hour filling out a part-time job application — did I mention that this job will involve a total of 8 hours of work by the time the contest is over? — that was PAGES UPON PAGES in length. Come on! Do I really need to decline health insurance? How many times must I declare that I am a U.S. citizen? I understand that much of this is mandated by the federal government, but I find myself wondering if my short-term involvement actually requires all of this. Based on the comments of the employees that were trying to get all of the paperwork together, they were not entirely sure that it was necessary…..but their supervisors demanded it be done, so here we are. My work with the school district will most likely be done before this mass of paperwork is actually processed! This is insane! No wonder people shy away from getting involved with public school districts for short-term commitments.

Now that I’ve ranted about the lunacy of the situation, I’ll accept the fact that I’ve lost those precious minutes of my life, chalk it up as another example of inane bureaucratic crap, and prepare to take a voided check back to the business office so I can actually get paid the money that I’m working to earn.

What Do You Do?

Since starting my job this fall, I’ve repeatedly heard two questions.

• How do you like living in Texas?
• What exactly do you do?

I feel pretty confident that I have answered the first question. So let me give you — especially my extended family and friends who know very little about musical training — some insight into my work.

 

My official title is Assistant Professor of Piano at Wayland Baptist University. As you might guess, I spend the majority of my day sitting on a piano bench, but I switch hats throughout the day.

 

My primary teaching responsibility is the class piano sequence. Every student who studies music — regardless of their principle instrument — needs to develop basic keyboard skills. That’s where my class comes in. Every non-pianist in the music program takes a 4-semester sequence that meets twice each week to build their piano skills. Much of our time is spent learning scales and chord progressions as we explore late elementary and early intermediate piano repertoire. After students complete the 4th semester of class piano, they take a benchmark exam to demonstrate their level of proficiency. The exam addresses solo performance as well as skills such as sight reading, transposition, and score reading. For many of our students, the proficiency exam is a major hurdle before they begin the upper division coursework in the field.

 

In addition to class piano, I currently teach applied piano lessons to one freshman woman. She is a early intermediate student who is not afraid of a challenge. We’ve had a lot of fun this semester, made some significant progress, and have already begun to plan our repertoire choices for the spring. I’m hoping to have the opportunity to do more private teaching as the piano program at WBU grows.

 

The rest of my week is filled with a lot of playing in rehearsals and lessons of all types. I currently work with eleven vocalists as well as the students enrolled in class voice. As the semester begins to wind down, instrumentalists are beginning to seek me out for accompaniments for their jury exams. At this point, I have received music from five of them. Monday and Wednesday afternoons find me spending 90 minutes with the men and women of Wayland Singers — the department’s non-auditioned choir. This week brings the end of the university’s opera offering; we’re mounting a production of The Mikado. Those who have known me the longest will be surprised to hear that my time in opera workshop is some of my favorite times of the week.

 

Then there’s all the work that comes outside of the classroom and rehearsal studio. Thankfully, I was not assigned to any standing committees during my first semester of work. That has allowed me some time to do some recruiting (phone calls and emails take more time than you would ever expect). I’m working on a new course that will be offered in the spring. I could go on and on about student recitals, NATS competitions, LMTA meetings, master classes, and student rehearsals….but I think you get the picture. I’ve found myself very busy and very fulfilled.

 

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Exploring New Places is Fun!

I tend to be a person of routine. I stick to the familiar. Change is difficult for me.

My move to Texas has brought lots of changes to my life and I have had to get out of my comfort zone and explore new options and possibilities. Not all of my adventures so far have been fun. (You can’t imagine the frustration of realizing that you cannot get a Texas driver’s license without having a Texas insurance policy…..which requires a Texas driver’s license to complete the application.) Some have been pleasant surprises. I never imagined that Plainview would become so comfortable so quickly.

Most of my explorations so far have been in the area of services — grocery stores, churches, mechanics, restaurants, movie theaters, and libraries. As I continue to settle in and get classes up and running, I intend to explore the area a little more for the FUN stuff. Who knows what I may find….but I promise to keep you updated as I continue Livin’ Life.