As a warning I should state that my mom and I aren't super duper close and I barely get to see her because she works night shift so I could barely get in contact with her especially in this time frame. However I was able to text her my questions and she could answer it in her own time haha. She also doesn't really say much in general and I rather cut my own foot off than pressure and answer out of her. I picked my mom because she's the last living relative that I have that isn't an immediate sibling.
My mommy's responses will be in Lavender and mine will be in Dark Purple!
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Probably your first impression of Blue Grass |
(please take this lightly, it is really not that big of a deal to me personally. It literally happened in the past and I have moved on. I just hate that it happened in the first place. haha)
I am terrified to do music ed. It's not that I'm scared to teach, in fact its something I want to do. Please allow me to start with, I want to do music education. I would also like to say that I would prefer to do it as my master's degree. Im not really sure why everyone is super pressed about me saying it. I don't mean it as the power struggle as a performing musician but more along the lines of one day I want to have a flute studio. Everyone I've asked has literally said that most people have a performance degree to be "labeled" as qualified to teach their preferred instrument. However it's not something I want to do as a "female woodwind player" or even if "I'd be the perfect ASSISTANT band director." Someone really important in my life told me this.
For context I said, "I want to teach flute, nothing else really. Teaching middle school or high school band doesn't interest me and I would prefer to stick with something I love. I do fine in my music ed classes, however I dislike that we ONLY do things catered towards elementary children. (the purgatory of boom whackers) Also, the idea of teaching a bunch of teenagers how to play brass instruments is something I genuinely would not want to do, not that I couldn't, but because I know I wouldn't be happy and I would probably regret it later on in life." Without hesitation I was told, "You know, you don't have to be a band director, you could be the assistant. They do less work and focus on mainly the woodwinds. Plus you are a woman who plays a woodwind instrument and thats usually what the assistant director does."
I know its not really that big of a deal, but it is still my future. I hate that stereotype. However, they made a valid point, that is usually what happens in public high school bands. It just hurt that what I said was taken out of account and just simply pushed onto the stereotype. They are in many ways right, you have to start somewhere, then build your way up. I can see how younger Jaimee didn't fully take that into account but I wouldn't say I didn't have it on my mind. I'm just mad that I can't argue it, even with it being 2023 and things like this have been normalized and now starting to change, it just hurts to be told this.
Heres a photo of a lovely lady conducting a public school.
Luckily, I would like to think I'm not the kind of person who breaks down at the hands of a negative comment. My options are open and I'm still young so I have nothing to worry about right now. Like I said before it is 2023, change is normalized, and I can look forward to the future and see where it will take me. Even if I'm destined to start as an assistant band director, thats not something that I will let hold me back. I want to do my best to create a standing where I can happily do what I love. Playing flute and teaching others how to love playing flute.
Now that you've made it this far, I would like to say that I'm still happy. Im still pursuing music, and like I said in one of my previous paragraphs I'm still happy with continuing music education. The whole point of this blog was to bring up how gender is involved in the music community and it honestly upsets me that in the day I posted this more people focused on what I'm trying to do instead of what was said.
Here's my favorite band piece. When I'm serving my time I hope to one day have my class play this :)
Every place and culture has at least one type of ritual, but New Orleans is just THAT place. I honestly cannot put it into words. What do YOU think of when you hear New Orleans? Do you think of the food, the streets filled with people, or the famous music that is said to be played far into the night?
After thinking about those, consider the amount of people that go to NO yearly. What do they go for? Mardi Gras. If you don't know what that is, basically it is a Catholic holiday celebrated on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday where people eat extravagant foods before the Lenten sacrifices and fasting.
On top of that, what is Mardi Gras in NO? Close your eyes, not actually, but imagine streets full of people with bright and beautiful clothes. Masks and beads jangle from guests who are fully decorated and are absolutely "bumpin'" too good ol' NO jazz. A thick savory aroma of gumbo and jambalaya wafts through the air and the sounds of people having the time of their lives are heard. If all of your senses aren't already at their max, imagine the warm, dense environment of hot Louisiana.
Im going to be honest, I have no idea how people do it. Is it the alcohol? The People? The Clothes? The MUSIC? What is it that draws people in?
Yeah, yeah, I get what your thinking. This is a blog about rituals, do you know what another ritual can consist of, or should I even say what most rituals are a part of. Cults. New Orleans is a cult. However not all cults are "evil or bad." New Orleans has many rituals besides Mardi Gras, the have their own types of "Jazz Funerals" and "Cajun Birthday Bonanzas." Theres just something that is so appealing about the atmosphere that it lures people in. I have never heard anyone say that they never want to go, much less the people who have been have never said they don't want to go back.
In my honest opinion I feel like the heavy hitting point, besides the food of course, is probably the music. In the ritual of Mardi Gras the people celebrate in the street as men and woman play jazz and funky music for the many people partying in the street. Their instruments are primarily brass instruments, trumpet and trombones, along with some winds like the saxophone family. These combinations of instruments is typical jazz but they are fantastic party instruments. They're loud and pretty portable so it's easy for the people of New Orleans to dance AND play. There's just something about the STANK a saxophone can make that gets people absolutely turnt and hypnotized into partying the night away.
I don't even want to talk about the voodoo section of New Orleans...
Hi, I'm Jaimee! I'm a sophomore music education major here at converse. My primary instrument is flute, however I'm not really sure why I chose to word it as primary since it's probably the only instrument I'll admit to playing besides other flutes in the flute family. I'm actually having a slight mid-life crisis because I've begun to love flute so much that the idea of teaching anything else, cough cough, middle school or high school band sounds so unappealing. I am looking forward to seeing where the future takes me :)
I'm actually from the area and I went to Boiling Springs High School. How tragic haha. I live literally in the middle of nowhere on a farm with a ton of barnyard animals, but it's actually pretty nice because I can practice at home without having to deal with “bothering the neighbors.” When I graduate I would love to either move to the city or ditch you guys and move abroad :p
Something that I like right now… I'm so sorry in advance.
♥ Matt Maltese ♥
I’m actually really not sure why I like him as an artist. As a warning I never actually became sentient as a musician until college. I didn't listen to music and my favorite genre before coming to converse was “meme music.” yeah yeah, I know it's not really that surprising but I remember like 2019 Tiktok and the song “As the World Caves In,'' came on and I think I finally gained sentience. Funny enough, this isn't even at the point where I began to like him. On a fateful day at converse, Lauren and I got the munchies and she drove us to the fresh market and she asked that dreadful question, “what would you like to listen to?” Everything in my body tried to contain itself. Having the aux is too powerful. Since I love Lauren dearly I decided I was going to do nothing i’ve done before, not a rickroll! I ended up choosing As the World Caves In, and she ended up telling me about Matt Maltese. Now it's my go to music to listen to so it looks like I have taste haha.
Also, ever since spotify wrapped came out I haven't listened to a single song that wasn’t his. I want to be his number one listener >:)
Music that is important to me?
If y'all know anything about me I have a really weird obsession with My Singing Monsters. I know it's not a singular piece of music, actually it's a whole game. That's not the point, it's magnificent. A game centered around lil monster babies doing lil vocal riffs and creating full songs is just something that brings me pure joy. Not only that but it has a little feature where you can actually compose music on it and share it with people around the world. I have not a single idea at how to do anything regarding music theory but honestly playing that game over the summer allowed me to hands on learn everything I didn't understand from freshman music theory so I genuinely recommend it if you're having issues with it!
My favorite island is Cold Island! My favorite monster is Cataliszt.
Music I don't vibe with…
I actually cannot think of a single piece of music that I “don't vibe with.” I dont think I'm in a position to judge, as someone who is happy to listen to whale sounds, Nyan Cat Theme For 10 Hours, Nightcore… However, something I never, and I mean NEVER got into was boy bands. I never had a Justin Bieber phase. 5SOS, I couldn't tell you a single member. My biggest confession is I’ve never heard a One Direction song, much less barely knowing that Harry Styles is from that band. Mary, Josh and Lauren listen to him all the time so that's the only reason I know to use him as an example haha. It's kind of sad because those are pretty mainstream but I can at least say most other genres I have a pretty decent knowledge about now.
Something that I didn't mention earlier.
I LOVE flute. It's been since middle school that I've been really obsessed. I remember a time in 8th grade where I was delving into the deep dark parts of youtube and I stumbled across George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae. Oh my god, I loved that so much for such a long period of time. So much that I'm like 90% sure I mentally blocked it in high school. Last year I was sitting in on one of Amber’s flute lesson in Dr. V’s office and next to his tiny chair he has a bookcase of randomly assorted flute things. What caught my eye was the whole score of George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae. I flipped out immediately. I remember him being pretty surprised I knew what it was and he ended up going next door to tell Dr. Robbins that there was a george Crumb fan in the building. I kid you not literally 3 days later George Crumb passed away and deep down i still feel like it's the cause of that incident. (a joke) It was just a really weird coincidence.
Anyways, the piece is for flute, electric cello and piano. All the players are masked and then it is just complete avant garde playing for like 30 minutes. There's some pretty cool techniques like singing/humming while playing. At some points the pianist even gets up and starts plucking the strings instead of actually hitting the keys on the board. It just blew my mind as an 8th grader.
Have you ever listened to a song that just made you feel like you were in your own conscious? Believe it or not you have probably experienc...
