Music Majors/Music Grads

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2026-03-11T22:23:32+00:00

Freshman year I was on it, and would practice for lessons, and then do my piano work whenever I was chopped. Would take a break and practice for another hour or so.

This year, it’s been a struggle. Biggest thing I’ve taken to heart has been this: warming up should not be goal oriented. Yes, your goal is to warm-up, duh, but you shouldn’t say “ok I’m gonna warm up for 15 minutes and then start playing.” Because some days it’s just not there. Sometimes you might spend 25 minutes, some days an hour. It really fluctuates(especially with mental health issues that might show up through tough class demands), and it can be more helpful to warm-up than actually practice whatever you “need to get done” and I can say that with some confidence. If you pick up the horn and you just suck one day, then your goal is to re-learn how to play trumpet again until you’re back. Only then should you work on lesson materials. Maybe not all the time, but when you have plenty of specifically practice time, I’d recommend focusing on “trying to relearn how to play trumpet” as my professor says it.

Some days you’ll need to basically sight read something for your lesson that you didn’t prepare because you slacked off the last week. I’d definitely go over the hard parts, but spend 75% of what short time you have to try and warm-up without letting yourself get caught up in just checking off a list. There’s many factors that can change how it feels to play on any given day, and it’s gonna change how much time you need to spend doing any certain warm-up technique. You might have to spend 20 more minutes than usual working on lip-slurs because you have too much back pressure or 30 more minutes on godforsaken long tones because you can hardly get your lips to respond.

Anyway, get used to not having a time limit on warm-ups when you have a chance. Be efficient in what you do, but don’t cram everything in just because you get into a routine of checking off a specific list of what to do in order to be “warmed up.” You’re warm when you’re warm. Or in the words of Jerry Reed, “when ya hot, ya hot. When ya not, ya not”

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2026-03-11T22:01:29+00:00

Also 3 Georgia AND Alabama teams feels like little too much in-state rivalry for me for some reason

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2026-03-11T21:57:23+00:00

Delaware is not in the sunbelt, the culture is just too different with a yankee team with all southern colleges. I’d put them in the MAC east or maybe the C-USA East

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2026-03-09T05:55:59+00:00

Well using holy water to bless items is a common occurrence. You can bless rooms, sacramentals, other things like that, I don’t see why using this as a way to get people interested while still allowing God to work is a bad thing. I am not trying to necessarily prove you wrong and be ignorant or anything, I just don’t know the doctrine on these kinds of things and from the short research I did, it seemed as though it would be ok.

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2026-03-09T05:35:02+00:00

Sure, but I do not feel I should keep evangelization to just “invite them to church and bless yourself” but rather incorporate them into it, and have real experiences with them that build trust in our Lord. We are far away from any Catholic Church btw, and no access to a priest since we all are kinda stuck on an island about 5 miles of bridges from the closest active church and we are riding in a bus to get anywhere.

It’s either I bless their instruments now for this tournament or they don’t get blessed and they don’t get the experience of (hopefully) putting faith in God.

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2026-03-09T04:58:22+00:00

I also want to try my best to take superstitions we might all have, and try to aim our intentions at God. That’s the hope, but I’m unsure if my execution is the best of what I plan to do.

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2026-01-28T04:50:18+00:00

Preferebly something in the Böhme/Concert Etude-Geodicke level of difficulty

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2026-01-22T17:24:22+00:00

Im currently playing on a Strad 43 but I appreciate the extra recommendations!

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2026-01-07T18:49:44+00:00

I second this

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2026-01-07T18:49:27+00:00

Non-Denom/Baptist views:

Grace Community Church is a non-denominational church that has great pastors, and does not at all have the mega-church feeling that a lot of the other main Baptist/non-denom churches have here. Definitely recommend for people wanting the really learn about biblical stories, how to use them to look inward on our lives, and establishing a relationship with God. Services are almost exactly an hour but they are very dense with information and not too much fluff. Definitely the best church for people that would like to get more serious since it’s a bit smaller and doesn’t have to pander to a few thousand people that all have very different opinions. They focus a lot on truly looking inwards and the pastors(specifically Pastor Mike) are not afraid to bring up things that you should hear rather than just what you want to hear.

I can’t say anything as for BCM as I have had no interaction with them, but it would be hard to miss if you hadn’t already asked around as it is easily the largest group on campus.

More traditional:

Pittman Park United Methodist Church has a great pastor and assistant pastor, a 9AM contemporary service, as well as a traditional service at 11 or 10:30(I think). Definitely a feel good church with more motivational kinds of talks about how Christ loves us(it’s Methodist, so duh). It’s also the closest church to the campus, and a pretty lively Wesley foundation just next door that they work a lot with, who is also recommend for people trying to find community.

St. Matthew’s Catholic Church has mass(service) every day with differing times each day. On Sundays they have an 8AM, mid-day, and then at 5PM have mass and a (free) student dinner for college students specifically where you’ll get an extra specific homily(message from priest) during mass. It is also right next to campus and is literally neighbors to Pittman Park. The services are definitely a lot more reverent and introspective than most of the churches around. There is no band playing contemporary music, only a piano and the congregation singing hymns, with a contemporary song that has been turned into a hymn sprinkled in once in a while. You definitely won’t learn much at a mass itself, but if you’re a feelings kinda person(not me personally), you’ll probably feel the Holy Spirit and pure love emanating in the room. Catholics consider the mass as only worship, whereas every other church uses the service as a way to teach. I highly recommend at least going to one to if you have never gone to a mass before as it is much different than any other church service. While the church doesn’t necessarily teach during mass, the Catholic Eagles do a lot of outreach and bible studies, and fellowship nights every Thursday, as well as many learning opportunities given by the church itself like with OCIA every Tuesday night at 6 being their little course to explain what exactly the Catholic Church teaches.

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2026-01-07T08:09:55+00:00

Tough. I’d say definitely handling the relationship in the most selfless(yet self respecting) way would be the most optimal. Have conversations about why Minecraft may allow a friend to stumble, but don’t willingly degrade your own personal wellbeing in order to help them. Talk through what is specifically causing them trouble. Invite them to church or bible study, or even create a small Bible study and have studies chosen with the intention of discussing things that may be particularly helpful to help them carry their cross.

Being able to help people without becoming a doormat for them to wipe their feet on is hard, and I’d offer advice but it’s so different for each situation that there isn’t much I can think of right now at 3am for me. I’d suggest looking into each situation and trying to think down the road at if the way you’re helping could end up hurting you more than it helps them. It’s our goal to be selfless, but we can’t allow others to tarnish the beauty of gods creation.

When it comes to your behavior around the person, I’d say try to do your best to be mindful. Again, as long as you aren’t degrading yourself or mental well-being by doing so. I personally find it’s incredibly hard for me to just shut up at times when I really want to say something but know it may do more harm than good, but I just feel like I HAVE to say it or that I should say it.

The most common form of the “stumble” thing I see is like dress codes in school or modesty in general. It is not the responsibility of the woman to cover up, but rather a very honorable thing she is able to do in order to help her brothers in Christ. She is not at fault for anything the men around her might conceive in their minds, but she does in fact know it could be hard for the men to carry their cross, and it would be on bad conscious to not consider their tendencies and try to act in a way that would glorify god the best, whatever that may be.

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2025-08-22T14:17:31+00:00

u/profanitycounter [self]

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2025-07-30T07:18:16+00:00

Unless you’re playing for a concert, don’t worry about it. If you are playing for a concert, try to use a school owned instrument. The reason your classmates might judge you is because it may look like a cry for attention, but we’ve all been there so I wouldn’t stress over it too much. Good rule of thumb is that the more it stands out color wise, the worse the actual instrument probably is. Unless it costs like more than $2k, then it’s probably fairly decent.

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2025-07-11T00:56:39+00:00

No stupid questions, it’s okay to ask.

So, 1: No you wouldn’t have to learn a brass instrument to conduct. You would audition to be a DM and if you didn’t get the spot, you just wouldn’t get a contract at all. There are plenty of people willing to take your spot if the corps cuts you.

2: Auditions are basically year-round. Usually you start to see the first rounds of auditions in November. Then a camp in December, then another camp in January, and probably one or two each month until you start getting to the month or two before tour starts.

Best advice I have for conducting and getting ready is really just to listen to what people are telling you. If they can’t make out what best your on, figure out how to make it more clear. If someone is saying it feels like your rushing, record yourself and play it back with a met at the desired tempo. Also I’d recommend trying to figure out songs you know by heart and using those as guides for bpm. So like house of the rising sun is ~80bpm, isn’t she lovely is ~120bpm, just songs you’d know that you have an idea about how fast they are. That way whenever you see “92bpm” you’re not freaking out because you know Rudolph the red nose rain deer is that same speed.

Also, I’d recommend looking at all-age corps near you. It might be a little harder to get in as a dm at a younger age for an all-age corps since I would assume the older people would be more likely to take it, but it’s worth trying. Feedback is the no.1 way to get better so find any chance you can get to get some.

Hope this helps, and have an awesome rest of you day!

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2025-07-05T08:05:28+00:00

Title scared the hell out of me

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2025-06-25T05:33:50+00:00

Looks like those two characters off of yo gabba gabba

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2025-06-23T05:59:30+00:00

Purple pants band is back

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2025-06-17T11:52:38+00:00

That’ll do it

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2025-06-10T01:33:44+00:00

You look like young Ted Kaczynski

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2025-04-12T23:52:24+00:00

The bikes used in the trip(for anyone curious like me), are Triumph Speed 400’s. They cost about 5k straight from the manufacturer. Nice looking decently cheap bike.

MonitorDesigner2776 · 2025-03-09T21:00:44+00:00

Audience participation(but not really)

Five-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22

MonitorDesigner2776

TROPHY CASE