Sunday, January 16, 2011

1.16.11 Weather relativity

Saturday was a busy day for S, involving much hauling from place to place. It started with him needing to show up on the other side of the city for his NYSSMA solo.* S's band solo is always in January and in five years, I have not once driven to solofest in sunny weather.

We woke up to snow coming down and the radio saying 1-2 inches expected. 1-2 inches expected (in NY) means, leave 10 minutes early. My sister (in MD) had 1-2 inches expected a few weeks ago and the school system closed for the day.

I couldn't help thinking of the time when I had just moved from MD to CA. In March. I was chatting with the program administrator just before leaving for lunch. She looked out the window and suddenly exclaimed - "It's raining! Oh, darn. I was going to go shopping at lunchtime and now I can't."

There you have it: Weather relativity.


*The New York State School Music Association arranges for the opportunity for the music students, both vocal and band, to be evaluated once a year in a standardized setting. The local high school uses the midterm and/or final exam requirement as a way to prod the students into attending NYSSMA - if you do a solo, your assessment from that event is your midterm or final with no further testing required at the school. K&S have always chosen to do the solofest. **

** The vocal students have the choice of solofest or being evaluated on a solo by their regular teacher. A few of the vocal students each year choose to take an F rather than sing a solo for anyone, which boggles my mind just a trifle. As a music student myself in high school, I understand the difficulty of making oneself sing a solo but I would have gone to the stake rather than voluntarily get an F. ETA: This happens at the class level where the students are no longer taking music because they have to - it's an elective class. Presumably, they take the class because they like to sing and think they do it well?

3 comments:

gayle said...

I remember years ago in a jr high music class, our teacher was sorting the class into soprano, alto, etc, by having us each sing a solo. As the World's Shyest Person (with a terrible singing voice), I was terrified. After I finished singing, the teacher blinked at me a couple of times, then told me I could be an alto, but I had to promise to sing quietly.
If I'd been offered an 'F' instead of undergoing that humiliation, I think I would have opted for the F...

Elizabeth said...

I can understand that, and it's unfortunate because sometimes the "terrible singing voice" is merely a growth stage, but all that's left is the feeling of humiliation.

S. plays in the band because he would do almost anything than sing in front of other people. He has a very nice baritone nowadays but zero interest in singing in front of anyone.

Diane said...

Weather relativity: growing up in Vermont where driving on snowy two-lane roads is normal and snow days were rare. Moving to the Midwest where 2 inches of blowing snow can close the schools.