Back to Georgia

Well, my first semester as a grad student at the University of Iowa has come to a close. It's kind of weird to think about because that means that I only have three semesters left in my Master's degree. I will "master" the trombone by 2011. Cool. I think I did really well as far as grades and progress goes. I am currently trying to figure out my own body as it relates to trombone playing and performance. It's a tough thing to figure out, analyze, and possibly form new habits while dropping old ones, but I'm slowly figuring out who I am as a trombonist.  I really enjoyed my academic classes this semester, though they were challenging and required shloads of work.  I guess I enjoy research, and my professors seem to like my writing style, which will come in handy when I tackle my thesis in the future.  So, one semester down. Spring semester should be interesting. On top of three musically academic courses, I will be a TA for a class entitle Arts in Performance, which I think I will really enjoy. Also, I will be playing in the Center for New Music, and hopefully we will be playing some good rep.  UISO has good rep planned, so that should be fun, too.  The only thing I am not looking forward to will result from the fact that I didn't have time to clean out my fridge in my apartment before I left for break.  I didn't have a ton of food in there (my diet the last few days in Iowa mainly consisted of coffee), but I did have a bowl of grapes as well as some homemade Indian food, which will undoubtedly be scary by January 15, 2010.

On a side note, if you ever want to talk to interesting people, carry a trombone in the International Quad Cities Airport in Moline, IL. I have met the nicest/weirdest people and have even been offered gigs by people at that airport. On an upside down note, I think security thought that my trombone was a weapon due to the fact that the F-attachment (trigger) looked suspiciously like a gun. So, be prepared for that possibility if you plan on doing some traveling this holiday with your trombone.