Piano class is useless
I should update, specifically about my piano class. I meant to sooner, but sadly didn’t get around to it.
I have had to take piano III this semester and I think it is useless. They have gotten rid of the exit level piano IV, and have instead pushed the proficency into the piano III semester. I think this was a total mistake in a big way. No one in my class are ready for it, and we are all just feeling frustrated. Not only that, but our teacher (who is brilliant as a pianist and a real nice guy) isn’t a good teacher. He expects to know things we don’t, and cannot break it down in a way that helps us. Either he breaks it down too much - thus boring us - or he doesn’t break it down enough and we all are just lost. Not only that, but at the beginning of the semester, we were told that we had 21!!! mini tests (3 tests, with 7 parts per test). Ok, fine, I could deal with that should I have to. However, they would be testing us over basically the same material…how does that makes sense? Well it doesn’t. Anyhow, we all figured that they would be like little 5 minute tests as we had with our last teacher last semester. That was the original plan. However, that hasn’t happened. We should be at this point, done with test #2 and all the parts within it. We aren’t…in fact…we aren’t even done with test #1….not even close! I just got to take part 2 of test #1 this past Thursday. Most days I sit doing nothing while my teacher gives tests…and not 5 min. tests either…more like 20 min. or more long. That right there should tell him he needs to adjust how things are running. He hasn’t though. At this point, we will be lucky to finish test #1 by the end of the semester. I see no other way for this to work at this point. Which means, I’ve benefited from absolutely nothing in that class this semester. In order for me to go out into the work world and do my job and my students justice…I will need to take private piano lessons and pay even more money on skills my university should have ensured I gain while here. What an absolute waste of my time and money! ARG! It is one of the most frustrating classes I have ever had. I’d drop it, but there is no promise of a better teacher next semester, and I’d loose all my money, and it would go as a bad mark on my record. GAH!
Anyways. Besides that, school is going alright. My grades are pretty good, and I am just needing to worry about my jury at the end of the semester. Once that is over, I am golden. I admit I don’t get to practice as much as I want, but I will be changing that VERY soon since my other classes are starting to relax a bit.
Other new updates…
I am 4 days away from hitting 8 months along. People are only now realizing that I am pregnant and not just fat…go figure. Oh well. On the upside, I guess that means I’m not carrying large.
So far the pregnancy has gone well overall, but last week I started getting some little warning signs of pre-eclampsia. I contacted my midwife, and she changed my diet and told me some other things to try to help ward it off. This week has started better, so I am hoping it truly is working. I so want things to turn out as I want. I just need to be able to chug along for another month…then I can rest. I just need my body to work for me really, for the next 2 months. I really don’t want to end up having the baby in a hospital if I can avoid it. I will if I must, but not happily so. So, pretty much for the next several weekend, I am going to minimize how much I have to be away from home…and maximize rest when I can. It’s all I can do for now…and I just hope it is enough. So, that’s life lately. Maybe I’ll update again soon…who knows.