Fundamentals Week Five

This week is bossa nova. My talent in the latin rhythms is not...good. But of all of them bossa nova is the one that I get the best. Probably because it is relatively simple, relatively slow, and ubiquitous in American culture.

Last week's lesson was horrible on so many levels...but I take heart in the fact that everyone else in the class thought it was horrible too. I got a C+...which is probably the first time in my life that has happened (I failed an English paper once for not following directions...on purpose...but I've never gotten a C before I don't think...of course...I'm probably blocking out Nuclear Engineering grad school now that I think of it). His comments were not helpful. I made quite clear that I was struggling with the assignment and his comments amounted to "you did it wrong"...which I had already full well admitted. The professorship is minimal here.

And again I have to say that the care and organization of the course is subpar. For instance...it was implied this week that we had already studied accents. We have not. Accents were thrown into an assignment...but they were never explained or discussed. Same for dynamics in general...they've been thrown at us...but not truly examined. In this week's lesson it says we will start 32nd notes this week...only we started them last week. And I got zinged for playing both etudes last week when we were only supposed to play one...well THAT wasn't made clear AT ALL. Oh...and in some places he'll say to play things at 50 bpm...then somewhere else it'll say 60...for the same portion of the assignment. Just really bad editing and consistency checks all around. It'd be ok if this was cheap...but it isn't at all. Lazy...sloppy.