GRADBlog

I'm finished. It's done. Complete. Over. Fin. The Master's degree is finally nicely wrapped up, and yet another chapter of my educational life (well, life in general) is now done.

Ben Dawkins, Master of Music. It sounds like a bit too much, doesn't it? Bachelor of Arts makes sense. Even Doctor of Musical Arts has a certain "real world" ring to it. But, Master of Music? That's what it's going to say on my degree. What it should say is, "This is to certify that Benjamin C. Dawkins now knows significantly more about music than he used to." Or, perhaps more in a more honest appendage to this statement, "Moreover, he realizes how many aspects of music he has absolutely no clue about." Because that last little bit is definitely true--in the past three years, not counting lessons and ensembles (which are a different layer of complex education in and of themselves), I've taken 14 pretty serious classes on music in the last 3 years. It may not seem like a lot, but it definitely is.

It's funny to think about how little I knew about music when I arrived at the university. I'd taken one baby theory course, zero lit, zero history. My musical training consisted of years of ensembles, choruses, and musicals. I didn't know diddly squat about opera, but by the end of the first year, I had so many opera recordings and spent so many hours reading, listening, and watching that I was in a different planet. Becoming a real Classical musician was an awe-inspiring, pride-swallowing, mind-numbing, hyphenated descriptor-requiring experience. Those classes changed the way I listened to music. An interesting aspect of my grad student life as opposed to some of the other music students I spent hours in classes with, I heard very often, "We're studying music in such painstaking detail that when I go home, I can't stand to put any music on anymore." Meanwhile, I had the opposite experience. I was listening to music hours on hours of every day. Absolute immersion. After all, music is one of the most pervasive factors in our culture, but one thing we don't acknowledge often about music is that it is a foreign language, in almost every way. Now, I hear function, non-harmonic tones, form, derivation. It really is a different world.

It wasn't just the music in my life that changed. I learned quite a few things about myself these past 3 years. Here goes:

• I've learned that I can live reasonably happily in a living room crammed full of gear for upwards of four months. When people heard that I was living this way my first semester in Athens, they thought the world had come to an end...creature of comfort that I am.
• I've learned that I don't need a heated home. I definitely prefer one...but I don't need it. For that first year-and-a-half in Athens...no heat.
• I've learned that I am the worst "do-nothing" vacation person ever. I have to have something to do. When I don't have 6 projects to complete at once, life seems to move at a crawl. It never did that before.
• Another music one: I've learned that I can enjoy some weird music. Now, I don't necessarily mean the crazy 20th century atonal stuff (although I am learning to appreciate it)...I'm talking weird electronic, noise music (I'm not being facetious--it actually is referred to as noise), and in the last year, I've even taken part in some of this crazy music making.
• I've learned that being a performer is 1 part performance, 9 parts wait in a room for hours playing cards until its time to go into a big ballroom and perform.
• I've learned that it is very difficult keeping in touch with people while working on an advanced degree. It feels sometimes that a vast percentage of college was spent just hanging out, basically living with the people you had bonded with. I live in Athens only a few miles away from some of those people I spent countless hours with...I see them only a few times a year. It's sad, and it's definitely my fault.
• I've learned that most everybody gets married in their mid-twenties. I've been to so many weddings in the past 5 years that I can't even figure it. It's even crazier now that I'm singing at a lot of weddings...The older I get, the fewer single men there are to catch the damn garter. Although it seems that the melee surrounding the catching of the bouquet just gets more and more violent. I've caught (completely against my will) 5 garters. Five. One just sort of landed on me. One I actually caught. With the other 3, I was simply the closest single man to the garter when it hit the floor, followed by a sharp whisper, "Dude, for the love of God, help me out here. Pick it up."
• I've learned that the purchase of homes and the having of babies marks a huge psychological step into "adult demeanor." I'm not saying that some of these people are any less the goofy kids I knew...but I hear them talking about things like insurance, mortgages, the frequency and color of baby poop. Things definitely change.
• I've learned that after living in Rome and going to Berry...The UGA and Athens experience was a massive culture-shock. I had never lived in a world where the entire town shut down for a football game. I had also never had beer spilled on me in public. This happens reasonably frequently now. Even in the Applebees. I had also never suspected that a vehicle in my line of sight was being operated by a drunk driver. Now, I can be pretty sure. I also never saw anyone actually get arrested in real time. Now, I see it just about every time I'm downtown.
• In Rome, if I was at a party, it's likely I knew almost everybody. In Athens, I know almost no one.
• In Athens, I learned that even with a "Walk" crosswalk light...you cross the street at risk of life and limb.
• In Rome, parking was the easiest thing on the planet. In Athens, parking is a nightmare even in the summer.
• I've learned that when you're pursuing an advanced degree, you don't get the "What are you going to do with that?" question that you'd get in undergrad.

And there are many, many more. It's funny to look back over a significant period of my life and see how much has changed. It is 5 years since I finished college, 8 since high school. I've started getting the "Wow, you're getting old" comments at birthdays, and I no longer ignore commercials that offer savings on car insurance. It's definitely funny.

And now, on to the next chapter. Doctorate. This one will be pretty wild; I can already tell.

And of course, I'll be here to tell you all about it.

TUNE OF THE DAY:

Vitamin C- Graduation Song

I decided to post a link to the most horrendous graduation song I could possibly find. The first time I heard this song, tears welled up in my eyes from laughing at how ridiculous it is. And later on, music theory made me laugh at it harder when I realized (also thanks to Rob Paravonian) that they relied on the falling fifths progression for this one.

REAL TUNE OF THE DAY:

Rachmaninoff had big hands

You didn't think I was actually going to leave you with Vitamin C, did you? Well, here is something to scratch the "That's Awesome!" itch you might be feeling. A little demonstration of how someone with smaller hands might play those massive Rachmaninoff chords.