The music and me...

First of all, vielen dank to B-san for his nice comment. :) What a trooper he is...and full of lovely inspirational quotes -- that one does always make me a little teary-eyed.

(in honor of B-san, I shall insert here a "break in the narrative," or what some might call "the double-b")

Tonight I travel to the UNLV campus to join a semi-professional choir. Quite exciting! I love singing, and now, what with teaching voice lessons, leading an after-school choir, it seems as though I myself should belong to some kind of group. So here I go!
The music scene here is very different. Obviously, Buckwalter has much more to say about that than I do, and also has much more expertise, but therein lies my next subject. The biggest difference here is that almost everyone I've met who is involved in music in any way, shape, or form has a degree, or has made it a complete lifestyle/profession. There are very few people here who are involved in music just for their own enjoyment or in addition to something else. It's very strange coming from the Ole background, where a huge number of people in the performing ensembles had no thought of music as a career. Why could this be? Could it be because most of the performing ensembles in the greater Las Vegas areas are mainly lounge acts of some kind connected with the casinos? That's definitely something to do with it...I've never met so many rock musicians who actually are or could be ROCK musicians in my life. You know, you meet these people in MN in high school or college, and you think.."Uh huh, yep, I'll look you up when you're living the high life doing wavy arm dances with Mick Jaggar." But they usually sucked. But here! It's a different world in that respect...I mean, we're talking actual ROCK talent.
But the problem? Tenacious D would be sad...none of these rockers are classically trained to rock your socks off. Buckwalter and I wander alone, with our classical training, and our sight-reading abilities. I gaze in wonder at all these pianists as they play song after song by ear (something I have NEVER been able to do) and they drool when I sightread for them. It's a new world, I tell you.
Anyway, life is good. It's a thrill to be involved in music again...it really does create a void in your life when you don't use it!