Applied Voice

Asa Music Therapy major my main instrument is voice and therefor have to take applied voice lessons. In this, I am given 4 or 5 songs to learn over the course of one semester. At the end of the semester I have to perform my prepared songs for a jury and am then given a grade. The songs I'm studying are Se tu m'ami, L'ho perduta, The Crucifixion, and I attempt from love's sickness. My favorite one of the 4 is The Crucifixion because it is atonal and gives me the freedom to express the song as I feel appropriate.

Monday Recap

On Monday in class we watched the horror movie Carrie from the 70's. I am not a fan of scary or horror movies, but I actually enjoyed it. The movie had many different themes regarding sexuality, religion, and victims. The beginning of the movie Carrie was seen as a victim to the bullies at her school and her mother who over controlled her for the first 16 years of her life. As the movie continued, Carrie was portrayed more as the villain because she had the power of telekinesis, which she used to control her mother, and later on kill her classmates and mother. I, though, never saw Carrie as a villain because her classmate Chris was eager to seek revenge upon her. Carrie always seemed to be very vulnerable like a victim. I perceived the victim as the telekinesis power within her that could move and break things, and kill people. Over all I liked the movie, but it was very strange.

Guitars

I started teaching myself guitar two years ago. My first guitar was really cheap, $70, and an unknown brand. While it sounded like crap and was very difficult to play, that guitar was beautiful. Black painted wood, sleek, gold accents on the fret board, and his name was Reggie. I loved him dearly until a friend lender me his acoustic electric Ovation. After picking up that Ovation I never wanted to pick Reggie back up.
A year later, after lots of practice and saving of money, I sold Reggie and found a used Ovation off of Craigslist. The new used guitar I bought is an acoustic electric Ovation with black painted wood and quarts like accents. It is beyond handsome. The sound resonates stunningly and I fell in love with it quickly. I named him Jonah and I will never give him up.

Recap September 10th

Thursday in class we read the narrative Dear Cameron by Helene Woyczesczyk. I genuinely enjoyed and related to this short story because I agree with the narrator that writing letters is much more personal than text messaging. It was also ironic that the writer wrote the essay in a letter formal as it was about letters.
Another narrative we read was Pet Milk, which had no relation to pet milk. In this story we discussed how the point of the story would have changed if the setting was in a different place. From this I realized how drastically the plot, characters, or message can change due to a different setting.

Procrastination

I have my first psychology examine tomorrow, which is also my first examine of my first year of college. My psychology professor told us that in order to earn an A, we must study 9-10 hours a week. 9 to 10 hours. This was a huge shock to me, who rarely studied in high school and didn't preform very well either. I've also only studied a total of maybe 2 hours the past two weeks. Based on that, I'll earn a D or F.

Another flaw of mine is that I am the champion of procrastination. I do all my homework and turn it in on time, but I make sure to save it until the very last second to do so. 

Back to my psychology test tomorrow. I started making flashcards today to help me study. But instead of studying for a test that I am inevitably going to flunk, I am writing this blog, which I would much rather do, because again, I am a procrastinator and hate studying. 

If I were a smart student, the lesson I would have learned from a test I am about to fail is; get a head start on studying and DO NOT procrastinate. But, lets face it, I'll try my best the night before my test tomorrow and see how it goes. Again, because I'm a procrastinator. 

Course Recap 9/8

During Wednesday's class we listened to three pieces of writing; Girl, The Day Lady Died, and watched a clip featuring David Sedaris. Girl was intriguing because us, the readers, could interpret who the narrator was speaking to. I pictured a young mother giving her daughter advice of which she learned through experience. 

The Day Lady Died was my favorite poem of the three. The writer precisely described his day of a national tragedy and then in the last sentence he introduced the meaning of the poem and who died. From this poem I learned that a writer can describe his intent in one sentence, with so much meaning. I want to learn how to write simple and to the point. The writer also portrayed his age, class, race, and gender through his short poem. 

In the clip of David Sedris he used dry humor in his short story to keep the reader/ listener interested. David pointed out the flaws in the American and French traditions of Easter using dry humor. 

The main theme of what we learned is conveying your : religion, race, ethnic background, gender, class, sexuality, age, nationality, age, hometown, high school, major, group/ clubs, and fangirlisms. As a writer I believe I need to work on describing these groups more through my writing. 

Introduction

Hello!
My name is Allie Moskal and I'm a freshman at Western Michigan. My major is Music Therapy and my main instrument is voice. I love drinking tea, eating, playing guitar, and singing.