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About This Author
Brandiwyn🎶  , also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
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La Bene Vita
I am a professional musician  , worship leader , small business owner , songwriter , aspiring author and freelance nonfiction writer with a chemical engineering degree .
But that's just my resume.
My profile of qualifications is only one of the ways in which I am unique. Here I chronicle my personal and professional goals and my efforts to achieve them. Occasionally I fail. Mostly, I take daily baby steps toward all my long-term goals. Much like the stories I pen, the songs I compose, and the businesses I run, I am always a work in progress.
October 4, 2018 at 11:10am October 4, 2018 at 11:10am
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OMG I just got the best news.
Emma is 11, a guitar student, and pretty good. Mom said over the summer she wanted to try out for jazz band, so we made plans to move her to a jazz guitar teacher, who subsequently resigned amid my rash of Jul/Aug teacher resignations. The teacher she landed with is a great teacher (Carrie, on Mondays) but not a jazz guitarist. I've heard nothing since, then on Fri 9/21 Emma's mom schedules a makeup with me to go over her jazz audition piece, which she had just received from the band director. She shows up, hands me music, and it's hard. It's in Bb (literally the worst key for guitar) and has a mix of melodic riffs well outside of 1st position and crazy tricky jazz chords that require insane hand acrobatics. I asked when the audition would be. "Next Friday." As in 9/28. !!! My heart sinks but I hide it on my face. I do manage to suggest they should schedule as many makeups as possible between 9/21 and 9/28. I take a photo of the music, then we spend the lesson learning what feels like a ton but is only a tiny percentage of the piece. On their way out, mom schedules another makeup w/me Wed 9/26. (Carrie only teaches on Mondays.)
Sat 9/22, Walt (another jazz guitar teacher, but Emma's schedule didn't work) has a gap because his student called out. I bombard him, shove music in his face and say, I need chord fingerings for an 11-year-old, easy versions, as simple as possible. Go. He spends 18 of his 20 min gap writing chord voicings furiously while muttering things like, we can leave out the root, need the 3rd and 6th, she can play three strings here... then in the last two min I record his hands while he plays the fingerings he wrote. After, I texted the photo of the audition piece, the photo of Walt's chord fingerings, and a link to the video of Walt's hands that I'd uploaded to Drive all to Carrie, Emma's regular teacher. We text back and forth for awhile because she's panicking a little, too. We both spend our weekends playing the piece and figuring out what to show Emma.
Mon 9/24, Emma has her regular weekly guitar lesson with Carrie, who also shares Walt's fingerings and video w/Emma and mom. They get through most of the song, in rough-draft-ish format.
Wed 9/26, Emma has another makeup with me. Mom comments that she told her friends we have a "whole army of grownups helping my kid get into jazz band." Emma is young but very mature and articulates well what she's struggling with. I'd continued to play the song myself Mon and Tue and had determined a few ways to simplify even more than Walt had, so I show her. Overall, I'm amazed at how much she's accomplished in four or five days, but I'm still nervous. I'd changed a few things and she needed to practice them, so I want to circle back before the audition. I asked what time the audition would be on Fri. Mom says they have to turn in a video, and she'd check with the director to see if they could submit it Friday evening (and therefore have one last lesson with me... and RECORD the video at the lesson.) The plan is approved by jazz band director, and mom schedules one last lesson with me.
Fri 9/28, Mom says Emma is considering not participating even if she makes it because it's so hard. I tell Emma, "Don't you dare!" and give her a huge pep talk about how she has more grit than most adults I know, and that she deserves to be in jazz band, and if she doesn't make it, it's not because she's not old enough (most of the other kids are 12 and 13) or not good enough, it's just that we could have used more time. I don't know if the teacher handed them music one week before the audition because she's a slacker or was testing the kids to see how quickly they could learn the piece, but if the quick turnaround was part of the test, Emma did the best she could and worked harder than any 11-year-old I've ever seen. I tell her if she doesn't make it, we'll try again next year. She rubs her sore, aching fingertips on the rough, bumpy surface of her chair and smiles. We run the new stuff and she nails it. We start recording, but she makes a mistake and we scrap the take. The second take is pretty much as perfect as it was going to get in the time we'd had, and mom submits it.
Thu 10/4: Mom just emailed to inform me that Emma was selected for jazz band, and I could dance, scream and cry all at the same time to express how happy I am for her.  |
© Copyright 2024 Brandiwyn🎶 (UN: tuozzo at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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Aw, thanks, 
Comment ![Merit Badge in Music
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To a dear friend whose talent for writing music is sensational. May you have a fabulous New Year, (((Brandi)))!!! *^*Kiss*^*
Big hugs,
Sherri *^*Heart*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Music-1050.gif)
![Merit Badge in Organization
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I don't know how you do it, but I assume there's magic involved *^*Bigsmile*^* I have really enjoyed this month of planning and preparation for NaNoWriMo and I love how organized it all is. Thank you for hosting a great challenge and for your dedication to helping so many of us prepare with confidence and trepidation for National Novel Writing Month (known to sane folks as 'November' *^*Laugh*^*) at your [Link To Item #1474311]](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Organization-1150.gif)
![Merit Badge in Leadership
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For your hard work, commitment, talent and innovation in running the October NaNoWriMo Preparation each year, which helps many of us get our scattered thoughts together for November's novel-writing. And also because this badge has ducks on it.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Leadership.gif)
