h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Music was a really important part of my school years. Before high school I was on a class that had more music lessons than others, and my high school was specialised in teaching music. The obvious thing about music is that it's fun; it just is. Especially when there are a lot of people involved. But it was also an important outlet for me, especially in high school. It was wonderful to have a singing lesson in the middle of the school day, between all that foul Maths and German. It was relaxing and fun, and gave me energy to get more easily through the day. In my school music also overrode the academic subjects, so if you had a gig somewhere, you were free to go.

I was one of the math/science types in school, eventually getting a degree in chemical engineering. This allowed little curriculum space for non-technical courses, but I later signed up to audit a music theory course at my alma mater. A year long course, three times a week, it was probably the only course I ever took where I never missed a class.

I play a little guitar and keyboard, but the kids in the class (music majors, mostly) were all highly trained performers who generally didn't care much about the theory, it seemed to me. It was just a course you had to get out of the way.

I thought it was fascinating, though, that everybody from Bach through Stravinsky had some common traditions that could be seen if you knew how to look. In particular, the harmonic progressions are fairly predictable - the text was titled "Tonal Harmony". Before that, I had the vague perception that Beethoven just sat at the piano and dreamed up the symphonies from note to note.

I was one of the math/science types in school, eventually getting a degree in chemical engineering. This allowed little curriculum space for non-technical courses, but I later signed up to audit a music theory course at my alma mater. A year long course, three times a week, it was probably the only course I ever took where I never missed a class.

I play a little guitar and keyboard, but the kids in the class (music majors, mostly) were all highly trained orchestral performers who generally didn't care much about the theory, it seemed to me. It was just a course you had to get out of the way.

I thought it was fascinating, though, that everybody from Bach through Stravinsky had some common traditions that could be seen if you knew how to look. In particular, the harmonic progressions are fairly predictable - the text was titled "Tonal Harmony". Before that, I had the vague perception that Beethoven just sat at the piano and dreamed up the symphonies from note to note.

Woops, sorry for the duplicate posting. I thought I had stopped it for a preview first, but obviously not. Is there a way to delete one of the posts?

Don't worry Steve, I think we all simulpost once in a while.

I flirted with learning the guitar for a while as a teenager (I still have the instrument in question propped against a wall in my bedroom) but when I was 14 I decided having long nails was more important than practicing my guitar. I had to give up music as a school subject when I was 14. I wanted to take it as a CSE option, but the music class clashed with biology. I was good at biology and my Mum thought it would be of more use to me as a qualification than music, so that was the end of my studying music at school and I gave up my guitar lessons not long afterwards.

Music in my school is really dumbed down. I wasn't even aware of the existance of scales untill I started to learn guitar independantly, they just told us "don't press the black notes", so everything was in C major. Madness. Sort of gave me a fear of music teaching. I can still hear the tuneless tinkling when I've just woken up in the morning... the horror! The horror!

As a VERY amateur keyboard player, I still prefer music in C, and just use the little knob to have it come out in whatever key you need. (Digital piano.) Problem is, as my music prof pointed out, there is virtually no classical music that stays in the same key all the way through. So you're cruising (OK, limping) along in C and wham! The key signature changes to a handful of sharps ... or flats, doesn't matter, the tempo goes to nil. My actual playing tempo, that is.

Heh, well I guess one 'advantage' - if you can call it that - of our school is that it's poor enough to not be able to afford modern keyboards, so there'd be no fancy electonic key changing to become reliant on even if we were ever taught what a key was.

I loved doing music - especially the O-level, despite being absouletely hopeless at the theory. (laziness, of course, I still can't read the notes on a bass clef)

anyhooo... I ended up doing O-level because of the options in that part: I was no good at art; I would rather have cut off my nose than consider geography; the cookery teacher didn't want me in her lessons; the needlework teacher said nothing sewed would ever hold (HA! I make 90% of my own clothes these days, and even made a wedding dress once).

So, music it was.

After the first year of the 2 year course, we had a change of teacher, from a hippy dippy but lovely and enthusiastic woman, to a young man. I think it was his first teaching job. Anyhoooo at an all girls boarding school he was a rarity. And he was so damnably enthusiastic. He dragged me through that, even told me that for the sight singing for the Aural test if I just went "la la la" he'd give me 1/10 for effort.

I was forecast a D (failing grade)
I got a B.
When we went back in the lower 6th he ran into our classroom (which was, by strange coincidence, the music room) and kissed me.


Fantastic teacher. Thanks.