A Day in a Musician's life Part 1- Nicole

Hello readers! I hope you all had a wonderful mid-semester break! Mine was a pretty nice break! I seriously loved staying up late for once. But now, we’re back at uni… Sooo, now I have to wake up very early from now on. Oh bugger. 🙁

You must be wondering, what does my weekly schedule looks like for a B Mus Student?

Well, this is what this post is all about for this week. This week, I’ll be blogging about what my typical weekly schedule look and feels like as a music student (in my perspective)! Yes, of course I’ll be blogging about my experience for the entire year! Butt I think it’s time to show you what my typical weekly schedule looks like! 😀


MONDAY

6AM
Yeap, you all must be thinking, “SO EARLLYY? WHAT?” Well, as everybody says, “if you start your day early, you end early,” and that’s what my typical weekday is looks like. As usual, I sometimes snooze for five minutes, or actually forcing myself to get up in the morning. Hahaha.

So, getting ready is pretty easy for me; I always pack and organise what I’m bringing, what I’m going to wear tomorrow, what would I like to snack on for the day, etc. However, I tend to rush every morning; I have a quick shower, dress up, making sure I look nice and neat for the day, pack or eat half of my breakfast, leaves house. I’ll be doing a post on how to rush like a bad ass. 😉

6:40AM – Leaves house
My mum usually drops me off early in the morning. Luckily, my mum is a early riser, and she’s happy to drop me off at the train station early in the morning. Without my mum dropping me off, public transport early in the morning would be difficult and longer (1hr and 30 minutes by ONLY using public transport). Plus, I’ll be ending my day pretty late (7PM), if I began my day at 9AM in Uni.

6:45AM
*Runs to my train*
Traffic lights to cross at my usual station is a pain to wait, and it’s ridiculous. I might as well YOLO it, and cross when there’s no cars. Sorry mum for scaring you all the time in the morning. Hahaha.

6:51AM, Express Train to Flinders
I usually catch up on sleep, instead of reading. But today, I think I’ll be fine.
*Does my readings. Nek minute, writes blog post about my day. Hahahaha*

8AM – 9AM
Practise piano

I’ll talk about my typical practising sessions next week… Even though, I’ll be talking about it in today’s post, as well as any other day. 🙂

Usually, I would be practising my pieces for my technical exam (Étude by Chopin, or Sonata by Scarlatti), following by Hanon exercises, scales and arpeggios. But today, I wanted to work on my duo piece, since I have a rehearsal later on my day.

9AM till 10:30AM
WAM (Writing About Music: Australian Issues)

Every week, we discuss a topic that relates to Australian Music. The topics we have discussed about so far are interesting. However, sometimes we tend to get sleepy, and have thoughts about burning our WAM books by the end of semester. There are many moments where the class gets interesting. So don’t worry about the negative things about WAM. We (our cohort) all have a love and hate relationship with WAM…. and ML (Music Language). Hahaha.

Today, it wasn’t that bad. We discussed about how ‘Corroboree is still considered a landmark in Australian Music’. It was interesting on how we listened to the piece, and then watched the performance of Corroboree. In my perspective, I found it slightly horrifying as it is politically incorrect. It was ridiculous! Hahaha. I was looking at my friend thinking, “what is this? The piece made sense when it’s played alone, but when it’s collaborated with dance, nah uh. Nope!” You could search it up yourself, and let me know what you think of it. Hahaha!

Oh, and I just got my marks back for my first assignment! Reaction? Laughing it off as I clearly just pass. Hahaha. I thought I did pretty well actually. But oh well, better luck next time!

11AM till 12PM
Music Language (ML) Tutorial

This class is very important, as you can discuss about the assignments given each week. It’s so helpful, and you get a clear understanding of it by the end of very tutorial. So, future music students, I suggest having your ML tutorials on Mondays. It really gives you an advantage to give you time to check, and understand your weekly assignments!

Today’s tutorial answered my silly questions, and now I finally understood the use of intervals in a three-part counterpart. I’m so slightly relieved now! But then again, I might probably get stuck on it again, and suffer while doing my ML assignment.

Usually, when my ML tutorial finishes, we find out our assignment marks from last week. It’s kind of cruel to give assignments at the end of every ML tutorial, because you’re so curious on what you get. My mark for my fourth assignment? Pass. YESSSSSSS! I’M SO HAPPY! THAT ASSIGNMENT WAS HARD! Made my day brighten up so much!

12PM till 2:15PM
Break

After class, I usually ask further feedback on the assignment before, and the current assignment that is due this week. Then, I usually work on my ML assignment with my friends, or by myself, depending on who’s available, or willing to work together on this week’s assignment. Every lunchtimes is usually hanging out with my friends, depending on who I bumped into at union house, or wanting to work on our assignments together while we eat.

Today, I understood my tutor’s feedback, and this week’s assignment (woohoo!). But instead of working on my ML assignment, I had a rehearsal with a friend of mine, whose a first year pianist; we’re doing a duo piece, which it is a Sonata in D major for Two Pianos, K. 448, Allegro Con Spirito, composed by Mozart. So far it’s going really well, when we just had our first rehearsal together! Woohoo! Another reason why my day is great!

2:15 till 4:15PM
Piano Class

Our Piano Class is usually a lecture about either performing or practising. I managed to perform twice so far during Week 4 and 5, which is pretty good. I think about one quarter of us (first years) were ready to perform by Week 5 (First Year Performance Class). At some occasions, there is a time we write down notes when we need to. Likewise, we all observe and give feedback to other pianists on their performance, or the lecturer gives feedback.

Today’s lecture was pretty nice; we had a Master Class today. Master Classes is when a guest, who is a pianist or musician, is invited to our lecture at our university, and gives each performance feedback/comments. It was great seeing our friends play! They were great today! It was interesting on how our guest musician gave out feedback. It made me think about how I should perform in the future.

4:30 till 6:30PM
Practise Time

Yeap, three hours of practising in total for today. Remember pianists, 2 hours minimum, 6 hours maximum. 1 and a half hours is for a busy day. 🙂

Today, I worked on on my Hanon exercises, scales, arpeggios, all that jazz for warming up. Then, I did a little bit of everything: AMEB, my studies (Étude by Chopin and Sonata by Scarlatti) and my duo piece. So, that was a lot done today. I kind of over shot my practising time though till 6:45PM. I wanted to work on a particular section in my duo piece! I wanted to get it right before going home. 🙂

6:30PM onwards?

  • Nap on train, if I need to. Hahaha.
  • Do ML assignment, or a little bit of studying
  • Chilling out at home after a long day
  • Organise myself for tomorrow (packing my bag, snacks, outfit, whatever I need to do for another long day tomorrow)
  • Catching up with my family about my day

BEDTIME – 10PM


Summary?

  • I had a pretty good day.
  • I screamed in happiness when I found out I passed one of the hardest assignments for ML so far.
  • Everything was super great! Please let it be another good day tomorrow.
  • Tips for enjoying your day? Cherish the small gestures, then as you add up those small gestures, you get one good day. 🙂

Music suggestion for having good day? A Beautiful Life by Tim McMorris

Alrighty! That’s it for today! Check out tomorrow for my next post!