My trek back to school

After some thought and finding out about an ED.D program in Music, I've decided to take my talents to that city 60+ miles from Downtown ATL. Yep...I will be attending the University of Georgia to pursue a doctorate in Music Education. Here's why

1. I figured if I'm going to teach in public school, I should get paid as much as I can. I know that teaching is not about the money; however, there is a July 15 deadline to start an advanced degree and actually get paid for it.

2. I want to move to full time college teaching. Hey, I enjoy teaching.

3. I also feel that teaching a bunch of lessons and doing gigs will not take care of my family on a long term basis. I will continue to teach lessons

4. Under the SEAT program at UGA, I don't have to quit my job. The majority of the music courses are in the summer. I only have to take 1-2 classes during the fall and spring semesters. I can take them at the Gwinnett County campus. I didn't want to get another performance degree. I felt that my time would have been wasted.

5. I had checked out other universities around the south, including Auburn, South Carolina, Florida State. I would either have to quit my job and/or move. It would have been too much of a hassle and I DID NOT want to do an online program. I want to attend where I can see the professor and call him/her and be active in the schools music department. I will probably apply of an assistantship for 2012-2013.

I'm excited...the only thing is that I start June 11th, so I got to get a buch of stuff together before then. No summer for me, except for 2 weeks, where for 1 week we will be in Florida relaxing.

More to come later

Various Stuff

Here is what's happen over the last two weeks....

1. Did a concert with the GPC Jazz Band with guest artist Duffy Jackson. It was amazing...one of the best concerts the band has done.

2. Finishing up at GPC and my 1st year as a general music teacher. I'm so ready for vacation.

3. 9 tracks of the 1st Odyssey Music Project CD are now done. CD cover is done and now I'm waiting on the CDS. I will probably have the tracks for sale soon

4. played a few other gigs where most of the stuff I played came out OK.

More stuff in the next entry

Misc. Gigs

I have a couple of gigs today...the Usual Suspects played at the Inman Park Festival. Wall to wall people and impossible to drive through. Once I got into the area, it took over an hour and a half to find parking, park and get my stuff to the stage. I could not find the musicians loading area to save my life. I was REALLY upset. The funny thing about this gig is that this gig was the best the Usual Suspects had ever sounded. I thing the energy of the crowd and the energy of Duffy Jackson, guest drummer who was with the Count Basis Orchestra in the 1980s. When great musicians are
around, everyone is forced to elevate their skill.

That was the afternoon gig...The evening gig was with Taryn and the Wednesday Quintet at Georgia Tech for a Swing dance. I was subbing in this group. I had to remind myself the whole night that this was a dance gig...I had to play more Sidney Bechet and Lester Young and less Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. On this gig, I played mostly tenor sax and clarinet and some alto.

So for both gigs, here are the instruments that were available:

Soprano Sax
Alto Sax
Tenor Sax
clarinet
flute/piccolo

My truck was full of stuff; the list didn't include stands, reeds, etc.. and a cart to carry it all.

Alright, time to go. TTYL