Hello
I am a musician and educator from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Music has always been a part of my life. As a toddler, I could not sit still whenever music was playing, and I grew up singing and dancing around the house with my parents. I began piano at the age of 5, and never looked back. Private lessons, school music groups, musicals, classical concert works, pop songs, orchestras, choirs, accompanying, church music - I immersed myself in all of it throughout middle school and high school. I loved performing as a soloist and making music with others, but I knew that those alone would not sustain me. I wanted to teach.
I have taught music and worked with students in a variety of ways - private piano instructor, vocal instructor, choir director, vocal coach, accompanist, music theory instructor - they each have their own difficulties but I have also loved each one because they all share the same wonderful component: the students. My favorite part of teaching is that connection with my students: seeing them tackle their obstacles, congratulating them when they accomplish their goals, standing beside them in unity when things don't go as planned, waiting with baited breath as they discover something new about the music they are learning, and most importantly, celebrating who they are and who they become.
What better way to describe my life
than as a song?!
If each of us were a song, what would mine sound like? Well, mine would start out on a firm foundation, not particularly elaborate harmonically but very strong. There would be a lot of V-I chords, some nice ii-V-vi moments, a few jazz chords, and enough dissonance to make me appreciate the resolutions but not so much as to cause me to lose my tonal center. Rhythmically, I stayed in 4/4, well-planned, accents primarily on beats 1 and 3, and with a little syncopation to add fun and flavor. My melodies were grand, ever increasing in scope and range, and my tempo was allegro, quick and assured.
My undergraduate study brought a new section to my song, one that was intense and driven. Still in 4/4, the rhythm became more dramatic, with lots of sixteenth notes and previously unfamiliar rhythmic ideas learned from interactions with others. The melodic line continued to soar and grow, but there were more jumps and leaps, and not all the tendency tones were resolved. I also began to frequently shift between major and minor modes, and even add in some chromaticism. But, upon graduation, I created a very strong imperfect authentic cadence and then prepared to add a countermelody to my life. I also looked forward to sharing my music with others.
Sharing my music was tough but rewarding. Some students wanted to hear what I produced, but others did not. I also realized that some simply could not relate to my music, so it was up to me to relate to theirs. The development and growth professionally were beautiful. Alas, personally, the countermelody refused to harmonize with me. With repeated restraints and forced dissonance placed on my own melody, I realized my music was being stifled, something I simply could not allow. Hearing the repeated diminished 5ths of impending doom, I freed my music, but not before creating a bright young melody. This young melody was fiery and unique, but with shadows of my own grandiose melodic line. Liberated from our previous rigidity, we set off on our own adventure, just the two of us. The new young melody changed my own music in wonderful ways. I began to unleash more creativity, changing time signatures, adding in seventh chords, and throwing in unusual chord progressions. Soon, I realized I the could create a new kind of polyphony with the young melody - both of us strong and independent, yet somehow working together nonetheless.
This polyphony changed the way I shared my music with others. I began to feel comfortable improvising, and I did a lot of sightreading. I learned new harmonies, explored new rhythms and time signatures, sometimes went atonal, and began to understand that classical structure did not have to define everything. My own song continued to grow and evolve, becoming bolder and more daring, with ever increasing leaps and unusual tonal combinations as I strove to discover what was possible. Personally, I found a new countermelody, one just as bold and unique as my own that would not try to enforce outdated rules and traditions on my music. He also had a young melody that was a part of his life, one that was empathetic and tender. And so, we set about combining all our melodies into one great four-voice fugue.
It was also at this time that I began to share my music with others in a different manner. Rather than working with individual melodies, I began to work with entire groups of melodies. There were many differences, yet much was the same. Whether I was working with one voice or many, I still needed to take the time to listen, and it was still up to me to somehow help everyone's music grow, even if that growth was in many directions at once. I embraced the challenge, both professionally and personally. Professionally, my graduate work began and a whole new world of possibilities opened up to me. I learned new ways of studying, new perspective on learning, and new theories through which to view the world. Personally, I learned the importance of following the rules, and the importance of breaking them - sometimes it is absolutely fine to move from a iii to a ii, and you do not have to always approach and resolve leaps greater than a P5 with a step in the opposite direction. My own fugue was a masterpiece, but I'm not sure Bach would have approved - it was a little more like the fourth movement of Samuel Barber's Piano Sonata than something from the Well-Tempered Klavier.
Currently, the young melodies are going off on their own, learning their own independence and creating their own harmonies. My house is now back to a two-voice fugue, but one that is more complex and full of life than ever before. My own melody has grown and evolved, rich in harmony, complex in sound, bold, sometimes dissonant, but beautiful in its dissonance. I have learned that I do not always have to be Allegro, but I still get bored if things are Largo for too long. Every opportunity I have to discover a new sound, rhythm, or harmony, is a blessing. And, amazingly, I finally realized that despite all the differences, every single one of those new and unique sounds can work together, it just takes creativity and a willingness to harmonize. All music has movement. Mine is moving away from its last climactic point and towards a whole new section. I can't wait to hear it.