B = Bad

It's no secret that school is my "thing."  It's the thing that I do that comes naturally, even easily.  It's something I've never really had to work at.  And I enjoy it. 

Not anymore, friends.

Because CU transferred in so many credits, I have no generals to take, only music classes plus 10 credits of another foreign language and 1 credit of modern dance or ballet.  My current class schedule is 13 credits of all music classes.

Those 13 credits equal 20 hours of in-class time, plus at least 8 hours a week practicing for studio alone.  That doesn't include practicing for keyboarding class and homework/studying.  Basically, my life revolves around music and music theory.  I go to bed at night trying to figure out if the triad in my head is major, minor, dimished, or augmented, what inversion it's in, and what the figured bass symbol for it is. 

Music classes are completely new territory for me.  I have no background in theory or piano.  I just sing.  These classes are kicking my butt.  And I've gotten much better about not procrastinating, because I have to study to be able to do well enough in classes to keep my GPA up. 

The one class that I particularly dislike and have the most trouble with is Ear Training, or Aural Skills.  The class consists of listening to chords, rhythms, songs, etc., and being able to identify them by name and quality, or being able to write the rhythm and melody on a staff.  It's difficult, actually.  The class seems kind of silly to me, because I'm pretty good at sight singing, and as a singer, I can only sing one note at a time, not chords.  But every music major is required to take 4 semesters of it and theory both, and it's hard!  I've been working on it, and have a particularly hard time with the listening part.

Today, I had to do a recitation, which involved performing for my teacher.  It went okay, but not fabulously.  Following the recitation, I asked my professor (who is younger than me) how I would go about getting a tutor for the class. 

Him: "Do you think you need a tutor?  I think you're doing fine." 
Me (in my head): "B = Bad and anything other than A is unacceptable." 

I explained that I was having difficulty, and he said words that I didn't want to hear: "I think you're about at the top of the average group." 

That's right, he called me average.  Shame. On. Him. 

Me (in my head): "That's why I need a tutor.  Average is not good enough in my opinion." 
Him: "You have to have at least a C in order to get a tutor and not pay." 

Yes, a C.  If I had a C I would cry.  A lot.  How lame is that? 

He offered to help me during his one office hour every week, and offered to send me a list of tutors who I could pay $25 an hour to help me.  Umm... no.

So I'm justifying my potentially getting a B by saying that it's one thing to get a B while working hard and another to get a B because of slacking off, which I'm proud to say I'm not doing much of this semester.  Not cool, CU.  Not cool.