I made it out of there.

I've haven't driven to Rexburg in five days and it's been bliss. I have a love/hate relationship with the snow building, for obvious reasons to anyone who has been inside that building. I have spent a good 35-45 hours per week there for 14 weeks straight, and am happy to have 25 days away from some of those weirdly-awesome fellow classmates who occasionally have a higher maturity level than me. I do miss the Tres Amigos paninis that were only 2.99, but I do not miss the random faculty and students playing their brass instruments for each other or the drama students acting out various scenes in the Fish Bowl. Wierdos.

The main thing I learned Fall 2012:  Don't take 12 credits for 3 semesters when you're first starting out your education because soon you find that you will have to take 19-21 credits every subsequent semester to graduate before your catalog expires. If that happens (you don't finish by July 2013), you will have to take all the music lit classes, which are sequential, requiring you to postpone your graduation for an additional 3 semesters.

So, I maxed out my credits this semester. I knew after the first day of school that this was borderline impossible. In fact, after applying to be accepted as a Music Major, I was called into a meeting with the Dean of Arts and the Music Department Chair because they both agreed that this credit load was not possible. They then explained to me that my Musicianship class for 2 credits was really the workload of 6 credits, and that my Music 101 class for 2 was really the workload of 4, etc. etc. and that I had actually signed up for more like 29 credits. Their exact words: "This is a kiss of death."
I smiled and told them I am desperate to finish by July and that I would prove them wrong. They raised their eyebrows then reluctantly signed my application all contingent upon my final grades.

After risking several mental breakdowns, driving a little over 6700 miles in 14 weeks, spending between 36-45 hours per week in the Snow building, sleeping less than 6 hours each night, and crying on average four times per week, my final grades are as follows:

FAM160: A
REL301: A
SCI203: A
MUS161D: A
SCI206: A
MUS101: A
MUS165A: B+
MUS172: A
MUS334: A

GPA: 3.93

Now I can spend every second with my kids and family watching movies and drinking the large box of assorted hot chocolate mixes we just bought at Sam's and make up for time lost.

And clean our bathroom for the first time in about, oh say, 14 weeks.

Final Composition

I know I'm just a beginner at this, but I've had to submit many short "hymn-like" songs such as this one this semester as I'm just learning all of the rules with composition in tonal music. I just turned this piece in today for my final and feel somewhat content with it. I wanted to write a song to teach my kids the days of the week. It was fun listening to my class sight sing it in solfege this morning!

Here were the requirements:
1. One of each diatonic triad (in inversion or root position)
2. One neighbor or passing 6/4
3. A cadential 6/4
4. A suspension, appoggiatura, and escape tone
5. A dominant seventh chord
6. A supertonic seventh chord
7. A parallel or contrasting period

You can also view it a little better by following this link.