The Insane Music and Rehearsal Class!

SOOO...I signed up for this "Music Performance and Rehearsal" class at DeAnza since I cannot take my screenplay writing class this quarter (only offered during the day)...thinking, okay, this will be cool...right? I'll be honest. I'm kind of freaked out! I received an email from the instructor who sent me a link to the piece we'll be working on -- it's a Handel piece and there are like 15 different parts that include flutes and bassoons and violins and violas and stuff like that! Seriously...she said in the email, "Find your part." WHAT IS MY PART? I don't see guitar or ukulele in there! I did reply that I only played guitar and ukulele...and she said guitar was fine...whew! but now I'm very afraid of this class...! are you kidding me??!!! AAAHHH!!! and here I was gonna walk in with my ukulele and Beatles song packets! guess that won't fly in this class! but see, some day the Beatles will be like, Beethoven or Handel -- Their music will be part of the classical music regime. Actually, it already is!

Well, I survived my first night of "Rehearsal and Performance' class...whew! that was pretty heavy duty and my mind is still spinning...people with violins, violas, at least one flute player, someone on piano...I think there was an oboel and definitely clarinet...and ONE person with a guitar and ukulele -- yep that would be me! after we determined that no, I don't "read" bass clef well -- classical guitar is generally not played that way... then things went marginally better and I at least had a fighting chance! at first I thought, ohhh man, I am S.O.L.!! but then things got better when the teacher said he wants me to play chords for some of this music and at least one piece will "allow" me to utilize my ukulele too!! I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking, okay...I can do that! I hope! I'm trying to convince this very "classical musicish" dude that the 8-string ukulele would fit in very well...it is sort of like a lute and we all know the lute was a baroque instrument played back in the olden days... so it should be cool, right? and he said we could pick out ONE modern piece that isn't like Handel or Carulli, and of course I "mentioned" the Beatles, also stating that some day people will play and study Beatles music like BACH and Beethoven!  seems like a stretch, but I truly believe in my heart it will happen! and the teacher also was thrilled to have me in the class since for some reason the enrollment wasn't high and he needs people...I don't know if I'll be more of a help or a hindrance for the class!  hehehe! we shall see!