Majesty Musicollege 2011: Day 1

Yes, I went on ANOTHER trip. :P My mom, myself, and my two friends Bethany and Rebecca drove up to Indianapolis Sunday night for the 2011 Majesty Musicollege held at Burge Terrace Baptist Church. We got to our hotel quite late. Let me just say this: it ALWAYS pays to get a nice hotel. :) It was comfy and completely smoke-free and nicely decorated.

The first day began with orientation and then a chapel session with the Musicollege speaker, Jim Schettler. Wow. He is SO excellent! All of his messages were so rich and well-illustrated. Very, very applicable to all of our lives. It was a privilege hearing him these two days.

I then went to a class called "String Strategies" taught by Rachelle Whitcomb (used-to-be Emory). She shared teaching tips in the hour we had with her. Several I had already heard at the Suzuki training, but a few ideas were new and I loved hearing her teach. She's very sweet. ;)

After that, we had another brief session with Mr. Schettler and then went out for lunch. I had not been to Fazoli's in a LONG time, so I didn't remember how delicious it was. (And all-you-can-eat breadsticks????? I'll take it!)

My next-to-last workshop of the day was Shelly Hamilton's "Exciting Congregational Playing" in which she gave about 8 different "fill-in" options to kind of spice up your accompaniment to the congregation. This was a much-needed class for me, and I now have several different ideas to play around with in my practice. (Yeah yeah. "Play around." I got it. :P)

We then had a full choir rehearsal where we read through lots of new music and listened to clips of CDs. And then I went to the last class of the day: Jean Cook's "Panic-Free Performing." I had gone to this one last year, but I went again this year because she is SO. FUNNY. :D She is SUCH a fun person who really gets you engaged as she's teaching. I don't really know how she ended up with Warren Cook as a husband, but people have so many random stories of how they got together, so.... :P

The day ended with another brief message by Jim Schettler, and then a 2-hour rehearsal for orchestra and choir. Bethany and I were stand partners. :) I sat right next to a girl I went to BJU Junior Music Camp with about 6 years ago! :) It's a SMALL world. She was there with her sister. They go to the same church my SD friends used to go to, and they had come with two friends I also sorta kinda knew through friends: the Dubs girls. Always fun to see people from "way back." :)

So, there's Day 1. Sorry it's not very interesting to read. The days are very busy as they cram as much as they can into 24 hrs., so you often don't even have time to think about details. Day 2 will be another post, of course. :P