Applying for Visual/Performing Arts at Zoom University

Welcome back my couch potatoes! I hope you are all practicing social distancing and staying safe. I know this is all very frustrating for all of us but it's almost over so keep pushing. Use this time to do something you claim you never have time to do like read, cook, learn that thing, research this, watch that, exercise... just to name a few. Personally, I have been reading books that I bought from the book fair from like elementary school and middle school that I've never read (which are fast reads because I'm much older now lol) and learning things on guitar that I was supposed to be learning for the past 5 years (whoops). My little sister has been writing letters to her friends and baking (good for the fam) and my older siblings just sit on their computers doing nothing. It's because Missy and I don't have a Macbook, otherwise we would be doing the same thing as them.

I know many of us are going through struggles like not being able to see friends. Not being able to go  to a concert, a party, or on vacation. For upperclassman stressing bout prom and AP exams. And for Seniors, worrying about graduation, making the last moments of high school memorable, and picking a college... oh wait that's just me.

For me it's been difficult to choose which college I want to go to because I can't go visit them to see student life during a normal day or talk to the professors. Virtual decision days are not the same. And I definitely know it will be stressful for Juniors because you will probably have to do campus tours during the summer and fall of senior year if you haven't already gone to any. On the bright side, there are schools that will not be requiring SAT/ACT scores for your year of application and are even possibly adding a testing day in September.

And college is something I would like to talk to you, my couch potatoes about today. Even if you are a freshman it is never to early to start. You don't have to go into full depth but maybe start just looking at colleges you are thinking of applying to or what you could potentially major in. I will be talking more about the process for visual performing arts because there is much more to it than if you were to apply to be a biology major (and this is an entertainment blog so it just makes sense to center it around music, acting, dance and what not). However, I will still give some broader tips that can be useful for everyone. Also, I would like to say most of the things I learned to do research for college was from JBros so if you have any questions you can definitely ask her :)


First, I would like to point out that if you do not know what you want to study yet in college, like you are thinking that you will go in as undecided, consider going to CCM, the Community College of Morris. Many people think that it is the last place they want to go, but honestly, if you do not know what you want to do it is a cheaper option. You can attend CCM to figure out what you want to study, while getting the education that you will get from anywhere else you go, get your associates after two years and transfer. I personally think that is one of the best options if you do not know what you want to study.

But I definitely think you should start to think about what you would like to study. Personally you should find something that you know you would love to do, and what interests you as opposed to what will make you the most money. Because let's think about it, would you want to go study computer science and become a computer science engineer and hate to sit in front of a computer all day? Exactly. You don't want to be miserable. If you don't know where to start, take those tests about like future careers/jobs or whatever. I remember I took one like freshman year on Naviance or something but there are plenty on the internet.

Next I suggest that you look up colleges that have reputable programs for what you would like to study. you can jot down a few that you are interested and do research on them later. You can also use the college search on the College Board website. You can put in specific things that you want in a college like your major, housing, school activities, sports, location, size and much more. And consider looking at all of them, not just the big name schools.

The last thing I want to suggest that is for everyone before I get more specific, is to start the application early. Even if you do not know where to apply. Especially with the essay, do it in the summer after Junior year before your Senior year starts. You want it out of the way so you can focus on school work and have fun in the fall.

Now for those of you going to for any visual/performing arts, do your research early. Even if you are just considering it. If you are going for art art, you will most likely have to send in a portfolio so you want to be sure you are not cramming to finish everything before the deadline. But for all visual/performing arts, look up requirements from a few schools that you are thinking of applying. I made a spreadsheet of all of the requirements. See if you need to send in a prescreening, a portfolio, when the auditions are, what you need to do at the audition so you can prepare.

You want to prepare this stuff early so you have enough time to work and improve on it. For one of my auditions, I learned a song in two weeks which was a lot of work for me. It usually takes me a month to learn a song. And for me, I had to make a make a portfolio of 2-4 compositions for most schools. I remember I had to write one piece in about two weeks so I had to keep it simple. To be honest, my first piece I wrote took me a year to write so that was pretty impressive for me. But I was killing myself, doing the application process, learning new songs, writing new music, doing schoolwork, doing homeworking, and partaking in extra curriculars. Don't do that to your self. Do it early.

There was so much more work to do in this process that I did not know about. I personally thought it was just an audition and done but that is not always the case. It is important to keep track of what each school wants because you don't want to do more work than you have to. For all of my auditions except one I had two overlapping songs which was great. You also want to keep track when each audition is so you can account for their travel time if it is out of state and so you can figure out which auditions you can do live.

The average person would apply to about 3-5 colleges: a safety, a few target, and 1 or 2 reach schools. But if you are going into anything performing or visual arts, you want to apply to at least 7-10 schools because almost every school is a target to reach school, regardless of your grades. You have to be prepared for the the rejects that you might get. Every school potentially is a target to reach school so as a safety school, I would apply to 1 school that does not require an audition. but for me, I applied to 10 schools total: 1 not for music, 1 audition not required, 1 I didn't even complete, 1 dream/reach school, and the rest range from target to reach. In total I was accepted into 4, half of which I did the whole audition process and 1 I got wait listed for. For every school I was accepted because of my grades, but not all of them wanted me for music.

Last thing I want to say about whether you go into an audition or interview is relax. You got this. You've worked hard to get where you are. Somebody will want you. If you don't get accepted does not mean you are not talented. It just means you aren't what they are looking for. Remember, these schools are looking for potential, not perfection. They are looking for someone who is willing to learn and grow, not someone who is already there. If you are scared about the fact that you can't sing in your mix range, or don't have a vibrato, or you can't get that kick just right in the routine, work at it of course, but the people at your audition are experts. They understand that not everybody has the ability to do things, but they want to find the people who are willing to learn how to do those things.

Honestly, I hope the biggest take away from this to everyone is to start EARLY!!!!!!!!!

That's all for today couch potatoes. If you have any questions regarding the application process or audition process or anything in general don't be afraid to ask me. Until next time, look, listen, and lay low.

Images:
rapunzel
hair
hiro
young mike
mike
britta
if I stay
rachel
hsm

I Think I Kinda You Know that You Don't Know (part 2)

Welcome back my couch potatoes. I hope you are all doing well with the whole quarantine. You know with the distance learning, social distancing, basically staying inside your house 24/7, especially on a day like today where it's gloomy, icky, and foggy outside :(  I really thought this was going to be a time where I could clean around the house, do somethings I always wanted to do or never had time for and should be doing (like practicing guitar or singing... what? pfft I mean, I do that on a daily basis). But instead, my teachers, mostly AP, are throwing a bunch of work into my face while my dad is yelling at his co-workers. So basically I am sitting in the same seat and staring at this computer for about 13+ hours... fun. Well, writing this blog is so let's get to it.




I wanted to get back on my process of how I arranged two songs, creating a mash-up (previous post on this is right here). Let me recap a little bit. So I discussed how these two songs are written in the same key, with the same tonality, and follow pretty much the same chord progression (if you are already confused, I suggest clicking on that link that you skipped over... please and thank you) which makes it easier to arrange and mash the songs together.

But I am going to go in a little deeper. As I have mentioned, I explained that the chord progressions of the songs "I Think I Kinda You Know" and "Can't Blame a Girl for Trying" follow the almost the same chord progression in the verse. For the HSMTMTS song, the progression is I-V-vi-IV while the Sabrina Carpenter song goes I-ii-vi-IV. Now as you can see the second chord in each progression is different. They have a different tonality and are completely different chords. Meg, what did you do? Well have you ever wondered what makes up a chord???


Actually, Meg, I have never wondered that what so ever...

Well, I'm going to tell you anyway.

The official definition of a chord is playing 2 or more notes simultaneously; therefore it doesn't have to be pretty like the ending of Eric Whitacre's arrangement of the "The Star Spangled Banner" (like literally the last chord is the entire scale of C major plus more... I like to describe his writing as if he blindly put his entire hand on the piano and played every key that touched his hand... obviously that's not actually true, it just sounds like it... anyway please cut to 2:17 if you don't want to listen to the whole thing). But in more modern music and what most musicians use standard chords that are, for the most part, pleasant to listen to. In part one I discussed how there are certain chords for a certain key... well there are also notes for certain chords. Most of them consist of three notes, making them a triad which is a more specific chord.



The V chord in the key of C major is G major and the ii chord is D minor. Now look at the notes each chord consists of. G major has the notes G, B, D and D minor has D, F, A. They share a common note: D. This may not make much sense, but because they share a common note, I am able to substitute the D minor chord for the G major chord.  Let me explain a little further. The notes that are sung in the HSMTMTS song mostly consists of D and not so much of G or B, therefore, it sounds fine to use the D minor chord in this case. If they sang mostly B's then there would be a lot of clashing with the notes in a D minor chord and it would just sound wrong. Substituting a major chord with a minor chord does switch the tonality a bit but the difference is so small that most people don't think about it.

Now what I actually did to create my arrangement was take the chord progression of of Sabrina's Carpenter's song (which is the progression with the D minor) and they rhythm of the chords they use. The four chords follow the same rhythm and is put on repeat. I then sing on top of the chords with the melody and lyrics of the HSMTMTS. I have to sing this part at a little bit fast of a tempo so the correct notes in the melody line up with the correct chords. For the most part, that is the most complicated part of arranging this piece. The next most difficult thing is making sure the songs flow into each other well so I have to make sure the lyrics line up and the chords flow correctly.

To give you an idea, here is how I arranged it based on the lyrics.

So much has happened, think of what we've done
In the time that the Earth has traveled 'round the Sun
Winter, spring, summer an' we're back to fall
We've been together hand-in-hand through it all
From the minute we kissed and my heart skipped a beat
To the night that we danced, I was swept off my feet
Sure is every year has to come to an end
I'd go spinnin' 'round the Sun with you again and again and again and again

'Cause I'm young and I'm dumb
I do stupid things when it comes to love
And even if I always end up crying
Well, you can't blame a girl for trying

Oh, oh
Oh, oh
No, you can't blame a girl for trying
Oh-oh-oh-oh

I should've shut my mouth, I could've kept it quiet
I might have freaked him out 'cause I was so excited
But I just couldn't wait, I took a leap of faith
Oh, the things I say(ing)
is this, what I'm sayin' is this

I think I kinda, you know
I think I kinda, you know
Like the way that we flow
Like the way that we go
And I love
I think I kinda, you know
I think I kinda, you know
Mm, I think I kinda, you know, you know, you know



I still have yet to figure out how I am going to end the song but I will have it figured out and get back to you guys.

But here is a short clip of me singing what I have so far... It's not perfect but that's why I'm not going to school for performance. Also ignore my sluggish outfit and the messy room (quarantine life got me a little lazy).

That's all for now. Thanks for sticking around and read how I struggle to explain things. Until next time, look, listen and lay low.

Sources:
I think lyrics
Can't lyrics

Images:
c major
Lilo
yay me
margo
minnie

And the World Will Know... And You Will Too

Welcome back my couch potatoes! As many of you know I take part in our school's drama club and this year we are doing Newsies! Definitely one of my favorite musicals of all time (but I haven't seen many so it's not a big surprise). 

Last week I started to take you through the process of how I went about arranging two songs into a mash up ("I Think I Kinda You Know" and "Can't Blame a Girl for Trying" and the post can be found right here). 

However, this week I would like to promote the show because it is this weekend! This is definitely one of the best productions I have put on and many people have worked hard to put this together including stagecraft, stage crew, lights and sound crew, and the pit band. (The set is definitely one of the best sets the school has have and it was all built by teachers and students here. So  just like football games and soccer games, you should really come out and support your peers in the hard work they've done. Just like other sports we practice for hours, entertain people, bond, do so much physical activity until our bodies hurt (okay kind of an exaggeration but not to many of the theatre kids) but one thing that I think really sets us apart is the fact that we do not compete. This is for ourselves; for the people to laugh or cry; to share a story with the world. So I would appreciate it if you came and I promise you won't be disappointed. We have a lot of talent at this school.

For this post, I actually like to give you a little history of the people in this show. Newsies more or less is based on a true story and real people. First a quick synopsis...

Joseph Pulitzer, the owner of a newspaper company The World, decides to increase the price of newspapers that Newsies, boys who sell paper to support there families and survive, have to pay upfront. The Newsies are not so happy when they hear about this. So their leader, Jack Kelly, lead the Newsies in a newspaper strike against Pulitzer and The World as entertainment reporter of The Sun, Katherine Plumber follows these boys to report a potential story. 

That was a very quick synopsis for your but the event itself is based on a real Newsboy strike in New York in 1899. Many Newsies in the musical are real people like Racetrack, Crutch and Mush. And the three I have mentioned in the synopsis are real people...well at least Joseph Pulitzer and Katherine Plumber based on real people. Jack Kelly is more of a mix of people. 

The World is a real newpaper company in New York or The New York World and was run by Joseph Pulitzer. He was a very passionate man in everything that he did. He started out as journalist for a daily German paper then came to buy out The World. However, because of his strong passion, Pulitzer put his paper before his health and resigned as editor due to his health in 1890, before the newspaper strike even started.

Real Pulitzer

Steve Blanchard as Joseph Pulitzer

Colin Smith as Pulitzer

I know he's going to yell at me so I'm adding this too

Katherine Plumber is based on two people, one of them I'm not going to say because that would honestly just ruin the whole plot line for you. But in all honesty that one I think is only important to the plot line. The person Katherine Plumber is based on that creates the character that she is, is Elizabeth Jane Cochran, or her professional/pen name Nellie Bly. She was a determined journalist that took many risks to get a story. And she happens to be one of Pulitzer's favorite writers.

Kara Lindsay as Katherine Plumber 

Brianna Davies as Katherine Pumber

Last but not least is Jack Kelly. He is also a mash up to two people, Kid Blink and Jack Kelly. Kid Blink is the real leader of the Newsboy strike, but he had an eye patch which could be a potential reason why he is not the protagonist of the story (or at least what many websites say, but honestly I think it's because his name is Kid Blink and it sounds like a superhero's name; Jack Kelly has a better ring to it). And Jack Kelly, the real Jack Kelly, was a newsboy part of the strike who wanted to be a cowboy and move out to Santa Fe.

Anthony Paterno as Jack Kelly

Jeremy Jordan as Jack Kelly

I left out a lot of information about these people but if you want to learn more there are links down below for each person I mentioned/reference I mentioned.

I think knowing the history, of the story is nice to know. For many actors, they create a backstory for the role they are playing so some research is necessary. As for my role Finch, I did a some shallow research and it seems that though he is Patrick "Finch" Cortes in real life. I created my own back story though. Finch to me is a young girl who ran away from home and joined the newsboys to sell papes. She learned her "manners" from her newsboys friends, and is much more tough and aggressive because she has to stand her ground with the rest of the boys. As for the rest of the boys, she is scene as one of the toughest.

That's all my couch potatoes! Please come out to see Newsies, March 12-14 at 7:00 each day. Until Next time, look, listen, and lay low.

Info:

Newsboy Strike
Pulitzer
Katherine
Jack Kelly

Images:

Real Joe
Newsies Joe
King of New York
Jeremy Jordan
other images by Alexa Dela Cruz

I Think I Kinda You Know that You Don't Know

Welcome back my couch potatoes! I've been in a pretty good mood recently so I'm starting to write my blog a little earlier that usual. (What!? I didn't wait until 10pm the night before it was due? What kind of sorcery is this??) Well, honestly it's because I don't want my homework to stack up and I won't have time to read my book, for the Sci-fi unit, which I'm actually enjoying.

But let me update you a bit more on my college audition journey... I'm done with the whole audition process. (Well, with the all the live audition ones. I still have to do one video audition.) I just have to wait to hear back from them. But I'm so glad that's over. No more stress and anxiety. No more long car rides. No more dressing up and doing my make up—but that also means no more eating at nice restaurants whenever we can and not feeling guilty about it :( But that does mean that my weekends are free! I can finally hang out with friends, watch TV, read, write music, do whatever I want to do... that's a lie, weekends are probably going to be dedicated to doing homework. (I don't think Senioritis is ever going to hit me).

But in the current free time I have, I did arrange something, which is what I am dedicating this post about. I will be teaching y'all some simple music theory as I go through the process of how I did this. So let's get started!

As you all know, I've kind of been obsessing with High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (HSMTMTS for short) where I have basically been listening to the soundtrack with a few other songs on repeat. One of my favorites is "I Think I Kinda You Know", and it kind of reminded me of another song that I was obsessed with a few years ago "Can't Blame a Girl for Trying" by Sabrina Carpenter. So I found my guitar song book, where my guitar teacher and I notate songs by listening to them and sure enough, the songs were in the same key. They also followed pretty much same chord progression... coincidence?! Actually no but I'll get into that in another future post.

Since the songs are in the same key, it made this arranging process a lot simpler. BUT WAIT! I keep saying this word "key" like that thing that opens doors or starts a car, but that is not the definition when it comes to music. The key of a song refers to how the pitches are arranged, making a certain note feel like the center of the song or "home" as many people refer to it as and setting the tone of the song. For these two particular songs, they are in the key of C Major, making it feel as the song revolves around the pitch C and giving it a brighter and happier song, as opposed to one of my compositions, "Again..." which has a minor tonality and revolves around the pitch G for the most part.

Regardless of keys, most songs today use the following chords—I, IV, V, vi, and in pop music iii. The numerical value of the roman numerals tell you which pitch is the root of the chord or in other words, which chord it is. In the key of C Major, the pitches are C, D, E, F, G, A, B and are number 17 respectively. The upper and lower case of the roman numerals tell you if the quality of the chord—Major (uppercase) or minor (lowercase). Therefore, the I chord in the key of C Major is C major... That's a bad example. Chord V of the key C Major is G major and the chord vi of the key C Major is A minor.

I fear that this post will have to much music theory thrown at you guys at once that you won't be able to follow so I will be making a part two! However, the information above is the main reason why I chose to do an arrangement of two songs. It is still possible to arrange any two song mash-up regardless of the key they are written in, but that involves a good ear and a lot of music theory to notate and to do it properly.

Until next time my couch potatoes. Look, listen, and lay low.

Images:
spongebob
princess and the frog
HSMTMTS
Sabrina Carpenter
scale
chords