I’ve been wrestling with the idea to start a blog as a means of communicating with my family and friends for quite some time, but I’ve never really gotten around to it before today. I always thought that I had plenty to say, but to be honest, my natural self-editing instincts (which I seem to lack in conversation) are taking over and censoring virtually everything that comes to mind. I suppose that this feeling of panic strikes all but the most shameless of us as we begin putting our thoughts and opinions out there for just any passerby who happens to want to take a peek. I’m sure it will pass.

Now that I’ve dipped my toes into the world of web logging, I suppose the first place to start is to mention that there is a big decision to make in the next two weeks. It is one of those choices where each possibility seems to have an equal balance of pros and cons and the only thing you can do is trust your instinct and dive in headfirst. Perhaps this is why Robert Frost’s “A Road Not Taken” remains one of his most enduring poems because at some point or another, we all looked down one road as far as we could. We’ve been discussing it (the decision, not the poem) virtually every day for the last several months and we are both thankful that it has almost reached resolution, one way or another. It is not appropriate for me to discuss the details now, but everyone will know soon enough.

The “Artist-in-Residence” orchestra performed here at Western today and I was impressed by the performance of the students in the ensemble. (The AIR orchestra is a yearly event where professional string players are hired from the Asheville Symphony and the students fill out the wind parts.) It was quite a challenging program and I was proud of the way the students acquitted themselves. Kudos to all of them! In Theory II tomorrow we continue the discussion of leading-tone diminished seventh chords that began on Friday and then on to secondary dominants. Though the students don’t yet know it, it will open a whole new world for them, and that’s a good thing!

I’m not sure if there is an appropriate analogy between applied harmony and blogging, but now that I’ve planted the seed, I’ll let you use your imagination.