Andy Zweibel

So after the thunderous response to my post asking about music (*cricket, cricket*), I’ve decided to just go through with it. I’ve added a new Music page, accessible via the top navigation bar, which has 10 recordings of songs that either featured me, or were performed by ensembles I’m in. Check it out, and leave a comment on the music page with your thoughts!

Welcome to my new e-home! As if I didn’t spend enough time on the computer, I have decided to “take the plunge” so to speak, and purchase the domain that shares my name, as well as some web space with which to play. Eventually, this will be a fully-functional blog-site, which means that while the homepage will be my blog, you will also be able to read other pages about me, such as my personal interests, my professional experience/endeavors, and any other random musings I might have. If enough people are around, I might even open a forum up for discussion about anything and everything.

Anyway, I’ll be posting more often as the summer winds down and the school year winds up, and hopefully recording a few more video blogs (or, as I have learned to call them, vlogs). I know my track record isn’t good, but I’m really going to try this time. Now I’ve got a vested interest, called CASH.

I hope everyone’s summer is going well, and I’ll be sure to keep you updated as I finish out the basic site and prepare to stick some more fun stuff on here. If you think of anything you’d like to see on the site (anything at all, as long as it doesn’t break laws), feel free to leave a comment here, or email me at andy@andyzweibel.com and I’ll be sure to get back to you!

So it’s 2:45 in the morning, and I’m wide awake. Maybe it’s because I woke up at 4 pm? Oh well. Anyway, I was browsing Facebook (what else is new?), and I came across a friend’s profile, one Charlie Kindinger. Charlie’s a Senior at UM, and he’s an aspiring screenwriter. He’s got his own website, located here, and it has a blog on it. Reading through his blog made me remember my old one, and gave me enough motivation to start blogging again! So here I am!

Anyway, that’s how I’m here. Now, since I am still so awake, I’ll give you a slight rundown of the last few months that I’ve been down here at UM, for those of you who didn’t know what I was up to…

I came down to the beautiful University of Miami on August 10th, and moved into my dorm on the 13th, the same day band camp started. I was immediately put to work as a member of the UM Band of the Hour. Band camp was a blast, I met a whole bunch of new people, and took part in all the Section Olympics activities that occurred through the week, including the Freshmen Performance of the UM alma mater. The four frosh trumpet players decided to make the Alma Mater into an interpretive dance (see photo). By the end of the week, the band had learned its entire first show, a medley of music from the band Queen, including “We Will Rock You,” “Bicycle Race,” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.” In addition, the band had managed to learn the music for the first song in its second show, a Latin tune called “El Toro Caliente.”

Friday the 17th was my first endeavor as an enrolled student with UM Trumpet Professor Craig Morris. My placement audition went very well, as I played the third movement of Kent Kennan’s Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (unaccompanied) and the second movement of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto. The audition results were posted the following Monday, and I found out that out of 22 Trumpet students (6 grad students included), I placed 12th. This put me 4th chair in the Frost Symphonic Winds, but more importantly, into Craig’s studio to study with him as opposed to a TA. This was quite exciting for me. On another note, my good friend from High School, Scott, was placed in the Principal Horn position of the Symphonic Winds. Congrats, Scott!

Classes began on the 22nd of August, with good old 8:00am Theory III, taught by a music engineering grad student who hasn’t taken theory in over 2 years. Good to know that our “professor” is trying to stay one chapter ahead of us in the book. Fortunately, we haven’t learned anything too difficult yet. The rest of my Monday and Wednesday schedule includes Piano II, Symphonic Winds, Educational Psychology (I suppose I deserve having to take it as a Music Ed major, but that doesn’t make it any less boring), Brass Techniques (the class where you learn to play all the brass instruments), and Marching Band. Thursdays include Ear Training III and English, with Tuesdays being the same plus a Musicology 101 course (“The World of Music and its Powers”… how stimulating…). Fridays are easy, Music Ed forum, a lesson, and Brass forum before Marching Band.

The first few weeks of class went off without a hitch, and the next major highlight of my time down here was the first home football game. On September 1st, the ‘Canes played host to the Thundering Herd of Marshall. The noon game was murderously hot, but a blast nonetheless as the Hurricanes romped Marshall 31-3. Performing during pregame was incredible, the applause after the Star Spangled Banner was earth shattering. It really was one of the coolest experiences of my life.

School continued on without a hitch, including more band, more practicing, and more all around good times! I started hanging out with a lot of upperclassmen music majors, many of whom are now close friends. Another month later, here I am! Not much has changed since early September, I’m really starting to enjoy it down here.

So that’s about it for my first few months at UM. Stay tuned to this blog for more updates, as well as random musings about anything from music to sports to computers and games. If it pops into my head, chances are it’ll be here on the blog.

A few tips about this blog:

• Feel free to leave comments, by clicking on the “Comments” link below each post
• If you have a website/blog/etc. that you want to link to, drop me an email with your URL, and I’ll put it up. Feel free to add my link to your site as well!
• If you ever have any requests for posts (i.e. “what’s your opinion on…” or “What do you think of…,”) feel free to email me, I’d be happy to write about what you want to hear

I think I’ll get some sleep… T-Minus 4 and a half hours until Theory!