Day 2 - Part 2

So tired.

Woke up at 6:00am to meet Mr. Hamby for devotions. Unfortunately, something came up, so I did my devotions by myself looking out over the beautiful lake. Awesome time with the Lord.

Then we did a group devotion, which was phenomenal. We were dismissed into four groups. My group (group 4) met with John Campbell first. Just a reminder, he's the composer for Adventures in Odyssey, Lamplighter theater, Focus on the Family radio theater... absolute genius. I was quick to go meet him to tell him that I needed to schedule a lesson with him. He was up for it and asked me about myself. I told him I was a composition major, and that he was the main reason I wanted to come to this guild. He seemed very excited to meet with me later. His session was really helpful... also very technical. He went over the fundamentals for our DAWs and a boatload of other terms and pieces of equipment. Really looking forward to meeting with him later this week.

We then had a session with Phillip Glasborough (spelling?) and his wife, Lizzie. They're from England, so they're automatically awesome. Phillip works for BBC and is a casting director for the radio dramas and the equivalent to Broadway in England. He's also an actor. I probably got those facts all mixed up, but the moral of the story is that this guy makes things happen. His wife is a vocal coach who studied opera at the Royal College of Music (whew!). She gave us some breathing exercises and Phillip coached us in some acting (one thing I just can't bring myself to do). Both the Mr and Mrs have very inviting, flamboyant personalities. Fun people.

Our next session was with Todd Busteed. He gave us some exercises in listening to our surroundings, indoors and out. Then he gave us some EXTREMELY interesting biological information about the ear... how we see with our ears, how we can tell where things are, how tall someone is, etc, and also how we hear with our body. Amazing stuff. All of this was crucial to understanding sound design (which I'm still not sure how to define, but I know it involves a lot of listening). Mr. Busteed is a very animated guy... very easy to listen to.

Our last session was with John Forenof (Again, I probably butchered the spelling) who is a screenwriter/scriptwriter. He's done several Adventures in Odyssey episodes and quite a few other shows. What I really appreciated about his "lecture" was that he focused on keeping God central to our work. He talked about Jesus as a story teller and mentioned the verse in Matthew where it says that He never went anywhere without telling a parable... and He's not done telling stories. Now He tell them through us. So, when we go to write, it's crucial that we go to Him first. Ask Him for inspiration. Ask Him if this is His story. Having trouble starting or finishing a story (or song, in my case)? Go to the Alpha and Omega. Extremely helpful, especially since most of my songwriting training focuses on the music portion, whereas that's only half the song.

The rest of the afternoon was free for me. Many people went rock climbing, but my body is still sore. It's crazy to think I've only been here a day; so much has already happened. I went up to Mr. Campbell's office and left my number on his desk asking if we could set up an appointment. Then went swimming with Carrie, my other roommate. We had a great time together. Was nice to get to know her better.

I slept for a few minutes, woke up shaking cause I was still exhausted. It was time for dinner... got all dressed up, and headed to the dining room. Mr. Campbell caught my eye while at dinner and came over to confirm if I was the Grace Coleman who left a note on his desk. Why yes, I was. He said Wednesday works best for him, so Wednesday it is. I can't wait to ask him all sorts of questions.... I have a hard time thinking of questions to ask people, but once I get on a role... well, 15 minutes is gonna fly.

After dinner, the Harrow family gave us a lovely concert. They're a family that plays instruments from all over the world and have set seven CDs worth of scripture to music. Very talented bunch. Mr. Hamby then gave another sermon, I guess you could call it. Very inspiring.

Then we watched a video about entrepreneurship (no way, I actually spelled that right?). Business is not a concept I'm familiar with, but apparently should be as a musician who one day will have to support herself and sell her craft. We shall see.

Oh! Got a new keyboard for tomorrow. My awesome dad did some checking around and found a Yamaha (my personal preference) at an affordable price for the week. He's the best.

Ok, I'm tired. Gotta get up early again, so night all.