Working Hard, Hardly Working

I've got two assignments to hand in on Monday. One is a piece of four-part chorale harmony that's as good as done - I nearly drove myself suicidal studying Bach chorales for my music A-level. The second one, a 1500-word biography of Miles Davis, is proving to be more of a challenge.

I don't know a lot about jazz, aside from playing bass in the school jazz band back in the day. I haven't consciously sat down and listened to Charlie Parker or Dizzy Gillespie before taking on this subject as our jazz case study. Fair play. I've learned a lot about jazz from studying Miles Davis' work, but to write an essay on the development of jazz through his career seems a little futile. Sure, the guy pushed a lot of boundaries, but surely he's not solely responsible for all development in jazz. Besides, summing up an entire career in 1500 words is no easy task.

So I'm a little stressed right now, trying to keep my essay-writing skills together and to "concentrate more upon the music than on biographical detail", as goes the assignment brief. Matt gave me some advice last night that's given me some focus but freaked me out at the same time. He said I should write an essay that's going to be interesting to read, and that I should focus on details that maybe other people won't. Going on that theory, I've got to write an essay more interesting than the other fifty or so that are going in on Monday. Matt has a good point, but that's easier said than done.

Yesterday when I tried reading through my notes, my vision blurred and I couldn't make head nor tail of what I was looking at. That's never happened to me before, and I can only put it down to my lack of confidence in writing about jazz, the unfair marks I was given for my last assignment in this subject (satisfactory for grammar and spelling my arse!) and lack of food. Still, I've never had a stupid essay had that sort of effect on me before.

So here I am, having left it to the last four days before the deadline. I do this deliberately; I work much better under pressure and without distraction, which is why I'm home alone at Matt's while he's at work. I've got peanut butter to devour and cable television to ignore. And I'm going to stop writing about this essay and actually write it.