All Eyes On: Brockell Briddle
Jennifer Lewis
Issue date: 10/22/09 Section: TruLife
"I was in a studio working on an album, and it was my first studio experience," Briddle said. "I was doing all the female vocal harmony parts, two-part harmonies and singing other backup vocal parts, and I felt like such an amateur. I just really wanted to know the musical language more, and I wanted to know how to compose and to be able to write down ideas so someone else could read it, and I just felt like, 'Man, I want to go back to school and learn this stuff.' This was what I was going to school for, and I've done a lot of amazing things, but I'd never totally learned this."
Randy Smith, music professor at Truman, has known Briddle since she was 17, when she took saxophone lessons from him. Smith said he respects Briddle's courage in returning to school as a nontraditional student and is happy she made that decision.
"I'm just really pleased that she's back," Smith said. "I think the first time around she didn't realize the real worth in becoming an educated person and pursuing and achieving a college degree. But now that she's been out in the real world and has had some time to reflect, I think she really values education. She's got a purpose in her life now."
Brandie Briddle, Brockell's older sister and graphic arts instructor at the Kirksville Area Technical Center, said she does not think Briddle's many experiences have changed her, but instead have given her an opportunity to grow.
"Anytime you have experiences like that, you gain so much depth," Brandie Briddle said. "Her mind has been opened, and she has grown spiritually, physically and mentally. She has also grown as a musician because she has studied all sorts of subcultures of music and the heritage and traditions behind them."
Briddle is hoping to double major in philosophy and religion and continue with graduate school to study ethnomusicology. She said she hopes her adventures are not over now that she has returned to school, because there are so many places she still wants to go.
Randy Smith, music professor at Truman, has known Briddle since she was 17, when she took saxophone lessons from him. Smith said he respects Briddle's courage in returning to school as a nontraditional student and is happy she made that decision.
"I'm just really pleased that she's back," Smith said. "I think the first time around she didn't realize the real worth in becoming an educated person and pursuing and achieving a college degree. But now that she's been out in the real world and has had some time to reflect, I think she really values education. She's got a purpose in her life now."
Brandie Briddle, Brockell's older sister and graphic arts instructor at the Kirksville Area Technical Center, said she does not think Briddle's many experiences have changed her, but instead have given her an opportunity to grow.
"Anytime you have experiences like that, you gain so much depth," Brandie Briddle said. "Her mind has been opened, and she has grown spiritually, physically and mentally. She has also grown as a musician because she has studied all sorts of subcultures of music and the heritage and traditions behind them."
Briddle is hoping to double major in philosophy and religion and continue with graduate school to study ethnomusicology. She said she hopes her adventures are not over now that she has returned to school, because there are so many places she still wants to go.
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