Summer Plans

Originally, I had this grand idea that after my recital I would hit the ground running and would plow through at least one more technique book plus etudes and new repertoire, but as the dust settled I realized that I want to use this "down time" to refocus my efforts as a performer and teacher. I want to approach my practice in a more holistic manner. This will help reduce muscle tension and pain. Instead of seeing how much ground I can cover this summer, I want to take this time to reevaluate how I've been achieving my goals. While I am proud of the work I've put in this academic year, and of the progress I've made, I want to make efforts to tweak my habits toward a more healthy approach.

The longer I've been teaching keyboard the better my playing has gotten, but I'd like to spend some time this summer working on really becoming a more well-equipped pianist. Part of this will require me to just squeeze in a little extra practice time here and there, but I'll also be doing a lot of reading. I've currently been working my way through two texts that a colleague at the university loaned me (A Symposium for Pianists and Teachers: Strategies to Develop the Mind and Body for Optimal Performance edited by Kris Kopff, and The Well-Tempered Keyboard Teacher by Marienne Uszler). It's great to be able to say that I've recognized some of those pedagogical approaches or encountered the same issues as I've been teaching, but it's strangely even more exciting to see how much of this field I'm just not familiar with as I keep investigating.

I'm also working on a couple side projects, including a scale book geared towards woodwind doublers and general woodwind teachers like myself (but more on that later).

31 days of Change

Last night I made the mistake of watching a lecture on veganism, and it's safe to say that I'm pretty skeeved out by animal products now. Besides that little adventure, I have been eating in a pretty unbalanced way and I need to get myself heading in the direction I've been wanting to for a while.

I'm going to try to make it 31 days eating strictly vegan.

Yes, I said "try." I know that it takes commitment to make these things happen, but if I just say that I will do this and then mess up, it's all going to be over. So, in an attempt to keep myself on the path that I want to take, I'm going to say "try."

I have a few other goals for this month, but I'm going to put them a little lower on the totem pole so I don't overwhelm myself. The first goal is to practice every day. Every. Day. I'm getting ready for a recital in November, and the spring and summer will be taken up by the Latin Flute Affair, so I want to get some quality practice in now, and stock up on some solid technique as well as assuage some body use issues before the pressure hits.

Besides regular, quality practice time, I need some exercise. My yoga practice has fallen by the wayside since we moved. Mostly, it's because getting to my old studio would require me to drive in fairly heavy traffic, and I haven't found a new one in my area yet. Plus, I just haven't made it a priority lately. Mostly it's that. I'm also hoping to go walking/jogging more.

So far today I've been a good vegan and a good flutist, let's keep it that way!

Last month of my Year of Practice!

It's already been about a year since I started using this blog actively (a term I use loosely), and it's been quite the year.

A little review:
Just after starting, the Year of Practice we up and moved over a thousand miles from the beautiful hills of West Virginia, where I had just finished grad school, to the beaches of south Florida. The move was a major leap of faith (really though, the only reason I get to call it a leap of faith is because it happened to work out for us. It very well could have been absolutely disastrous).
I was in probably the worst playing shape of my life.  Ironic, I know, since I had just finished a Master of Music, but thanks to a little bit of unfortunate circumstances, and a lot of unfortunate habits on my part, I found myself in a place where my nerves were so bad I could barely get a sound out of the instrument some days - and that was when I was practicing alone in the house.
I was working part-time in a sports restaurant doing prep work. As much as I wanted to be gigging, teaching, or otherwise musically employed, I wasn't in a place to take any work, even if I could find it.

The goals I set for myself at the beginning of this year included:
To be in a stable financial place.
To be an employable musician, with 25% of my income coming from music.
To increase the home/from scratch cooking.
Begin exercising.
Do some scholarly writing.

With the exception of the last one, I can say that I've met each one of these goals. While I do still work in foodservice, I'm also now on the faculty of a university as an adjunct professor. I've also had a few good gigs. Few, but enjoyable.
I have also been cooking more at home, and all at-home cooking has been vegan, which I'm pretty happy about. I've also been going to yoga since sometime in February. It's been extremely helpful for relieving stress, tension, nerves, all sorts of things.

If you go back in the blog, you'll see that I had a grand plan for this entire year. A plan that fizzled out pretty quickly. It was nice in theory, but I think it was too rigid of a plan, which was exasperated by the chaotic nature of this past year. An idea like this one would work better in a more stable environment and it would need to be more flexible, changing and adapting as it progressed.

Over the next month, I'm going to keep working and practicing like I have been. I'm currently working my way through Moyse's 480 Scales and Arpeggios, which I'm almost halfway through, plus various tone exercises, as well as a few pieces and excerpts. I'm also hitting the clarinet and sax again, getting ready for the school year to start again. Maybe I'll do something special to commemorate the year ending. Ideas?

I'm back!

In case anyone was wondering, I did not fall off the face of the Earth - I swear! Truthfully, I just haven't been focusing my attentions like I should have...

Classes started today - my first "first day of school" NOT being the student! I'm definitely excited and looking forward to turning over a new leaf. I spent a fair amount of time wrestling with the Blackboard system and there is a glitch in the school email at the moment, but I did manage to get everything I need up for my online class.

I've missed 4 days of playing this quarter, which is not the perfect record I was aiming for, but I'm glad that I got myself back going again. I think the first day I missed was an honest mistake. It had been a really busy day and by the time I realized I hadn't played it was after 11:30 and I was already in bed. Lame excuse, but hey, it happened. I've definitely gotten back in the saddle and have been chugging along!

I am still preparing for the recital, and it has been going very well. I have to pick a date and find a pianist, which I'm going to try and do in the next week or two. I have someone in mind to ask about collaborating with me, and I'll be seeing them on Wednesday. I think I'm going to aim for mid-February, maybe the week after Valentine's day.

It was so great to be able to spend today working in music and it NOT feel like I needed to be doing other stuff. I just feel so much less stressed about my life. I have high hopes for 2013.

Recital Planning

The "Wild Party" has officially come to an end. Le sigh. It was an absolute blast. I could go on and on, such a good time.

With that show over, I'm going to get going on my first SoFla recital. I have a program picked out that I think will be pretty interesting for the audience and also provide a good amount of challenge for myself. I'm going to start contacting some pianists and possible venues soon, and hopefully I'll have a date picked out soon!

I'm not really sure which week I'm in for this quarter, but I'm not going to let that get me down. I'm glad to say that I've been playing every day like I wanted to, and I've been making progress. All of this will be more thoroughly discussed in a later post (hopefully soon). Be back soon!

Next Week vs. Next Year

For a while now I've wanted to start getting serious about practicing, but there's always been something major in the way. Thankfully, I have *finally* finished my Master’s thesis and can now really get moving forward with my life. Now that I've gotten to this point where I actually have time to practice, I have had to figure out what my next step should be.

Certainly music is a large part of what I want to focus my life around, you could even consider it a centerpiece for me. However, my life is not single-faceted (as I’m sure you could say about your own life), so I have other things to think about and try and balance as well. Finances are a major concern of mine. Having just completed graduate school, I now have quite the mound of debts to repay. Not to mention savings to build up, emergency funds, maybe a vacation every once and a while, and - Lord willing – even retirement to think about. I want to build a career in music that’s my own. I’m also not single, so I have another person to work with and try and create a life and home that’s our own.

One quote that has at time both inspired and haunted me is by the British flutist Geoffrey Gilbert: "Remember, you're not practicing for next week, you're practicing for next year." There have been so many times when I have thought "Oh if only I'd been practicing this more/all along/etc.!"

Why not take this quote one step further:  “In everything you do, don’t prepare for next week, prepare for next year!” Musically, professionally, personally, we should always be looking ahead, planning ahead. I plan to spend the next year trying to balance all of these pieces. So, this leaves me with one question:

Where do I want to be one year from now?

What a loaded question. I can honestly say that so many ideas have popped into my head – a career as a woodwind doubler, starting a chamber group, planning recitals out the wazoo, maybe I should take a second job, etc. I’ve been thinking about all of these options (some harder than others – really, Phil? You want to prepare four recitals in a single year?!), and I’ve been trying to sift through them. The ones that are more readily available to me or more important are moving to the top of the list, while the loftier or more challenging ones are drifting to the bottom. It’s starting to become clear which avenues I can really see myself pursuing.

As I'm actually not going to officially kick this one year of dedicated practice off until August 1, the month of July will serve as my planning month. This will allow me ample time to plan effectively, and get geared up.  I won’t be writing it all out in today’s post, but I’ve done some work already, gotten ideas written out, and some rough plans going.

I hope to be back soon with exciting news and at least a few clear goals!

Goals vs. Ultimatums

A big challenge that I've faced recently has been dealing with 'goals' I'd set for myself:

- I want to graduate in December...
- I want to change my embouchure/manner of playing...
- I want to play an hours worth of very tough repertoire on two friends' DMA recitals...
- I want to pay off significant portions of student loans...
- I want to eat right and exercise more...

Each of these 'goals' were always followed by an 'Or else!':

- I want to graduate in December...Or else I'm a failure who can't complete anything!
- I want to change my embouchure/manner of playing... Or else I won't be able to (see next line)
- I want to play an hours worth of very tough repertoire on two friends' DMA recitals... Or else I'll fail them and embarass myself!
- I want to pay off significant portions of student loans... Or I'll be forever enslaved by my debt!
- I want to eat right and exercise more... Or I'll be gross and out of shape forever!

Seeing it laid out like this, I see how ridiculous this really is! While some of these situations are basically true, first of all they wouldn't be permanent, and second of all, they aren't really quite that dramatic!

The obvious solution is to reassess those goals. But that indicates failure, right? Wrong! These goals aren't set in stone! Certainly, you can't avoid playing a recital you agreed to months ago, and of course not paying back loans is a bad idea as well, but why not just adjust the goals to suit your current capacities? Why can't I just decide to make payments that fit my current fiscal situation? Why not just make minor diet adjustments? Why not accept my playing as it is and then see where I'm able to take it?

Thanks to a mix of epiphanies and near-breakdowns, I've finally been coming to terms with where I really am in life. It may not be where I wanted to be or thought I would be at this point in my life, but that's oka