Quarter 1 is coming to a close.

There are just a few weeks left in this first quarter! It's been quite an experience so far. I know I haven't been posting as much as I used to, but I think it'll take a while before I can get to the point where I'm posting frequently and not sharing inane thoughts. I mostly wanted to drop in to say that I'm still here, and still practicing.

I've begun practicing clarinet and saxophone again, which is actually kind of fun. I'm alternating days on each one (of course practicing flute/picc every day). Rehearsals for Wild Party are going to start up at the end of the month, so I'll be starting to dig into the book soon. I've been avoiding practicing it so far just so that I can get reacquainted with the instruments themselves and try to build some general skill with the instrument itself, not just learning the licks I need to know to collect a check.

I'm working on some ideas for next quarter and next year, but I don't have anything concrete to share just yet.

Week 3: Practice Plans

Wednesday

Wagner #50/52    5min.

PG                    30min.

Boehm #2            6min.

Moz. Mvt. 1         7min.

Picc. Tone           6min.

Gazza Ladra         6min.

Thursday

PG                35min.

Picc. Tone     10min.

Boehm #2      10min.

Gazza           10min.

W#50/52       10min.

Cap. Esp.        5min.

Moz. Mvt. 1   10min.

Friday

PG                44min.

Picc. Tone     10min.

Boehm #2       5min.

Gazza            6min.

W#50/52       15min.

Cap. Esp.        5min.

Moz. Mvt. 1     5min.

Saturday

PG                   35min.

Picc. Tone        10min.

Boehm #2         10min.

Gazza              10min.

W#50/52          10min.

Cap. Esp.          5min.

Moz. Mvt. 1     10min.

Sunday

PG                  36min.

Picc. Tone       10min.

Boehm #2        10min.

Gazza               6min.

W#50/52         14min.

Cap. Esp.          6min.

Moz. Mvt. 1     25min.

Monday

PG                  35min.

Picc. Tone       10min.

Boehm #2        10min.

Gazza              10min.

W#50/52          20min.

Cap. Esp.         10min.

Moz. Mvt. 1      10min.

Tuesday

PG                    30min.

Picc. Tone          5min.

Boehm #2          10min.

Gazza                 5min.

W#50/52            10min.

Cap. Esp.            5min.

Moz. Mvt. 1       15min.

Happy Practicing!

I'm still here!

Believe it or not, I'm still alive, and we moved in last weekend. Unfortunately I have not been practicing at all. I think I've only been able to play maybe three or four times since my last post.The move was much rougher than we expected, but we survived! 

I'm over a week behind on the practice plan, but I'm going to keep plugging along. I'm going to redraw my practice plans and post that in the next few days if I can. I'm going to do my original plans for Week 2 from today until Tuesday, at which point I'll start Week Three with the second week of the Patricia George plan. Her method of working through the Taffanel-Gaubert uses 6-day practice weeks, so if I'm able to get in at least a little bit of productive practice each day, I'll be able to make up the lost time.

I was able to practice today, and it felt great. While it was certainly not smooth sailing all the way through and I didn't make it through the entire to-do list, it was a very productive practice session. I'm having to out some tension issues, especially in my left arm, and having to fight the urge to try and play faster than I need to.

Patricia George suggests working in chunks, which I found very helpful. She suggests playing short chunks (between 4 and 8 notes) with a quarter note rest between each chunk. This was very great for slowing my mind down, getting my focused on consistency of sound, smooth finger motion, and getting rid of negative tension.

More to come in the near future, hopefully including some good news!

Plans for Weeks 1 and 2

It's going to be a crazy week because we're packing everything up and traveling across the country. Maybe it would be easier to push everything back a week or a month, but I feel like I need to make myself push through this time instead of taking an easier way out. Since it'll be a hectic couple of weeks, and I'm not sure how time will pan out, I've mapped out the first two weeks below.
Thankfully I've already begun some preliminary practicing, trying to lay some foundation for the work I'm going to be doing. On the first few days of the week I'm going to try and touch on flute, piccolo, and recorder, but on the moving days I'm only going to worry about a little bit of flute tone and finger technique.
Notice that I plan on "sharing"   a recording of myself playing the opening flute solo from Ravel's Bolero at the end of Week 2. I'm looking forward to it!

Hopefully as I go along, I'll become better at preparing these weekly practice plans, and they'll be a little easier to understand. There will be sporadic practice reviews that I'll post, commentary on how things are going, etc.

The Overall Plan

Alright, so I've been working on a master plan for the year. It's undergone several revisions, and has now reached a reasonable state.

I'm going to be spending a large amount of time of this year restructuring my playing style and embouchure. It's very critical for my long-term success as a professional that I get the (mostly minor) issues that I have under control. Along with this will be plenty of articulation and finger technique, which I will use technical exercises (Taffanel & Gaubert, DeLorenzo, Moyse, etc.) and etude books (Boehm, Moyse, etc.) Along with the general technique mentioned above, I plan on having certain weeks where I will focus on "special" topics: trills, multiphonics, etc.
 Next is repertoire. I'm only going to work on a few pieces a quarter per instrument. The exact number will vary, and I'll be starting with some vaguely familiar or very important works and move towards works that are brand new to me.
 I'll also be working very diligently on orchestral excerpts. Like with repertoire selections, the exact number per quarter will vary depending on a number of factors.

In order to make the execution of this whole process more manageable, and to help myself in keeping track of my goals, I've divided the year into four 13-week quarters.The first quarter is Aug. 1 - Oct. 30.  I'll plan out each quarter in advance, and then plan daily practice sessions for each week in advance of the start of the week. Once I have a typed up version of my plan for the first quarter I'll post it, and I'm considering doing the same thing with weekly practice sessions. I'm also going to try and make some posts where I review my practice from the day/week, as well as some audio or video recordings as possible.

If you have any suggestions or comments along the way, please share them with me!