Dana's Life: The Musical

November 22: STRESS STRESS STRESS

danadeveer2013 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:15:40 +0000

If the distinction between today and yesterday disappeared and it was just one continuous flow of hours, it would be THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE. Two tests, one outline, one lesson that I’m NOT PREPARED FOR.

To put it simply, I am screwed. I have only so much practice time before my lesson, and I’m fairly certain that no matter how efficient I work, I’m going to fail.

November 19

danadeveer2013 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:24:31 +0000

i practiced for half an hour and accomplished nothing. it’s not a good day.

November 17: Hard Work

danadeveer2013 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:20:48 +0000

On tuesday I had some quality practicing. I worked through the beginnings of my transpositions which are gonna be really tricky, so i worked on them in pieces. It was a new method, I’m sure how well it worked yet, because I haven’t had a chance to practice since then. I have been seriously upset the past few days, so there hasn’t been a lot of productive work going on. It is likely that I’m going to work to the point where I’m ready for my lesson, just like every week. I’m apparently incapable of controling my mood, so who knows.

Sunday

danadeveer2013 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:12:09 +0000

Sundays are evil. They are soul sucking. They are unproductive. I took a very long nap today, after a siesta that I had shortly after waking up. Which means I slept all day. I set an alarm for 7:45 PM so that I could make it in time for horn ensemble rehearsal, but oh wait, whilst I slept, I slept throught he e-mail that said, “hey, be there at 7!” so I missed rehearsal and woke up for nothing. In my anger I practiced and played really well, considering. Perfected my transpositions, and think I really got my etude down. Trombone is always a challenge, but maybe I can get Kyle to help me with it tomorrow. Still not touching the Mozart. It’s bad luck. I haven’t practiced my lip trills, that’s gonna get me in trouble.

Eeek!

danadeveer2013 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:06:41 +0000

I know I said I would do better, I didn’t. Stupid psych test took ALL my free time, and then Monon happened… long story short, I practiced for half an hour on tuesday, it really didn’t go all that fantastically, I worked out a few of my transpositions, started a checklist, sight-read my trombone piece, worked on my etudes. Simple stuff. Haven’t really touched my jury solo, but I’ve worked on that piece so much I feel like if I work on it again I’ll just get worse. Don’t laugh, I’ve seen it happening. I was way better at it a month ago.

November 10: Duely Noted

danadeveer2013 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:36:01 +0000

Okay, you’re right, I forgot to blog for all of last week. I have a very legitimate reason for this. I was too busy practicing. Not even kidding, I practiced two hours everyday last week. The reason for this is that I had a really REALLY bad lesson last week. I don’t know what it was, but it was the first lesson I left feeling absolutely miserable. I failed three parts, and Prof. Danforth was NOT happ with me, and I couldn’t figure out where I had gone wrong because I thought I had been dutifully practicing all along. Clearly, not. So my solution was practicing in every block of spare time I had. It worked.

My main issue was transpositions. I realized that I accomplish nothing when I stumble through them makign a million mistakes and only fixing them once and moving on. Nothing became permanent. So what I did was I broke the exercise up into three measure sections and play the transposition really REALLY slow and repetively, getting increasingly faster when I felt I had truely mastered it. It took me two hours to do one transposition alone, but it worked. After I mastered one of the sections that I had broken up I took a break, a reward for my small goal. It really helped to solidify the work into my ability. I did this for both my transpositions, and my etude when the time came. However, I was still having trouble with my trombone etude. I tried and tried to get it right and I just knew that it wasn’t going to be as good as Danforth would like it. So I fell back on my old tricks and asked for help. Kyle played it for me (on trombone- much easier), and it clicked. It wasn’t perfect in my lesson, but it was accurate. Sometimes playing low is just HARD, no one said it wasn’t. The more I work at it, the better it should get.

The moral of the story is that I’ve learned my lesson. I know what works now, and already I’ve started in on my work for next week. I would like to note that transposing has become significantly easier! I guess some of that mindless repetition became permanent. Learning to transpose is kind of like delving a tunnel in my brain, it’s a whole new way to travel, a new way to read. Considering I’m not the best reader to begin with, I’d say that’s something.

By the way, I’ve also been using these techniques to work on my band music too. I told you I was busy! And piano too! Okay, two hours French Horn, one hour piano, we’ll say four hours give or take on homework, and the five to six hours of classes and rehearsals, when exactly do I sleep? I don’t know…

October 28: We’re friends now.

danadeveer2013 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:17:02 +0000

So, a good, efficient practicer has taken possession of my body. I don’t know who she is or where she came from, but we’re friends now. I hope she stays.

This isn’t just on horn, it’s piano too. Yesterday I spent an hour practicing piano. I hate piano! But somewhere along the road, I decided I’m tired of being humiliated in class when I know I’m better than I sound. I spent so much time on my group one scales they practically sound perfect. I can do them with my eyes closed.

Then the Horn practicing came around. I don’t work myself to death anymore. I don’t play and play and beat myself up, and then ply more crap. I use all the techniques I use in my lessons. I take five minute breaks when I start to lose focus or if it starts to hurt. I work out the trouble spots. I use a metronome and bring things up to speed. It’s relaxed, it’s unemotional, it’s efficient, it may or may not be working but I guess we’ll see when the time for my lesson comes.

I have been of the opinion that I suck everyday when I practice, yet when I get to my lesson Danforth always says that he can tell I’m really progressing. I didn’t understand how this would work, that I would suck LESS when I was being scrutinized and graded by someone else, but Kyle pointed soemthing out to me: It is VERY unlikely that someone else is more scrutinizing of my performance than I am. Of course I think I suck, I am my worst critic! So I’m trying to either be more positive, or not be opinionated. We’ll see how it goes.

October 27: Oh Woe is Me

danadeveer2013 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:04:27 +0000

I practiced for a FREAKING HOUR AND A HALF last night. Nuff said.

Okay, no, that’s not enough. I’m just having so much trouble with some things, so I’m trying the beautiful technique of workign the cramp out of my trouble parts (which tend to be the entire piece) and then walking away. Destressing. And COming back. And sometimes, it’s magically fixed. Not always. Not often.

October 26 Part 2: The Magical Metronome

danadeveer2013 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:45:09 +0000

Another discovery made today: The metronome is a truly miraculous instrument. I had never used one before in my personal practicing, but Professor Danforth stressed that I really needed to use one for this week’s work. So, I took mine back from Taylor who wore a sad face, and tried it. Amazingly, those things actually keep time, which transveresely made ME KEEP TIME! INCONCIEVABLE! I used it for my two etudes and my lip trills, it was something new. I think I’ll try it with the Mozart later as I’m rather convinced that I lose time in that piece. I admittedly borrowed Mara to work out the rhythm for my Maxine-Alphonse etude, but I think that was justified. I did try it on my own, I really did, she’s jsut so much better than I…

October 26: If I were this stressed out every week…

danadeveer2013 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:38:34 +0000

… Then I would be way better at the French Horn. I practiced THREE TIMES yesterday. I worked through all my stuff. THEN, I practiced twice today to prep for my lesson, working through transpositions earlier in the day right after seminar, and working on my etude and lip trills in the afternoon right after theory. I’m mildly amazed because I somehow managed to get and hour and a half in BEFORE MY LESSON, and I still have an hour break before my lesson. Why did it seem like I never had time before? I mean, I practiced, AND I have time to relax! INCONCIEVABLE!!!! My conclusion is that if I were this stressed out before every lesson, I would be so much better. I hereby promise to try and find this kind of time EVERYDAY, not just when I haven’t practiced for a week.