very fine rehearsal

We are sounding good. I had trouble counting and missed a little soli entrance - repeatedly. This happens enough to me that I know I need to get better counting. I do fine counting x measures of rests, but when I'm playing and then need to keep track of a few measures ... I often mess it up. I think it is because I get flustered by the playing and lose track.

I think if I hear the music more ... musically, I will do better at knowing where I am. It is all such a one big puzzle, with all of the pieces related in such curious and tangential ways. I'll get my entrances better if I relate to the music more musically. It makes perfect sense yet is not the simple mechanical answer you might think it is.

Anyway, love playing this stuff, just love it. And actually, I really like how good I am starting to sound, counting mistakes or not. My ear is so much better.

2 reasons for practicing

Well, there are many more, but here are two reasons for putting in good practice sessions close to concert date:

1. Improve my playing even by an increment on the pieces we will be performing.
2. Keep my CHOPS IN SHAPE. It is great to get in good solid practice sessions leading up to the concert so my chops are READY for all that playing come concert night. It will be good to have solid rehearsals tomorrow and Friday. 2 hours of rehearsal time on this concert band music means that my chops should be in great shape by Saturday's performance. Even tonight and last night when I had really good practice sessions, I actually didn't get in much more than an hour of playing time.

Playing in symphony, sometimes the hardest time to keep my chops in shape is right before the concert, because we have so much rehearsal time, and when there are a lot of rests for us brass players, that's a lot of time when we could be practicing, that we are counting. We're great counters, though. :)

good practice

tingling lips ... worked hard on my tricky concert band stuff.

I thought today that it would be good to try for an hour a day of practice again. A focused hour. But I just don't have that much time in me right now, with all of my other commitments (I'm trying to meditate for 30 hours a month at the moment as well - and that is a stretch, too - and I can even do that in the morning!).

smashingly fun rehearsal

We had concert band rehearsal tonight and it was just smashingly fun. I'll say it again. I can't believe how lucky I am to be able to do this. How did I get this alignment of fortunate circumstances. I just don't know, but I love it.

I also love this concert band type music. I love blasting it out on the trombone, to tell the truth.

It is also SO valuable to be playing between Paul Shannon and Bruce Simonson. I can hear how they articulate the notes and I can emulate that. I am doing that. Just playing with them is serving as a teacher.

I have to work as much as I can this week on the material. The Hindemith tonight was particularly hard for me. I've been working on this material but not at speed, and I was just completely lost today on the first page, time and again as we went through it at least three times. I know the speed because I can play the second and third pages at speed, so I'll try to play this first page during this week up to speed ... and if I can't, then I need to be able to at least count it so I don't get lost for my little one-measure solo at the bottom of the first page.

I wrote down my notes on what to practice and I'll just do my best. Our concert is Saturday, May 2, and we have rehearsals Thursday and Friday of this week.

Did I mention how lucky I feel?

tried a new horn today

I have been poking around thinking about switching back to a horn without an F-attachment. The weight, the added weight, of the F-attachment causes a numb middle finger and not insignificant hand pain ... I'm 47, it's not like I'm going to be progressing towards stronger hands just naturally. Unless I start a weight lifting hand strengthening program but I already don't have enough time in the day.

I was out at Bill Paulick's today picking up a cup mute for the Concert Band performance coming up, and I just happened to ask him if he had a large bore horn, a .525 or .547 inch bore, without the F-attach. For the non-trombone player, the F-attachment adds a whole section of tubing which drops the range down when the "trigger" opening the tubing is pulled. It gives you a lot more range on the low end, gives you a lovely B natural in 2nd rather than 7th position, and gives you a lot more weight to pack around on your left hand and specifically on the middle finger of your left hand. I've been trying different grips and braces, etc., to get around the pain that comes from packing this thing primarily on that one finger - and right now I am just tolerating the pain 'cause nothing else works without interrupting my playing.

Well he had a Yamaha Xeno 881, which is a straight (non F-attach) 0.547 inch bore (relatively large bore) instrument, and I tried it out and I liked it a lot. I am completely conflicted about getting a new horn. On the one hand, I feel like I'd have to sell my current instrument because I really don't want to afford to have a stable of expensive horns hanging around. On the other hand ... I'll have to think about it. Decisions, decisions.

I worked on my final exam today and had Leona and Jeff over for dinner, so did not practice at all, with my only playing scales and such on the 881 horn at Bill Paulick's. I did have a nice little practice last night on my concert band material. I need to practice for that, but I need to finish my exam tomorrow. So much to play, so little time.

I love some down time

I love having some low pressure time between concerts, weeks with no rehearsals at all on week nights (what heaven), where practice is just practice, not a desperate race against time to cram as much learning the music in before I play it. Tonight I did the Michael Davis warmup and then I "laid down some more neural tracks" of concert band music - West Side Story, Variations on a Korean Folk Song, and Concertina for Tuba and Band (I'm in the band part of that, hee hee). It was all just completely an enjoyable practice. Low pressure and fun. My lips are tingling. I love it.

American Overture

I worked on my concert band music tonight. American Overture by Joseph Wilcox Jenkins, and worked through a little bit of the Alaska Flag song.

I please myself with how much more easily I can tackle strange rhythms and new note patterns. Just go into them and try them, and I get the sound and feel so much more quickly these days. Sometimes they are still hard - off-beat patterns trick me - but the confidence gained from having played tricky things stands me well. Like Rick says, slow it down and figure it out, and the speed will come.

Last night, all I did was the Michael Davis 15-minute warmup. HA! 15 minutes. I probably spent a good 30 minutes or more on it, but there, too, I was so pleased at how much better I played through it than I have in the past.

The reality of hard work

I am continuing on my neural pathway journey tonight. Just laid down another groove on the Hindemith March and I am giving my chops a break.

Now that the insanity is toning down, of playing in too many groups overlaid with being very sick, with final projects for my class thrown in - now that things have calmed down just a bit, the reality of practice being a lot of work is driven home. I just laid down that next neural track for the Hindemith and indeed, it came more easily and was faster. To continue on with my neural path-making project, however, I need to do the same with the Panama piece. Then I need to lay a solid track on my next piece, probably West Side Story.

It's so much work! I can't just get bored with it. I need to stay on it, work on it, play the pieces over and over. Work!

less is more

Do less to get better.

My philosophy for the past three years is to throw myself into as many playing opportunities as arise for me. My thinking has been that these playing opportunities motivate me to practice all the more.

I am starting to think that my thinking might need to change. Being so sick over the past three weeks gave me time and perspective to think about taking on too much. Jack said, I need to get better. I do need to get better. I think what I need to do now to get better is work on playing what I am playing, well. If I keep taking on too much my practice time is spread too thin and I don't do as well as I need to on any of my material.

So. Let's see how I can do with this idea.

Tonight I worked hard at carving neural paths for Pathfinder of Panama by Sousa. I worked through the entire piece slowly in 4, which was funny. Sousa in 4. But then, I went through it faster in 2 and by golly, it just sounded like Sousa. I just love these marches.

I ended by practicing a duet that I've worked hard on in lessons for a long time. It's this nameless Hohne duet in the Beeler book. It's been hard for me to practice because of my problematic G. Which, by the way, is coming easily, not flawlessly, but much more easily to me now. Tonight I practiced it with the tuner and paying close attention with my ear. It's the top line that's been hard for me, and I think I've been having a hard time getting my E flat and my C in tune. The E flat is really out there in 3rd position relative to the C. Anyway, I worked on it slowly and methodically. Play it well slowly and the speed will come.

Now I have basic neural tracks laid for Pathfinder and the Hindemith. Itchy brain.

continued on the path

I went back to the Hindemith March today and continued on those neural paths I'm creating. I surprised myself with how well I picked up and played the areas that I had worked so methodically on Sunday night. I practiced them again (envisioning the grooves getting deeper in the gray matter) and went through the rest of the Hindemith making sure the beginning paths are laid down for every single part, even the hard parts.

I worked a little on the Sousa Panama piece afterwards, but I was tired. I am still quite sick. Very bad things are in my lungs and I need to pace myself.

Carving neural paths

Yesterday we did our student symphony boat tour, to Gustavus and Hoonah. It was a long day, 6 am to 10 pm. The concerts went quite well, but my topic of the day is related to conversations on the boat between concerts, which is almost the best part about these trips.

Talking with Dave, Paul, Paula, Ken, Anastasia, Judy - all adults starting new on instruments or returning after very long layoffs - and with Bob Hutton, the band director from Hoonah, about my experiences - us adult music learners are keenly interested in the process of learning that goes on in these older brains. Can we lay down the neural paths that we could have if we'd done this when we were young? Does it take longer? Or is it still possible? (I am convinced it is, by my own experience.)

Recent brain research seems to indicate that we keep on creating these new neural paths as we get older. Something I heard or read recently was discussing how you do something once, then you come back and do it again the next day. The memory of doing it twice now makes that path just a little stronger. Then you do it again the next day. It gets a tiny bit easier and the path gets a tiny bit stronger. The key, though, is doing it again and again, over time - as in, no easy breaks, you have to put in the time. And it takes calendar time. You have to do it over and over, day after day.

This is how I want to approach working on the concert band music. Some of it is quite challenging. I have been working tonight on Paul Hindemith's March from Symphonic Metamorphosis. It is fast, there are rhythms that are challenging for me, there are accidentals all over the place. I laid down a neural track tonight on the first and most of the second page. I focused on getting the notes right with all of the accidentals, and getting the rhythm right, but slowly, very slowly. It feels good. I can almost feel the itchy little groove in my brain.

I also set myself the objective to play all the way up to 9 pm. Sometimes I allow myself to get bored with working hard on a piece and let myself off the hook, but I know I am doing that. So I only put in about 30 minutes tonight, but I stuck with it right through.

BTW, I played a TON yesterday, on our tour to Gustavus and Hoonah, and also played two Easter programs this morning, so haven't exactly been slacking. ;)

Broke pattern

After playing every day for 192 days straight, I missed yesterday. I came home sick with a cold, took some Nyquil because I'd hardly slept for coughing the night before, and went to sleep at 6:30 or so, never finding the motivation to play when I woke up periodically through the evening.

So it goes. Will restart the clock today. Still an excellent exercise.