I just returned from chaperoning my younger daughter's high school music trip. At her school, the entire music department goes on the trips: band, chorus, and orchestra. Each are given performing opportunities and we all get to enjoy some local attractions. This year, the trip was to Norfolk, VA to participate in the Virginia Arts Festival. The orchestra and choir did adjudicated performances (playing for judges scores/comments and then working with one of the judges in a session). The marching band participated in the NATO Parade of Nations. Our fun activities included a river cruise, a museum attached to a battleship, seeing the Virginia International Tattoo. I had a really good time, but I underestimated the amount of exhaustion I would experience! If you're ever considering going with your students/children:
Trip memories=priceless The world is finally opening back up after COVID. Get out there!
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Welcome to my blog! I’m making a commitment to posting once a month starting in August 2021. I admit I’m not sure what direction this will take or if there will be a theme to my posts. In the past, it’s just my musings, so maybe a theme is in order? Any suggestions? One announcement before my actual blog post--I’m venturing into the world of online videos! I’m hearing from a number of public school music teachers that fewer students are taking private lessons for various reasons. School music teachers are still trying to generate student interest in festivals, but in my neck of the woods admission (by audition) to the district, regional, and state festivals is very challenging for flutes, especially if you have never had any private lessons. So (drumroll please!): I’m creating a series of short videos that will guide students through this year's PA Music Educators Association (PMEA) District 7 flute audition solo! These videos will be available for a fee, which will be less than the cost of a few private lessons. I’m not trying to replace private lessons--no video can really do that. But this gives students a different opportunity to try. I hope they will be helpful! This is a completely new venture for me, so please be patient as I get all of the systems set up. I hope to have videos available by the beginning of September. On to this month’s post! I am an Olympics junkie. I will watch every single evening of primetime coverage for the full two weeks. I like seeing the lesser known sports get their day in the sun, and am always inspired by the athletes and their personal stories of perseverance and determination. I identified with them this year especially (thanks, COVID). I felt a kinship watching videos of the Filipino powerlifter Hidilyn Diaz practicing with a bamboo pole with water jugs strapped to it (check out her Instagram @hildilyndiaz) and seeing the sport climbers literally climbing their kitchen cabinets and walls. Musicians too were still getting work done in isolation without much attention and fanfare. We are all just continuing to hack away at our sport or craft. I saw that these athletes also had to create ways to stay motivated and to practice without knowing what the future would hold. Italian rock climber Stefano Ghisolfi climbs his kitchen table during lockdown. These stories of perseverance made me think about the habits of successful people. I also recently read Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin, which covers this topic. In this case, I am defining success as ‘high achievement in an activity’ (but I think we individually determine what success means and looks like to us). Successful people:
These made an impression on me. I think I’m good at daily work but not always at clearly defining goals. That’s something I’m going to try to refine for myself and encourage my students too! All of this talk of success, perseverance, goals, and visualization sounded great and I was ready to spout all kinds of wisdom to you and to my students on this topic...and then Simone Biles withdrew from the gymnastics team and all-around competition. At the time of this writing, I don’t know if she will compete in the individual events yet (Update: it looks like she will compete in the balance beam individual event). First, I want to say what Biles did was huge for this sport and for mental health awareness. Bravo to her. I’m happy so many folks are supporting her and that mental health is getting well-deserved attention. This turn of events caused me question: what’s the price of success? How much pressure do we put on ourselves and our students with these goals? When does it all go too far? When do we know when a student is being pushed too far (or have pushed themselves too far)? I have not always done a great job of recognizing this in my own students, so what can I do better? I think it starts with listening and talking to them regularly. Are they happy to be playing the flute? Are they learning something or do they feel stagnant? What would help them move forward--taking on more challenges or stepping back? After stepping back, when is it time to move forward again, and at what pace? I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I hope to be more aware of creating balance. Simone Biles teaches all of us about balance.
Certainly there must be a way to have more balance in my own life and in my students’ lives. Listening to them and still holding them accountable is key. See also--well defined goals again (Ok, maybe I did have a theme to this blog post after all!) Do you have ideas about achieving goals, success, and balance? Please share them! I hope we can all look for more ways to find balance for ourselves and for our students. See you next month, and keep fluting! PS: speaking of pressure and mental health, I recommend “Sports & Mental Health: A Conversation with Michael Phelps” on Peacock TV. (I don’t get any money from them or anything for this recommendation). He says a lot of things that I related to as a musician. Also recommended: this story on the double gold medal in high jumping. Our local paper had an interview today with a local musician who plays in a band and runs his own recording studio. I'm always interested in hearing about local musicians and happy to know that local music is well supported here. However, one question posed by the interviewer made me clench my fists: "What is your 'real' job?"
The gentleman in the article does hold a job in a non-musical field, but does that make his music and recording studio less worthy? It was difficult to determine the interviewee's emotional response to this question from the brief article. Maybe he enjoys all of his jobs. Maybe he does the non-musical job to pay bills. Maybe he hopes to leave the 'real' job soon in order to focus solely on his band and recording studio. Whatever the situation, he's certainly entitled to make his living without it being trivialized in any way. Below is my email to the reporter: "Thank you for the "In The Spotlight" article in today's LNP newspaper on Gary Conahan. As a musician myself, I am always interested in reading about other local musicians. However, I was dismayed to read the question, "What's your 'real' job?" Using the phrase 'real job' trivializes our work. Being a musician is my real job! It sounds to me that Mr. Conahan, like many musicians I know, wears many hats, as do I. I'm a professional flutist, adjunct professor, private instructor, and I've blogged about collegiate music auditions. Do some of us take on other work that is not musically related? Of course, but doing so doesn't make our music less important or a side job. In the future, could the question be phrased differently so that our musical abilities are not diminished or looked at simply as a minor portion of our lives? Please consider this for the future. Thank you again for covering musicians in Lancaster County. I think we can all agree that we are lucky to live in an area with so many talented musicians." Fellow musicians--please, the next time you are asked that question, politely remind people that this IS a real job! |
I Write too!I write about flute, classical music, college auditions, positive mindset, and music advocacy. Archives
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