I'm fighting with my reeds. Almost physically throwing punches at this point. I didn't play for two and a half months over the summer because of drum corps (actually probably more because of my laziness) so I don't really have the chops of steel that I had before summer during my senior recital time.

I'm playing on the bassoon professors reeds at my university, and that is a totally normal thing to do... but they're SUPER hard! I can't practice for more than 30 minutes without getting tired. I get it tho, part of it is my fault... oops. But I still have some blanks from last spring, precisely two that are still usable. So I am using one, its perfectly in tune, I can play for two to three hours at a time (if I actually practice) but it's super long and sounds windy. It sounds a bit muffled but airy as well as if the tone isn't quite exactly clear.

Back to my real life; I'm sorry I haven't blogged in awhile, I've been a good student studying for midterms, which I took today! I feel like it went well, or this means I totally bombed it and failed the class... Fingers crossed for the first option.

I sat down in my lesson on Tuesday and wrote out a practice schedule with my instructor, OH MY GOSH!!! THIS IS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD! I found times in the day that I didn't know existed, granted my social life is pretty much gone, but I don't care if I get to play bassoon for the rest of my life and make a living off of it.

So I've obviously been practicing a lot more this week. And as I started my practice session this afternoon I got to thinking how the practice room is like a small cage. It has a small window at the top so you can tell if it is daylight or not but you can't really see anything out of it other than the ceiling. You can hear all of the extremely loud people in the lobby of the practice room, which isn't too cool peeps. Sidenote; If you go to music college please be quiet when you are near the practice rooms, sometimes people aren't having a good time in there. And sometimes you just want to get out of the practice room and escape but your time isn't up yet so you can't. Fortunately you can leave when you are done but I still say it's like a cage...

Total practice time today: 1hr 30min

Oh and I'm going to see book of mormon tonight after my swim!

Don't practice too hard,

Emily

Being a young stupid kid

Last night I planned on going to a Miller movie and watching Finding Dory but then I found the schedule for open swim and got the stupid idea to wake up at 5am for morning open swim.

I went with my friend Jen and we had a blast! We ended up swimming about 500 meters before 8:00. It really kicked my but, but it was worth it and I was happy that I was able to go back to bed after my workout and sleep another two hours before my first class.

Yay to no freshman 15! aka this means I can eat two desserts at dinner without feeling guilty ;)

But on the other side I wasn't able to practice today. I have cold sores on my face that are extremely painful. I think these are from stress because I haven't been kissing anyone, only playing bassoon... I promise that I have a semi normal life...

I received an A on my spanish quiz, which is a very good thing because I received a 60% on the first quiz.

I received a BA on my rough draft of a spanish composition, which by the way I can turn back in for even MORE points!!!

I received an A on all of my recent assignments in my digital media in music class and finished the entire class for the semester yesterday.

So I'm not quite sure how I have a ton of pimples and cold sores from stress because I've accomplished a lot and I haven't really felt stressed.

This weekend is homecoming weekend and it's going to be one heck of a show. But I'm ready for it to be over, it's very stressful attempting to fit the homecoming court and extra things needed for a traditional homecoming with the band.

Ta ta for now, I'm off to watch hocus pocus for the night :)

Practice time for today: 0 :(

Don't practice too hard....
Emily

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Many people won't understand why I have a huge dilemma on what I want to be when I grow up.  I have narrowed it down to two options, the first is risking a stable salary and my sanity to become a professional musician. This would mean moving away from my family and probably living on little to no money for a while until I find a stable job and that could take at least two years just to apply to.

But why would you go through that? Why would you go through the possibility of not having a job or even the possibility of not being able to eat or have a nice home?

I'll pretend that I am cool and answer these questions with a question, have you ever found something you loved so much that made you happy and made you all sappy and emotional when you think about it? To me that's music. There are certain classical songs I can't listen to without breaking down into tears because I remember the people I played those songs with and I remember why I did it I remember how amazing these people are and now I remember that they're half way across the country and I will probably never see them again. But it's not only the people it's being able to feel each other and communicate without saying or touching each other, it's about sharing something together that we created. It is something very difficult to explain to outside population who don't play an instrument.

The second option is safe. Its music marketing or performing arts administration. Here I would help organize and manage symphonies, ballets, and operas. It's a safe stable well paying job and I would still get to be around music but I don't know If i'll be able to perform along side them. I don't know if I would teach bassoon on the side to curb the craving of performance or not. I just don't know where I'll be in 10 years, and yes that's scary but I've kind of already accepted it and made a decision...


This is something that came up today when I had to fill out a goals sheet for bassoon studio, I had to write it down and try to explain it to the general population.

Don't practice too hard:

PS: my lesson was awesome today, I got an A and I also received an A on my spanish quiz!

Emily