Skip to main content

The Good Parts

I got up at 5:30 am on a recent Tuesday. I had come in at 11 the night before after teaching 9 students in a row, and driving home, and so obviously had not gotten much sleep. The gig I was on my way to was an education concert that did not have a lot going for it, from my perspective - a trip through American History with peripherally related orchestral music and amateur actors. We were playing in an elementary school in Nowhere, IN, and there were two shows in a row for the same money as one. I was playing English horn, which is something I love to do, but the downside of the EH is that you spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for your piece to come up, which is NOT something I like to do. I'd rather be playing. The school was a solid two and a half hours from my house, and the orchestra is a great group, but not one of my usual ensembles so I was basically out and driving before the sunrise to count rests with strangers for a bunch of ten-year-olds who did not want to listen to us. This gig was really just about the money, and honestly everyone must have days like that, right?

Anyway, I was in the middle of the second show, sitting in the orchestra waiting for my final piece (John Williams Liberty Fanfare - great material but not an English horn feature, to say the least). The orchestra was zooming through the Overture to Candide, in which I don't play, and all of a sudden I felt a tremendous rush of well-being and satisfaction. Yes, the morning's service was not one of the more spectacular moments of my career, but isn't it great that I can be sitting in the middle of an ensemble, enjoying this wonderful music, being a part of things, AND make my living? I could be actually working - digging ditches or cleaning houses or telemarketing or turning tricks - but instead I am being paid to perform. I wonder if the amount of energy and hassle that it took to get me to that point in the morning was a factor in my feelings?

Last week I headed out on a long run. I think I've mentioned that I've been struggling through my runs lately - I love getting through them but the actual running part has been more of a drag than a pleasure. This time, though, after the first forty-five minutes, I got a fabulous second wind and zoomed through the remaining fifteen or so LOVING the endorphin rush. I had forgotten over this long winter that the best part of the run happens AFTER the first five miles, so when I get discouraged and head home after four, which is what has been happening, of course it doesn't feel fun. Maybe it's all of the effort that really makes the payoff magical, in life as well as exercise.

Or maybe it's just that I should get up earlier more often. It could just be punchiness from insufficient coffee...
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Zoe's Musical Beginnings

I've mentioned before that I started out on the piano by figuring out melodies.  Connecting notes and trying to learn how they worked.  I'm fascinated to observe that Zoe's initial approach to the instrument is totally different from mine. She sits at our new piano and plays random notes, and tells us what to feel.  If she is playing slowly then the music is sad, and we should cry. When we are "crying" she either gets up and hugs us so we feel better (so awesome!) or bangs faster, to indicate that the music is now happy and we should dance.  Her other piano game is accompanying herself - she plays "chords" in alternating hands while she "sings" the ABC song or Camptown Races or Sesame Street.  She makes us sing along.  She loves it when we clap at the end.  When I was little I wanted to know how music worked. Although I make my living as a performer now, I learned about the interpersonal aspects of music later.  Her immediate interest is in
2 comments
Read more

Cleaning Your Reeds

Updated: I've posted a video of my plaque cleaning technique HERE ! Oboe reeds are made from organic material, and over time it is inevitable that they will age and change. The first few days of change are usually quite welcome, as you break the reed in by playing and the opening gradually settles down to something you can be comfortable with and the response becomes more and more predictable.  You might even hit a plateau where it appears to be perfectly consistent and reliable for several days! But after that, the reed seems to be on a constant gradually accelerating downslope, until it eventually collapses into a sharp, non-responsive, mushy mess. We can rejuvenate the reed during this time by cleaning it, and can often extend its life as well! There are three good ways to do this. First, least invasively, you can just run some fresh water through and over the reed AFTER you play each time.  Go ahead and rinse that reed in the sink, shake it as dry as possible, and tu
6 comments
Read more

Knife Sharpening

I've gotten a lot of questions on this topic, and the most recent querent prompted me to make a video to demonstrate.  You can find that  HERE . Knife sharpening seems to strike terror into many hearts.  And it's little wonder.  Many famous oboists have gone on record as saying that a sharp knife is the most important aspect of reed making. People have entire systems of stones and strops and rods set up to sharpen their knives. And it is important, of course it is - but I don't believe that you need your knife to be razor-like, or objectively the sharpest blade of any in your home.  The reed knife has one job - scraping cane off in precision ways - and it has to be sharp enough for that, and sharpened optimally for that purpose.  More than that is overly fussy for my taste. This is not to say that I allow my knife to be dull.  A dull knife forces you to put too much pressure on the reed and can cause cracking. Obviously it can lead to terribly inconsistent scraping, an
7 comments
Read more