I am still so incredibly tired from the convention this weekend. But alas, the world doesn’t stop moving because of that. Monday was my recital hearing and I was honestly quite nervous for it. Yes, it was pushed back a week, but I also didn’t even try to practice over the weekend with the convention and everything. So it had been a hot minute since I ran through everything. The hearing was okay in my opinion, but I did pass so that’s good. I completely failed at playing a piece from memory, I really thought I had it down, but I clearly did not. And overall I just felt like things weren’t locking in and I wasn’t sounding my best. I did just come off of a convention and then a 2 hour band rehearsal on piccolo, so I think I was honestly just tired and that could be heard in my sound, but I do wish I did better. There were some good parts though. So yeah, I didn’t think it was my best playing and I know there’s a lot more work to be done, but I at least passed lol. After the hearing, I treated myself to some food and then honestly was stuck working on various things. I had a few emails to send, things to schedule and plan, that I got done. Then I watched a few episodes of a K-Drama before bed.
I didn’t get enough sleep to recover from the weekend I had Monday night, which was clear to me when I woke up this morning, so I’m hoping to turn in early tonight, or just sleep in tomorrow since our rehearsal was cancelled and that’s my only class. Today was also pretty normal, though practice wise I was not feeling it. I feel like I still sound tired and I’m definitely tired of my recital rep. So I decided to take it a bit more easy, practicing parts slowly and also playing some new rep that I bought at the convention. I also listened to a few pieces and studied some scores. We didn’t have studio today, which was a nice break. Instead, I taught a flute lesson to one of the undergraduate students here, which I think went well. I’m definitely starting to feel more comfortable teaching flute lessons, though I’m still insecure about my teaching. But the only way to get better at teaching is to actually do it, so I am thankful that I even get to try. I guess I just don’t feel like I’m good enough to teach or like I’m unable to explain things or help in lessons, even though I’ve been playing for so long. I just worry they’re going to leave the lesson and think that it was absolutely of no help at all and I don’t want that. I guess that’s why I actually like reading over the lesson notes they write, even though making lesson notes myself isn’t the most fun. But it can help me see what all they took out of the lesson, if anything. And by “if anything” I mean, there’s always something written on the notes so they at least get one thing out of the lesson. Either way, I’m starting to feel a bit more comfortable teaching flute lessons.
When I got home today I actually took my dog for a walk since it was nicer out, which she seemed to love. Then I got straight into doing some work while my dinner cooked. I worked on an assignment for my pedagogy class critiquing studio flyers and things, made my training log for the week, sent even more emails (they never end) and worked on my own lesson notes from my hearing. I also worked on editing a post for social media that should go out tomorrow. So it’s been pretty productive over here, even though I didn’t feel like I was productive because of my practice session. I think that’s about all! I’m still really tired so I’m just gonna end it here and get to sleep as fast as my brain will let me 🙂
by juniparker
