Bassoon and English? Bass-nglish?

In the time between my last update and now, I’ve added an English major (with a concentration in creative writing) to my bassoon performance major. I’d been thinking about it since October of my freshman year at Eastman, and kept deciding against being a dual degree student because of the increased workload. After all, when [...]

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the problem of self-esteem

One thing I hate: musicians with obnoxiously low self-esteem. Well, actually I don’t mind those with low self-esteem, I mind those people who broadcast their feeling to the entire world. It’s emotionally draining — there have been people who I have to assure, practically on every encounter, that yes, they are a good musician, yes, [...]

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it’s a life story

In the past few days I’ve had so much to say, but no time to say it in. Life has been crazy! It’s also been amazing.
Today, for instance, I woke up wanting to listen to Okkervil River on the way to lunch from practicing. I was only about twenty seconds into “Our Life Is Not [...]

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back in the swing of things

Today was the first day of classes — although Fractals doesn’t start until Wednesday — and I’m thinking this is going to be a high-quality semester. Even having theory at 8:30 every morning cannot possibly bring me down.
For one thing, we’re playing really fun, really difficult music in this concert Wind Orchestra! I’ve been hoping [...]

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little love stories for high school kids

I visited my high school today and it was a little surreal. It wasn’t terrible at all, though, mainly because I have some fantastic teachers who made sure I wouldn’t randomly get kicked out. (Also, someone misplaced my scale study sheet… But that’s okay, after doing scales an hour a day, I have them memorized. [...]

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making up for lost time

It seems like I just can’t keep from updating this blog! In Miami it was definitely weird, not being able to update the greater online world about my bassoon-ish exploits. Or my crazy larking about.
Hey, these things amuse some people. (And to all of you: I am forever grateful.)
I’ve been thinking a lot about classical [...]

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a few words from miami

Break so far has been excellent — and definitely very chill. By saying this I am by no means referring to the weather, which has been lovely (if a little humid) but rather to the lack of 247 things a day to keep me occupied. Well, there’s practicing, but that’s a given.
One of my grandparents’ [...]

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fundamentally something-or-other

At my last lesson Mr. Hunt and I talked a lot about fundamentals (vibrato, tounging/double tounging, flicking, intonation), so I’ve started spending two hours a day working them. It’s surprisingly fun — I’ve always been a sucker for scales — but also surprisingly difficult. Focusing on intonation and coordination and everything for that long is [...]

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thinking in music school?

A year ago when I was applying to music schools, I admit that I thought a lot about how great it would be to play bassoon all day without needing to think about z-scores or the Platt Amendment or why we read Heart of Darkness. It seemed unnecessary — and while some of it definitely [...]

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thunder-snow!

We had an amazing snow-storm today with somewhere between one and two feet of snow. Needless to say, I’m delighted — and tomorrow we’re supposed to get thunder-snow. Is that not the most exciting concept? I’d been wondering the other day if you could have a thunderstorm with snow, but having never experienced it, couldn’t [...]

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