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My First Year in Paris in 10 Photos
Here’s the part where I tell everyone how quickly the time has flown during my first year in Paris – an overused cliché, but true nonetheless. After a whirlwind year, things are finally slowing down enough for me to breathe and get caught up on some much-needed blog posts and updates. Instead of a long-winded account of my year, I thought it would be better to choose 10 meaningful photos from this past year and say a little about each one. (Disclaimer: Some photos are from my travels and aren’t technically in Paris.) I would be remiss to not include a photo of Philippe Cuper, who is the main reason I moved…
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Musical Advice in 140 Characters or Less
With the rise of Twitter, there is a new-found expectation of delivering information in a short and concise method – a tweet. 140 characters or less, to be specific. Twitter is a great platform to edit your thoughts and present them as succinctly as possible to the public. Although not ideal for music education, there are certain doctrines which can be conveyed in the character count of a tweet. Here are some of mine: More air, less fingers (specific to instrumentalists) Phrase horizontally, not vertically Be present when you practice Match your tone when you tongue to your tone when you slur Always play with a beautiful sound Practice your scales!…
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Lies My Band Director Told Me
In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, this article is for some of the hardest-working teachers out there – music teachers! Thank you for enduring all the squeaks, scratchy bowings, loud trumpets, and forgotten mutes! “One more time!” “You would make a great bassoonist/alto clarinetist/other auxiliary instrumentalist nobody else wants to play!” “Rehearsal will only be two hours!” “Just because you’re in band doesn’t make you a band geek!” “Band camp is really fun!” “It’s not that fast!” “More piccolo!” “We won’t practice outside if it rains.” If you are a music teacher, how many of these have you said (or what other small fibs do you tell your students)?
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Musical Advice I’d Give My Younger Self
Let’s pretend for a moment that time travel exists. Besides disrupting the space/time continuum to visit the dinosaurs, joust with knights, or see Mozart perform (all high on my list!), I assume you’d also want to visit your former self to give them advice about the future (or maybe just leads on popular stocks). I was practicing the Francaix Clarinet Concerto earlier this week and was thinking how awesome it would be if I could transfer my current technical abilities to a past version of myself (if only, if only!), which got me thinking about what I would tell past-Jenny. What would I do differently if I could restart my clarinet career…
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Mental Health Tips for Artists
Mental health is not often discussed in the arts. Musicians, dancers, artists, photographers, and other creative fields have incredibly high-stress careers. Our livelihood is based on public approval, perception, and criticism. We spend countless hours practicing, perfecting, analyzing, improving, and examining our art. Our art is an extension of ourselves, and we expose our most vulnerable thoughts and emotions with family, friends, and complete strangers. By pursuing a career in the arts, you are unknowingly signing a contract which exposes you to a lifetime of criticism, rejection, and crippling self-doubt. Because creative fields are so competitive, you will receive ten rejections for every success (by my rough estimations). Also, balancing professional, personal,…
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Spring Cleaning: Clarinet Edition
It’s that time of year again, when you trade in your peppermint mochas for iced coffee, bid adieu to your winter jacket, shamelessly post pictures of blooming flowers on social media…..and reluctantly realize you should really start your spring cleaning. If the idea of spring cleaning is foreign to you, I’m here to help. I’m a lifelong professional neat-freak and organizer. I don’t let seasons dictate my cleaning habits, although there’s something satisfying about marking the end of winter with a clean space. I am a firm believer in the power of an organized room. If you are surrounded by visual clutter, it is transferred into mental clutter (aka stress!). If…
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13 Things That Annoy Every Clarinetist
Playing the clarinet is usually pretty awesome. We can play any genre of music – classical, jazz, Klezmer, pop. We blend well with most instruments. Heck, even Mozart loved us (his favorite instrument was the basset clarinet!). Clarinetists are known for being down-to-earth, but there are some things that will always irritate us: 1. When your ligature slides while changing clarinets 2. Getting spit in your keys 3. Warped reeds 4. Having to play a school-owned auxiliary instrument, which are usually plastic and in serious need of repair 5. Having to transpose C clarinet parts 6. When composers give you zero time to switch clarinets…. 7. ….Or zero time to turn…
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The Musician’s Urban Dictionary
You probably know all of your typical music lingo – adagio, cantabile, dolce, sostenuto. Here are all the musical terms you didn’t know you needed! Restimate: to not accurately count during a rest, thus having to guess your next entrance “I got lost in that 33-measure rest, so I had to restimate.” Stage frightmare: a unique nightmare specific to musicians; usually involves being late to recitals, last-minute repertoire changes, or other anxiety-inducing musical situations “I had a stage frightmare that I had to play the Nielsen concerto from memory tonight!” Subzoned: when you are vying for a permanent position with a group but cannot escape the sub list “I’ve performed all…
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9 Secrets Classical Musicians Won’t Tell You
You probably have some preconceived notions about classical musicians. Maybe you’re thinking of that one annoying flute player that sat behind you in high school. Maybe you’re thinking of that one episode of Bugs Bunny (or if you’re a millennial, that episode of Hey Arnold! where they go to the opera). Whatever stereotypes you have about classical musicians, they’re probably untrue. Here are some secrets you may not know about classical musicians: 1) Classical music is not a 9-5 job. Most orchestras don’t have rehearsals or concerts every day. Non-musicians look at our schedules and think, “They only have 8 hours of rehearsals this week? That’s nothing – I work 50 hours every…
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The Musician’s Practice Pyramid
Have you ever walked (or dejectedly shuffled) into the practice room, begrudgingly opened your case, assembled your instrument….and wondered what the heck you have to practice? Maybe you’re overwhelmed with excerpts. Maybe you have to learn your scales for All State auditions. Or maybe you don’t even know what you should practice. Not to fear, my trusty Practice Pyramid is here! You’re probably familiar with the food pyramid from health classes past. It’s undergone a few makeovers recently, but the basic idea is essentially the same. A daily diet with the right proportions of certain foods will increase your overall health. Like the food pyramid, your practice routine should also…