Music...

...is starting to go much better for me now. Over the break between semesters, I only practiced twice. In a month. Now, those of you who are musicians probably just shit, unless you're vocalists, in which case you're shocked that it's possible to practice as much as twice in a month.

But honestly, even though my playing took a giant step backward in that time, my passion for music seems to be rebounding. Last year was an incredibly scary year for this. I quite literally had no urge to play at all by the end of it. And music has been what I've concentrated on the most since I was six years old. 

But now that I took that break and the semester began again, I've had much more energy and no problem convincing myself to practice. I swear, I barely played at all last semester. And though I didn't play in many ensembles, every rehearsal was drudgery. Not so this time. Even though I am not enjoying the literature quite as much, rehearsals have become fun again. 

I am primarily an instrumentalist. I perform on tuba, double-bass and trombone. This semester I started singing again, in the Chamber Choir at Saint Rose. Though it is not a very high-level choir (anymore, apparently), I am really enjoying singing in it. Because singing isn't my main focus in music, it becomes an outlet much more easily than playing.

But one of the best side-effects of my month off: because my practicing is more enjoyable now, I'm more consistent in it, and improving more rapidly. Part of this is because I started religiously sticking to my daily routine, which is a heavenly gift to any tuba player. (For more info, comment this or email me.) 

Also, expect updates to my concert calendar, as more dates will be added, hopefully soon. This semester I am in the following ensembles:

CSR Wind Ensemble (Principal tuba)

CSR Brass Choir (Tuba)

CSR Chamber Choir (Tenor I)

Trombone Choir (Bass trombone)

Chamber Brass (Tuba) (includes trio, quintet, sextet and septet)

Sage City Symphony (Double-bass)

and one more, which I will post as soon as I learn the name of it.

A lot of the reason that I posted this is to lend a small bit of (probably bad) advice to others experiencing burnout like I am just getting through. Also, I'm just happy that things are getting better, and wanted to write about it. And I wanted to do it now, because tuba playing is going to suck this week, because I have a canker sore on the very tip of my tongue. It's from a food allergy to milk fat. And the only thing to win over my tuba playing this weekend? Ben and Jerry's. And it was soooo worth it.