Skip to main content

Early July

It's funny how at the end of May I always feel like Laurel, you have plenty of time. Make your little schedules and don't procrastinate. And then I make the schedules and I stick to them, but here we are at the beginning of July and I feel like I have SO MUCH left. 

I suppose this is the life of a musician and a general busy person, really.  I enjoy being active but hate having too many commitments. 

In the "achievements" category, I've memorized 4 pieces for the Italy Marimba Competition in September and am now in the record/critique stage of preparation, which isn't too far behind where I'd like to be.  I'm still working on the final round rep choice.

I finished one class only to begin another this week. I prefer face-to-face teaching, without a doubt.  Online classes always result in snarky emails and students accusing you of "losing" their submissions.  Plus, I like to use my computer time for blogs, writing, and research, and got really irritated when that time became more work-related last month.  It's nice to get paid to teach but still be able to visit family, though.

In the "get it together" category of my life, I need to create syllabi for all of my courses, not to mention get a more specific idea of my lecture outlines. I'm teaching two new classes in the fall - one new to me and one new to the university. Woot! Let's hope it doesn't get cancelled...

Even with all this, husband and I are struggling with wanting to adopt animals from the shelter, but know we shouldn't...but really want to...but know it might be irresponsible...but just really want to...

Ah, well.  This post comes at a practice break. Gotta get back to it.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Marimba Body: Back Muscles

This essay is all about the muscles of the back, since we talked about the spine in my last segment.  Since I get to talk all about shoulders at PASIC (woohoo!!!) on Friday, I thought a good connection between spine structure and the shoulder joint would be about the muscles of the back that help to protect both. Though I've never experienced it severely first-hand, it seems like there is nothing worse than constant back pain.  Ask anyone who has dealt with it and they will say that you must  protect your back so you never  feel what they do.  Doctors warn their patients that once they have one surgery, chances are they will need more.  (This makes sense, as you can't fix one part of the long spinal structure without later needing to correct other areas.) There's good news, though: keeping the muscles of the back strong, and freely aligning the spine, can help us lead pain and surgery-free lives. Waterfall Muscles source source     It's beautiful the

Marimba Body: What is Hip?

In keeping with the idea of getting grounded from my last post in the Marimba Body series, let’s talk about hips and the sciatic nerve.  Hips are the joint where the leg meets the torso.   They're easy to find because they’re the widest part of our lower half, beneath the belly, but above the knees.  We use them to walk, run, dance, and reach the extreme ranges of the marimba.  Our hips make it easy for us to step far to the right to reach a high note or squat low so we can reach the extremes at the same time.  Without them, we couldn’t do either: we could play about a 3-octave range in the middle and that would be it! No, thank you! Holy Ilium, Batman! Just as there is no bone in the body actually called the “neck bone” or “knee bone,” so the name “hip bone” is a colloquial misnomer. (I know, who knew??)  What we refer to as hip bones are actually part of the pelvis: the ilium. If you’re like me and carried some kind of drum for years and years, chances are you

Marimba Body: Thumbs

Thumbs. Without them who knows how we'd play our instruments. Interest in the relationship between the hand, wrist, and thumb began a few years ago when I took piano lessons to refine my technique. (As similar as piano and percussion are in theory , there's much less crossover than I mistakenly thought and hoped.)   Anyway, something my mentor said was when the thumb isn't being used it should relax towards the rest of the hand and fingers.  Sure, may sound obvious, but in the throes of playing - piano or percussion - it's easy to forget little things like this.  Brain: Play a broken 13 over 7, across 6 surfaces...crescendo...oh, right. THUMB. End Scene Thumbs that are mis-mapped, working more than they should, or working when they don't need to contribute to funny aches, pains, and numbness that can get mistaken for carpal tunnel.   Just like all other subjects in the Marimba Body series, how we relate to the structure and movement desi