100 days of practice - week 10
Hey friends. It’s coming to end of term and I have lots of thoughts but also none and a lot of them feel not quite fully formed and private. This week I didn’t feel like posting - but as I read over my notes this week I found the reflection process is still helpful. Big themes are: feeling like a human outside of being a student, disenchantment with classical music institutions, and enjoying the sun. Mostly, I’m really looking forward to a break. Hope everyone is keeping happy and healthy <3
Monday - day 61
I woke up excited and refreshed from a weekend with actual down time, and a week ahead with much more time for my own priorities. Today I only have quartet rehearsal (if I skip performance class 🤫).
Practicing scales with a drone I realised that my intonation gets so much worse the moment I do anything harder with my bow. Today’s focus is finding the thing that makes things harder - and working on things in pairs. For example, working on spiccatto and intonation at the same time. Or vibrato and counting, etc etc.
My practice objectives:
Practice plan/music I need to learn:
Do a little of the tricky Decruck passages every day
Babe you GOTTA practice the Hindemith 4th movement - a bit every day
Same with 5th
Start 2nd movement Decruck
BBCSSO music - really wrap your head around it - get to know it so so well so you can focus on other things when you get to rehearsal. Listen to Schoenberg lots lots lots. And Rach.
Tuesday - day 62
Delayed my practice room booking in favour of a slow morning - more time to sit and read, do some yoga, etc. Was feeling fragile. One hour of practice in the morning managed to cover scales, the trickiest parts of my sonata, and even some of my study.
It ended up being a surprisingly fulfilling and satisfying day - 2 chamber coachings that helped SO much putting music together, one for a string ensemble piece and one for our Beethoven quartet, and a few solid hours of good concentrated work with people O love playing with. Came home for the afternoon which led to reading my book in bed which led to a 1 1/2 hour long nap. Sleepily got up and went to the gym and accepted I must’ve needed a break.
Wednesday - day 63
Apart from a class in the morning and quartet rehearsal in the evening spent the day at home, going to the gym in our building’s basement with Clarke and doing lots of listening to the pieces I need to learn before Friday, after agreeing to cover a friend for a project.
Thursday - day 64
Stayed home apart from a lesson I organised with a different viola teacher - loved it, amazing, great to hear another point of view. Went for a run and lay in the sun. In the evening went to a talk as part of my Benedetti Foundation ambassador programme via Zoom, which was all about approaches, methods, and environments when it comes to teaching, and investigating your values as a teacher. This tied into a big theme of this week which is thinking about music education and how it should be done.
Friday - day 65
A long long long day. Quartet warm up and then coaching 9-11, a half hour break in which I ate a breakfast roll (sausages, hash brown, and tomato sauce in a buttered bun from my school cafe, they are SO good), rehearsal 11:30-1:30 (although finished early) an escape to a cafe with Celia where we had a much needed debrief, then I practiced 2-3 for my sectional 3-6. Break 6-7 then class 7-9, by which time I had a killer headache and was desperate to be at home. The class was good though. Everyone is this busy at school right now - it’s that time where it’s all we can talk about. We’re lucky, to have so much to do, but there’s definitely an air of burn out and fatigue. By the time I got home, even though all the things in the day had been good, really, I was feeling a bit over it all. This week some of the flaws of arts institutions became really apparent - not unique to my school, I don’t think, and not really anyone’s fault. I was reminded that I don’t think we have a very good idea of what classical music education should look like these days. Some people do, and are working so hard, but the system is not particularly supportive, it seems.
Saturday - day 66
I woke up to sun on my face. This put me in a good mood. Celia and I had a long discussion about how we are going to improve classical music, which was one of those really exciting conversations that makes you like giddy with inspiration and enthusiasm and energy. We actually planned quite a lot, and I’m really really excited about our ideas. This was so the light we needed after a bit of a slog of a week. I did a tarot reading in the sun and let myself just be. My goal for the weekend was to remove myself a little from it all. If you’ve ever studied in an arts institution before I think you know what I mean - it’s pretty all consuming, because it’s such a huge part of yourself that you are giving to your studies. It’s easy to get very caught up in it all. Anyway, we went to the botanic gardens and looked at plants and laughed at the names of begonias. We went to a party in the evening that was really quite lovely - it’s been a while since I’ve had a light hearted social occasion. I ate lots of chips and guacamole.
Sunday - day 67
Day off. I even blocked it out in my calendar. Clarke and I went to Perth, where he had a brass band contest. We had brunch, and I went charity shopping, then went for a big walk up a hill. I climbed and sat in a tree and read my book. I thought about what it means to deinstitutionalise classical music and didn’t reach any conclusions. I also just listened to the birds and felt the sun on my face.
