A new book, plus eating my words (just a little)

Well, I’ve gotten one of the things on my list from last week done….have I mentioned that I don’t really enjoy cleaning??

I’m happy with my progress on “O mio Fernando” - good thing, because I start coaching it tomorrow. My audition this coming weekend asked that everyone bring an Italian bel canto aria, so here I am, eating my veggies like a good singer.

Actually, I’ll eat my words a little and say I’m enjoying this aria more than I expected to. I guess I just had to dig into it to find the enjoyment. Often, I can immediately find enjoyment in whatever it is I’m singing, but occasionally, a piece grows on me.

Aside from memorizing all the things, I’m starting to read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I started working my way through this book a little over a year ago and got stalled out by my COVID-induced apathy. I’ve decided to give myself a restart on that. The Artist’s Way is a book, but it’s really a 12-week program designed to help unlock your creativity. I wouldn’t describe myself as a “blocked creative,” but there are time when I find that I censor myself more than I would like in situations where I need to be creative. To that end, I’ll be reading one chapter per week and working my way through the activities in the book, starting with “morning pages” (three pages of stream-of-consciousness brain dump) and a weekly “artist date” (basically an outing or activity you do by yourself that will feed your soul/give you inspiration). I’ve always heard that this book is amazing, but I’ll admit I often find mental exercises laid out in books like this to be hokey and unhelpful, so we’ll see how this goes. I figure if nothing else, writing about it on here will help me stick with it.

My to-do’s this week are sort of a continuation of last week:

• Smooth out the kinks in “O mio Fernando” and get it memorized

• Work on memorizing the two Carmen arias that I don’t already have memorized (these are for my concert on 5/22!)

• Get my concert announcement out into the world (aka on social media)

• Stop procrastinating and ACTUALLY FINISH cleaning the music room!

• Daily morning pages

• Artist date

• Audition on Saturday!