Return from Summer Break
Ok, so clearly I gave myself a bit of a summer break.
I did practice most days, but there wasn’t much of anything to report back. I took the time to enjoy some quiet, to play in my garden, and just to rest. As you can see in the picture above, I’ve had some summery visitors!
Onward.
I’ve officially survived the first week of classes at my university job. Honestly, the long summer break was good for me. It let me rest, and remember that I actually do like to teach. Unfortunately, while I started with a full teaching load, my studio has shrunk to just over half-capacity. Remembering that I’m missing all the income I was getting from the high school last year, this is not great news for my finances.
Thankfully, I have some great friends who’ve patiently talked through a few ideas with me. I’ve almost got this figured out. Stay tuned for more about this!
I’ve had a couple of very quiet days while staying at a friend’s house taking care of her sick pup while she’s out of town, which has given me some brain space to do a little goal setting and planning.
I’ve gotten away from my 3 hours/day of music the last couple of months, and while I needed the break, I feel like it’s time to get back to it. That said, I’m going to plan to split those three hours across administrative tasks, reading/language learning, and practicing. I’m thinking 45 min each of admin and reading/languages, and 1.5 hours of actual practicing. I’m spitballing here. I may get into it and change things around to better suit my needs.
I’ve also got some new music to learn. I’ll be singing my first Elijah this fall, and I’m super excited about it! This piece has been on my wishlist for some time, so I was really pumped when an offer showed up in my email a couple of weeks ago.
On top of that, remember the concert I was supposed to sing in June that I had to cancel due to illness? My collaborator and I are scheduled to perform it as a faculty concert in February. We are adding another set of songs though, so I have to learn them!
So now that I’ve outlined some long term goals, here’s what I’m thinking for the coming week:
Starting Monday (because I believe in weekends), spend at least 3 hours per day during the week on music, divided as described above. Get on with emailing arts organizations during admin time!
Get hold of an Elijah score (I’ve ordered one, but it’s not here yet. Thankfully I can borrow one from my church choir’s library until it arrives) tomorrow. Plan out the learning for this, and get to work! I’ll be posting my learning plan for accountability.
Pull my binder for my faculty concert, add in the new piece. Plan out the learning/practicing (I’ll post this too) and get cracking!
Oh, and I need to record new audition videos this week! This was supposed to happen last week, but we had to postpone because I hurt my back (womp, womp).