What I Learned in May

  • Just this last weekend I tried sliced grilled beets at a friend’s house.  Trying a new food is a rare thing for me.  I have a lot of food aversions, and I am often very anxious about trying something new.  When I do try something new, I almost always don’t like it, but guess what?  I learned that I actually like grilled beets!
  • I learned that according to my double-reed inclined firstborn child, I am the person in the house most equipped to warm up an oboe and an English horn.  This means that I get the privilege of sitting on the couch with half an instrument stuck under each armpit for about a quarter of an hour.  Let’s face it . . . oboe players are a bit neurotic.  I say that as a clarinetist.  And oboe players never seem to appreciate clarinetists.
  • Speaking of competing instruments made of grenadilla wood, I ordered some new music for my clarinet this month.  It came and I have been practicing more, relearning some of the tricky fingerings for some super high notes that I was never successful with until a few years ago when I switched mouthpieces.  I wish I had learned what a difference mouthpieces can make way back when I was playing the clarinet every day in college and struggling with those notes.
  • An article on NPR about the Hindemith (that great hydrogen gas flying machine that exploded in the late 1930’s) inspired me to learn the history of that great flying behemoth.  I learned all about the luxury passenger accommodations, transatlantic flights from Europe to the United States, and lots of little quirky facts, and I read some interesting accounts of the big explosion.
  • On my cello I have been working on getting better at some new bowings, and I’m making a tiny little bit of progress with vibrato and some new positions.  I learned two movements of a Vivaldi Sonata and several etudes.
  • I learned 5 pages of a Beethoven Sonata on the piano.  It’s slow going, but fun.
  • After living for a few months without a dishwasher, I learned how appreciative I am that we now have one that works.  Hooray!  It really does make things easier around here.

One Comment

  • Mel

    It’s very possible that you learned more in May than I did in all of 2016. I miss you. I want to come to see you.

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