Practice=Comfort

I practiced alot yesterday. The best day of my life? I wouldn't go that far, but the best day I've had in a long time. I got my clarinet stuff out of the way before my first student showed up. Then I knocked out my flute stuff in the gap between him and the rest of my students. Then I did my sax stuff after supper. In little bits and pieces I played some piano (ok, really I just played Lonely Boy some more, but my hands hit the keys, so it counts).

Practicing for me is all about staying comfortable on the instrument. I want to be able to execute any idea I hear in my head, and I want to make sure that I'm getting a good sound. Practice is a major part of my job, and when I don't get a chance to practice, I'm not doing my job.

Lonely Boy

Let's see...

Sunday night I had my usual church gig. I wore a new suit and got lots of comments about it. Nothing more to report there. I got the suit on sale.

After that I ran over to Tucker for a quick recording session for Nathan Beaver's next record. I nice tune--something about was sort of Lyle Lovett-ish to me. Anyway, Mike Barry (trumpet) and I cranked it out. In an hour we'd triple tracked it (including me going back and laying alto in with the tenor), so yeah, it was a super easy session. Have I mentioned that there were charts, and how grateful I am when there are charts at a recording session? It's almost like you had a plan before we got there!

Two people from my Sunday church gig played a wedding Saturday morning and used my iRiver to record their efforts. I partially edited the audio--I gave up at 4 AM. A couple of more hours during the day on Monday and it was done. It took that long because I was messing around with reverbs, EQ, compression, and a little pitch correction. Raw audio out of board can be a little naked and harsh.

Yesterday was Monday, which means that in addition to laundry, it was back to teaching time. With the exception of my first two students, I don't think anyone else had put much time in to his or her lesson preparation. Lots and lots of B.S., lots and lots of excuses, and they were all one right after another. I'm not saying that nobody practiced--I'm saying they didn't practice enough.

Jack spent the afternoon at my parents' house, so when I finished teaching I ran over there and picked him up. By the time we got home, it was around 10 PM, and then it took an hour to get Jack to go to bed. I watched half of Mad Men and gave up for the night.

My latest musical obsession is Lonely Boy by Andrew Gold. It's an old Yacht Rock tune that we haven't touched in months. I probably like it because I can play the piano part, but whatever--it's a great tune! I love you, Andrew Gold, for that song.
I pointed out to a high school student of mine that Andrew Gold also wrote Thank You for Being a Friend, and that it was the theme to Golden Girls, and he had no idea what I was talking about. It's probably a good thing, because that show was really stupid.