Harnoncourt, Leonhardt, and Acrylics

Today has been quite the fabulous day.

Got to work on my painting almost immediately after waking up. Scrounged around in the garage and found the easel and set everything up outside next to the pool. It was unbelievably hot outside, loved every second of it. Hooked up Naxos on my computer into the patio speakers and blasted recordings of Bach and Rameau featuring Harnoncourt and Leonhardt. I worked until the heat was unbearable, then I jumped in the pool. Perfect temperature. Not too cold that I had to ease my way in, but not uncomfortably tepid either. Got out worked some more, went back in the pool, etc. My mom came home after a while, but predictably, as soon as she put her bathing suit on, the clouds came out and the daily afternoon thunderstorm started threatening.

Moved back inside, and I've spent most of the rest of the day listening to the recordings of reed class and oboe class from BPI and taking notes on them. I've only made it through the first two days, but listening back has been so beneficial. First of all, to objectively see the progress that was made in such a short amount of time is really astounding. When I was actually working on learning the instrument that first week, it felt like I wasn't making any progress, like nothing good was happening. But looking back, I can hear all of the good things that were happening, and happening very quickly. I can hear myself fixing tons of tiny little details I probably didn't even consciously think about when I was playing the second time around. Secondly, I was noticing listening back how immediately and comprehensively I notice what was going on, which notes were sharp or flat, what musical critiques Marc was about to give in the recording. So...if I can hear that quickly and correctly listening to a recording, why I am not hearing that quickly and correctly when I am practicing? I mean, I do hear a lot. But not as much as just now when I was listening to the recording. The answer, I think, is that when I am practicing, I think way too much. I also care way too much. I think both of those things, overthinking and overcaring, get in the way of allowing my self to trust my ear and do its thing as it has been trained (overtrained in fact) to do. Etcetera etcetera.

Practiced Baroque oboe for a little while in between listening to the recordings. Was a good thing to do, with a lot of the basic info fresh in my mind. I'm still hung up on scales and long tones, but I really don't want to play music with less than fabulous support/technique/articulation.

Crazy thunderstorm this afternoon. I think lightning actually hit our roof at one point, I definitely heard something creak or crack.

I edited a clip of Kill Bill last night to make a reed making spoof, but then Facebook wouldn't let me upload it because of copyright infringement. Sad. Oh well, I'm probably the only one who would find it amusing anyway...