(no subject)
Ever realize how hard it is to live in the moment? We spend so much time looking forward to the future and being nostalgic about the past that we forget completly about what's happening right now. Well, I'm trying, and I'm realizing that this is absolutely going to be one of those times I look back on and think, "Yeah. Those were great times." Cause let me tell you, these are some awesome times.
I've never felt more accomplished. As an oboe player, as a teacher, as a student... it seems like everything I've worked for all my life is paying off here and now. Something to put in the mental teacher bank for later: praise is a powerful thing. It is SO important to give positive feedback to your students. Teaching is hard, but our supervisors are constantly telling us how well we're all doing, and it seems sincere. People are telling me that I'm a good oboe player, and I really feel like one. It's enormously different playing a concert where you're terrified to mess up than playing a concert where you're excited to show people some beautiful music. We played an orchestra concert on Sunday that was the second, and I've never had more fun in a performance. Well, maybe I was still pretty nervous for some of the solo stuff, but definitelly in the tutti sections I was having a ball. :)
The same goes for the Wind Ensemble concert last night... our guest conductor was just so FUN to play for; on my big english horn solo I felt completely free to just sing it out, and I've never gotten so many compliments on my playing. The guest conductor, in fact, shook my hand after our performance and said, "If I was sixty years younger I'd get down on one knee and propose to you right now!" And yeah, sort of awkward, but hilarious and complimentary too.
I don't know what the point of this was. Maybe next week when I want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon over all the work I have to get done before finals, I can read this again and remember that Steve Peterson can't wait to have me in Wind Ensemble full time, and that Jeff Meyer is proud of me. :)
I've never felt more accomplished. As an oboe player, as a teacher, as a student... it seems like everything I've worked for all my life is paying off here and now. Something to put in the mental teacher bank for later: praise is a powerful thing. It is SO important to give positive feedback to your students. Teaching is hard, but our supervisors are constantly telling us how well we're all doing, and it seems sincere. People are telling me that I'm a good oboe player, and I really feel like one. It's enormously different playing a concert where you're terrified to mess up than playing a concert where you're excited to show people some beautiful music. We played an orchestra concert on Sunday that was the second, and I've never had more fun in a performance. Well, maybe I was still pretty nervous for some of the solo stuff, but definitelly in the tutti sections I was having a ball. :)
The same goes for the Wind Ensemble concert last night... our guest conductor was just so FUN to play for; on my big english horn solo I felt completely free to just sing it out, and I've never gotten so many compliments on my playing. The guest conductor, in fact, shook my hand after our performance and said, "If I was sixty years younger I'd get down on one knee and propose to you right now!" And yeah, sort of awkward, but hilarious and complimentary too.
I don't know what the point of this was. Maybe next week when I want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon over all the work I have to get done before finals, I can read this again and remember that Steve Peterson can't wait to have me in Wind Ensemble full time, and that Jeff Meyer is proud of me. :)