Klarinet Archive - Posting 000458.txt from 1996/02

From: Lindsey Glen <lindsey.glen%queens.oxford.ac.uk@-----.BITNET>
Subj: Re: No time for practice
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 12:46:28 -0500

All the dame - I've always, especially at uni tried to make a good
balance. It helps that I don't do any sport or anything else but the main
help is rthaT my life is completely timetabled. I decide what my
priorities are and fill in accordingly. on two sheets of paper I write
dowbn days of the week - stuff I have to go to (tutorials, sometimes a
friend's birthday or concert too), then fill in my x hours practise, work
out how much work I've got to do and fill it in. this includes meals,
reading the Sunday paper, tea-breaks, checking e-mail, the lot. otherwise
I'd never survive the busy times.

lindsey

> > > >Bethany,
>
> Bethany, as an aging beginner who generally obsesses about any new
> activity, getting the practice in isn't the problem (getting it up over two
> hours a day with the fledgling embouchure is). However, having fathered
> two sons-- one about to graduate from UT (Texas), and the other a 15 year
> old pianist/cellist (who practices a total of roughly an hour and a half on
> the two instruments daily) let me say that whatever that "well rounded
> life" is that your seeking as a teenager, the images and memories are very
> likely to evaporate like so much fog as you grow older. However, if you
> learn to play that instrument well, probably any instrument, it won't
> desert you. It'll give a greater appreciating of what you hear, and it'll
> keep you from stagnating in front of the TV or becoming a lawn obsessive as
> an adult. For me, unlike museums or even reading great books, to play the
> great music gives one a moment of participation with the great contributors
> of what is the very best of being human. But it just doesn't work without
> a certain degree of competence, and it just might be that that great
> pay-off requires more of an investment than the typical "well rounded" life
> of today's teenager. (If nothing else thank you lucky stars you don't live
> in my house-- practice is mandatory--PERIOD (and I almost always listen)).
>
> Bruce Hudson, xdpw41a@-----.com
>
> Raleigh, NC
>