Still At It

This is the part where I apologize for not having posted in so long.  Well, guess what, dear reader.  I'm not going to do that.  I moved since my last post, and, suffice to say, I've been occupied with other things.  So there.  Hmph.

Anyhoo, I am still playing and practicing and taking lessons.  My musical life is fuller than I would have expected at this point of my comeback, as it were.  My lessons with Aaron Goldman are beneficial, fun, challenging, and just tops.  I love them.  I auditioned for the Capital Wind Symphony today, and I got in!  Rehearsals start in September.  Ms. Trimber, who is principal flutist, thinks I'll probably be principal second, which is okay by me.  I'm thrilled I was accepted.  The group has a YouTube clip if any of my 2 to 3 dear readers wants to check it out.  They're pretty good!

Coming up next for me:

Performance with the Adult Music Student Forum.  I'm going to play the JSB Partita in A Minor.  I don't yet know which movement(s).

Preliminary recorded audition for the Mid-Atlantic Flute Fair's Adult Amateur competition.

And to review the goals stated in the first post of this little blog and my progress:


Buy flute - check.

Practice (near) daily - check.

Journal my (near daily) practice - check, although when I wrote that goal on my blog, I meant journal on the blog.  That's a bit tedious, though, for both me and my dear reader, so my practice journaling is done on my iPhone for me only.

Take lessons - check.

Join a community orchestra - check (I know, it's not an orchestra, but it's a great ensemble).

Enter the Adult Amateur competition - working on it.

And this is what I'm working on:


Breathing exercise (Wye)

Long tones (Moyse)

Various tone, intonation and articulation exercises (Wye)

Super Slow Scales (T and G/Goldman)

Scales (T and G) - EJ 1, 2 and 4, 112 beats per minute, various articulations, mezzo forte)

Etude (Andersen) Opus 15, number 1.  Goal is to learn one per week.  Mr. Goldman wasn't thrilled with the Cavally book.  He thought it was too easy.

Orchestral excerpts (Baxtresser) - Recently Daphnis, Brahm's 4th, Mendellsohn Scherzo, Beethoven Leonore and Debussy Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn for the CWS audition.  I suppose Mr. Goldman will choose some more for me to work on at my lesson tomorrow.

Solo work - Mozart G Major Concerto for the audition today.  No doubt we'll work on the JSB Partita in tomorrow's lesson.  Following that, Faure Fantasie for the competition.

As for work, well, it's busy.  And when things are busy at work, my dear reader knows, things are also stressful.  The good thing is my surgical volume seems to be picking up a bit, so there's that.  The OR is a magical place.  No one can bother you.  Perhaps I should have been a general surgeon.  Nah...