Category: Musings

Music Helps with my Chemo Side-Effects

Playing and singing music with others helps with my chemo side-effects. It has helped more than any other musical thing that I’ve tried.

Music Therapy

The week I was diagnosed with cancer, I looked up music therapy. Was there anyone local where I could get treatment? Would it help with cancer or was it more targeted towards other diseases? What exactly does music therapy entail?

Well, I found a list of what a typical therapist does during a music therapy session. I found similar lists all over the internet. Here it is:

  • Create music. You might compose music, write lyrics, or make up music together
  • Sing music. Use your voice to share a piece of music.
  • Listen to music. Enjoy the sound and lyrics.
  • Move to music. It can be as simple as tapping your toes together or as complicated as a coordinated dance.
  • Discuss lyrics. Read or listen to the lyrics of a song and talk about their meaning.
  • Play an instrument. Use an instrument like a piano, guitar, drums, etc. to share music.

I took one look at that list above and said, “I do all of those things a lot because of what I do.”

I asked my oncologist about music therapy and she said that all they do is a drum circle, which is canceled right now due to covid.

Chemo Side-Effects

One of my side-effects from chemo is my heart races. The first time it happened, I didn’t know what to do. After I thought about it for awhile, I remembered a study that came out a few years ago about heartbeats syncing in choirs.

I set out to see if playing or singing music helps with my chemo side-effects.

Experimentation

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional and I’m not a scientist. These are my personal results, they’re not a study. If someone would like to contact me to further these findings, please do.

I made my kids sing with me and it helped! My heartbeat went from 120 down to 100. It stayed down there for a good couple of days.

I had a few friends come over and sing with me. My heartrate went all over the place, but about half an hour after they left, it settled down for a few days. I never checked my heartrate afterwards, but it didn’t bother me so that was good.

Then I decided to experiment. I made my oldest child play flute and clarinet duets with me. She’s in her fifth year and the duets were a little on the easy side for me. My heartbeat went from 115 down to 90.

I had my youngest play flute duets with me. No change, but she’s only in her second year and the duets might be too easy for me.

I played flute and trombone duets for half an hour with a friend. My heartrate went from 110 down to 70. Jackpot!

Piano was more of a hinderance than a help. Another chemo side effect I have is that I’m shaky. My aim is gone. I can’t hit jumps for the life of me and that’s frustrating.

So, what I discovered was that singing OR playing a wind instrument helps with my chemo side effect by calming down a racing heart. The harder the music was, the more effective it was at bringing down my pulse.

How I’ve been Implementing My Findings

In order to keep my pulse in a good place, I’ve been calling on my music friends to play or sing with me. I try to have at least one person over to the studio or the shop every two or three days.

I’m only playing with my musician friends who have volunteered to do this and cycling through my friends so I don’t become a burden to them. I also don’t set up a session with them when I’m going through a lot of fatigue.

Knowing that these sessions are coming up are something for me to look forward to. They’re fun and exciting. We’re basically sight-reading the whole time, which always makes for a ton of curveballs and extra laughs.

I’m so glad that I remembered that study and have been implementing it to the best of my ability. I hope it helps you, too!

Everyone Has their Own Journey

Everyone has their own journey. This philosophy applies to everything in life, but I’m going to apply it to music. I had to give this same speech to two of my students in a row this week, so it’s time to send it out to the world.

Average Progression

We often compare ourselves to people who have a lot more experience than us or people who just go, “zoom,” through things that have the rest of us on the struggle bus. That’s when it’s nice to know what the average person does.

If you’re under average, that’s fine. You’ll catch up. If you’re over average, don’t rub it in. Average means that there are going to be people above or below that point, because everyone has their own journey. I’ll hash out what average is on each instrument that I teach.

Piano

This is based on the average student who begins in 1st grade. If you started later than that, you’ll probably go faster through all of these stages. If you started earlier than that, you’ll probably go slower through the first few stages.

Average is one lesson book or conservatory level per year.

Early Elementary – 6 months to a year
Elementary – 1 year
Late Elementary – 2 years

Early Intermediate – 2-3 years
Intermediate – 2-3 years
Late Intermediate – 2-3 years (many people stay at this level for the rest of their lives).

Variable and most people stay at one of these levels for the rest of their lives:
Early Advanced
Advanced
Late Advanced

Flute

These are based on the average student who begins in 6th grade. If you started earlier, your progress will be slower. If you started later, your progress will be a little faster, but not much. Already play a different wind instrument? You’ll go much faster through these levels.

This is a little more nebulous than piano because there are a lot of different grading scales, so I broke it down per year.

1st year – notes in the Bb scale; beginner tone; sometimes it takes up to three months to make a sound.

2nd year – note range is up to the F above the staff and down to middle C; tone solidifies; 16th notes introduced.

3rd year – 16th notes become normal; drag triplets are introduced; tone begins to mature.

4th through 8th year – dynamics become easier; tone fully matures; ear begins to develop; full note range is used. Sonata level.

9th year and above – college or greater level playing.

The Importance of a Teacher

All of these levels are based on a student who has a teacher. While everyone has their own journey, a teacher helps you go faster along that journey. This is because a teacher’s job is to push their student forward so they’re learning as quickly as possible. I have heard it said that it takes twice as long to learn a musical instrument on your own than it does with a teacher.

This is because of:

  1. Accountability – you know you’re going to have to play for your next lesson.
  2. Repertoire Choices – a good teacher will usually choose a piece on the far edge of the student’s knowledge, unless it doesn’t help with the student’s learning style.
  3. Form – when we’re learning something new, our bodies do funny things. A teacher will catch those things and bring the student back to good ergonomics.
  4. Tricks of the Trade – you’ll learn some tricks of the trade off the internet, but there’s nothing like a teacher saying, “Do it this way,” and it works so much better.
  5. Practice Techniques – I write a lot about practice techniques, but it can be hard to apply them to your own practice unless you have a teacher saying, “Use this practice technique for next time.”

Conclusion

Everyone has their own journey. Not everyone will learn the same repertoire pieces. Everyone has a different stumbling block when it comes to music. Be easy on yourself, knowing that you’re doing the best you can with what you have.


Phantom of the Opera Update and Recordings

Some casual recordings came out this week from Kim Moore’s Phantom of the Opera. We did it in Bay 5 of my husband’s mechanic shop at DC Automotive, which has almost perfect acoustics. That’s me playing the flute. 🙂

I know that it’s not Thursday, but these videos came out and I couldn’t contain myself! I had to share them with you!

The Story

I’ve already discussed that I’m directing the music for the musical, Phantom of the Opera by Kim Moore here. These are some of the pieces I’ve been working on with the singers for the past few months. The only reason I’m playing flute for one of them was because it’s a duet and only one person could make it.

When I toured my husband’s new mechanic’s shop before we rented it (more on that here), I noticed the acoustics were amazing. I told my husband that I’m not wasting these acoustics and I’m going to record some music here from time to time. He laughed. Little did he know…

A couple of months went by and it just came to me in the middle of the night that we could do some a capella recordings of the singers at the shop. I brought it up to the producer, she checked on some copyright stuff, and she approved it!

I always take my ideas that I get in the middle of the night seriously.

When the singers came, we had a blast. Our Phantom grabbed a ladder and climbed up to the second floor of Bay 5. He serenaded our Christine from the balcony. We joked around a lot, had a bunch of bloopers, and made beautiful music.

That day is a time I will remember for the rest of my life. I love hanging out with music friends and having goosebumps all day from the music that we make.

The Performance

Every once in awhile, poetry just pops into my head and I have to write it down or I obsess. Since you guys like to read my writing, I thought I’d share this piece of poetry.

The Performance

I empty my soul for my audience.
My soul goes out to you through my performance.
It sympathizes with you and heals you.
It brings out past joys and hurts because you need to remember them.
It reminds you how hope and happiness feels.


Everything I have ever thought or felt goes into my performance.
My performance pulls all the bad things out of your being and blows them away.
It cleans your psyche.
It fills the empty places of your being with love, joy, and happiness.
It heals both you and me.


During my performance, our spirits twine.
I draw happiness from you, and you draw happiness from me.
It doesn’t deplete our happiness, it increases it.
It is an exponential formula for creating joy.
It either energizes me or fully depletes me.

I always leave satisfied.

I’m Back!

I’m not one to give myself the option of excuses. I generally feel that if you want to do something, you’ll figure out a way.

That being said, I have been remiss in my bi-weekly articles, and I apologize. Let me tell you about the happenings from the past few weeks that have kept me away from my computer.

I Got Covid

Yes, I got the dreaded Covid-19 over Thanksgiving. It was a light case – similar to a bad cold – but I did get fatigue. I had a hard time getting myself to do anything for a whole month.

I did get shortness of breath. Before calling the doctor (it was a Sunday), I decided to try playing flute, first. Within 15 minutes, my shortness of breath went away. I had a hard time practicing very long due to the fatigue, but I made sure to practice my flute without fail every day because of this. It kept the shortness of breath away.

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional, I’m just telling you about my experiences.

Phantom of the Opera

I talked more about that here. I’m greatly enjoying myself as music director, but it’s more work than I was doing before.

Trumpet!

I will be starting a new series about this, but I am relearning the trumpet. I learned it back in college as part of my certification for music education, and now I’m relearning it for a teaching gig.

Published Composer!!!

I published a piano arrangement, Hallelujah, based on Leonard Cohen’s piece. I’m kind of in shock and awe that this happened.

My Husband Opened His Garage

My husband is an ASE Master Technician. He opened his own mechanic’s garage on January 4th. I’ve been helping him (almost) every morning with phone calls, checking in clients, etc. The name of the shop is DC Automotive.

Conclusion

So, it’s been a busy month and a half, but things are starting to settle into a groove. I feel like I can go back to writing an article every other week. Thank you for your patience, and I’ll see you in my next article. 🙂

Trust Your Training

Life keeps sending me the same message: trust your training. Imposter syndrome is strong in the music community and I’m no exception. I wanted to let you know what happened to me recently to send me that message, once again.

The Proposal

A couple of weeks ago, the producer asked me to conduct for the pit orchestra for Kim Moore’s Phantom of the Opera. I hadn’t touched a conductor’s baton since college. We won’t talk about how many years ago that was. I turned them down because I don’t have much experience conducting.

I had been playing flute with that acting troupe for the past two years. There were times, as first chair, that it was my role to jump in and help with rehearsals. She called back and explained that they were so impressed with my ability to help with rehearsals that they wanted me to conduct. She pointed out that I have the training and I help people practice all the time as a teacher, I just need to trust my training.

She was right. I am good at helping people practice because of my interest in practice techniques. I also rehearse people every day as part of my job as a flute and piano teacher. My husband and I discussed it, and we decided to go for it. After all, I am technically fully qualified for the position. Also, I have a tendency to underestimate my abilities.

Several Weeks of Nervousness

When I got all of the information about the conducting position, they told me that I also had to rehearse the singers. I wasn’t just the pit orchestra conductor, I was the music director. AAAAHHH!!!

If you’ve read my post about singing, you know that I absolutely love to sing, but I’ve only recently overcome my insecurities about it. I have good reason for those insecurities.

What if I messed up? What if someone called me out on a mistake that I didn’t realize I did? What if they could tell that I haven’t worked with a choir in a very long time?

Reminding Myself To Trust my Training

When I was in college, I was required to take three courses on teaching people to sing and how to conduct a choir. Since then, I’ve been to educational workshops and had many in-depth discussions with a few friends who are professional singers. Flutes and singers have a lot in common with tone production and breathing. Even James Galway has mentioned that he’s interviewed famous opera singers to help him with his tone and vibrato.

I’m a Lutheran, and we’re famous for being the best in the world at teaching choirs to sing. In addition to the “street cred” that I get for being a Lutheran in the world of music, the information isn’t limited to music world. I even saw information on that little factoid on the travel channel. It’s a bit of a mystery why we’re so good at teaching people to sing, but it’s because we simplify everything to make it as easy as possible.

I spent those weeks of nervousness reminding myself of my training, reviewing my textbooks and workshop booklets, and bolstering my self-confidence.

The First Rehearsal

After those few weeks of self-doubt and reviewing my information from old classes and workshops, the day finally arrived. I spent all day reviewing the music, running the parts for myself, and practicing doing cues (that was the only part that it seemed I was rusty at). Finally, evening came and time for rehearsal.

This is a semi-professional musical, so some people are pros and some are amateurs. I knew that there would be the gambit of training from, “Hey, you have a nice voice,” all the way to classically trained.

I started with asking if anyone didn’t know how to belly breathe. All the kids raised their hands, so I taught belly breathing.

Then we dove into the music. I never came up for air. I was in my element. We were singing with the recordings. I was pounding parts on the piano and throwing out diction tips. We were having a blast.

I taught back-breathing to some of the more advanced singers to help them hold their notes longer. They were really excited to get that new skill. Everyone was very receptive to my working with them and everything felt completely natural.

I was going to teach J-breathing for one of the pieces because of some accented sections, but there were too many singers in that piece who were just learning belly-breathing for the first time. I mentioned that to the producer at the end of the rehearsal and one of the classically trained singers overheard me and asked me to teach him.

By the time I got to my vehicle, I was walking on air. It was one of those dream rehearsals that everyone involved in music education has ever wanted to have. I felt silly for worrying all those weeks.

How Does This Apply to You?

It’s nice that I felt vindicated, but this blog is about me helping you to be a better musician. I mostly share practice techniques, but sometimes we have to get past our psyches in order to be better musicians.

So, as musicians, we have specialized training. It starts with your private lessons, then goes to festivals, classes, camps, and workshops. Your training even includes the people you talk to in the bathroom at those events listed above. Sometimes you even learn more from those bathroom conversations than the event itself. Your training also includes reading articles, listening to or reading interviews, and being on web forums.

My whole message in this is to trust your training. Rely on your education. You know this stuff. You can do it. You might be a little rusty and that’s okay. You might have learned it a long time ago and have to review it, and that’s okay. You still know it and it will come back to you at the drop of a hat.

Adult Beginners on Musical Instruments are Fabulous

Adult beginners take up about 20% of my studio. I absolutely love to teach them how to play a musical instrument for many reasons. Here’s why.

Adult Beginners Are Dedicated

Adult beginners are generally really good at practicing regularly. They have a goal – to play well – and they know there’s only one way to achieve it. Practice.

Adult Beginners Learn Quickly

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” ~ Chinese Proverb.

Many adults want to catch up to where they would be if they started learning as a child. Luckily, their brains are fully developed so in the first year they gain about three years’ worth of skill. Children’s brains and muscles are still developing, so they take longer to learn things

Don’t believe me? Check out an adult beginner’s piano book. The last pieces are about the same level as the end of the third book in the children’s series.

I Don’t Have to Dumb Myself Down

When I teach a practice technique to a grade schooler, if they ask why it works, I have to say, “magic,” because I will completely lose them if I explained why.

When I teach a practice technique to an adult, I can go into the psychology of why it works and how we’re going around a wall our subconscious minds built rather than through. This is one of my favorite things.

Emotional Performances

This goes back to having a fully developed brain. It also goes to having more life experiences. If I assign something like the Moonlight Sonata, which should be played with tons of emotion, I can get it instantly from an adult. I usually have to teach someone younger than 8th grade how to fake it.

Adult Beginners Know What They Want

Most adult beginners usually have a clear vision of what they want to get out of their music lessons. While my job is to push them forward, they will show me the direction they want to be pushed.

Most want to use the piano to relax and maybe release some emotions. These are things that are necessary to life as a musician, anyway.

Some absolutely love the classical music and they want to be classically trained. The classical music is what drives them. Some are driven by pop, musicals, and Disney.

Some adults have a different purpose to learning their instrument. They want to learn how to compose or play in a band or church. I keep these things in mind when helping them decide on repertoire.

Ergonomics

Maybe I’m crazy, but I absolutely love helping people with the ergonomics of their instrument. I want them to enjoy the life-building activity of playing their instrument. I don’t want them to have to deal with tennis elbow, carpal tunnel, or some other form of tendonitis.

Because our bodies are not what they used to be, we have to be more careful about injury. Depending on the person, I sometimes start out with various upper-body stretches that target the common issues that flutists or pianists have. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I Get to Watch their Brain Grow

Studies have shown how great learning an instrument is for your brain. Here’s an article with a few different studies about that.

With kids, I don’t notice the difference because their brain is growing, anyway. I can’t always tell that their brain growing faster than it was before because I didn’t necessarily know them before.

With adults, I can really see a difference after the first year of playing an instrument. I’m not sure how to measure it, but they learn faster, remember things better, and are all-around sharper. It’s fun to see.

Conclusion

As you can see, I love working with adult beginners. I think it’s fabulous to see people learn new skills at every stage of life. If you’re not feeling great about starting later, I hope this either helps you strengthen your resolve or decide to start.

Practice Session Musings

Someone said something the other day that really resonated with me. He said, “Even if you feel like you’re having an off day, every time you pick up your instrument, you’re getting better than you were yesterday.”

It resonated because it’s something that I’ve been wanting to say about practice sessoins, but I couldn’t get the words to gel in my mind. When he said it, my jaw dropped and I thought, “Someone put it into words!”

Suzuki said, “Only practice on the days you eat.”

Mary Kay Ash said, “If you take a day off, you’ll have an off day.”

I’ve already talked about practice vs play, but sometimes a practice session can be just playing things you already know because it’s fun or because it feels good. You’re still moving forward, even if you’re playing things that you already know.

I’m not saying that you should substitute playing for having a regular practice session every day, but it might be nice to play once a week instead of practicing. You’re still at your instrument. You may not be moving forward as fast as you like, but you’re keeping it fun.

Is The Audience Being Judgmental?

Back when I was in school, part of what gave me stage fright was that I thought everyone in the audience was being judgmental towards me. I thought that they were going to come up to me and point out everything that I did wrong, or, worse, talk about it behind my back.

I thought they were sitting there, waiting to find something wrong with what I did. Ready to pounce.

My Epiphany

When I was about halfway through college, someone told me that the audience wants me to do well. They aren’t waiting for me to mess up, they’re happy (maybe even excited) to hear me.

It’s been a long road to change my thought process about an audience being judgmental towards me. It’s hard. Every once in awhile, I still catch myself going back into that kind of thinking.

Reminder

Fast forward to now (an undisclosed amount of time, lol). I subscribe to some blogs, a few of which are about psychology because I teach.

A few weeks ago, I saw this quote in an email: “If you feel that people are judging you, it’s really you who are judging yourself.” That quote was to talk about this article from one of the blogs that I follow.

Does that mean I’m judgmental towards myself? Probably, but how am I going to get any better if I don’t assess my playing ability?

It’s good to be able to assess your ability, but this article was a good reminder to not be so hard on myself. Maybe I need to set aside practice times when I only focus on what I did right so I learn how to not be constantly assessing myself.

This article reminded me of that conversation I had back in college. Everyone needs reminders like that. I hope it helps you.

Being Lazy Can Be Productive

Being lazy can be productive. I know that I’m opening up a can of worms with this statement, but bear with me. I consider myself lazy. Not a sluggard, but lazy.

Definition of Lazy vs. Sluggard

I am unapologetically a Christian. I know what Proverbs says about being a sluggard. I can hear my dad quoting, “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of your hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a thief…” Proverbs 24:33

As with everything, laziness has a spectrum. A sluggard is an extremely lazy person. Someone who is so lazy that they won’t even try. There are no standards of living. As long as there’s food and shelter, everything’s fine. It’s the very bottom end of the spectrum of lazy. I’m not saying this is good at all.

Laziness, in general, is just having a goal of not doing anything as much as possible. The goal is the couch or the recliner.

How Can Laziness be Productive?

The goal is the couch or the recliner, so if something needs to be done, it will be done as efficiently as possible – the fastest, the easiest, and the same quality of work as if I did it the traditional way.

I will spend an extra 5 minutes planning something out so that I can save one minute of doing the task. That seems counter-productive, but what if I have to do that task again? I already spent the 5 minutes figuring out the fastest and easiest way to do it, so that will pay off in the long-run.

Think about all the inventions people have made over the years to make life easier. That even applies to our instruments. Do I *really* need a C# trill key? Hopefully my next flute has one.

How Does This Relate to Music?

My normal practice routine is centered around my version of laziness. I make sure that I do scales, technical exercises, and etudes because they help me learn the repertoire faster. I go into that information in more detail in the linked articles. I call it dividing and conquering.

Another thing I do to increase efficiency is I analyze my music before I play it. I note all the scales (even the modes), the patterns, the form etc., in my head. I know that it helps some people to write it down in the music, but that gets to be too much information on the page for me.

Last but not least, I use a ton of different practice techniques to help me learn my music faster. Here are a bunch of them. I’m always adding more to my list. Sometimes I make them up and sometimes I learn them from other musicians. They’re a way for me to go around, over, or under a wall, rather than try to go through.

Everyone Needs a Lazy Friend

People who aren’t lazy just do things the way they’ve always done them or were taught to do them. Lazy people spend the extra time to figure out the fastest and easiest way to do everything, all the way down to washing their hands. I’ll be your lazy music friend. My goal with this blog is to help you practice faster and easier than you did before.