I must admit that lately I have been rather uninspired. I suppose a lot of that came from the emotional rollercoaster I was on with my grandpa passing, but as I think back I realize it started before that. It’s kinda funny how we sometimes go through cycles like that. Or maybe it’s just me. I will be really excited about something and then not care at all, and all the shades in between. Maybe I’m just fickle.
A good friend of mine (I’ll call her Clara, for Clarinetist) just started taking lessons again. (As a side note, when my mother heard about it she asked, “Why does she need to take lessons anymore? She’s already got a master’s degree in clarinet.” Oh, my uninitiated mother, you just don’t understand.) And she’s been really enjoying it. Talking with her this week I got back a little of my enthusiasm. Well, actually at first she made me feel guilty. Here I am trying to get ready for grad school, which I’ll start in about a month and a half, and I hadn’t practiced in at least 3 weeks and I’d totally slacked on studying for my entrance exams.
Clara, my clarinet playing buddy, posted on LiveJournal about how much she’d practiced one day, so I, feeling like a sluggard and a horrible, ungrateful musician, trudged off to church, where I can practice without interruptions, prying ears, or complaining neighbors. I can’t say that I’ve done a lot of practicing this week, but I am looking forward to spending some quality time with my arias this weekend.
As far as my studying goes, I have been accused of being an overachiever at times, and I think some of my friends, including as Clara, are convinced that I’m worrying too much about my exams. Unfortunately I feel like I have forgotten EVERYTHING I ever learned in music history or music theory, so if I don’t study like mad I will be so nervous going into the darn things that I’ll do poorly simply because I won’t be able to concentrate because of my nerves. I always have kind of laughed at my grandma for being a “worry wart,” but I am coming to realize that she’s not the only one in the family. 
So I’m going through the Grout/Palisca History of Western Music textbook, which I’m finding is a much better textbook than the one we used in undergrad (Stolba’s Development of Western Music). It also helps that I’ve got the anthology and study guide that go along with it.
I also had great intentions to get through several vocal pedagogy books this summer, including two Richard Miller books. If you have read any Richard Miller you should know that trying to get through two of his books (and understand them) is not a “light” affair. He tends to be incredibly technical. When I first got his Training Soprano Voices about 4 years ago, it took me several tries and quite a bit of my limited brainpower to figure out what he was saying. Now when he talks about appoggio, la lotta vocale, or the “expansion of the lateral abdominal and low dorsal walls of the torso” I understand what he is saying, but back then it was all gibberish to me.
Anyhow… All that to say I have a lot of work to do in the next month and a half. I don’t know if I’ll get it done, but I’ll try.
I think I’ll put in an opera tonight… I watched L’elisir d’Amore yesterday (love it!), so maybe tonight I’ll watch La fille du regiment. I never did finish that one.
