Wow, the semester is already over? This one went by relatively quickly! I think it's safe to say that as far as my playing is concerned, this is easily the the best semester I've had at UNCG so far. I'm just going to make a list of whatever I can remember right now, since a lot happened.
1. I began a practice journal, where I kept all the times I practiced and thought I had about my playing or just other random things. This worked out really well for me. Not only does it allow me to see how much time I'm spending on practice, and on what, but it makes me think and reflect on what I'm doing. It also allows me to takes breaks where I'm still thinking about what I'm doing instead of just wandering around doing nothing for a few minutes. It might not seem like much, but I really believe that this was the catalyst that enabled me to really start progressing so much this semester.
2. I got a new clarinet a few weeks ago! This is really exciting for me. As much as I liked my Buffet E11, it really was making my progress a lot harder, and placed a bit of a glass ceiling on what I could do (I haven't yet reached that ceiling, but I've certainly felt the slower progress). Of course, this also means that now I have to work a lot to pay off the instrument, but I say worth it.
3. I think I've finally pretty close to having my embouchure and tongue position really settled in. After a full semester of really fine adjustments, I'm getting to the point now where I personally think my sound is really nice. There's still a long road ahead of me in terms of what more I still need to do, but the amount of progress this semester has really been impressive to me.
4. After filling out my jury sheet, I realized that I worked on a lot of music this semester. Compared to last semester, for example, I played 11 etudes instead of 5. The level of difficulty in the repertoire was also a good bit higher. It's really a good feeling to be able to work on a lot more now in a shorter amount of time.
5. I'm practicing for much more time each day now. This is partially thanks to the journal and partially thanks to me having more fun playing. Thanks to these longer practices, I'm spending much more time working on technique, and the results are really starting to show up. For the first time I'm actually ahead on my technical exam work, by nearly a whole semester.
6. Most important of all, this semester has been a resurgence of my love for playing the clarinet. It's not that I didn't enjoy it before, but now all my hard work is starting to pay off, and it's a great feeling. The level of music I can perform has increased to the point where I can start learning really fun pieces and be expressive with them (the kind that I used to hear in recitals and wish I could play one day). My joy for playing has grown so much, in fact, that I've decided to switch to a dual education/performace major! Even though it'll probably take me an extra full year to accomplish, it's a decision I'm really confident in and I'm really looking forward to the extra challenge.
All these things only happened because I started to really "go for it." If I had kept doing only what was adequate instead of working harder I couldn't have gotten as far as I have. The plan right now is to continue to work hard this summer and to audition for Wind Ensemble next semester. If I don't make it, it won't be the end of the world, of course, and I do enjoy Symphonic Band and I love working with Dr. Geraldi. If I do make it, however, it'll be a sort of confirmation to all that I said above, and a motivation for me to continue to work even harder.
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