Just this last weekend I tried sliced grilled beets at a friend’s house. Trying a new food is a rare thing for me. I have a lot of food aversions, and I am often very anxious about trying something new. When I do try something new, I almost always don’t like it, but guess what? I learned that I actually like grilled beets!
I learned that according to my double-reed inclined firstborn child, I am the person in the house most equipped to warm up an oboe and an English horn. This means that I get the privilege of sitting on the couch with half an instrument stuck under each armpit for about a quarter of an hour. Let’s face it . . . oboe players are a bit neurotic. I say that as a clarinetist. And oboe players never seem to appreciate clarinetists.
Speaking of competing instruments made of grenadilla wood, I ordered some new music for my clarinet this month. It came and I have been practicing more, relearning some of the tricky fingerings for some super high notes that I was never successful with until a few years ago when I switched mouthpieces. I wish I had learned what a difference mouthpieces can make way back when I was playing the clarinet every day in college and struggling with those notes.
An article on NPR about the Hindemith (that great hydrogen gas flying machine that exploded in the late 1930’s) inspired me to learn the history of that great flying behemoth. I learned all about the luxury passenger accommodations, transatlantic flights from Europe to the United States, and lots of little quirky facts, and I read some interesting accounts of the big explosion.
On my cello I have been working on getting better at some new bowings, and I’m making a tiny little bit of progress with vibrato and some new positions. I learned two movements of a Vivaldi Sonata and several etudes.
I learned 5 pages of a Beethoven Sonata on the piano. It’s slow going, but fun.
After living for a few months without a dishwasher, I learned how appreciative I am that we now have one that works. Hooray! It really does make things easier around here.
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One Comment
Mel
It’s very possible that you learned more in May than I did in all of 2016. I miss you. I want to come to see you.