oboeinsight

As I mentioned in my earlier post, this has been a week of ill students. It has also, I’m sorry to say, been a week of tardy students and lessons cancelled at the last minute.

I try to be as flexible as possible. Really I do. I hate charging for lessons cancelled at the last minute, and I attempt to reschedule students. If a student is late I often teach past the time we should have ended. But sometimes I can’t do that, as another student is waiting for his or her lesson.

The plight of a private music teacher is often a struggle. If we come down hard on a student (or parent) we may lose the student. If we don’t, it becomes acceptable to make last minute cancellations. I never charge for illness, so of course if a person isn’t troubled by lying that makes all of this very easy. I don’t think my students or parents are apt to lie like that, though … I have a great bunch of students and parents. For that I’m grateful.

In any case, to make a living off of music lessons, when not charging monthly, is very difficult. And yes, I could, and maybe should, start doing the “monthly charge” thing. But I’m not only a teacher; I’m a performer. And I don’t really like to be “owing” students lessons due to my schedule. (Thus, one of the reasons I attempt to be as flexible as possible.)

So parents … students … if you read this blog (I think only a handful of you do) please understand. This is my job. I don’t get paid sick days. I don’t get paid vacation days. If I don’t work—if you don’t come to a lesson—I lose income.

And … sniffle, sniffle … my poor children are starving.

All right, all right, not really! We don’t starve here. (As you can clearly see when you look at me.) I’m just joking about that.

Mostly it’s about responsibility and courtesy and all that jazz.

Sometimes, I know, I fail in the courtesy department. So I hope folks hold me accountable to that. Really. Of course do it nicely … I can cry too, you know?!

Okay. Ramble over and out. Sorry to be a whiner today.

On the bright side; my students are really surprising me these days! This week I had two students who even “wowed” me with their hard work. (Practice does pay off, you know?) And I honestly do love teaching. Students make me smile, laugh, and sometimes shake my head at the crazy things they say … it’s quite fun. Really.

So …

Sorry I’ve moaned about lessons today
but if you just call me ahead of the day—
you know I want 24 hours at least—
you’ll keep me from turning from teacher to beast!

Of course if you’re ill please don’t come to see me.
Get plenty of rest, and drink cups of hot tea.
I like folks who share, but please don’t share your flu,
and I promise I’ll not share my illness with you!

Don’t you just love bad and silly poetry?

Or not. ;-)

Dan’s music page has a link to an article about a trombonist. I clicked the link, and didn’t see the little blurb I saw at Dan’s site, but it must have appeared at some point. It reads:

The humble trombone, of all things, gets a moment in the spotlight.

Now I’ve met a lot of trombonists. Really. And the little sentence above could imply two things I think are untrue. At least in my experience.

Symphony Silicon Valley played a work by Jennifer Higdon last set (Concerto for Orchestra). I was surprised to learn she was a flutist, as I assumed she played a non-wind instrument because my part went too low for the oboe. (I just thought someone who writes too low or too high for a woodwind must be from other section of the orchestra. Go figure!) But I’m not complaining; I liked the work quite a lot, and it was fun to play. One player guessed that Ms. Higdon may have originally had the part an octave higher, but since the other two oboes play that she might have, at the last minute, moved it down an octave and simply didn’t notice the problem It was suggested I email her and ask what she’d like me to do, but I never got around to it. Maybe next time.

But, moving on, moving on …

There’s an article in Eugene, Oregon’s Register-Guard that includes these paragraphs:

“It was such a struggle to go to school. School is set up for people who already know something about classical music. I didn’t.”

But Higdon turned that ignorance to her advantage, she says, by working terribly hard to learn about serious music.

“I actually went off to college to major in music without even knowing Beethoven’s symphonies,” she said. “That’s kind of an audacious thing to do.”

Interesting, don’t you think?

But you want to know what stuck out to these old eyes? The “serious music” line. Granted, I like to be a music snob. I’ve been called as much. By close family members. But still.

I’m assuming those are the writer’s words, not Higdon’s. Higdon grew up, after all, with rock and roll, folk and various other kinds of music. Surely some music besides “classical” can also be “serious”? If not, what are they? Is all other music trivial? (That’s what I’m told is the antonym to the word serious.) And is all “serious music” (otherwise called “art music” … “classical” … “long haired music” … “dead white guys’” … “straight” … “uptight” … “boring” … tee hee … what else has it been called?) truly serious or might some of it be trivial as well.

Okay. Enough of me. I’m hungry. Sushi calls! (It’s nearly alive, after all. ;-)

PS And why does “classical” music always have to be “serious”? Can’t it also be whimsical, fun, romantic, light-hearted and even horrendous and horrible?

Hmmm. Dinner is still calling. And it’s getting more dead by the minute.

… are just bad days for practice. Nothing is feeling right. Hmmm. Ever had those?

Sigh.

I think I’ll take a break, and see if coming back to it later. Perhaps my reeds and my brain will behave better later in the day.

No, there is no nudity. (Even the thought of a naked orchestra makes me cringe.)

This article contains information about a new series with the RSNO. On the first half of the program a work will be dissected by Mr. Rissmann. On the second half the orchestra will play that work. And only that work.

I’ve not heard of Paul Rissmann before, but it sounds as if he’s quite popular and in high demand with orchestras.

Newbies to the concert hall may truly enjoy the talking and visual aids that go with the first half’s presentation. Folks who like to hear a concert talk will will be happy as well, I suspect. I enjoy concert talks, but I’m not always up for one. So I’d probably have to gear up for it. I’d really like to see and hear what he does, though, because I think every time I’ve been in an orchestra that plays examples and is involved in a concert talk I’ve felt they were poorly presented, boring, and of very little interest or help to the listener. It sounds as if Mr. Rissmann is excellent with the 3 to 18 year old crowd. And since I think I fall into about the 13 year old range as far as the “inner me” maybe I’d really like it! :-)
—–

Yet another believable email from a potential student:

From: terry_mcdonald03@yahoo.com
Subject: MUSIC INSTRUCTOR NEEDED ASAP
Date: October 18, 2006 2:32:33 AM PDT
To: liljustin@gmail.com

Hello,
My name is Terry Mcdonald .I am 24 years old and I am a European. For a living I am a business man, I deal mostly in Precious stones and Jewelry. I supply watches, wedding rings, and jewelry to stores in US Europe, and Asia. Actually that is my family business, we are from UK. Dad lived in USA because he used to love it there Unfortunately my father passed away on the 5th of sept and as the only son in my family I have to go and take care of the family business in USA.

But for my leisure i need a good and very intelligent Music instructor to follow up my music career which i have chosen interest in before i went to the business line.
I am interested in getting a well behaved and tactical Music trainer who will take me to the peak of music and through all i need to know in my music career.

pls let me know how much you charge and duration of our lesson also let me know the instrument you teach…. and your location in your next email….I am just a beginner and i dont have any instrument in mind for now….

Thanks…

Now I have to admit that I don’t get these as often as I get Viagra, Rolex, and weight losing spam, but these ones probably tick me off the most; they want to direct these specifically toward folks in the music profession. They must search for email addresses that include an instrument name.

Crooks.

(At the same time, what these emails contain makes me laugh, they are so ridiculous.)
—–

I updated the blog entry about the Ravel work.

Boy do I feel stupid! :-/

But I’m always (nearly always, anyway) to admit when I’m wrong. I’ve grown weary of trying to pretend I don’t make mistakes. Okay, okay, I never really pretended very well anyway. And I also think it’s fine to be wrong sometimes. Or to hear wrong, which is what I did this time. And I continue to hear wrong every time I listen. But I wonder what would happen if I listened on bigger and better speakers. I wonder.

The playing, though, is amazing. It sounds incredibly mechanical and I can’t hear a single attack. To me the attack given a note adds some personality. So I hear no personality. I suspect that is the intention of the composer, although I can’t write to ask him!

I remember seeing something once on Ravel’s Bolero But the memory is extremely vague. Mostly what I remember is seeing a bunch of huge gears moving—or at least some sort of machinery—while the work played which is, of course, very appropriate to this piece, as it was inspired by a factory Ravel visited. Or so I’ve read.
—–

It was Ms. Oboe, in the green room, with a razor blade.

Or some such thing.

Looks like those Seattle orchestra folk aren’t getting along very well. Musicians behaving badly? Go figure.

But really … a razor blade? I immediately suspect a double reed player! We carry those around in our little reed making kits. (Thinking back, I wonder if I took all my reed supplies to high school with me. I really can’t remember. I’m guessing no high school oboist would attempt to take knives and razor blades to school these days. Even cigarette paper is, I believe, a big no-no.)

I’ve had unfortunate encounters with colleagues, but I’ve never witnessed behavior like the Seattle mess. What a sad thing.
—–

Sitting in my study at the moment, Ravel’s Bolero is playing on the iPod. Hmmm. I’ve played it before, but I don’t have a score here. Does anyone have the instrumentation? I just heard what sounded like a keyboard … maybe some sort of electronic thing (it certainly wasn’t piano!), and now I’m wondering what the heck it was … and what it was supposed to be!

Anyone? Anyone?

I see a site where I could, from what it looks like, download the score, but it says “download at your own risk” and warns that the work is under copyright. So forget it! I’m a stickler about copyright. (Ask my poor students!)

But I know there are readers out there who know a whole lot more than I do and I know you love to share your knowledge. I’m fine with that.

(But yes, I’ll continue to look online when I have some free time.)

UPDATE
Okay. I had a friend listen to it. He thought it sounded something like a Hammond organ. Whew. It wasn’t just me!

BUT … then I played it for my husband. He said it was something else … and Mr. Brice, he agrees with you when you write:
I believe I know the passage you refer to. It’s a really unique, and vaguely “electronic” sort of sound that’s effected purely by clever orchestration. The main melody is played in C major in the octave just above middle C (can’t remember which instrument just now… clarinet?). The same melody is played in the key of G (up a 12th) and E (up an additional 6th) by two piccolos. If the piccolos are really good and can do it softly and in tune, the effect is not one of polytonality, but of just a curiously-colored C-major melody. (Try a little on the piano, you’ll even get a hint of the effect that way).

So there you go, folks. This person who thought she had mighty good ears, doesn’t. :-(

But at least I’m willing to admit when I’m wrong, eh?