I participated in NaNoWriMo. November is novel writing month. This is the second year that I’ve participated. My goal was to write 50,000 words in one month, that’s about 200 pages. I finished on November 30th with 50,065 words. I found it much easier to meet my daily writing goals this year.
Author Archives: Sarah Wagstaff
Beginning Band 2
The flutists were doing great, so the band teacher had me move to clarinets, which I’ve played for a while. New clarinet students have it much easier than flutists. Getting the first sounds on a clarinet takes less trial and error than on flute.
The last four times I’ve gone I’ve worked with trumpets, which is a whole new experience. Since I’ve been going I’ve learned the fingerings for middle c, d, e, f, and g. I can’t play the notes, I don’t have a trumpet, but I play along with the clarinet. (The clarinet plays the same notes as trumpet and doesn’t have to transpose.)
It’s fascinating to watch the learning process on a completely different instrument. I’ve taught flute for years, but both trumpet and clarinet have different challenges for the beginner.
On flute the hardest part, for a beginner is figuring out how to place the flute on your lip and blow to get a good sound.
On clarinet out of a class of about ten only one had a hard time producing a sound and it was only because they were blowing too hard and tensing their lips so the reed couldn’t vibrate enough.
On trumpet the biggest challenge is finding the right note, because you can play many notes that have the same fingering, but you have to figure out how to shape your lips and air to get the fifths and octaves.
Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes it perfect. – Dr. Suzuki
Writers of the West
I’ve joined a writing critique group, The Writers of the West. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a writing group. I’ve enjoyed having fresh eyes look at my Novikov story.
Beginning Band
I’m working with a group of ten flute students. They’re fifth graders at a local elementary school. I’ve missed working with a group of music student over the summer. They are so excited about playing their new instruments, and they want to know everything. The trick is balancing how much to teach them and how fast. I want them to master the notes they already know before adding more.
The band book they are in starts with middle range D, C, and Bb. The D to C note changing is the hardest set of notes to switch between on the flute, every finger except the left hand pinky switches up for down, or down for up. Today I taught them B, A, G to go with the first three notes. Most of the group were able to play Hot Cross Buns with the new notes (BAG) with about ten minutes of practice. It took them all of last week to get Hot Cross Buns with the notes D, C, and Bb. They had to go home and practice.
I wish that beginning band books started with BAG for the flutes first notes, instead of starting with D. The fingering is less complicated.
Find joy in the little steps of progress you make each day, then returning to practice the next day becomes easier.
Elementary Math
I love math. Unlike spelling which makes no sense to me, there’s always been a pattern to math. I love tutoring math. I like to watch struggling students turn to smiles as they understand a new concept and master it.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned in math is: if you don’t understand something, ask a question. Ask someone sitting next to you, your teacher, a friend, your parents or a neighbor. I dropped my math minor in college because I was afraid to ask questions in class. I made it through two years of calculus only to be stumped in Number Theory.
UTOPSS
Utah Teacher of Psychology and Social Sciences is a professional organization of high school teachers in Utah. It’s grown a lot in the last decade since it was organized. They have a yearly meeting at the University of Utah. There’s also a listserv for Psych teachers to share information about new topics, hard to teach vocabulary, current psych news article links or whatever they want to talk about.
Set mini goals for each part of practice. Goals like: “I want to play this note perfect” or “I’m going to nail the dynamics”.
Head Start Music Demo
Today I was invited to perform a music demonstration for a Head Start class. (3-4 year-olds). I love watching the children learn. They sang the ABC’s as I played violin. They listened to the strange noises I made on the body of my flute. “It sounds like an elephant!” They felt the vibrations on the bell of my clarinet as I played the lowest note, an E below middle C.
They remembered the name of the flute and violin, but they forgot the clarinet’s name, maybe because it was the third instrument and their buffer was full.
While there are challenges, preschool age is a great time to start children on an instrument, because they are so excited about music and ready to learn.