Showing posts with label General Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General Music. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
30 Days of Gratitude: Day 28
As I posted today on Facebook, I need to refocus my trust in God to provide what we truly need, so I think it is time to start up some thankful posting.
Today, I am thankful for being a bit of an extrovert, because I will be on stage with the third graders at their concert on 12/12/12. Their teacher wants to accompany them on piano, so I will be playing my green Yamaha recorder with the kids through their Recorder Karate program.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
30 Days of Gratitude: Day 10
As I posted today on Facebook, I need to refocus my trust in God to provide what we truly need, so I think it is time to start up some thankful posting.
Today, I am thankful for God's presence in my life and His pushes to be in the right places at the right times.
My journey toward appreciating what I already have is blessing me in a multitude of ways. I mentioned in a previous post that I have been struggling with the direction in which I would like to take my life. I have been playing my clarinet (followed by my flute and borrowed saxophones) since I was sixteen, and I have been a paid private instructor since I was nineteen. That is a lot of time dedicated to my passions, and I do not intend to give up on them anytime soon. The Lord blessed me with these talents, and I do not intend to minimize them.
I serve on the Howard County Fine Arts Advisory Council, as well as serve as the technology liaison, and this affiliation has lead to many wonderful opportunities for me on a business and personal level. I have been added to the Howard County Parents for School Music committee as a representative for my daughters' school, the county listing of private instructors, participated on the music panel for our annual Fine Arts College Information Night, and I have been able to network with an abundance of incredibly kind and talented members and supporters of the arts community in Howard County.
One of these incredibly talents supporter of the arts community serves on the HCFAAC and works for the county parks and recreation program. When she put together a Teen Opportunities Fair, I was so honored that she asked me to represent Music in Howard County. Having served on the music panel for our College Information Night in 2011 and 2012 helped me on my way to gathering the necessary information for parents and students, but I still had to dig through the information on the county website for even more opportunities that I knew existed. My extensive experience with teaching advanced high school students in Minnesota for eleven years allowed me to locate the links and information for the Maryland equivalent events, thankfully.
Today was the Teen Opportunities Fair, and I cannot even speak now after standing and conversing with parents and students for over three hours. I decided to educate parents not only on the opportunities for advancement through and outside of school but also on the process of choosing the appropriate private music instructor. I brought my teaching curriculum, copies of my résumé, and business cards with me to use as an indicator for a quality private instructor. What I did not expect to happen was the volume of my business cards that were taken and an impromptu deeper conversation on my teaching ideals and processes with a band director from one of the best music programs in the state. God put me in the right place at the right time, discussing what I love to do with all my heart.
**11/27: As an update, this trend continued on Monday, November 12th, when the manager of a local music store asked for my card to discuss having me teach there, too. I have messaged the high school teacher, and I have yet to hear from the store manager, but I am optimistic that these opportunities will come to fruition in due time. It's all in the Lord's hands and His timing. If you feel so inclined, I would love prayers of support and encouragement for these potential opportunities to get my clarinet studio back to what it was in Minnesota. Thank you from every part of my heart.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
30 Days of Gratitude: Day 7
As I posted today on Facebook, I need to refocus my trust in God to provide what we truly need, so I think it is time to start up some thankful posting.
Today, I am thankful for new opportunities and the support of colleagues.
I have been struggling a lot with the direction of my future once the end of August arrives. What is so special about the end of August? My baby will enter kindergarten, and I will no longer be a stay-at-home-mom. At that point, I have no reason to stay at home any longer. Yes, I know I could volunteer at school, clean my house even more, etc., but that is just not enough for me. In fact, the majority of my closest friends were blown away by my decision to stay at home with my children in the very beginning, eleven years ago. It was, and still is, the very best choice for my four daughters, and I do not regret making such a choice. But it was still a surprising choice given my level of ambition and talent.
These questions and more have been flooding my head for months now. Once the news about all these orchestras being frozen out by their management started multiplying, panic set in. As a professional clarinetist, what prospects are left for my future? Am I going to have to seek employment in Europe, where audiences still flock to orchestra concerts? WIll I be able to find a job as a clarinet professor? Is my profession on the wane? With the rise in insipid, sophomoric popular music, is it still possible for the general public to enjoy music with real content in today's world? I wish I knew the answers.
In an effort to feel more included at the girls' new school and cultivate more connections to the music community in our school district, I began volunteering every Wednesday morning in the music room. What a blessing that has been! I cannot begin to say enough good things about the general music teacher and her Recorder Karate program. These third graders are playing recorder, including traditional American hymns and folk music, and LOVING it. I mean, LOVING it. These fine young musicians work so hard every week to impress both me and their teacher with their progress.
This leads me to my reason for gratitude for today. Alison, the general music teacher, asked me if I would consider teaching for our school district. She said that I would make a fantastic addition to the program, and she knows that I would have the full support of several teachers. That really made me think about my future and an option I had eliminated when I was eighteen. As a freshman in undergraduate studies, I ruled out a degree in music education simply because of the marching band requirement. The marching band practices conflicted with orchestra, and I was the only freshman clarinet player in orchestra. I could not skip out on the type of playing I wanted to do for the rest of my life just to march around and play a shoddy plastic clarinet that would not be heard anyway. I am a classical, orchestral clarinet player, and field marching just is not my "thing." It never has been; it never will be. So, I opted for the bachelors program in music performance instead.
That said, I think I may truly enjoy teaching general music or beginning band. Ideally, I would love to work only with the beginner woodwind classes, but I realize this is a pipe dream. So, I find myself now re-visting a career path for which I thought I did not have the patience. I have not made up my mind as to whether or not I want to pursue this path, but to know that I have the votes of confidence from several members of the music teaching community in my school district really helps. I still do not know what my future holds, but I do know it will involve music at all times. That is just who I am. My prayers have turned more toward trusting God to know what is best for me, and I know that He alone is the one in control of where my future leads.
Today, I am thankful for new opportunities and the support of colleagues.
I have been struggling a lot with the direction of my future once the end of August arrives. What is so special about the end of August? My baby will enter kindergarten, and I will no longer be a stay-at-home-mom. At that point, I have no reason to stay at home any longer. Yes, I know I could volunteer at school, clean my house even more, etc., but that is just not enough for me. In fact, the majority of my closest friends were blown away by my decision to stay at home with my children in the very beginning, eleven years ago. It was, and still is, the very best choice for my four daughters, and I do not regret making such a choice. But it was still a surprising choice given my level of ambition and talent.
Fast forward to, say, three months ago. As my third daughter climbed up the steps of the bus for her first day of kindergarten, I suddenly realized that my days at home were numbered. What did this mean? Should I go back to school? Should I dust off that worthless piece of paper that is my civil engineering degree and go back to it (enter vomiting motions here)? Should I just continue to stay at home and practice my face off every day in order to get a playing job in a symphony?
These questions and more have been flooding my head for months now. Once the news about all these orchestras being frozen out by their management started multiplying, panic set in. As a professional clarinetist, what prospects are left for my future? Am I going to have to seek employment in Europe, where audiences still flock to orchestra concerts? WIll I be able to find a job as a clarinet professor? Is my profession on the wane? With the rise in insipid, sophomoric popular music, is it still possible for the general public to enjoy music with real content in today's world? I wish I knew the answers.
In an effort to feel more included at the girls' new school and cultivate more connections to the music community in our school district, I began volunteering every Wednesday morning in the music room. What a blessing that has been! I cannot begin to say enough good things about the general music teacher and her Recorder Karate program. These third graders are playing recorder, including traditional American hymns and folk music, and LOVING it. I mean, LOVING it. These fine young musicians work so hard every week to impress both me and their teacher with their progress.
This leads me to my reason for gratitude for today. Alison, the general music teacher, asked me if I would consider teaching for our school district. She said that I would make a fantastic addition to the program, and she knows that I would have the full support of several teachers. That really made me think about my future and an option I had eliminated when I was eighteen. As a freshman in undergraduate studies, I ruled out a degree in music education simply because of the marching band requirement. The marching band practices conflicted with orchestra, and I was the only freshman clarinet player in orchestra. I could not skip out on the type of playing I wanted to do for the rest of my life just to march around and play a shoddy plastic clarinet that would not be heard anyway. I am a classical, orchestral clarinet player, and field marching just is not my "thing." It never has been; it never will be. So, I opted for the bachelors program in music performance instead.
That said, I think I may truly enjoy teaching general music or beginning band. Ideally, I would love to work only with the beginner woodwind classes, but I realize this is a pipe dream. So, I find myself now re-visting a career path for which I thought I did not have the patience. I have not made up my mind as to whether or not I want to pursue this path, but to know that I have the votes of confidence from several members of the music teaching community in my school district really helps. I still do not know what my future holds, but I do know it will involve music at all times. That is just who I am. My prayers have turned more toward trusting God to know what is best for me, and I know that He alone is the one in control of where my future leads.
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