The busy time of my year usually begins in August. I am working at preparing plans for the upcoming school year. I am attempting to finish any Summer projects around the house or at school that may still remain. Marching Band begins. This period, that spans through October, is the busiest of the year as I have the most rehearsals, trips, and performances outside of the school day. We are also learning and recording audition music for the Western International Band Clinic during these months. Band, drumline, color guard, sectional rehearsals, occasional evening or weekend rehearsals. Not only is more time spent outside of the school day, but it is often spent outside in the sun - adding to my general fatigue.
Following Marching season, we have just barely over a month to prepare for the Winter Concert. This is stressful because it generally takes us a little longer than a month to prepare a concert. It is always rushed and the stress of not meeting the deadline is great. I'm actually putting in some scheduling changes in the 10/11 school year to address this and hopefully reduce stress.
December begins festival season for Jazz Band which carries through April. This year, there has been a great deal of stress regarding the scheduling (and conflicts concerning) these events. More so than the stress of preparing the music to a high level, which is also felt. We had issues of conflicting dates with other organizations on campus, and then festival conflicts with our own events once they were finally set. Our big Swing Dance (a pillar of the band year) was knocked around like a pinball until it finally landed on the date of our favorite festival. The festival lost out - or we did on participating. A sad attempt was made to attend another a week later, but so much time was put into the Swing program that there was really nothing appropriate to take to festival and we withdrew. This sort of jockeying and uncertainty grows anxiety. The Swing Dance itself is 20-25 songs played in 3 hours by one group. This is no small feat and the band does a great job with it. I do always have a concern that it won't come together and I lose quite a bit of sleep during this time thinking about details and worrying about certain songs. This doesn't even address publicity, sponsorships, decorations, or refreshments.
March and April typically is the time the Symphonic Band attends festivals. We work very hard to present the most musical program possible. All of the work of these months is then distilled into a 20 minute performance for a grade. No pressure.
Well, now all of that has passed. May is a time of greater stress for students. AP tests, Prom, standardized state testing, Senior Project presentations, etc. But for me, it begins the second period of my year. The time that allows me some restructuring and regeneration. Yes, we still have our Spring Concert on campus. We still play for graduation. But these are considerably less anxiety-filled. I now feel I can breathe a little more freely. I begin looking at ways to refine the process for next year. I feel I can spend some time teaching music theory and not just pounding away toward the next performance. I feel I can afford to take time cleaning and organizing the room. And then there's my garage.
Once Summer hits, I still have Summer Band. We meet twice a week for a couple of hours and play as a pick-up band. It's fun. But there is time to work at home. Time to read. Time to sit in the sun and think and stop thinking. Time to play with my kids more. Time to vacuum my car. Time to work in the yard. Time to practice my horn. Time for a hobby. Painting? That's my goal. This year, I intend on cleaning out the garage by the end of June and set up a little studio to do some painting. No stress. This is the kind of goal that will only relax me the more I work toward it. And then.
Paintings:
"Harmony" by Tony Broadbent
"Yin Yang Fish Portrait" by Yu Gong-Quan
"Wake" by Tony Broadbent
@MrAhrens
No comments:
Post a Comment