Those of you who know me know that I like helping others and I like being productive. I like to be constantly doing something and I crave structure. I also get stressed out extremely easily. It is rare when I am not stressed about something. I had an opportunity to manage some of that stress over the school year. One of my gym teachers started a class called meditation and told me that I had to take it. And I loved it. I learned how to breath better, and I learned how to de-stress. It was the one our every other school day where I really became stress free. And I used his techniques even after school ended.
Now while I do get stressed a lot, what I do not get is nervous. I, for the most part, am confident in what I do, with one exception. The one thing that can make me nervous is while I play trumpet. Because trumpet is the one hobby I have that has not turned a profit. Everything else that I do I can say I am a professional at. But with trumpet I still have a lot to learn. So I get nervous. And since I don’t get nervous a lot, I have not fully learned how to deal with being nervous like I deal with being stressed. And if you get nervous while playing a brass instrument, it can really screw you over. So I tried using the same techniques that I used during the school year. Well actually I didn’t. See, those techniques are mainly around breathing, and you can’t use breathing exercises while playing a trumpet.
So I was stuck, until yesterday when I was introduced to the Alexander Technique. The purpose that I got out of it was to put you in a state where you relinquish yourself from the rest of the world. While lying on the floor, an instructor will put your arms, legs, and head in certain rotations to remove tension in your body. Once that is done, you let all of your muscles essentially go to sleep and you enter a state of, well I guess zen. And my trumpet playing has seriously benefitted from it. As you may have read, I recently completed the greatest concert of my life. Now the reason I was able to complete that task was because of both skill and practice. But neither of those would have done me any good if I wasn’t able to overcome that stress. So none of that would have been possible without meditation.
Live Life, Live It Hard, Let Nothing Stand In Your Way
For those of you who have not read my earlier post, go read it
http://andrewschwartzblog.com/2010/07/18/do-as-i-say-not-as-i-do/
I would like to reiterate that post with something that happened at camp last night. I was watching a performance of Blood Brothers. Halfway through the show, the power went out across the entire camp. Now these shows are a big deal. There are lights, wireless microphones, pit lights, even electric bases. But it didn’t matter. The tech crew came in and shined flashlights at the stage, and the actors preformed the rest of the show acoustically. And the audience of 400 teenagers didn’t utter a word the entire time. 400 teenagers, all sitting next to one another, for over an hour, were silent. Parents wouldn’t have been able to do that. That is the power of the kid.
Kids do what their parents tell them (for the most part), but do their parents do what they preach? I played in the pit for Oklahoma today. Normally when we play a show the kids are silent from the first downbeat to the final upbeat. Now our concerts are another story, but during the shows themselves the kids are pretty well behaved. But this afternoon during the entr-act (the orchestral introduction to the second act), I heard a lot of noise coming from the audience. Those parents who had taught their children not to talk during a performance, gave no respect to the orchestra. They just kept talking through the song. It was so disrespectful. The same thing happened at our concert this morning. After one of the groups would finish, the kids would want to stay but the parents would want to leave. And then the next groups would have less of an audience as well as having kids see people leaving during their performance. And yet this only happens on visiting days. So why is it that the kids can keep it quiet but their parents can’t. Do as I say, not as I do.
So Today is July 5th. And while the last few days haven’t been NASC, they definitely have had a lot in them. So I got to camp on, well, whatever day my last post was. Nothing important really happened until July 3rd when I went to see the New York Philharmonic, which was unbelievable. Your really can’t describe hearing the New York Philharmonic. What I did do was meet Phil Smith. For those of you who don’t know, Phil Smith is the principal trumpeter of the New York Philharmonic. He is arguably the best trumpeter in the world. I met him. It was cool. That’s all I have to say about it. In other words, It’s all I can say about it with just text. Anyway, July 4th. July 4th is always one of my longest day of the year if not one of the longest. Here is how my July 4th worked today. I woke up at 5:15am. Myself and others marched around the camp through every bunk from 6:00am to 7:15am playing “When The Saint’s Go Marching In” on our instruments. We woke up the whole camp. It was fun. Then we went to the lake and played our national anthem while others threw the british in the lake. Then we went to breakfast, had 6 hours of rehearsal, and went to dinner. Then came our concert, which for the record was the best 4th of July concert I have ever heard this camp play. Then came the fireworks, and then bed. Today I got 8 hours of sleep. It was the most sleep I have gotten in 2 weeks. So that’s it, see you all soon.
First off, for everybody that has been reading these posts from start to finish I do commend you, and I hope I haven’t had to many grammatical errors along the way. Now, this blog started on Sunday, June 20th. Since then I have had around 400 hits, which is much more than the 40 I expected. However, some of you may have noticed that my blog posts are quite long. Well, for those of you who enjoy reading those long posts I am sorry to tell you that they are coming to an end. The reason why I have had so much to say the past week was because of the packed week that I have had. First was my RedRover internship, then came the 2010 NASC conference. So for the past 2 weeks, I have done a lot, and I have done a lot worth blogging. So now I am on my way to the French Woods Festival of Preforming Arts. It is an awesome camp. I will be up there from now until around september 3rd. I may come home earlier, I may come home later. For my friends who are reading this, I will probably be out of cell service for that period, so don’t text me as you will not get a response. But I won’t be doing things like going on conference calls or going to international speedways every day, so there just won’t be that much to blog about. It has been the best first 2 weeks of summer ever. And I cannot wait for camp. see you all soon…
