Out with the old...

I've been upgrading my practice area.  Up to a few weeks ago I was using the same music stand that my parents bought for me when I first started playing the flute.  Here is a photo of it when it was new!

It has served me well for over 30 years but I thought it was probably time to upgrade!

So I've treated myself to this.

I should probably have taken a before picture.  In it you would have seen lots of music books strewn over the floor as my old stand would generally fall over when more than 1 book was put on it!  I also had a tendency to forget where I had put down my metronome, water, tuner, reeds, pencil.  They would be scattered on various surfaces around the room and then need to be tidied away when I needed to do other things.  They now have their own shelf to live on.   The stand itself is much sturdier with a deeper ledge which can hold all my music at once!

I also bought myself a new digital metronome.  My previous, wind up, one was also bought by my parents only a mere 25 years ago.  It had been well used but setting it had become a matter of guesswork as the numbers had rubbed off, it needed rewinding every 2 minutes and did not always keep very good time.

Having a good practice area is so important and I love having mine organised now.

feeling under the weather

Practice has not been good this week 

I have been full of cold.  Playing oboe with a cold is not fun, it is uncomfortable and excessively tiring.  I managed about 40 minutes on Thursday, none on Friday and 10 minutes yesterday.

On Saturday I went to a playday.  I went to this event last year and blogged about it here .  This year's event was at Leeds College of Music and I had persuaded a number of friends from orchestra to come. Some of them had also persuaded other friends and family to come.  I wasn't really well enough to go but I had promised lifts to 3 people and felt obliged.   So I went.  It was probably a mistake.

The people I took had a fantastic time and really enjoyed it.  I was very relieved that the oboe parts seemed much more straightforward than previous years and was glad I wasn't the only oboist there.  It was hard work and I was very glad to get home!  I'm sure if I had been well that I would have enjoyed it but in retrospect I should have spent the day in bed and let my friends take the train.

I am meant to have a lesson tonight and am still wondering whether I should cancel it.  If I hadn't cancelled one a couple of weeks ago due to the snow I probably would but I don't really want to miss another one.  I do feel a bit better so I will probably manage 30 minutes - and I have probably practised just enough to make it worth while.  I will see how I feel after lunch.

Hopefully this week will be better!