Goals, Goals, Goals

By the end of freshman year, there are several things I would like to improve on. The first thing I would like to improve is how often I practice. As you can probably tell, I don't practice as often as I should. Whether it be due to homework, sports, or whatever, sometimes I feel like I do not have time to practice. Practicing is the only way to get better, and if you never practice, you can never get better. That is why my first goal is to set aside time to practice at least 4 days a week. My second goal for this year is to improve my intonation. When we warm up, I often think that I am out of tune with the rest of my section. If one person in a section is out of tune, they stand out and can make the whole section sound bad. I would not like to be the one person who makes the section sound bad. I would also like to be able to tell if I am in tune without the use of a tuner. My final goal for this year is to learn more challenging music. The transition between eighth grade and ninth is significant, and band is no exception. We have already played great pieces such as "Semper Fidelis" and we are going to play "Bolero" at the Winter Concert. Both of those pieces are classic works and can be easily identified by many people. I have learned something every year that I have been in band, but this year I hope to learn more than ever. I hope not only to learn, but also to improve as a musician. When I look at these goals again in June, I hope that I gave them my best effort and achieved all three.
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It is hard to believe that this year is almost over. It seems like we were just learning to read 6/8 time. Nonetheless, I feel that I have achieved some of my goals this year in band. I know I have not practiced often (ever) in the past, and this did not change significantly this year. I have no real excuse for why I did not practice more, but I hope to reverse this bad habit over the summer and next year. However, I did achieve my second goal of improving my intonation. I confirmed my thought that I was out of tune with the rest of my section. Lewis and Scott were rarely out of tune and any sound pitch differences when you tuned our Concert F was probably because of me. I now realize that most (if not all) of the time when I am out of tune, it is because I am flat. However, towards the end of the year, I became better at tuning and I could hear the difference in sound quality. My final goal for freshman year was to learn more challenging music. I feel that this goal was achieved as the year went on. Although we started off the year with pieces such as "Semper Fidelis" and "The Great Locomotive Chase", we eventually excelled in playing pieces such as "Canticles" and "Cajun Folk Songs." Although the pieces became harder as the year went on, I believe that I was able to play the more difficult pieces successfully. One thing I improved on that was not one of my goals was that I expanded my range. Although I came into this year struggling to play a high Eb, I am now able to and can also reach a high Gb. I feel that this year in band has been a great learning experience and I look forward to continuing in the fall.