Evaluation of Goals

At the start of every band year I always say that this year will be a year of practice, practice, practice. Though each and every year I set the same goal I always have difficulty following through. However, this year I am certain that my band goals are realistic and will be met. My first goal this year is to become an overall better player. Though this may be an ambiguous statement, I have thought of many ways to achieve this goal. First, I will pay more attention to practicing. I think that a realistic practice goal would be to practice every single night for 15 minutes. Though 15 minutes may sound small, I am certain that it will drastically help me in the long run. Every minute of practicing can make a difference. Furthermore, I think that besides practicing, working on my counting and sightreading would further my musicianship. Over the last highschool year, I have really struggled with clapping and counting the rhythms on the board. I think that by practing these rhythms more frequently, the music will be much clearer and easier to play. In addition, if I learn to sight read music, it will be much easier for me to relate to the music and therefore play it with more confidence. Another goal for this year that I have is emphasizing dynamics and articulations. After completing my playing test, it is clear that being keen to details such as these could really better my playing. I think finite details like these distinguish the extraordinary players from the ordinary. Overall, with this coming year I feel like there is a great deal of improvement that can be made on my playing. Moving from a freshman to a sophmore I feel like I have a greater responsibility to carry my wieght and hope to accomplish this in the band this year.


As I look back at my goals, I feel that I have come a long way, but that I have not sufficiently met the standards I set out for at the start of this year. As I approached this new school year I hoped to practice 15 minutes a day, which I admittedly have not done. However, though I did not practice each day I certainly stepped up the quality of my playing tests and quizzes this year. I made certain that before each test I practiced weeks in advance and perfected the part. I also took extreme care to practice my duet repeatedly to achieve as close as I could to perfection. In fact, the moments I practiced before my tests and quizzes gave me a motivation and aspiration that I never thought I had before. After I realized I had the capability to sound so much better, I felt the need to practice even more. After I played that test, I suddenly started to enjoy practicing because it made me sound tremendously better. This playing test that inspired me to take private lessons this summer so I could increase my ability and come back next year with my goal met. I truly realized that with more effort I could not only become a better musician but enjoy band so much more.
Though this year my goals were not adequately met, I can no say that I am truly determined to meet them next year. With my new determination to become a better musician I can almost say for certain that next year as I write this reflection, I will have exceeded my goals. I can not wait for the new challenges next year!