What Happens When You Receive New Music

One of the most exciting things is sitting in rehearsal waiting to receive new music. There's a range of emotions each musician goes through no matter what your level of expertise is.

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Waiting to receive the new score:

Looking over your part:

After the first run through with the orchestra:

Trying to follow along with the conductors comments:

Practicing at home like:

Every rehearsal until the concert:

The conductor during the dress rehearsal and tech rehearsal:

During the concert:

Listening to the applause after the concert:

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2017 - A Year in Review

It's hard to believe that we're at the end of the year already. It seems like just yesterday I was at Manager's New Year's Eve party wondering who would attend with me after Vegas moved. This past year has been full of so many changes, yet so many other things have stayed the same. In staying with the general theme (give me credit, I like to believe that this site has a direction. lol) here are the major items that happened to me in my running, riding, reading, and repeating!

Running
This year started slowly in terms of running. I did the bare minimum in mileage and ran races that I was a bit underprepared for. But I quickly turned it around and joined the Disney Springs Fit2Run Galloway Training Group which helped me jump start my running program into something more productive than it had been. While I'm only a casual member the group at the moment, because of the early darkness, I am looking forward to continuing my running journey with them. I was able to PR my 10k and place in my age group for a 5k because of them.

On the topic of my 10k PR at the Celebration Pancake Run 10k, it was a bit disappointing but it is a huge milestone for me. If you check out my races tab you'll see that my PRs haven't really changed in a few years. This is entirely my fault because I am the least consistent runner I know. I had hoped to PR in the 5k at the Jingle Jolly Jog, but my mental game wasn't there. I am so proud of my first age group award. I have lusted after them for, what feels like, ages so it is extremely exciting to finally have one on my wall! Ok, it's actually in a shoebox under my guest bed because I have yet to find a medal holder that I love, but that isn't the point!

Riding
Easily, the biggest thing that happened to my riding career, this year, was purchasing Cupid. I spent weeks last year debating about purchasing her, and I officially made the plunge on January 11th. I never imagined that my horse would be a little Welsh pony cross, who was green broke with a major attitude. But here I am, with my little Welshie who still has a major attitude, and is slightly better than green broke. Honestly, I wouldn't trade in our partnership for anything. Owning a green pony has taught me so much about riding, patience, and myself. For every step forward there are two steps back, but once we make a leap forward the landing is extremely rewarding.

In addition to purchasing Cue, I also uprooted her and moved to a new barn. Shortly after purchasing Cupid I realized that our current situation was not working out. The care wasn't what I wanted for my horse, I felt cheated out of my lesson package, and I was extremely nervous having my partner in a barn with minimal supervision. It took me until May to find a stable that met my standards. The major sign that this was the place for us was when we ran into our new trainer at a show before I had even told our old trainer we were leaving. The new trainer made several observations about Cupid and I, then commented that she would love to take us back to the basics because "she's a baby and there's no need to rush her". Hearing this proved to me that she would have Cupid's best interests at heart which is all I wanted in a boarding situation.

Moving Cupid was the best choice I could make for her. She's happy at our current barn, has put on much-needed weight, and is slowly becoming a solid partner for me. We still have a long way to go, and I miss jumping, but watching her move properly and understand what I'm asking has been worth everything we have been through.

Reading
According to GoodReads, I've read 112 books this year. My goal for the year was 100 so I am officially putting this in the win category for the year! A few of those books were the Saddle Club series because I started walking down memory lane and couldn't put the books down. What was really nice was that I'm able to get them from the Orange County Library Media Mall which means no awkwardly walking into the children section of the library or putting them on hold.

Two other series that I have really gotten into this year are the Finishing School series by Gail Carriger and the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the Finishing School series this weekend, so expect that review to come up in the near future!

Repeat
If you've been around for awhile you'll notice that I fashioned this blog after my running, riding, and reading life. So you might be questioning what this whole "repeat" business is. I decided the other day that I needed a header for my twitter account and my facebook page. The plan was to do a running, riding, and reading silhouette on a glitter background. While putting this together it dawned on me to do a repeat sign so the entire blog title was represented. I looked up repeat signs to get an idea and had an "I'm an idiot" moment. In music, there is a sign that informs the musician to repeat a section, this is called a repeat. Because music is such a big part of my life and I've openly discussed it on here it only made sense to take the Repeat part of my title and have it represent the music portion of my life.

I now present to you the newest "official" section of the blog. My Repeat section, or music discussion.

With that little intro out of the way, it's time to discuss my year in music!
In January I located a local orchestra that seemed like it would be at my skill level and was actively recruiting members, the Central Florida Community Orchestra. I signed up and attended my first rehearsal. It was terrifying and I almost walked away before entering the building, but I participated in that first rehearsal and loved it! The CFCArts #FluteNation welcomed me and has pushed me to want to become a better musician.

This year I participated in four different concerts with CFCArts; Jazz, Joel and John in March, American Roadtrip in June, Fiesta in November, and Once Upon a December in December. Once Upon a December was the first time, since college, where I've accompanied a choir. This pushed me to not only be aware of the rest of the orchestra but to also work on matching the choir without becoming the main focus.

Without the Orchestra, I don't think I would have found a group that feels like home or had the drive to pick up the saxophone again!

Overall, this is a quick review of my 2017. It was fun, it was great, but I can't wait to see what 2018 has in store for me!

3 Things I've Learned During The First Month of Bari Sax and NYX Lippie Countdown Day Fourteen

So, I have officially been playing the Baritone Saxophone for approximately a full month. It is a lot harder than I expected, yet easier than anticipated. I am so thankful that the flute has extremely similar fingerings which have saved me a lot of work. But the following are the top three lessons I've learned from playing this monster saxophone.

1) I am a weakling. 

For an instrument that basically dangles from a tiny little strap on your neck, that sucker is heavy. After only 30 minutes of practice, my shoulders hurt, my neck is sweaty, and I start wondering if my thumb is going to break from the thumb rest. Clearly, I'm either doing something wrong or need to start a workout program.  

2) My breath control is not what I thought it was.

I can play the top register of the flute and piccolo for several measures without getting out of breath. Two measures of the bari and I'm dying. Clearly, I need to work on increasing my lung capacity or risk passing out and dying after that lead weight falls on me. 

3) I'm not a complete failure.

Sitting there and running scales on the bari is not as hard as I initially expected. Sure, I'm extremely weak and dying because I can't breathe. But I'm running scales with almost 100% success on the notes and my tuner recognizes that I'm actually playing the correct note, in tune! Despite all my reservations about this, I think I might actually be able to pull off playing the bari in a concert one day!

So, today is day fourteen of the NYX Lippie Countdown and if we're being honest I completely forgot to pop today's color out until I got home from work. The preview for this color showed a nice pink toned shade that looked like something I would typically wear.

Upon opening the tab, I was disappointed to see that this was a Butter Lipstick shade. The Butter collection has not been kind to me in this calendar. Despite that, I was excited to see today's shade was a mauve/pink tone that seemed like something I would typically buy. 

This color was called Root Beer Float, which is cute and reminds me of summer. 

Root Beer Float applies nicely but has the lipgloss shine that the other Butter collection colors have. Despite this, I actually really like this shade on me. It's a bit different from my typical pinks but it is fun and appropriate for work and play! I'm not sure if I would buy this again but I do plan on wearing this shade until the little tube runs out! 

That's All Folks (2018 Music Goals) and NYX Lippie Countdown Day Ten

With thunderous applause, the curtain has closed on the CFCArts Once Upon A December show and I am officially on break from orchestra until 2018. It was an amazing show and I am so proud to have performed in it. So now the big question is where do I go from here. I've got the following orchestra goals for the 2018 performance year.

1) Strengthen my low notes on the flute.
For the 2018 spring concert, the CFCArts Orchestra will be performing Maurice Ravel's Bolero. A large part of the flute part involves playing in the first octave. This is an octave that I rarely perform in so I'm a bit weaker in it than the others. My hope is that, through frequent practice, I'll be able to proudly perform Bolero without worrying about having a funky sound in that first octave.

2) Practice my piccolo.
I did not have any piccolo parts, by my choice, this year so my poor piccolo sat in my flute bag without being used. My plan for 2018 is to at least pull up the piccolo parts on Dropbox and run through them. When I finally decide to try and get a piccolo part for a performance I want to be confident in my skills.

3) Relearn/Learn the saxophone.
I've played the sax before. I know the fingerings and how to play basic items with it but I want more. I want to actually feel confident to perform both the bari sax and the alto sax. I've swiped all my brother's sax books from my mom's house and have been working on the bari. I have reeds for the bari but am still waiting for the alto reeds so picking that up might take a few more days.

4) Perform in the major choir concerts.
This goal is a bit out of my control. Even though I played in Once Upon A December I am not guaranteed a spot in the choir orchestra. Just like everyone else I have to apply and get selected for each individual concert, so my goal is to at least apply with the hope of performing in the choir concerts for the 2018 year. I would love to perform at their spring concert and would kill to return to the holiday concert.

They might not be big goals for 2018 but they're goals that I'm pretty confident that I can accomplish or at least attempt to accomplish. Here goes another year of musical progress.

Day 10 of the NYX Lippie Countdown looked like it was a color that would be more my style than the purples that were included in previous days. From the mini preview, it appeared to be either a pale pink or a nude which, if you haven't been able to tell, are both colors that I love.

After I opened the tab, I was amused to see that this lip color was from the NYX Lingerie collection. Because this collection was the entire calendar last year I find it interesting that two have been included in this year's calendar, so far.

After removing the tube from the box, I was pleased to see that this was Corset. Corset had been included last year and while it wasn't my favorite color, it was a nice soft color that worked ok with my skin tone.

Like other Lingerie colors, Corset applies nicely and mistakes are easily corrected. This color does settle into the lines on your lips but does not make them look overly dry. It lasts long and only needed to be reapplied after lunch. One word of caution, Corset does look cakey if too many layers are applied.

Overall, I wouldn't buy Corset just to have it but I would not shy away from using it. This is a nice solid color that can be extremely useful for a nude lip look.