Ten minutes a DAY??
This is my reaction to my flute teacher on Wednesday. Apparently not picking up my flute at all between lessons is not the way to fame, fortune and glory - or getting a certain selection ready to play in church sometime in late 2017.
I stare at her and laugh but she doesn't back down.
Ten minutes a day, she says. That's it. That's all I ask.
Sure it is... I hasten to point out my problems with this new plan.
I'm too busy to pick up my flute every single day of the week. I don't know if she realizes this or not. She does (why does she have to??) - and shares personal stories. Ok...not all of us can be Superwoman. Besides, playing flute is her life. Career. Passion. Main source of income. I have clearly proven to be of a different mindset and lifestyle. My life is not a commitment to blow through a silver pipe with holes in it.
Obviously.
I offer to promise to practice three days a week - for more than ten minutes. She doesn't take me up on it. Consistency, not sporadic expenditure of time (just my luck), is evidently the key to successful playing.
She says she hates cleaning but forces herself to do ten minutes every day no matter how she feels. She says to set a small goal for each day and then feel free when your time is up to either walk away feeling satisfied or to challenge yourself to go one better.
Grudgingly, I promise to give it a shot. I already know what this is going to turn into.
Yesterday I pulled my flute out and then remembered three other things I had to do. Immediately. I left it on the table and took care of all three - accompanied by several well-timed rabbit trails - before finally putting the thing together and blowing into it.
I think I practiced for half an hour.
Ten minutes?
My teacher is SO getting the better end of this deal...
I'm going to go kill my metronome.
Til next time!
hahaha, now i know what this is all about! did you write this before or after our conversation this afternoon?
ReplyDeletexo,
rn
www.rachelnicoleblog.com
Before :)
DeletePointing out the obvious here, but that's probably good writing advice too. :) Also...Libs??? Whence cometh this new moniker? (And when are you coming to visit me again so we can watch Berkley Square?)
ReplyDeleteSo obvious I almost wrote it in before I posted it! However I didn't want this to be a moralization. :) I AM working on it, though, I assure you.
DeleteLibs? Well, I work better with a nickname to hide behind and hardly anyone calls me Elizabeth unless they don't know me very well.
I can't find anyone to go with me!! I'm hoping spring will bring Kim and me back. :)
Now I feel guilty because I use the same excuse of being too busy not to play my banjo. I should do ten minutes a day for awhile and see if anything comes of it. Maybe I can even learn a song. (I should do the ten minute cleaning thing too. That is desperate.)
ReplyDeleteNot a bad idea though really. Ten minutes doesn't seem as time consuming as half an hour or an hour, so if one was to put aside just that long for a task they didn't like they'd at least be working on it. Yep, I think I will have to give this a try.
Well, if anything, it'll be ten minutes you wouldn't have done before! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm also usually really busy but I love practicing my instruments and letting myself go in the music :) ~ Keturah
ReplyDelete