I haven't been keeping up with my blogging. I've been busy and also short on topics. Therefore, I am going to start with shameless self promotion. I am putting on a recital on Feb 26 at Christ and St. Stephen's church in NY at 8 pm. 8 pm, because I ain't singing at 8 am. I will be joined by soprano Sarah Hawkey and pianist Martin Neron. It's all American songs by Barber, Bernstein, Speaks, Dello Joio, Edwards, Roy, Bolcom and more. It will be a fun evening and I promise to be funny. Sarah is fantastic, and I am happy to have her on the concert.
What else? The voice studio is growing a bit. I learned the other day that one my students is an auditory learner. When I sang various phrases to her it helped her a lot. When I just played the notes on the piano that didn't work as well. I was losing my patients a bit, then after a while realized that I was learning from teaching her. I think teaching helps the teacher more than the student sometimes. This applies to everything.
This is random, but I am proud of the fact that I have quite drinking caffeine, and have stayed off it for 30 days now. It's been difficult at times especially on Sunday mornings when I have church. However, it's been well worth it, because I feel calmer, my voice is stronger and more clear, my thinking is more rational, and I feel more healthy overall, so if was a good choice. I'm reaching the point where I am not thinking about caffeine so much. I mention all this because when I am on caffeine I'm hopped up, quick to anger and my attitude is much more negative. In order to work on improving myself, concentrating better and most of all my attitude, I can't have a substance hopping me up.
So, I guess what I was going for in this blog is self improvement, promoting my recital, and learning from teaching. To apply the whole attitude thing I just mentioned, I can either think oh fuck I have to teach a lesson, or I can think about what I can bring to the lesson and what I can learn from teaching the lesson. My attitude is always a choice.
