Life has been throwing curve balls at me all year long, and when that happens, sometimes it is necessary to take a break. My shakuhachi practice was becoming too routine and not progressing, yet again. These road bumps of being a musician and those blockages that make one step back and adjust the thinking. My own perspective on events like this teaches me to listen to my inner musician, my voices, er, notes. Instead of throwing away what I have built up over many months, I simply need a break from it and to rest the little grey cells. So, this is precisely what I did.
Now, after a week long break from any form of practice and playing, I returned to both of my main flutes and am feeling MUCH better about my abilities. While a musician is his own worst critic, this has to be dealt with daily and perfectionism is always a demon sitting on our head.
I take my practice and playing seriously, even if it's not very good or worth listening to by others. This makes me a perfectionist and one who does NOT like to play in front of others unless I have mastered a piece and perform it well. Fortunately, this can be a good and bad thing. Productive in that it disciplines me to practice and get better but not so much in that it also takes away from being good at improvisation and doing impromptu playing. I'm trying to break this cycle of perfectionism.
This all being said, the time for me to concentrate on a summer schedule of practice and playing has arrived. Daily practice is usually normal for me, but progression in song material and in memory exercises seems to be lacking. Breath control and perfecting my embouchure have both been MUCH better than ever and I'm very happy about that.
Time now to concentrate on songs and filling my mushy, monkey mind with material, enough to play more than a few short Japanese folk songs.
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