Your Biggest Competition

One of the hardest aspects of life is to prevent external influences from changing your opinions. There are some instances where this is actually a good thing. Like when all your friends are telling you to stop smoking or to drink less or to stop playing computer games for a few hours to spend with your girlfriend (haha). These are all good examples of external influences. I'm talking about the external influences that cause us to go from positive thinking to negative thinking.

I will never forget my very last competition as a young pianist. I was 17 and somehow conveniently forgot to tell my dad I had a competition on a Saturday because I just figured my dad wouldn't be doing anything and had time to drive me down to Dallas to compete. Well, it was about 4 hours before my performance time, and my dad told me not to compete that day if I wasn't comfortable driving. I knew I wasn't going to do that because I had worked so hard.

I looked up directions on Google Maps on how to drive to Dallas taking all local roads because I was too scared to take the highway. I didn't want to add extra stress to my day, but I wanted to compete. So I drove myself. I gave myself ample time, drove slowly, and made it to the church. I performed well enough to land myself a spot in the finals, requiring a second performance, this time open-audience. I was used to competitions at this time in my life so playing for others didn't phase me. I ended up placing 3rd and earned myself my final trophy among my collection of musical accolades. I drove home very satisfied and proud of myself for having driven myself all the way down and back.

I told my teacher my results and he was happy for me. He probably told me "Good job" or something along those lines, not too congratulatory but enough to show he was pleased. He took a trip to Hong Kong right after and I had a few weeks off from lessons. After he returned, he asked if I wanted to have a lesson, and instead, I quit, and he was furious. I won't get into the details of why I quit, but he did not respond well. In his angry email to me "subtly" telling me I was making the worst mistake of my life, he said, "To be honest, she could have won the first prize....if she had tried a little bit more harder [sic]." This logical fallacy still makes me angry to think about because it's exactly the kind of thinking that is incorrectly ingrained into the heads of students. How could my teacher say this with such confidence? There is no merit to what he said. He was not the judge of the competition. In fact, he was not even at the competition. We as individuals all have the capability to perform our best performance. However, our best, even in the most perfect way, may not be good enough to win first prize. My teacher didn't even know the backstory about how my dad told me not to compete at all because he couldn't drive me.

Your biggest competition is always yourself, and you should always remember that. I have been the performer who has had memory slips in a competition and still ended up being chosen as one of the top 3. I have been the performer who has performed what I thought was a near-flawless performance and ended up winning nothing. We can only control how much work and effort we put in and our performance during our short five minute window to shine. The rest is someone else's opinion.

Parents, teachers, friends, when you know someone in a competition - your child, friend, or student - don't be like my piano teacher, suddenly changing his perspective because of an external situation. Let your praise be praise and your criticism be constructive. Be kind, be supportive, and know that the student is going to be his or her own toughest competition.

Flat File

A few weeks ago, or maybe just one, I can't remember, I converted some built-in-bookshelves to be a flat file for my music. Before, it was just regular bookshelves with the books vertically placed next to each other. I grew up doing this, however, it is quite bad for your books. Over time, unless you have a very good bookend, (which I do not,) the books will slowly begin to slip downward. The unfortunate part about this is that the process is quite slow, so over time, the books don't fall, but they'll actually take on a warped shape to accommodate for the slipping.

Before: regular bookshelves, music books stored upright. Hello, guitar!

Having been pressured immensely by a fellow music teacher and friend, I finally decided to take some action to get a flat file. However, purchasing a flat file that has aesthetic value and can function as a piece of furniture is not cheap. They run at least a couple hundred dollars to start. I had no intentions of spending that much money simply to store the music, so we decided to go a different route. (Having moved the piano in with seating for parents, the room itself also has very little space to add an additional piece of furniture so I wanted to try and use the existing space as best as possible to not cramp the space.)

We did some research and looked at the shelf clips on our built-in. Now our house is over 30 years old. These shelf clips that were used are not your normal little pins that you push into holes and pull out. These shelf pins were one of a kind, specialized clips with their own tracks.

This here is a Knape & Vogt 256 shelf clip. If not purchased carefully, they can
run you up to $1 a piece. We purchased carefully and did not spend that much per unit. 

Our much cheaper solution was to add shelves to the existing built-in unit so that the bookshelves would stay on the left side and my flat file for music would be added on the right side. If you reference the first image above, you'll see that the three shelves for books on the left have ample wiggle room between each to shift closer and add in a fourth shelf. That's precisely what we did. We moved one of the shelves from the right side to the left to create a fourth shelf for books. Then, we created four more shelves ourselves out of wood to add skinnier shelves on the right for my books to lie flat.

Work in progress: fourth shelf added to the left for books. Stacks of music
lying on their side waiting to be sorted into in-progress shelving units on the right.

The total cost for my flat file conversion ended up being about $25. Of the total materials needed - shelf clips, wood shelves, wood stain, and a clear coat - we only actually had to buy one quart of wood stain and a pack of shelf clips. In the garage, we already had leftover wood pieces from previous projects for the shelving and a can of clear coat also from a previous project.

The finished shelf with bookshelves on the left and a flat file on the right.

Much to the chagrin of my music teacher friend, I did not purchase a flat file, which my bank account much appreciates. Now, for the first time in 15+ years, my music books can lie flat and rest comfortably on their shelves with no fear of a warped cover. I am constantly reminded that my music library will grow and I will need more space, and that statement is most likely true. In that event, I will slowly remove the books from the left and slowly infiltrate that side as needed using the same process we did. Perhaps this whole built-in unit will be a flat file for my music some day. But we are not there yet. :)

The 5 Musical Processes

Throughout the course of my years learning piano and now teaching it, I've come to find there are a number of stages that one must experience and go through in learning and perfecting a piece (including memorization). Each stage occurs differently and lasts a different length of time for different musicians but they are all experienced in one form or another.This is my own personal break down of how the processes occur and what they mean.

1.Uphill Battle

The first stage is named uphill battle because that can be what it feels like. It involves learning notes and rhythm. For considerably hard pieces, this can be a very tedious process of writing down fingerings and teaching our fingers to memorize the muscle movements necessary in order to play the notes in the proper sequence and rhythm. This is the most laborious aspect of learning music because it involves a lot of separate hand practice and time spent repeating the same things over and over again. It's arguably the least fun and takes the most work. However, it's the most important basis to music. Without notes and rhythm, you have air space.

2.  The First Plateau

The second stage is named the first plateau because once you've learned the notes and rhythm, you feel like you've just completed a great feat and you can rest a while. And for difficult pieces, it's true, you really have. At this point, the notes and rhythm come easily and you can play the piece, but it lacks the stylistic elements in order to bring the music alive. The performance might still be a bit mechanical in places that are still uncomfortable, resulting in an unnatural sound.

3. Rocky Scramble

The third stage is one that some musicians may disagree with me on. I've talked to a few and it does not seem like I am alone, but perhaps it's not consistently experienced by all. I call it the rocky scramble because it's where you start to discover difficulties within the piece that you didn't think were there. You start making mistakes and messing up in places you thought you knew and had learned. It feels a bit like you're backtracking in your growth and learning. This stage can be frustrating because it involves relearning some notes and rhythms, perhaps in a way of rote memorization so that you can resolve the problems.

4. The Second Plateau (Refinement)

The second plateau is where it's easy to get stuck in. It's also named refinement because it's about the fine tuning - you have the piece learned pretty darn well, but it's not perfect. Stylistic elements are beginning to take shape and generally, the piece is enjoyable. There is the occasional slipped finger, wrong note, rhythmic error, a brief memory slip. It's the stage that takes the most work to gain the least amount of advancement, hence, why it's easy to get stuck in. It takes a lot of perseverance to get through this plateau and into perfection. 

5. Perfection

The last stage is precisely what it is - perfection. At this point, the piece comes effortlessly. You melt into the melodies and let the notes and rhythm embody you as the performer. There's no mistakes because you know the precise muscle movements and style to deliver a perfect performance.

I would like to share a video of Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu Op. 66 with you. It's still in the refinement stage, but I have about 10 more months to keep working on it to the perfection stage. It sounds like a lot of time, but I have another 6-8 pieces I need to bring up to perfection at the same time, so it's not as easy as you might think.

I really like this piece. While learning it I found YouTube videos of young children under the age of 10 playing it. I just have to look away and remember that they're on a different path than me and will proceed at their own pace. I'm just very thankful that my own abilities have allowed me to learn and play this piece at all.

This and all my YouTube videos have been simply recorded on a point and shoot camera. No separate audio files.

Mondrian Inspired

So if you read in my previous post about the garage art I had created last summer, you would have seen in there that the Mondrian inspired piece was another one I wanted to work on at some point. It took a while, but during winter break when all of my kids (except one!) decided to cancel for the week before Christmas, I had a lot of time on my hands. Finally found some time to write about it so I'm now getting around to sharing.

I went about the process a little differently than the website I got the idea from (because I actually didn't read the website and after seeing the picture, created my own process on how to go about it in my head.) My was a little more tedious than the other way, but it worked.

The first thing I did was tape to paint the black lines.

If you remember from the previous post, I had explained how my husband had picked up gallons of paint randomly on his way home from work one day for free after seeing a Craigslist ad for free paint. Lo and behold, one of those gallons of paint was black.

Now here's where I start telling you all the DIY secrets. I found the can of black paint, but the instant I cracked it open, it was so sour and bitter and repulsive smelling that I knew I was not going to be using it to paint my wall. I closed it right up, made a mental note to make a phone call later to dispose of it properly, and went on to plan B. Plan B was using another dark shade of paint that we had which I originally thought was black, but after using it for a small project, realized it was a very, very dark shade of blue. Seeing as this project is completely my own and only inspired by Mondrian, I veered from the true black lines in his paintings and opted for the very, very dark shade of blue.

Completed lines

As you can see, the dark blue does its job of being a dark contrasting color and doesn't make that big of a difference.

With the first color - blue!

As you can see, I also did not stay true to Mondrian colors. He used completely primary colors whereas I am using softer pastel shades of each of the three. The reason for this was that coming in, I knew I did not have a true red. The closest thing I had was a milder pink, and this was supposed to be a project that did not require spending any money. So I was not going out to buy red paint. Also, I later realized (which worked out in my favor) that the can of yellow paint we had was also a soft yellow and not a bright yellow. Initially, I had wanted to mix the blue to a lighter baby blue because of personal color preference, but it ended up complementing the other colors better.

The pink paint has gone on.

Finished!

As you can see, I pretty much lightened each shade of color from Mondrian's....by arguably the same degree for each color. I purposely left the edges fuzzy and soft because I wanted a "materializing" effect. Once in the heart of the painting, I made sure to fill everything in with crisp clean edges. 

If you stare at it long enough, you'll actually see the illusion of grey circular dots at the intersection of the dark lines. I don't know how to explain this one, but it's just one of the many ways that our eyes can play tricks on us. 

This is actually my smallest piece of artwork in the garage. It only spans about 4 ft wide and tall. My other pieces are pretty massive and measure about 5 ft wide and 6 ft tall.

I don't know how proud my Humanities teachers or my art history teacher in high school would be, and I didn't do exceptionally well in either class, but I do still love art and find ways to be creative with the space I'm given. I'm slowly running out of walls in my garage to paint,  but I'll think of something. ;)

Ice Festival!

I randomly saw something pop up on my Facebook feed today about the famous Ice Festival in China. Being a cold winter day in Texas (35°F, feels like 27°F right now) I'm quite proud to say I've lived in the city where it's held AND attended four years ago. Had some fun reminiscing over pictures. And yes, it really is -35°C (-31°F) or colder there in the winter.

The Entrance. Tickets were $50 USD when I went.

Let's count! Two pairs of socks, two pairs of leggings, one pair of jeans, one pair of track
pants (not pictured), two thermal tees, one long-sleeved shirt, one fleece pullover, one
winter jacket (not pictured), and mittens (not pictured) = 12 different
layers = how to stay warm when it's ridiculously cold.

It's really made of ice blocks that they light up.

Ice slide

Walking on ice. All night. 

Sitting on ice.

Ice tunnel.

The scope of this place is probably the size of a small neighborhood. We stayed 1.5 hours before we got too cold and didn't even explore the whole thing. 

When you're from Texas, you usually get 0 chances to hug ice that's taller
than you. If you're lucky, you get 1 in a lifetime. I'm lucky. 

Do I miss it? China, yes. The cold, most definitely not. Would I go back? Yeah :)

Big Bend 2016

After Christmas this year, we were able to road trip out to West Texas and spend a few days at Big Bend National Park. It was my first time going and I had a lot of fun. I think I keep impressing Jonathan with my ability to eat saltines and pepperoni without complaining and go four days without a shower. Don't worry, I smelled wonderful and am healthy as ever. :)

Hubby planned the entire trip though since camping is his forte. I just willingly went along for the ride. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Day One:

We woke up at 5 am and left the campsite at 5:45 am to drive all the way across the park to the other side to catch the sunrise at Santa Elena Canyon. We got there just after 7:30. I think we were close.

Santa Elena Canyon

Balanced Rock

Day Two:

The second day was our most heavily packed day. We set out for a 12 mile hike that hubby had planned. We woke up at 5 or 5:30, drove to the Basin, and then set out for our hike around 7:30 am. We reached the top around 10:50 am and got ready for lunch.

What a scenic view for lunch

After eating lunch and enjoying the view for a good hour or so, we started to go down. We realized we hiked up faster than anticipated so we thought we might add a 3 mile detour into our route and turn it into a 15 mile hike. After all, I had received hiking boots for Christmas as a gift from Jonathan, so why not put them to good use right?

Jonathan: "This jacket isn't very good for pictures."
Cathy: Well it's not the star. My shoes are. *cue pose*
Jonathan: You're awkward.
*2 minutes later*
Jonathan: Oh, that didn't turn out that bad.

Well, we got overly excited, started pushing forward, and then before we knew it, we were scrambling over giant boulders and walking next to a shallow creek of residual water. There was no trail in sight and I was pretty sure we weren't on the trail anymore. After blindly attempting to maneuver ourselves out of the now valley we got ourselves stuck in, we decided to turn around and go back the way we came to relocate the correct trail.

This took about a 10-15 minute detour for us having gotten lost, and I was not a super happy camper at this point. Secretly inside I was pretty set on just hiking the rest of the way down and not adding the extra 3 miles. Well, once we found the actual trail and were set back on it, we shortly came across a fork that connected to the longer trail on the other side of the rim. And walking down it was a young gentleman we had met at lunch named Jeff. So Jeff joined us for our hike the rest of the day. And yes, we did the extra 3 miles to hike to the highest point in the entire park, Emory Peak.

We made it! Not pictured: the steep stairs we had to climb up AND the tower of rocks we had to scramble over to get here.

If we hadn't run into Jeff on the way down, I don't think we would have done the extra 3 miles to this point, nor would we have met a pretty cool guy. We talked for about a good 3-4 hours for the rest of the afternoon hike and got to know each other pretty well for having just met as complete strangers. Actually, he probably knows us better than some of our friends we haven't talked to in 2-3 years or more.


Day Three:

The wind was horrible this day. We had a relaxing day planned and we couldn't even sit outside and relax on a bench because the wind was blowing and dirt/sand was being kicked up. We managed to get in one short hike but then drove home after, leaving a day earlier than anticipated.

People from Mexico row over in canoes and try to sell their wares. This happened all the time back in the day but since 2002 after 9/11, they are trying to limit the illegal crossings. They set them up in little places on hikes near borders in hopes that someone will leave some money and perhaps buy something. They are never physically at the site. 

The wind blew these bamboo to a 45 degree angle. Yes, bamboo is quite plentiful at Big Bend along the Rio Grande!

Across the river is Mexico!

There's a tiny colorful city in the back called Boquillas that you can actually cross over and visit. Had we prepared better, we would have probably remembered to bring our passports. ¡Estudió el español en la escuela secondaria para cuatros años! Pero, mi español is muy mal :( 

After that we headed home shortly, but not before taking a picture with the sign!



I also captured some pictures of desert flora! So unique.


On the car ride back, we exchanged stories about grade school. I think I remember as much in one grade as he remembered in all 12. I definitely remember my sixth grade history teacher who wouldn't let us use the restroom during class, ever, my eighth grade science teacher who swiped my agenda out of my hand one day in class to read what I had written without my permission, and the eleventh grade history teacher who played with my hair one day in class. I'm sure looking back these were not their brightest teacher moments, but I definitely have not forgotten.

This was a really great way to end the year. I can't imagine camping with anyone else or hiking 15 miles in one day with anyone else. Here's to more memories and explorations to come in the future :)

Happy New Year!

Stiff Peaks

We might've just had the strangest weather for a Texas winter. This morning was on the warmer side, potentially shorts and t-shirt weather for some, and now, merely 6:50pm, it is 30 degrees and dropping. After going out and running errands during the early afternoon hours, we came home and prepared to bunker down for the cold winter night it was going to be. Tomorrow's temperature around 7am is projected to be about 20 degrees with winds estimated at 17 mph. That means after the windchill, the "feels like" temperature will be drastically low. Now, that's my kind of weather. If you've known me at least 4 years, you will know that I walked on ice for six months of the year living in a city nicknamed the "Ice City."

After coming home, I decided to make meringue cookies. I've always liked meringue cookies but not in the same way as I like fried chicken, strawberries or dark chocolate. There's something mysteriously appealing about a meringue that comes more from its texture and less from the flavor. A well made meringue cookie is flaky on the outside, light and airy on the inside, and slowly dissolves in your mouth. I can't really describe the flavor to you besides its sweetness because it's simply egg whites and sugar. Egg whites really don't taste like much and sugar is just sugar.

As I followed the recipe and carefully watched my egg whites turn fluffy through the electric beater, I retold stories of China to Jonathan and how my teammates made meringue cookies for my birthday WITHOUT an electric beater. Unfortunately, I was not there to witness their delirious jokes or the tired arm muscles because they planned everything without my knowing, but I remember their dedication, love, and thoughtfulness in putting together my 22nd birthday.

I am very grateful that we have an electric beater as a gift from our wedding registry to bake meringue cookies. The recipe I followed was from Emeril Lagasse and can be found here. I liked this recipe because it added chocolate chips, which enhances the overall flavor of the cookie, because like I mentioned before, egg whites and sugar really don't taste like much. The difficulty is listed at intermediate, and considering my meringue turned out well (because there were two empty spaces before I managed to remember to take a picture), I think it's safe to say I qualify as an intermediate chef ;).

(I also made the mistake of dropping my meringues larger than the recipe had asked for, so I kind of made up some more baking rules using prior knowledge to get them to bake right, hence why there are 23 and not 40.)

Clearly I am not an engineer or mathematician or physicist. Somehow I managed to put
a prime number of cookies on this baking sheet in the most ambiguously random way possible.

Meringue also don't have to be in the prettiest of formations. The stiff
peaks give it more character than a perfectly piped shape.

With successful meringue cookies in the books, I will now bundle up, crawl into bed, and hide myself in a book for a while. :)