Boston,+Hannah

** Hannah's Page **

 * My personal goals as a musician: **


 * **Learn bassoon.** With an amateur bassoonist for a mother and two bassoons readily available at home, I feel that I should take advantage of the opportunity to pick up a new instrument. I believe that learning this instrument will improve my musical abilities in general as well as train me to possibly play this instrument in a concert band setting sometime in the future. Sounds good!!
 * **Become more consistent with practicing.** I often find it to be a bit of a hassle dragging my instrument home to practice, but as a student musician who wants to improve, I need to find ways to get past this and work on things when I need to. Throughout this year, I hope to practice more than I have in the past, which should help improve all aspects of my musical performance. I should work on parts in my music that I have difficulties with while also working on getting better at playing intimidating groups of notes and scales. This is a very good goal!! I hope you've started working!
 * **Be more in sync with the rest of the band.** I've noticed myself thinking as an individual when I play the clarinet, which would be fine and even preferable in some circumstances, but is not a quality wanted in a member of a band. I plan to listen more to those around me and simply practice thinking of myself as part of a bigger picture, which should help with the sound I produce and also the way my instrument works with the rest of the band. What are some things that you will do to monitor this goal? It's a good goal, but you will need to think of ways to know that you are improving!


 * What Music Means to Me: **

I have had a strong connection with music ever since I started preschool. I took advantage of all music classes I had access to, attending dance classes, singing classes, and general music classes back in kindergarten, but my first real musical experience happened when I was five. My mother and I had the amazing chance to see Les Miserables on Broadway when we took a trip to New York, and I can say with confidence that seeing that musical changed my life. Great show!! My mother will be happy tell you that I was obsessed with Les Mis and its music. I bombarded her with questions about the plot and could often be found listening to the soundtrack or watching various adaptations of the musical on tape. This experience let me step in to the world of music, and I started piano lessons shortly afterwards. I made the switch to clarinet so I could play with my elementary school band, and in doing this I met the most amazing people I've ever had the privilege to know. In short, it's clear to me that music has molded and shaped me into who I am and I most definitely would not be the same person if I'd never joined band or seen that first musical.


 * Six Words that Describe Me as a Musician: **

The first word I would use to describe myself would be **self-critical**. Most people who constantly criticize themselves use this habit to become better musicians, but not me. I just mentally complain about everything I do and then proceed to not do anything about it, which is definitely not a positive thing and is helpful to no one at all. My second word is **unconfident** (which isn't even a real word, apparently). This sort of ties in with the first and basically just means that I don't believe in my abilities as a musician. My next word would either be **reserved** or **introverted**, which, once again, links to the other two words. I'm using these words to show that I don't like showing off or playing in front of people, which doesn't make sense since I have "be more in sync with the rest of the band" as one of my goals. It's different, though, I swear. My fourth word is **hopeless**, but not in the way you're thinking. I crave the musical abilities of my peers but I've pretty much convinced myself that I'll fallen too far behind already to ever get to their level, which is why I'm not trying as hard as I should be to improve (and is a really stupid reason). It's never too late to make the decision to improve! You do have a lot of talent and just need to decide to make a difference! My next two words aren't exactly words, but I can't summarize these particular thoughts using one word, so you'll have to bear with me. My first word-that-isn't-a-word is that I like to have a **personal connection** with the music I play. I have no idea what word I would use to express this, but basically I like to figure out how to play music from my favorite TV shows and games, on either the clarinet or the piano (my knowledge of which is limited). I also tend to like music the best when I relate to it, which I'm sure is something a lot of people can understand. My final weird-phrase-not-word-thingy is that I really try to **stay in my comfort zone** when I play. This is another bad thing because if I don't try new things, I don't improve, so that's another thing I'm trying to stop doing.