Things I've wanted to post about but have been too lazy to

It's not that I don't want to write, it's just that I never get around to it. I will make some comments about posts I recently wanted to make. What's funny is that while I am walking around at work I will compose nice posts in my mind, but by the time I get home the inspiration is gone. Well, here goes nothing . . .

(1) Working out to music
There was a recent NY Times article about working out to music. Apparently someone figured out that there is a correlation between tempo and workout performance. You know, I (and probably a lot of other people) had already figured that out on my own. In fact, I have been known to turn back from the gym if my mp3 player dies out on me. I can't work out at all without my music these days. Typically I would do cardio first and then some weight training. The type of music is not as important for my weight training. If I was very tired, I'd listen to something mellow. If I was still pumped from the cardio I'd keep it at a high energy level. However, my cardio performance was definitely dependent on the music. Luckily I grew up listening to merengue. While my music is frequently criticized for being monotonous this works very well for working out. The article mentioned that jazz (which tends to be idolized, but that's a whole other post) is actually quite bad for working out because of all the tempo changes. While the article failed to mention merengue or other world music as good choices, it did sort of allude to it. My favorite type of merengue to listen to for aesthetic purposes is that from the 80's. That's when the music was at its height. For example, my favorite artist is Ramon Orlando who is a Classically trained pianist and arranger/composer. His merengues are simply beautiful. He writes classical lines with harmonies that work well with the feeling of the song. His sense of orchestration is wonderful due to his Classical roots. He's sometimes been criticized for not being jazzy enough, like Juan Luis Guerra, but frankly I don't think that jazzy always works in merengue. It has to be subtle (NOT like JLG's very first production). While I love to listen to Ramon Orlando's stuff it's not what I typically work out to. In recent years a new type of merengue emerged that some folks refer to as "calle" merengue or "street". I may have written about it in the past and referred to it as a "minimalist" type of merengue because everything is pared down: the harmonies are super simple (in fact, some songs stay on the same chord), the wind mambos are also simplified (or sometimes played by synthesizers - oh the horror!), the lyrics are not inspiring, and the tempi are VERY fast. Many of these songs are almost too painful to listen to, but a few artists are not so bad. These decent artists are actually GREAT to work out to. Other merengue substyles that work really well are tipico (perico ripiao) or palo. While the article listed a tempo of about 130 as ideal here are some of the tunes I was working out to. Tempi are approximate cause my digital metronome needs a new battery.

Julian Oro Duro - "Pasa y sientate" Tempo 162 after a slow intro. This was my favorite for getting started on the jog.
Julian Oro Duro - "Cuando baje la marea" Tempo 172
Julian Oro Duro - "Chinito" (quite politically incorrect) Tempo 192!!
Kinito Mendez - "A palo limpio" This one would inspire me to break out into a full out run even if my heart was beating out of my chest! Tempo 170
Toño Rosario - "Kulikitakati" (the original one - ummm, I don't think it means anything really) Tempo 164
Amarfis - "La Tuerka" (this one is really interesting hahaha! They are playing in D minor and the guy comes in singing a melody in F major. Who knew there was bitonality in merengue music? So what if it was unintentional) Tempo 168
Banda Gorda - "La Cura" Tempo 164
Banda Gorda - "Dejalo Ahi" Tempo 168
El Prodigio - "Baila Mujer" Tempo 160
Jovanny Polanco - "Dile que vuelva" Tempo 170

130? Those guys have to be kidding me. That's hardly a warm-up song! My average is hovering around 170. Hmm, it would be interesting to try to figure out why I need my music to be 30% faster than the general population's. Am I that much more unmotivated? Or is it because I grew up listening to pop music that's generally fast so in order to really work out I need something SUPER fast? That sounds more likely.

Over the past year, thanks to this crazy music, I accomplished something I could never do before: jog for 1 mile w/o stopping. It would take something like 13 minutes but I was so proud of myself for doing it (I think I had the machine at 5.5). Yet I owe it all to a few crazy, fast tunes. Yay, my music is good for something!! Darn, I wish there were an easy way to share these.

I really wanted to make a nice, well-researched, thought out post and possibly even send a response to NY Times. But oh well, this is the best my pregnant scattered brain could muster up.

Oh and I know have lost my oomph to write about my recent medical issues, my latest lesson, and a show I would NEVER take my kid to. Maybe later this week.

Romance No. 1 (I love you, Schumann)

Because I am out of shape on my oboe the Mozart has been relegated a "reach" piece again and we're taking a little break from it. As my teacher said, it will always be there to work on since it's such a famous piece. In the interim we started working on the first Schumann Romance and I am loving it so far! First and foremost, it has remotivated me to practice. I had NOT been feeling the desire to practice for months now and I am not sure it was entirely due to my pregnancy-induced exhaustion. I think I still was subconsiously frustrated about not really having others to play with because even though I am unofficially part of an orchestra it doesn't really feel as good as it should because I miss most of the rehearsals. But anyway, whatever the reason was I do feel the need to practice every day again (though afore-mentioned exhaustion does get in the way a lot of times). Even if it's not quite happening as much as I'd like I am just happy to have that feeling again.

I think that the Schumann was the perfect piece to help me ease back into playing "real music". After being out of practice so long my embouchure had shifted again, affecting my sound and intonation. Before I could really start working on that piece I *HAD* to work on getting a better sound again. It's such a beautiful, deceptively simple piece that the sound is a huge part of what makes it. So there was no way I could really start practicing it with what was coming out of my oboe at first. Thankfully it didn't take as long as I thought to regain some of the sound improvements I had made earlier this year. I am still not back to where I was, but the sound is much better than a month ago. Also, intonation improvement came along with the sound improvement (since it was my biting the reed that was mucking up my sound AND tuning). At my previous lesson we talked about opening things up in the jaw and throat and getting the corners of my mouth back to where they should be. All that advice helped a lot.

Another way that the piece helps with sound and intonation is through the wide intervals in it. Though it doesn't sound technically challenging, it's quite difficult to in terms of dynamics, breath control, and phrasing. These are all things that I am enjoying working on because at least the pace of this piece is not as fast and furious as in the Mozart.

We went through the entire piece at my lesson this past Monday and it went better than expected. I hope it continues to improve for next week. :-)

Yay, I am playing again!!!!!!!

Rehearsal!?!?

Guess what??

I might be attending my very first orchestra rehearsal tonight!!!!!!!!!! The first oboist from the Downtown Symphony (the one at BMCC) emailed me to tell me that they're in need of an oboist again. I was hesitant to join them last year because the rehearsal I attended was a bit disorganized. But by now I am very desperate to play with others and I think I can deal with funky strings for a while. Besides, I heard that they get fill-in strings for the concerts anyway.

The only downside is that I am supposed to stay at work late on Tuesdays. Now I have to find a way to sneak out at 4:45 even though we are never done with patients until around 5:30. I then have to take the Metro North train to Grand Central, the 7 cross town, then the 2 or 3 to Chambers. It will be quite a journey. But well worth it if I get to play with others finally!!

I am excited but nervous and still don't believe it's true yet.

Oh, would anyone mind if I start posting about other stuff in my life here? Sometimes I want to post, but not necessarily about music but I feel obligated to make the posts here music related. It would be cool if I could go on about med school stuff, family, and music all in the same place. Maybe that's what the labels are for? I need to figure out how to work with blogger more.

One more thing: I received my first medical school interview invite today. SUNY Downstate on the 17th!! Woohoo!!