I am absolutely amazed by how much stress can be relieved in a 1/2 hour of playing an instrument. I’ve been having one of “those” days today and I just needed to relax on my lunch break. There I was sitting in my car finishing my lunch, listening to the radio. Then I just happened to glance in the review mirror and there it was - my poor saxophone case staring at me with the music along side it, almost seeming to scream at me “HEY YOU NEED TO PRACTICE!” At first I ignored it, I did my lesson for Celebrate Recovery tonight, thinking that would take up the rest of my lunch hour. It didn’t. I still had 40 minutes left! That thought popped in my head again - “YOU NEED TO PRACTICE!” But I didn’t want to! I knew I needed to, though, so I told myself to suck it up and just do it! I got the sax out; then I got the music out that I knew I really did need to practice. Then I practiced. And I started forgetting about my day thus far. I started concentrating on the part that needed work and I couldn’t get it. So I slowed it down and worked through it, note by note, measure by measure. Voila! I played it - and up to tempo. I was over-joyed at the fact I finally got this part down. I played it a few times (just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke…LOL). Then I moved on to other music and when 1:25 came, I stopped. I put the sax away and came back in to work - completely free of the stress from the morning - it was almost like starting the day over. Yay for music!
