I have finished another session of the Oboe Path, and I am going to take a break for the rest of the summer. This group has been so helpful to me and I do feel like I have made huge strides in the last year. It is so fun to play things and realize how easy it is to articulate quietly, or play so in tune with the trumpet player, or adjust my reed for what I need to do for me in the moment. But I think taking a little time away will be like summer vacation in a way I can focus on different things and come back all ready to go with new goals in mind.
One of the goals is to be more mindful of writing down my insights in this blog. There are so many things I want to talk about and leave a post so I remember what I was thinking- but the months just flyby and I seem to rarely write anything down. Today I will just mention that I played all the phrygian scales- first the major then dropping the second and the sixth. They definitely feel really weird and I think it was helpful to go through all 12 steps. I am playing a show this summer with lots of “Egyptian” sounding licks, and I finally figured out they are just Phrygian scales! I think these will also be great to do long tones just to get it in my ear.
