After a few more days of practicing, I feel a lot better about my song choices and ready to record! I feel like I have really improved since the midterm and I am excited to showcase my improvement! I also feel excited to record two songs rather than one, especially because they are two very different songs. One note from my midterm I struggled to fix was my hand placement and not holding my fingers too far from the recorder when I wasn’t using them to play a note. This was difficult for me because it was the way I had done it in grade 3 and the way I was practicing my midterm with. It was a difficult habit to kick but I think making a mental note of it every time I started practicing really helped.

I am really glad I chose the recorder as my instrument this semester because I have had a lot of fun learning it and playing it. I now feel comfortable to incorporate it in an elementary class if needed, which would be super fun for the students. I hope I can pick up my instrument every now and then for practice in my upcoming years and maybe create more fun musical projects for myself.

One of my song choices was Jingle Bells and practicing this definitely helped put me in the holiday mood! That made practicing all the more fun and hopefully, my roommates enjoyed my noisy practices. I am also way more comfortable with tonguing now and feel more confident in my abilities after my midterm feedback. I am much better at it now and can hear the difference between tonguing vs not tonguing which I could not hear before. I am still very nervous about my video upload but know the hard work will pay off and it is something to be proud of. Teaching yourself an instrument is a difficult thing to do but now it is a skill I have and can teach to others!