Refocused

After a long night of practice (3 hour session), I have decided a few things.
1. 3 hour sessions are not as productive as they would be if broken down.
2. I can play for 3 hours when needed.
3. I am going to apply to only as many graduate programs as is reasonable.
4. I am in much better shape than previously suspected  with the VW... but not there by a long shot.

I did some more research on grad schools after practice, and here is what I have decided on:
1. Iowa
2. Kent State University (Open TA confirmed) -Kent, OH
3. UNL
4. Wright State University (Open TA confirmed) - Dayton, OH
5. UNI

Based on what I found out tonight, all i need to work on besides solo repertoire is:
1 Bordogni etude
1 Kopprasch etude
Orchestral excerpts including: Die Meistersinger, Ride of the Valkyries, Sensamaya, and Symphonic Metamorphosis

I think that cutting down the options is going to help relieve some of the stress and anxiety from earlier in the week.

2am second thoughts

I'm up doing some research into a list of 11 schools (below) that I was considering applying to for graduate study in tuba performance. It seems that several of the schools have audition deadlines that fall before midterm break, which is when I had kind of planned to try making some visits. Others seem to have really high bars set for entrance. After a not-so-great practice session, I am really starting to have some doubts about whether or not I should try out for some or even any of these schools. My grades have not been the best, so it doesn't seem likely that I would earn an assistanceship, and there's no way I could afford any of these schools without one.

Practice tonight was only somewhat productive. It is amazing how much more comfortable steel mouthpieces are than plain old silverplated. I didn't notice that I hadn't been getting the red ring around my lips from playing for the past month until I got it again tonight. Oh well, at least I can play without hyperventilating now. Some of the VW concerto got better, but that's about it. I wish the building were open for at least another hour...