With winter acting like spring for some reason, it’s only natural for our local band geeks to gain enough motivation to start practicing outside.\u00a0 However, the dangers of the real world do not end where March begins.\u00a0 Several band geeks have compiled a comprehensive guide to avoiding the threats to musical instruments in the form of a Q & A session:<\/p>\n
Q:\u00a0 I’m from a part of the country where pollen falls in droves for some ungodly reason.\u00a0 Will pollen damage my instrument?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:\u00a0 I’m not really sure about that in terms of practicing, but if you’re allergic to said pollen, definitely don’t practice outside in early spring.\u00a0 Or mid-spring.\u00a0 Or summer.\u00a0 Because summer gets hot, and then you’re sweating and sunburned and don’t even want to do the C major scale to warm up.\u00a0 Of course, if you leave your instrument outside overnight, then yes, that’s bad.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q:\u00a0 What happens if a diag squirrel approaches me while I’m practicing?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:\u00a0 If you’re on the diag, it’s fine.\u00a0 The squirrels are in their natural habitat.\u00a0 If you’re on Elbel Field or inside Pierpont when you encounter said squirrel, run.\u00a0 It’s possessed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q:\u00a0 What happened to all the snow?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:\u00a0 Oh, it’ll be back.\u00a0 Da-da-da-da-daaah da-da-da da-yaaaah da dah.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q:\u00a0 OK, but what if it starts snowing during practice like it did the week leading up to The Game and most of The Game?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:\u00a0 This is Michigan.\u00a0 It always snows.\u00a0 If the snow isn’t blowing sideways and you’re feeling antsy, practice outside if your instrument allows.\u00a0 Nobody will think it’s weird if you start doing Big 10 Entries in the middle of February because they’re too cold.\u00a0 But it’s March, isn’t it?\u00a0 It could still snow.\u00a0 I think.\u00a0 IDK, I’m not a Northerner.\u00a0 I’m from Arizona, Hal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q:\u00a0 How do we know we’re improving if we’re practicing outside by ourselves?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:\u00a0 Focus on your technique, embouchure, sound quality, etc.\u00a0 Do 69 reps of something you struggle on until you get it right–actually, I’ve seen an online band poster that says to practice until you can’t get it wrong, so do that.\u00a0 Anyway, did you know today (March 10th) is the 69th day of the year?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q:\u00a0 Shuddap, Hal!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n A:\u00a0 That’s not a question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With winter acting like spring for some reason, it’s only natural for our local band geeks to gain enough motivation to start practicing outside.\u00a0 However, the dangers of the real world do not end where March begins.\u00a0 Several band geeks have compiled a comprehensive guide to avoiding the threats to musical instruments in the form […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2243,"featured_media":17619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1777,1260,1808,1794,1807,1804,1752,1805,1803,903,1072,1806,1802],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19491"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19499,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19491\/revisions\/19499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}