Tag: Dad
-
Teaching Orchestra and Band in a Digital Space: Day 10
Routine & Balance After ten days of teaching remotely, plus a week of keeping track of assignments the week before, while preparing to be a virtual teacher, this thing we now think of as remote teaching, is starting to feel routine. Teaching from my makeshift home office is starting to feel almost normal too. In…
-
My Old Notebooks
I usually carry a notebook in my backpack. It’s become a habit for me to just pull it out and jot down what’s on my mind or notes from a meeting, chord progressions, tone rows…anything I need to put on paper. Sometimes I may even take a moment to review a notebook from its first…
-
Appreciation, Hip Hop and Fatherhood
As a musician and a teacher, I have had the pleasure to be a part of many cool moments of discovery. This even happens with my daughter sometimes. I still remember with pride when I asked her “Can I Kick It” and she replied (appropriately) “Yes You Can”. Thank you, Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed and Jarobi for…
-
Tears at random times
I can’t say I usually cry at movies, however with the recent loss of my father I’m finding it difficult to sit through certain scenes in movies. This morning I fell victim to one of these moments while scrolling through things on Facebook. It reminded me of my relationship with my dad, and I appreciate him…
-
The things students do
The past four weeks have been quite difficult for me. I had to take a significant amount of time away from my day job as a middle school music teacher to care for my father. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about that as I continue to cope with losing him. However with all…
-
Coping with first day of 1st grade
My breathing becomes labored, I don’t know what to do with my hands. By the time I get to my car, I’ve got several tears rolling down my face. Luckily it’s raining…so if anyone saw me they might think it was just the rain. It’s 9:30 in the morning on the first day of first…
-
Sia is my kid’s spirit animal
The idea of a spirit animal is a cool concept. If you look online you might find a test that might match you with a creature which may best represent you. However, the topic at the moment is Sia and how my daughter has committed every song in her catalog to memory. I can’t explain why…
-
The Mouthpiece Question
I know what your thinking, yet another trumpeter writing about the importance of mouthpiece selection and striking the perfect balance between back-bore and throat size. I happen to follow all those trends religiously but this isn’t another one of those rants. Coincidentally, I currently play a Laskey 75C with a standard throat and back-bore, not…
-
Back To School
While I recognize the changes that occur in my life around the month of September are major shifts, I can’t help the feeling of running head first into the truth….. that I am an adult. Maintaining stability in two art based professions while dealing with parental and husbandly duties, is a total shift from the…
-
Old Things
Recently I took my computer to a repair shop where I was told that there wasn’t much that could be done to salvage the machine. Normally this wouldn’t bug me, except I realized it was the computer hard-drive that had all the family photos and videos. I have most of this stuff backed up on…
Ed Castro's Blog 