Getting Back on Track, I Hope

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It’s no secret that for the past few years, I’ve been in a fallow period when it comes to my fiction writing. Hell, reading too, though I feel like I’m finally turning a corner with that. But the writing, well… I haven’t really turned that corner, and it’s pretty frustrating to me. In the past, I found that when I struggled to write something new, I could always remain productive by revising older work, but I’ve found that isn’t working for me at the moment.  It’s not that I’ve written nothing:

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Thomas Kane’s “Learning Losses”

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Since 2022—if not earlier—Thomas Kane has been banging a drum for more schooling as a remedy to what he’s calling “learning losses.” He was still banging that drum in 2023, and still is these days, too. Specifically, he argues that kids fell so far behind during in school during the pandemic that they won’t be able to catch up on their own. Kane apparently has pretty hard research showing how much this is the case, measured in “points” and also measured in weeks of school. He tends to argue that kids are so-and-so many weeks behind where kid were immediately …

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Practice Log, 4 September–6 October 2024

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This entry is part 16 of 18 in the series 2024 Practice Log

As usual for the start of semester, I got busy and wasn’t able to practice as much as I’d like in September. Hell, I didn’t even do up the altissimo charts I’d been planning to make, though I hope to get those done during the midterm break in a few weeks. (I’d like to have printed charts to practice from, honestly.) Mostly I played tenor and soprano, followed a little by alto. My bari’s been languishing. My practice sessions often have consisted of either Ferling or Klosé etudes—favoring the latter—followed by a tone study on one or another folk tune …

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Practice Log, 8 August–3 September 2024

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This entry is part 16 of 18 in the series 2024 Practice Log

Practice continues apace, or maybe just a little heavier than before. My soprano sax got a basic tune-up last week and it plays a lot better than it was. It was previously a struggle to play, but now any problems that exist are down to my own chops and breath support. For that reason, while I was concentrating on tenor for most of August, I’ve been playing almost exclusively on soprano the last week or so.   I’m still working up personalized altissimo charts, with my Teal book all marked up in terms of what works for alto. (Tenor’s next, then …

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