HEY, FRIENDS! I disappeared for a very long time, I know. I’m planning big things on the blog for the New Year, but in the meantime, I just couldn’t wait to share this post with you.
If our high school experiences were at all similar, you were definitely THAT nerd. You know, the one whose favorite subject was orchestra, the one who was always in rehearsal, and the one who brought his/her instrument to school and practiced during lunch. As you sat one day alternating arpeggios with bites of your brown bag sandwich, I bet you dreamt of a place filled with nerds just like you, where not only would it be socially acceptable to practice during school hours, but expected of you. I bet that’s also when you considered becoming a music major.
And then, we have September, the official beginning of application (and premature pumpkin spice latte) season. I went through the audition process twice – once for college, and once for graduate school – and the processes were almost identical. At the end of each process, I ended up happy with my choice and studying with fantastic teachers. Some would say that’s lucky, but I don’t really agree. While your admission is not technically “up to you,” your success as an applicant is 100% yours to take. I hope these tips I learned along the way make the music school admission process seem not only manageable for you, but exciting! 🙂
Rock Hall Auditorium at my alma mater, Temple University!
“Ew, Sarah, why would you EVER put sea salt and bananas together?” – You
What can I say, I’m good at reading minds. But you know what I was slightly less good at until recently? Baking banana bread. It has literally (and I mean literally, not figuratively…there is, in fact a difference) taken me YEARS to come up with the perfect banana bread recipe. I posted one back in my Tumblr-blogging days that I’m pretty sure consisted mostly of chia seeds. Not to hate on chia seeds (they have their time and place), but this recipe is tastier for sure, and just as healthy. Now, to address your sea salt inquiry, it’s pretty much universal knowledge these days that sea salt and dark chocolate are the new power couple. Caramel tries to make it a love triangle, but I am definitely on Team Chocolate. And lately, I have been putting dark chocolate in and on everything I can get my hands on.
Why?
Well, I’m celebrating, because (Spoiler: if you follow me on Instagram, then neither of the following things are going to be “big news” to you) after a whirlwind year of suddenly changing plans and deciding NOT to take a year off, I took graduate auditions and was accepted to everywhere I applied! I’m going to be pursuing my Master’s degree next year at the conservatory of my dreams in New York City, and I couldn’t be more excited. I also gave my senior recital a few weeks ago to a lot of positive feedback, which means I officially CAN graduate and go to New York City. Also, Ithought the performance went well had a lot of fun giving it, which for self-doubting and perpetually unsatisfied me was kind of big.
So, yeah… I’m declaring that I now deserve to put chocolate in everything. You can judge me or whatever, but you’re going to be thanking my little chocolate binge when you taste this banana bread. Notice I said when, not if, because that’s how sure I am that you need to make it immediately.
Just in case you’re not convinced yet and need a REALLY compelling reason to make it (other than that it’s chocolate banana bread and because I said so), it will use up your ugly, mushy, seemingly inedible bananas. I bet you’ve thrown out some spotty/browning bananas in your time, thinking they were unusable. Think again, my friend – your banana-wasting days have passed, because for this recipe and banana bread in general, the spottier the better! (Unless they’re actually rotten and wrinkled… Then you probably shouldn’t cook with them. :P)
These are what perfect banana bread bananas look like. <3
Also, this bread came out super moist, and has just the right texture! You could also omit the chocolate chips or walnuts (or both) and the base recipe would come out fine. I will definitely be keeping this as my go-to banana bread recipe!
1 cup unbleached whole wheat flour + 1/2 cup oat flour (may do 1 and 1/2 cups oat flour for gluten free alternative)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/3 cup 60% dark chocolate chips, plus 1 tbs. for melting
1/4 cup walnuts
Sea Salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350˚F.
In a mixing bowl, mash peeled bananas thoroughly until mostly smooth. Some small lumps of fruit will remain, that’s ok!
Mix in melted coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla, and then add the egg/egg white (adding the egg and coconut oil too closely together may cause the egg to cook in the hot oil).
In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients (except for the 1 tbs. of chocolate chips for melting), and then slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet.
Pour batter into a greased loaf pan.*
Melt the remaining chocolate chips, pour onto the batter, and swirl with a fork. Sprinkle the top lightly with sea salt, and bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Notes
*I recommend using coconut oil spray, which I swear by for baking, roasting, and sauteeing! So flavorful, and so much better for you than most non-stick sprays.
This week’s buzzword is balance. I have spent four years of college desperately trying to figure out what balance actually means in the context of my daily life. Each year, balance has meant something different to me. Let me take you on a virtual tour.
Happy (belated) Father’s Day everyone! I had a wonderful day yesterday, which was spent with my mom’s side of the family and some extended cousins. My uncle and a few of the cousins brought their guitars and were playing in our living room for what may have been hours, with everyone singing and enjoying each other’s company. It was a wonderful way to enjoy the time I have with my family before packing up and heading off to Aspen for the rest of the summer.
On that note, as I prepare to leave behind this incredibly stressful and (only somewhat) counterproductive year and enter festival mode, I have chosen to re-evaluate the way I’m practicing. Similar to my race training, I have chosen to design a practice-related challenge for myself, which I will get to shortly. It came about as I watched the recording from a recital I played on Saturday – I played the last “movement” of Glazunov, which I have been working on for a while (albeit on and off), for my teacher’s annual studio recital. Unfortunately, the performance was not at all what I had hoped for or even expected from myself, for that matter. Of course, every musician is going to have good performances and not-so-good performances, but it honestly felt like one of the worst performances I’ve ever had. With all the progress I’ve made and what I know I’m now capable of, that obviously can’t be true, but that’s how upset I was with my performance.
While I know that these reactions are to be anticipated after a sub-par performance, I also know that they are WILDLY counterproductive. Okay, so I didn’t play as well as I could have. What am I going to do about it, sit around all day avoiding the problem while watching Law and Order and eating chocolate? Actually, I would love to do that… But I won’t. Or, I could make excuses for why it didn’t go well, like “I was last on the program so I wasn’t warmed up,” or “I had a challenging year, I was burnt out, and couldn’t pull myself together.” Both of which are somewhat true, but I can’t go back and change my performance. What I can do to move on is look at what to do differently now that I have a whole summer to practice and a light academic workload next year.
So, I have two “challenges” I’m going to put into effect this summer. The goal as of now is to rethink how I use scales and Sevcik exercises, not just to improve my technique, which is a given, but to help me become more relaxed. Normally, I would never put “Sevcik” and “relaxed” in the same sentence (let alone the same paragraph) but hear me out. I feel like my approach toward learning music has taken a turn from being too relaxed, like it was before college, to being too analytical. I feel like I’m in a mechanical mindset, mostly when I play from memory. I have all these things I want to do musically, but I don’t think they come out as easily as they could because I become too concerned with deconstructing the music as I’m playing it. Hopefully, doing these exercises in addition to my octaves, arpeggios, etc. will be both effective and interesting, and easy to stick to. Spoiler: I’m actually a five-year-old that makes up practicing games:
1) Scale “MASH” – Make a list with three columns: 1. All Major Scales, 2. All Minor Scales, 3. Metronome Markings and Bow Strokes/Articulations. Pick 3 from each scale column and 6 articulations to warm up with (one for each). Repeat for each practice session.
2) Sevcik From A Hat – (Not to be confused with the more entertaining “Scenes from a Hat” of Whose Line is it Anyway) Write down all key signatures on slips of paper. Pick one exercise from each book per day. Pick 3-4 keys out of a container at random and play each exercise in all of them.
As with any typical workout plan, I’d hope that these exercises will become necessary in order for me to feel like I’ve accomplished something on any given day. So in a sense, I am also trying to build a better practice routine to become accustomed to.
For updates on this challenge and for posts on my overall Aspen experience, please check the “My Summer Blog” page. If I do happen to think of any more exercises or goals to work on, I will be posting about them! For now, I’m excited to start my new violin workout regimen 😉
HEY THERE!
Welcome! I'm Sarah, a violinist, culinary instructor for musicians, and blogger here at The Hungry Musician. Click here to read more about me!
