After completing my midterm, I have continued my musical journey and will be working towards my second song, Ode to Joy. While working on learning this next song I have tried to keep in mind the feedback that I received. In order to improve I need to learn from my past mistakes and challenge myself to learn new things.

My first step to learning this song is resisting the urge to write down all of the notes. Although it would be easier to write the notes, It is important that I challenge myself and further my skills by reading the sheet music as it is.

The next thing that I tried to focus on was how I hold my instrument. While playing my last song, I struggled to transition my fingers between notes and the motion felt choppy and awkward. To fix this issue I held my fingers closer to the holes when I am not using them, this ensures that I avoid an awkward transition where I try to find the correct finger placement.

Another helpful resource that I found was a youtube tutorial on how to play Ode to Joy. Listening to the video helped me find areas where I needed to practice more and areas that sounded similar to the video where I did well.

It was helpful to work through these issues I encountered by talking to other recorder players. We were able to give one another strategies and tips to improve our abilities. Similarly, it was stress-relieving to know that they encountered these same problems. We were all feeling a bit stressed with the overwhelming amount of assignments coming up, so connecting with each other helped alleviate a bit of the stress. I try to keep in mind that although I am learning the recorder which comes with struggles, I am not in this alone.

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