B is for Beethoven’s Third and Brahms’ Violin Concerto.
C is for Cracking reeds, and cane, and also for being Cracked out.
D is for DAMN
E is for Ensembles, as in “which one will I make?” and also Excerpts, as in “Urgh, Excerpts.”
F is for Flappy reed-sides, which are currently the bane of my existence.
G is for Gilbert -1, the make of my shaper tip, which is missing an ear, which I think is why my sides are flappy. So I borrowed Lora’s today. G is also for Gouger, and I think the studio’s is broken. Maybe Heather will let me use hers?
H is for HALP.
I is for Insecurity.
J is for Justin! Who is coming back tomorrow.
K is for Kristen, who will be posting comics regularly soon!
L is for Leaking, which is what several of the blanks that formerly sealed are now doing.
M is for Masterclass, the Reed Jail of Saturday, and the auditions prep tomorrow.
N is for Numchuks, like the pair I wish I had.
O is for O-Week, the reason thousands of first years are wandering around campus.
P is for Pulchinella, as in Serenata, as in Stravinsky. As in low C’s.
Q is for Questions like “What if they’re all better than me?”
R is for Reeds. And how none of mine sound good. And how I think I’m doomed because of it.
S is for Shostakovich and Super long phrases.
T is for Time, the four hours I spent in the studio.
U is for Undermining all of my hopes and dreams.
V is for Very Very Very nervous.
W is for Water, as in my new stone.
X is for Xi, a very useful combination in Scrabble.
Y is for Yellow, the thread I haven’t used in a while.
Z is for ZURGH I’m not ready for this year to start!

Enjoy the comic.

EDIT: Did I tell you? Mike showed me a chart of hits, and we had about 400 unique visitors in August! That is CRAZY you guys! Crazy AWESOME!

RESULTS

So here is an article about Alex Klein for the less oboe-oriented of the people who read this comic.

Basically, he’s a totally ridiculous oboe player. Jim was playing one of his CDs at Reed Jail a couple of weeks ago, and I more or less wanted to give up the oboe because of it. I’LL NEVER BE THAT GOOD! *goes off to cry*
Anyway, Jim wants to get him to come give a masterclass. It would be pretty amazing if he did. However, we *probably* would not perform brain surgery on him.
In other news, I’m playing the Hindemith Sonata for Oboe and Piano for the fall, and I have a student recital scheduled for November 1st. I’m nervous already. Man…recitals are not my strong suit.

A bunch of us went to see the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra’s first concert–it was good! I think Edwin Outwater is going to be good for them, he seems like a great conductor. They played Ravel’s Piano Concerto (with the crazy-long English Horn solo, played by Faith Levene, who did a nice job), a piece from John Adams’ opera “Nixon in China,” a more modern piece called “Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety” which Outwater dealt with very nicely, and Beethoven’s Fifth.
I think a lot of music students are kind of sick of it–especially the first movement–but I like it because it was the first symphony I ever played in. Memories!
There was a reception afterwards, but I only stuck around long enough to make sure Jim knew I’d been, and then I buggered off. Too many people…I was twitching and a few moments from screaming and dashing out, knocking hot coffee into old ladies. AAH!
Waiting at the bus stop was *freezing*.

I’m waiting to get an mp3 hosted, and then you will get an awesome blog, analyzing a song by Stars that I happened upon a few weeks ago that is based on (and incorporates) a theme from the third movement of Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique.
Later, skaters!
-Ren

Thanks to *cough*Patty*cough* for the encouragement.