The first day of school starts on the 25th and I officially start work again next week on Wednesday the 20th. However, I’ve technically been at work already since I’ve been trying to inventory as many instruments as I can before school starts.

To officially end summer vacation, I am writing this end of vacation post reviewing the major activities I did in the last three months.

Part 1: Bow Rehair Course
Took bow rehairing classes with Lynn Hannings over at the Violin Craftsmanship Institute in Durham, NH. I had a fantastic time learning about bows. Aside from bow rehair, I learned how to wind thread/silk grips! It is pretty cool because you can totally personalize the bow that way.
I also learned about the Glasser Bow Reconditioning program. It is a pretty sweet program where you send in your old Glasser bows they they can be repaired and given a new lease on life. I just got my first batch from Howard Core today and plan on sending my next batch of bows tomorrow.

Part 2: Repairing Instruments
I spent a good month after my bow rehair class repairing and inventorying instruments. So far I have about 50 instruments all checked in and ready. I probably have about 300 total in my program, so I better get on with it. They won’t all be fitted and perfect–I just need them have new strings and make sure everything is there. My goal for this next week is to get a total of 150 instrument inventoried!

Part 3: Orff Level II
Just a week ago I was getting ready for the Level II sharing for the San Francisco International Orff Course at Hidden Valley. I loved taking Level I last year and Level II was even better as I got to connect with more of my classmates. Last year we learned about basic body percussion and the pentatonic scale. This year we learned about modes and mixed meters. The instructors, like last year, were totally fabulous. I hope I can attain their level of professionalism someday. I really hope I get to come back for Level III. If not next year, then the year after that etc.. I don’t really think I’m ready for it since my musical skills are lacking, but I need more of this Orff stuff in my life.

And that basically summarizes up my summer. Things to look forward to in the next month…
1. New School Year
2. Playing West Side Story with Stage 1
3. Running in the Rock n Roll Half-Marathon

Now… time to get more instruments in the inventory!