TIME MANAGEMENT
This is one of my big issues, and I know there are others who face the same challenges. Most of the successful collaborative pianists I know are always busy. This may be the reason that there are not already hundreds of collaborative piano blogs out there. I have plans to add content to this site as time permits, which means that it won’t happen overnight.
Since I am on the topic, I must confess that I have had this problem ever since my college days. I take on too many commitments, then switch to survival mode. This year was unbelievably full, and I am still not through.
Before the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium, I was asked rather late to accompany bassist Gottfried Engels, a guest artist at my school (University of North Texas). I ended up having to learn two programs (including the Hindemith Bass Sonata) in one week. He was very nice and was understanding of my dire situation, so he tried to help me along by not insisting that we rehearse up to tempo. I always try to be more prepared for these guest artists, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.
All I can say is that I got through Gottfried. As Stephen Covey puts it:
“Integrity in the Moment of Choice” (First Things First)
