I got some good practice in last night and went ahead one more page in the band book. Using a number 2 reed is a HUGE difference from the 1.5's and I probably could have gone with 2's right from the start. After all, my trumpet experience has to factor in somehow. Awareness of what my mouth cavity is doing, for instance.
I'll be ready for busking when I've got, say, ten good songs under my belt. And not junk like Amazing Grace but fairly good ones like Summertime and jazzy things like that.
It actually wasn't *too* rainy today in that when I woke up around 4 in the afternoon, it wasn't raining. And it's set to be clear the rest of the night but of course it's the 1st of the new year so nothing's open.
My beloved Asian markets might be open on Christmas Day but New Year's is a whole different thing. New Year's is much more important and some places ONLY close on this day. Interestingly, here on the mainland, there's not just "American New Year" and "Chinese New Year" but also Tet, which is... Vietnamese New Year I guess.
Chinese New Year was always the best one back home, with some streets having actual drifts of red paper confetti from all the firecrackers and the air still smelling of black powder. People today complain about fireworks in Hawaii but .... they're wimps. If it weren't rainy and since I'm not ready for clarinet busking yet, I'd probably have gone over to Century Center Plaza I think it's called, over in the Vietnamese part of town, just to see what's going on. Hopefully tons of firecrackers.
