As some of you may know, I do a fair amount of commuting throughout the week. I've already spoken here of my many "L" rides to gigs throughout the city, and the small books I like to carry in my coat pocket at all times (you can read that post here: http://derekbrownsax.com/home/blog/a-novel-idea).
Today, though, I want to talk about my other form of commuting: driving in Chicago traffic. For those of you that can feel your blood pressure begin to rise at just the mention of those last two words, I'm sorry, but I have to bring it up. Since October, I've been driving twice each week to the suburban town of Wheaton, IL to teach private lessons at a place called Jerry Evans School of Music.
When I tell other musicians about my teaching in Wheaton, I often get looks of slight pity saying, "Yikes, that's a long way." And yeah, if I am teaching one or two lessons and have to drive 1.5 hours BOTH ways one day, it feel VERY long! I do have to admit that I frequently found myself mid-traffic jam, counting the months until I might end this employment.
However, I'm now very happy to report that three things have completely reversed my thoughts on this:
1. Since beginning my teaching in October with only 3 students, I am now up to 12 or 13 students, so about 6 or 7 students each day. As you could maybe imagine, this is INFINITELY better than 2 or 1 each day. In fact, this means that I am now actually spending more time teaching than driving to and from. Always a plus!
2. With help from local Chicagoans, including Jerry at the school, as well as traffic apps, I'm now able to cut the driving time down to between 50-65 minutes on average. And as you can imagine, this is WAY better than 1.5 hours, or the occasional 2 hours (Ugh!!!). The biggest secret here is really no secret at all: don't drive during rush hour, fool! And in Chicago, rush hour is fairly lengthy, going until around 7pm. Therefore, if I'm done with lessons at 5:45pm, I'll now definitely bring my sax and practice at the shop, which really isn't much different from practicing at home.
3. Like my book-reading on public transit, I'm now way more productive during my driving! Yes, I know some of you may be rolling your eyes again on this last point, thinking: 'Geesh, Derek, you don't ALWAYS have to be productive all the dang time! But let me say, it's not productivity like calling business partners and checking the Dow Jones my Bluetooth headset. I love doing one of three things (not including my love of making lists of three things, like in this post): 1. Listening to new CDs I've checked out from the library (Lately I've been in a hip-hop phase), 2. listening to podcasts (nerdy NPR ones like "This American Life," "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," and "Start-up"), and 3. my new favorite: improving my time feel.
This last one is the nerdiest of them all. Here's a brief explanation of my last two trips to Wheaton for an example:
I turn on my iPhone metronome app to 4/4 time. Then I spend the next hour patting 3-against-4 rhythms on my leg (while avoiding crashing, of course). If you were to witness this in the car, you might hear me counting out loud, things like "TRI-puh-let, tri-PUH-let, tri-puh-LET, tri-puh-let," or "1 e and UH, 2 e AND uh, 3 EE and uh," or even: "MO-ther DRIVES a BU-ick" and "MY FA-ther DRIVES a FORD."
(If you didn't follow any of the last paragraph, don't worry. And I promise you, I'm not 100% crazy.)
The best thing is that while a lot of musicians don't spend enough time working on improving rhythm (including myself), hey, I've got 4 hours each week to kill! Might as well do it then, while I can't practice my sax. It's a slow process, but once again, week after week of this,I actually may get somewhere.
Oh, and just for the record, my parents share a Chrysler minivan.
Today, though, I want to talk about my other form of commuting: driving in Chicago traffic. For those of you that can feel your blood pressure begin to rise at just the mention of those last two words, I'm sorry, but I have to bring it up. Since October, I've been driving twice each week to the suburban town of Wheaton, IL to teach private lessons at a place called Jerry Evans School of Music.
When I tell other musicians about my teaching in Wheaton, I often get looks of slight pity saying, "Yikes, that's a long way." And yeah, if I am teaching one or two lessons and have to drive 1.5 hours BOTH ways one day, it feel VERY long! I do have to admit that I frequently found myself mid-traffic jam, counting the months until I might end this employment.
However, I'm now very happy to report that three things have completely reversed my thoughts on this:
1. Since beginning my teaching in October with only 3 students, I am now up to 12 or 13 students, so about 6 or 7 students each day. As you could maybe imagine, this is INFINITELY better than 2 or 1 each day. In fact, this means that I am now actually spending more time teaching than driving to and from. Always a plus!
2. With help from local Chicagoans, including Jerry at the school, as well as traffic apps, I'm now able to cut the driving time down to between 50-65 minutes on average. And as you can imagine, this is WAY better than 1.5 hours, or the occasional 2 hours (Ugh!!!). The biggest secret here is really no secret at all: don't drive during rush hour, fool! And in Chicago, rush hour is fairly lengthy, going until around 7pm. Therefore, if I'm done with lessons at 5:45pm, I'll now definitely bring my sax and practice at the shop, which really isn't much different from practicing at home.
3. Like my book-reading on public transit, I'm now way more productive during my driving! Yes, I know some of you may be rolling your eyes again on this last point, thinking: 'Geesh, Derek, you don't ALWAYS have to be productive all the dang time! But let me say, it's not productivity like calling business partners and checking the Dow Jones my Bluetooth headset. I love doing one of three things (not including my love of making lists of three things, like in this post): 1. Listening to new CDs I've checked out from the library (Lately I've been in a hip-hop phase), 2. listening to podcasts (nerdy NPR ones like "This American Life," "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," and "Start-up"), and 3. my new favorite: improving my time feel.
This last one is the nerdiest of them all. Here's a brief explanation of my last two trips to Wheaton for an example:
I turn on my iPhone metronome app to 4/4 time. Then I spend the next hour patting 3-against-4 rhythms on my leg (while avoiding crashing, of course). If you were to witness this in the car, you might hear me counting out loud, things like "TRI-puh-let, tri-PUH-let, tri-puh-LET, tri-puh-let," or "1 e and UH, 2 e AND uh, 3 EE and uh," or even: "MO-ther DRIVES a BU-ick" and "MY FA-ther DRIVES a FORD."
(If you didn't follow any of the last paragraph, don't worry. And I promise you, I'm not 100% crazy.)
The best thing is that while a lot of musicians don't spend enough time working on improving rhythm (including myself), hey, I've got 4 hours each week to kill! Might as well do it then, while I can't practice my sax. It's a slow process, but once again, week after week of this,I actually may get somewhere.
Oh, and just for the record, my parents share a Chrysler minivan.