Jovencia (Jovie) Webbeking – Page 2

Mixing Music and Flying — Low Strung Concert at the Museum of Flight

Hi,

I got to experience something very cool, it happened about a month ago now, but I haven’t had the chance to write about it, but I think should be shared.

My friend is a part of this rock cello group, called Low Strung, and they compose and perform renditions of Pop music for 10-12 cellos. And they are really, really good at it. This group is an organization at Yale and I got a chance to hear them perform twice. And one of the venues where they performed happened to be the Museum of Flight. (I wrote a different post about the Museum of Flight a while back.)

A while before this I was looking at the Museum of Flight website and saw that this cello group was going to be playing there but I wrote it off because I thought that I would be busy.

Fast forward a few weeks later and it turns out that this cello group has decided to come to our school of all places and give the orchestras a private performance. At this point in time I still did not know much about this group, but the fact that this was a group of cello students from Yale, my friend Carmelita among them.

They got on stage and they were super nice, friendly, chill, yet professional. Then, they started playing and it brought everything to a whole new level. It seemed like it would be practically impossible to put everything together the way they did — taking pop songs and making them more difficult and somehow putting it in a chamber setting. They also said that they only meet twice a week for a few hours. I was most amazed at how they stayed together and communicated to each other through added movements and gestures in their playing. Another thing that stood out was the way that this group put their renditions together and made the cellos sound like other instruments. For example they had the challenge of transposing the sound of drum set into playing cellos. They accomplished this by gently hitting different parts of their cellos to create different pitched sounds. Another example of something like like was playing/plucking the cellos with guitar picks. It was funny though because the group forget to bring guitar picks with them, so they were using credit cards.

It was also nice that the group decided to stay for questions afterwards and talk about themselves. It was crazy to think that every individual player had their own passions besides music and were very into it.

At the end, the Low Strung group mentioned that they would be performing later that day at the Museum of Flight and I was free that evening.

I got there super early because they let the guests wander around the museum for a little bit which I was super happy about. This time around I was looking at the outfits pilots wore during the Vietnam war. I thought that it was really cool that we are able to look at this items shared and try to imagine at least some aspect of who you would be if you wore that uniform.

At this performance it was more professional and they played more songs and it was such a great experience.

You can find their music online anywhere if you search for “Low Strung“.

Using Music Techniques in Flying

Hi,

I’ve come to realize that I haven’t done an update on my flying journey lately. I think that it would be good to talk about the connections I’ve been making with music and flying. I’ve been using some music practice techniques when I have been flying.

I guess I should first off talk about how my flying has been going in general. I have been making a lot of progress since the last time I have blogged about flying. It has been quiet the adventure. These are all the things I have been trying to perfect like slower flight, talking on the radio, ground reference maneuvers, emergency simulations, following the traffic pattern, etc. At first talking on the radio made me a little nervous, but my instructor has gotten me into the habit of saying what I want to say before I talk to the radio, so I know what’s truly going on and that seems to work for me for the most part. One of the hardest things I’m learning is landings, I swear I just work on them again and again and again, just trying to get some progress on it. Saying this, I have gotten rather good in comparison with doing the traffic pattern. I need the most work on the round out and flare. I’ve learned that having a good and even descent is key along with sight picture.

And this is where I’ve found that some of my music practicing techniques come in. Part of it is being in the right mindset. Having the growth mindset, where instead of being frustrated about something not going the way you wanted it to go, you ask yourself why something went wrong and what you can do to fix it next time. Another thing is to have positive goals. Instead of telling yourself to avoid doing something in the future, tell yourself to focus on the positive. An example of this would be when I keep on ascending and don’t stop at a certain altitude and don’t realize it, I would mentally prepare myself in the future to stay at my altitude and make sure ahead of time to account for that. Another thing I’ve been told with music is that it’s not about your actions, but the way you think. So, you should just visualize and think everything through before you put it into effect. That way, you can make mistakes in your head, planning things out, recognize them, and fix them all before you perform an action. The key though is to remember this and to recognize the patterns of when your mistakes come up. A good way to do this in music, is to write it in your part, if you always forget an accidental, you can write it in and that will be your reminder. I have yet to find a good technique for reminders though when flying.

Another update, I finally scheduled and took my medical appointment and I am all good, which is now one less thing I have to do or worry about.

Flying has been such a great experience and I am ever grateful to have the support of the FMA community. Sometimes while doing the preflight inspection I find myself smiling for no reason, and then I realize it is because I am so happy and excited to go flying.

When I went and got my medical, I saw this on the wall, and couldn’t resist taking a picture of it.

whiteboard explanation of a 4 cylinder engine

Post-Concerto

I know it’s been a little while, but I still wanted to give everyone an update on how my concerto went because I know that people are dying to know.

Overall, I would say that it went very well. Of course I made some mistakes, but I think that is expected. Part of the practice is how you react and navigate moving forward after you made a mistake.

In my last post, I think I touched on visualization for my concerto and I used that more.

About 20 minutes before I was set to perform, I just sat down, closed my eyes, and visualized out my whole entire performance. I could see myself on the stage and I had all my affirmations in my head. I am…confident, relaxed, excited, ready, fulfilled, satisfied, bold, proud, happy. And also other feelings that you wouldn’t necessarily think up for a performance, but doesn’t hurt to have. Like… beautiful, supported, and seen. Because in an important performance like this, it’s nice to remember that what is going on isn’t just a piece your playing, it’s telling a story and building a connection with the audience.

On stage, the lights were super bright. In all of my careful thinking, I didn’t plan for that. It was so blinding that the edge of my vision was a tad blurry, like being out of focus on camera.

At one point in time, I got off of the orchestra. But it was okay because my long lived vision was coming alive in my head and I kept calm along with all the other affirmations in my head. And I think that that meant more to me than the music did. Living into my expectations and keeping calm. So, I listened to the orchestra and came in on my next entrance. It was beautiful and the perfect experience.

Afterwards I got a receiving line with friends and family with their arms full of flowers and cards. That really touched me, especially since I’ve only seen some of those people a few times since the pandemic started.

I would say that this has been a big mile-stone for me. Something I’ve been dreaming about, planning, working towards, and it’s amazing to see it come to fruition.

my brother helping carry some of the flowers

the umbrella that was gifted to me by FMA

A side note, it was raining on my way to my concerto and I used the umbrella that FMA generously gave to me. I’ll admit that before this, I thought that umbrellas were only used by soccer moms, businessmen who take the bus to work, and generally people waiting outside in lines. So, even though I’ve lived in Seattle my whole life, I’ve rarely used an umbrella –instead getting drenched in a raincoat when it rains. And I would have to say that I make it work. In the past I’ve put plastic bags inside other bags or backpacks that I’ve used so that the contents inside doesn’t get wet. But, this umbrella I got — I am so glad that I gave it a chance and used it for my concerto. It was a life saver to not get my wet in my formal attire on the way to my concerto. Even though I have used umbrellas in the past on the rare occasion, I would have to say that this is the best quality umbrella that I ever used. It was super light weight, had a cool sky design on the inside, and was sturdy in the way that one could tell that the wind would not break it. So, I have learned to be very appreciative of umbrellas, especially the one that was given to me by FMA.

Senior Concertos!

Hi,

My life has been pretty busy, but with music it has been full of senior concertos.

For those who don’t know, concertos are pieces of music that are basically whole songs that are solos for one instrument with an orchestra backing them up as accompaniment. I am lucky enough to go to a high school where seniors can pick and play their own concerto with the orchestra. Recently there was a concert with just senior concertos for my orchestra. Unfortunately due to music shipping issues and miscommunication, the music I was preparing did not come in time for this concert. But, I’m happy to say that my concerto was just pushed back to the last concert of the year instead, which is later this week.

Anyways, there was a lot of prep work for the senior concertos. There were seven different pieces featuring an oboe, clarinet, trumpet, 2 cellos, and 2 violins. It was rather difficult at times because we were rehearsing during testing week, so there was rarely a time when everybody was in class. That said, all the soloists worked the butt off and came in prepared to play with the orchestra given the time constraints. The concert was phenomenal and I was super proud of all my fellow classmate-soloists.

My concerto is coming up this week and I’m trying to be prepared as possible. I’m playing the second movement of John Carmichael’s Phoenix Flute Concerto. I am super excited for it to all come together. I have had this piece for over a year now and performed it in two masterclasses this past winter in preparation for this concerto. I have gotten lots of helpful advice and I hope that it will show. There have been bumps in the road though, from practicing plateaus, lack of motivation, shipping delays, time constraints with the orchestra, and not having a harp accompaniment — this has not been easy. But I am always trying to make the best out of the situation and find a way around or a different solution. For example my cadenza (the part in the concerto where the orchestra stops playing and the soloist plays something crazy) is a duet with a harp. But nobody at my school plays harp and the professional we asked was unable to help us. This looked like a big predicament, but the solution was to ask my friend Eran to play the piano adjustment of the harp part. And then the problem was solved.

I have also been practicing in various locations to help me get ready from onstage alone, onstage with an orchestra, in a park, in my room, in the dark, in my grandparent’s house, in my neighbor’s house, and even in front of a community gathering. I’d like to think that this prepares me for new environments that are different and distracting, which will be what it’s like in performance.

This past weekend I also played another concerto — the first movement of a Telemann flute concerto. It was a much easier piece and a lot less time and energy was put into it. I had only two rehearsals with everybody else. The “orchestra” consisted of two violins, a viola, a cello, and an organ/harpsichord (I honestly can’t tell the difference between the two). I looked at the piece for less than a week and practiced for only a few hours. But, it was really fun to put together and reminded me how much I like music and the music community. Afterwards, a lot of people congratulated me and were impressed at my skills since the audience consisted of several people that I knew and didn’t know who had never heard me before.

I’m looking forward to my concerto and my last high school concert ever! I can’t wait to share what happens with everyone.

-Jovie

me performing onstage at a community graduation ceremony in my graduation robes (on the table in the background are a bunch of leis)

Practicing for my Telemann concerto

So far, the venues of the concertos were in churches because of the good acoustics.

Practicing for my cadenza in my concerto on stage in my performance shoes.

Starting my flying

Now that we’ve really gotten the ball rolling and I’ve set up my FMA account, I’m starting my actual flying. I’ve gone flying twice since my discovery flight. It was just as exhilarating as before — taking off. I practiced “simple” straight and level flying as well as some turns and steep turns. I felt like there was always something I had to be doing: multitasking between looking at the different instruments, outside, and making sure that I was doing the correct thing. Unsurprisingly, it reminded me of driving — when you first start learning, you are so overwhelmed at everything going on, but when you get the hang of things, everything becomes automatic and it’s not as hard on your brain.

During the pre-flight inspection of our plane, it felt like there was so much to do to ensure a good and safe flight, but I’m sure that I will get used to it, and the process will become much faster for me. From the pictures, you can see that my first flight was just another normal, blustery Seattle day. There was a good amount of rain and an overcast sky, but that did not stop us from getting out there.

I also recently received a package full of wonderful gifts from FMA and the sponsors. I was so surprised to see it sitting at my doorstep because before that I did not know that anything was coming. I was so excited to open it — it’s like waking up on a birthday that you completely forgot about, to a wrapped present waiting for you at the end of your bed. I am excited to share pictures of how these gifts will help me along the way to get my PPL.

Today I finally got my little slip of paper, certifying me as a student pilot. It is nice to have some sort of tangible way to measure my progress. Right now I would say that there is a lot to learn, but in no way am I deterred. I am just looking forward to the learning and adventure that awaits me.