Day In The Life of Student Musicians
Story by Aleigha Dixon and Deacon Tuttle | Design by Rody Farr | Photos by Dylan Hanson
You wake up at five a.m., head to the music building right when it opens around six-thirty, crunch in two hours of rehearsal and THEN (three hours in) at eight a.m. your day starts when you begin your first class.
This is just one example of the strict routines that hundreds of music majors follow here at CWU.
Emily Wall
Wall is one of these students, a junior studying Clarinet Performance and Instrumental Education.
Coming from a diverse background, Wall has been influenced by her musical family and their travels around the world. Wall is a Washington native but she says her real home is Japan. Moving from Washington to South Korea, then to Japan, her family now resides specifically in Okinawa. Her parents are both music teachers on military bases, hence the moves and the musical influence.
Music wasn’t always in the cards however. “I was planning to go into English,” Wall says. “I took a break from playing clarinet, which is my primary instrument, and decided that I didn't like taking a break. I wanted to continue making music.”
As a clarinetist, Emily acknowledges that most people apart from musicians don’t know much about her instrument. “I feel like if you ask somebody who's never done any music, about the clarinet, they will immediately think of Squidward. . . Basically, we're doing a whole bunch of 16th notes underneath the main melody. So all the noodling and doodling.”
All that “noodling and doodling” has led her to a wide variety of career options. “I want to try my hand at performing. I want to be either in a symphony or maybe even a pit-orchestra. That would be an absolute blast, I just want to be playing.” But whatever her career ends up being, she plans on inspiring others. She continues, “I'm also getting an education degree. So if I ever want to go into teaching, that will be an option that will still allow me to play, make music and inspire other people.”
Keeping up with the Clarinetist, (A Day in the Life)
While Wall is passionate about music, as she studies it, she says, “I tend to stick to a pretty rigid schedule.” While outlining a typical day as a music major, she begins with describing her morning: “Generally, I wake up at about five. The music hall will open its doors at 6:30 a.m.”
This morning time is crucial for her day, “depending on whether my first class is 8 a.m. or 9 a.m., I will either practice for about an hour and a half, or about two and a half hours, which is my goal time per day.” After her individual practice, she heads to classes, keeping in mind that “on the days I only get an hour and a half, I will have to find an extra hour at some point in the day to practice again.”
Her day continues with hours of classes and a lunch break around 11. Moving into the afternoon, she keeps trucking on with one more class.
“After that, I’ll go to the ensemble rehearsals.” This may seem simple, but during this time she has three different rehearsals. Vox Davina, which is the non-audition women’s choir. Then she has Woodwind Chamber, which is, “a bunch of clarinetists who are doing small group stuff together.” Lastly, she participates in her large ensemble, which is the main group that she had to audition for.
Outside of class, music majors are also required to go to around eight CWU concerts per quarter, along with four convocations (music major meetings) a year.
With these long days, Wall describes three necessities of her day
1. Coffee (and more coffee)
2. Don’t skip practice for more than one day
3. Printing out her schedule to religiously write things in and check items off
These necessities keep Wall feeling fresh, prepared and energized to successfully make it through her week. However, preparation doesn’t minimize all of the challenges being a music major at CWU can bring.
Practicing her instrument is one thing; but learning certain concepts is a whole other beast. “In general, the concepts are very hard to learn, theory and aural skills, both incredibly difficult,” Wall says. “Also, there's the stage fright and the competition aspect. You never feel like you're good enough. And you practice and practice and practice. . . It can get kind of frustrating, because you really want to be as perfect as possible.”
With all that striving, balancing her passion for music while also studying it can be “incredibly difficult.” Wall says the amount of practicing can get overwhelming, “like, yeah, I love that instrument. That's my baby. I don't want to hate playing it.” To combat that, she tries to incorporate “fun music.” For Wall, the music she really enjoys playing is video game music.
However, that’s not to say she doesn’t enjoy the classics. She reassures that “I get assigned tons of music that is so fun and I love. So I don't mean to say that you will hate all music that you’re assigned. I definitely don't - it's fantastic music. But it gets exhausting.”
The encouraging and realistic truth she sums it up with reminds us that typically the best things in life are the things worth working for.
“You kind of have to love it to put up with it.”
“When you try your best but you don’t succeed. When you get what you want but not what you need.” Chris Martin’s lyrics off of the alternative rock classic, Fix You, display what can go wrong in the midst of failures. However, when dreams come true, they’re worth the trials. That’s the case for Elaina Watts. Elaina has always had a musical bone in her body but starting in 2020, she kicked off her career as an artist, bandmate, and risk-taker.
Though the Latin phrase “et cetera” and Xetera are spelled differently, they can both equate to the phrase “go on” or “so forth,” which to Watts, translates as an encouragement to follow your path.
Elaina Watts is Xetera…
When Watts studied at CWU, she majored in professional and creative writing with a minor in film production. Watts' love for music was instilled in her from an early age. She says a majority of her family has a creative side to them. Her brother is a graphic designer and her sister owns her own dance studio. While they all have their own niches now, the Watts family shared the hobby of music growing up.
“It was really important to my mom that all of me and my siblings learned at least two years of piano and then I kind of kept that up,” Watts says. Music was an outlet she was able to use to tap into her introverted side while still involving others.
Not only has Watts played the piano for many years, but she also has the bass guitar and her natural singing voice as tools in her musical arsenal. In 2019, she decided to bring all of these elements into action and capitalize on the opportunities given to her.
(Don’t) Doubt Yourself
“So, in 2019 I wrote 25 songs because I wanted to learn how to write songs. In 2020 I wanted to learn how to produce songs. I only produced two that year, and there's still only two on my Spotify, which is embarrassing.” In 2021, the journey really began for Watts.
Cornerstone Pie in Ellensburg offered Watts a job and with that came the opportunity to join the list of others who perform live music at the restaurant. Considering at that point she had never done a gig live, let alone by herself, she found some bandmates to put on a show with.
During the beginning of her music ventures, doubt was pervasive for Watts. This stemmed from a lack of experience and comfortability on stage displaying her craft.
“That whole summer I had so much imposter syndrome working with a band and I have no context of what it means to work with a band like that.”
Watts says overcoming these obstacles involves embracing challenges head on and looking forward to the next opposition.
“First of all, I don’t think I’m fully out of that. The thing is I think I will always be doing something that’s more challenging. And so as the next challenge comes up the doubt of maybe I’m not capable of taking on this challenge will also come up.”
Some would say that the best way to learn is to fail. Embracing the fear of failure allows you to grow and see that it’s ok to experiment and branch out. This sentiment gives Watts some comfort.
“Bombing on stage kind of rips off the band aid because I think that’s what you’re so afraid of as a musician is if this goes poorly, ‘how am I going to survive?’ Then you do a show and it totally tanks.”
Elaina Watts is Xcetera…
All black clothing, space buns, and a suit of armor. Well, the first two pieces are physical and the last one metaphorical, but you get the point.
“I like it, it just ends up being a lot of work. That helps me get into the mindset to, once I'm dressed in full, feel like this is an Xetera look.”
Watt says it's fun to make a character out of outfit and the ability to show off some other skills she learned from her time at Central.
Though Watts says she doesn’t have a huge fan base, that doesn’t stop her from having the drive to enhance the typical live gigs some are accustomed to.
“I still want to participate in that inside my own head and be like, how do I elevate this experience and not just like me rolling out of bed, throwing on some jeans and being like, Alright, here's some music.”
The band she plays with has a catalog of five original songs. Some of the music Xetera enjoys playing is primarily the alternative-rock genre. In addition to that is a fan-favorite looper rendition she does of Lorde’s 2013 hit, “Royals.”
Watts says, “I feel like a lot of my friends are musical. They always start with the background vocals during the chorus and everyone will jump in.”
Watts has previously performed mainly during the summer months, but aspires to increase the frequency of her gigs and add shows throughout the whole year.
“Not just doing like the gigs at bars and restaurants where we're doing covers to entertain people but more like people are coming to see us do us. They like paid tickets to go see us, that type of thing.”
While she is grateful for her following and experiences so far, she wants creative control to tell more individualized and personal stories.
On Top of the World
There’s an aspect to performing on stage that is incredibly vulnerable. No matter the amount of experience, planning, and mental preparation. Butterflies exist.
“I find that really addicting. The idea of while I’m playing that’s the only thing that exists. It’s get to the next song, get to the next song. I love that hyper focus in the moment. I think most of life it’s super easy to get dull to the moment but in those high pressure moments where they’re totally focused, totally alive, and very exposed.”
The Watts says the highlight of her music career thus far can be summed up in a picture which also points to what she is thankful for in her life. Though the beginning of Fix You is downtrodden, the song finishes with the notion that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and hope for restoration.
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you
“We’re all just like saying it together and I remember just like looking around at everybody and being the most like the most like this beautiful snapshot of like how beautiful was my life that I get to experience this moment.”
To her, everything was worth it for this memory. If there’s one thing Watts wants to leave you with, it’s this.
“Don't hold yourself back because it's scary or because you think that you won’t be able to make it just just go for it so that you can and make the most of this life that you have is a beautiful thing.”
Advice Box: Mandatories for Musicians
“You live and you learn and then it makes you feel less afraid of the fear.” - Elaina
“Bombing on stage kind of rips off the band aid” - Elaina
“Remember why you love it” - Emily
“Balance your stress” - Emily