Inspiring! Clarinetist Completes 1000 Hours of Considering Practicing
In a recent hard-won life milestone, Ottawa clarinetist Kaitlyn Cooper has finally completed 1000 hours of strongly considering practicing her instrument.
“I started my undergrad music degree here at uOttawa in September of 2019,” said Cooper, “and since then, I’ve spent a total of 1000 hours thinking about practicing. I’m very proud of myself.”
Cooper, who has not taken any concrete steps to actually practicing, went on to reveal how she arrived at such a feat.
“Honestly, there’s no shortcut to reach the one thousand mark – it just takes discipline. You have to really commit to thinking about it for a few hours every single day,” she explained. “It helps if you can multitask. For example, I’m able to hang out with friends or scroll through TikTok while also picturing how I would hypothetically take my clarinet out of its instrument locker. But if you don’t have a natural aptitude for those kinds of thinking skills, don’t worry – you can hone them over time with consistent usage. Before you know it, you’ll be at ease sending Snaps and contemplating practice sessions simultaneously.”
Friends and family are less than impressed by Cooper’s efforts.
“Kaitlyn’s been talking about how she’s thinking about practicing for, like, almost two years now,” remarked best friend Gavin LaFleur, a fellow University of Ottawa music student. “She could’ve used that time to do some actual practicing by now, but she’s never so much as walked into a practice room. I just don’t understand why she’s celebrating this.”
Still, Cooper is basking in the glory of her self-described “accomplishment”.
“It took a lot of work to get to this point,” maintained Cooper. “But to anyone out there who’s considering considering practicing, just know that if I can do this, so can you.”
When asked if she plans on moving forward with practicing on her actual clarinet, Cooper responded that she’ll “have to take some time to think about it.”