I feel overloaded, haha. I'm learning marching music, marching drills, and yesterday I get my region music. WOW. It's TOUGH. It's almost solid 16th notes, haha. It's also got a key signature stuffed full of flats, some of which i'm not used to playing.. And the fast tempo REALLY helps. Ugh, I sound like a whiny 7 year old. Sorry, I just feel overloaded, lol. I'm trying to ace the scales, but my ferret keeps attacking my legs on the high notes. I'm starting to have doubts in my abilities here, haha.

Yeah, I've been through times like that where I had a million things to get ready for (3 wind bands worth of music, music for an orchestra performance, college audition music, all state CDs to make). My suggestion is to prioritize. Obviously, you have to have the drill down as soon as possible, but the no one will really notice if it takes you some extra time to memorize music (assuming you don't get tested), so that might be something you can put on the back burner for the moment. The region music may be very important to you, so that could become your top musical priority. Just remember to take it at a slow tempo until you learn to overcome all the techincal challenges, and perhaps break it into smaller chunks to help you get it. By only taking on part of the total load at a time, you can avoid all the stress. I've never had a small animal attacking me while I was trying to practice, but might I suggest putting the ferret in another room and closing the door? Anyway, don't give up on yourself....It may take some extra work, but you should be able to pull all of that together easily enough.

Don't worry about your ferret. I had my cats hiding under pillows when I was trying to learn my D flat scale in three octaves.

Learning that much music can really get frustrating, so keep a few simple pieces of music around that you can play when you get too overwhelmed. I found that playing something I'm good at can really help calm my nerves, especially if I'm practicing scales (ugh).

On your fast piece: A judge once told me that the best way to learn a fast piece is to play it so many times you have it memorized, then speed it up. It's worked for me so far.

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I am playing it slow, but it seems like I'll never be able to get it as fast as it is on the CD, lol! As far as my ferret, it's more of a game to him, lol. He attacks my leg, I roll him over with my foot, and he spazzes across the room. :p We don't have to test on the marching music, so that's kind of my second priority right now anyway. I really like the region music, i'm just hoping I can learn it in time!

Don't worry too much about getting it as fast as it is on the CD. Some performers are known for taking pieces a good deal faster than they really are meant to be played, and depending on who is playing, this may be the case. Just try to get it as close as possible while maintaining the most possible cleanliness. They won't be impressed if it's played dirty at 200 bpm (they'll just think you took on more than you can chew), but played cleanly at 168, it might blow them away.

Fleer, your ferret sounds like he/she would be fun to play with. Whenever I take my piccolo out to practice my cats like to meow along with it, as if singing. It is a real riot. I thought it was because it was so high, but even when I played it in the lowest register VERY softly they continued to sing right along with it. It was really funny. My rabbits just like take my music and run off with it.