Well, my first semester as a dual performance/ed major is finally coming to and end, and I really need the break! This has to be, by a large degree, the busiest I have ever been. I'm actually impressed with myself for being able to manage my time as well as I did (time management skills really went through the roof this semester).
All that time I spent was worth it at least. Not only did I practice more than I ever have before (doing the anywhere from 2.5 to 4 hours of practice a day on the average week), but my musicianship has really starting coming along. For the first time my skill has reached a level where I can see almost any piece of music and not think of it as impossible. I can actually get just about any piece of music in front of me and within a reasonable time be able to play through it (corgliano concerto and the like not included here just yet of course).
I worked on a lot of rep this semester. I really liked the Sierra 5 Bocetos piece, and my early performance of the first 3 movements in rep class was one of my best (if not the best) performances to date. From there my playing has just gotten better and better. Like last semester, I worked a lot on technique. I'm really glad I worked out of the Eugene Gay method, and I'll likely be working out of that for a good while longer.
Tomorrow for my jury I'm going to play one of my favorite works, Debussy's Premiere Rhapsodie. I wasn't assigned to do this, but I'm to go ahead and do it from memory, because hey, why not? I've never performed anything outside of marching band music from memory before, so this should be interresting, and I'm curious about the feedback I'll receive on it. This jury will be especially interresting because unlike most juries, I'm playing for the saxophone and bassoon teachers, both who actually know the piece very well. I won't be playing the whole piece because I want some feedback on my cavallini etude and borodin excerpts as well.
This semester did have some down moments to it as well, the biggest of which was the period in which I was seriously considering dropping the education major. All this playing I've been doing has gotten me to realize that I don't really want to teach public school or any large emsemble like that; I just want to teach clarinet and perform. After much consideration I decided to stick with the dual major for now, since the education side will help with the private teaching area anyway, and gives me another option. I'm still not 100% sure whether or not I'll keep it in the long run, though. Once I have a few more actual education classes I'm sure the decision will be easier.
As far as the whole participation grade thing goes, I think it goes without saying that I've been really involved in my own growth. The extra practicing and starting to pick up things on my own without having it for a lesson are only some of the ways I've been actively working on my playing; everything described above and other areas go into it as well.
In any case, this semester has been really great for me and my musical abilities. If I can get next semester to be like these last two who knows where I'll be?
*edit* I forgot to mention that I had some really nice teacher moments this semester as well! Whether I was knocking on their doors or they came asking for help, I ended up helping a good number of the freshmen (and some others as well) at some point this semester. It was very encouraging to hear them say that what I worked with them on ended up actually helping them out. :)
Also, I used to write on this blog a lot more often, but in the last few weeks I've been so busy that I haven't really had the time to do it. Dr. Taylor was also not really reading them for the last bit, so I figured it would be ok if I didn't do them for a bit.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
week 10
Well, this week was rather productive thanks to me having less homework to do.
I worked quite a bit on the Eugene method, almost entirely on the tone building exercises. I tried to alternate between D Major and b minor every other day, so I probably spent about an even amount in both of them. Somewhere this week I started to play with a far more relaxed lower jaw, and I've been liking the results in response and ease of playing, but I'm not sure on the sound since I haven't had anyone really listen to it yet (so that I know I'm moving in the right direction).
I rather enjoyed this week's Cavallini etude (Op 3 #1). I focused a lot on playing only the first and last 3 notes of each figure so that should sound alright. I managed to get the tempo up to the written ones as well.
I didn't really polish the Debussy all the way, but I feel like I want to move away from this piece for a bit and work on something else. I'm sure I'll come back to it eventually. What that something else is I have absolutely no clue since we already ran through all the rep we chose for this semester from last year.
The Borodin excerpts still have a good bit of work left on them, but I can at least play them at a lower tempo for the most part. I wasn't able to get an A clarinet (turns out they're all checked out right now), so I just did them on the Bb.
I worked quite a bit on the Eugene method, almost entirely on the tone building exercises. I tried to alternate between D Major and b minor every other day, so I probably spent about an even amount in both of them. Somewhere this week I started to play with a far more relaxed lower jaw, and I've been liking the results in response and ease of playing, but I'm not sure on the sound since I haven't had anyone really listen to it yet (so that I know I'm moving in the right direction).
I rather enjoyed this week's Cavallini etude (Op 3 #1). I focused a lot on playing only the first and last 3 notes of each figure so that should sound alright. I managed to get the tempo up to the written ones as well.
I didn't really polish the Debussy all the way, but I feel like I want to move away from this piece for a bit and work on something else. I'm sure I'll come back to it eventually. What that something else is I have absolutely no clue since we already ran through all the rep we chose for this semester from last year.
The Borodin excerpts still have a good bit of work left on them, but I can at least play them at a lower tempo for the most part. I wasn't able to get an A clarinet (turns out they're all checked out right now), so I just did them on the Bb.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Weeks 8 and 9
Well, I didn't write a blog last week because I was so busy and tired, but this week finally settled down some. Because of the lower workload, this week has actually been great to my playing, and I feel like I'm finally back on track with practice. I managed to get new reeds for the new mouthpiece (switched down from 3 1/2+ to 3 1/2 V12s), so they're in the process of being broken into. Meanwhile I'm still playing on my old MP some times since I have to work way too hard with the old reeds on the new MP.
On scales I did a lot of slower work to figure out finger positions and low movement. I tried to speed up a bit towards the end of the week, but that was not my focus. I'd say I spent about equal time on both A Major and F minor, so I should be able to do most of the exercises on both of them at around the same level. As a side note, Vol. 1 of the Eugene book should be coming in this week, so that adds another option for technique work for me.
For the cavallini etude this week (Op. 4 #2) I feel like I could probably master it better in another week, but I probably got most of what I needed to from it. With the new MP, I feel like I'm still using a bit of bite to do large register leaps that I used to not do with the old MP, but that's likely due to reeds being too hard/reeds not being broken into yet. It's something to watch out for in any case.
On the Debussy, hopefully I can redeem myself a bit after last week. I did a lot of work with the metronome on the technical passages, so I shouldn't be too far off being able to play it fluently. The hardest part is still the little chromatic run near the end, but that's getting there. We'll see if I can play more in time than last week as well.
Hopefully I can work on learning my Symphonic band music this week a bit more since I got some less work, as well as the work for lessons. I have to take advantage of this week since next week I get busy again with about a million recitals to attend/play on coming up.
On scales I did a lot of slower work to figure out finger positions and low movement. I tried to speed up a bit towards the end of the week, but that was not my focus. I'd say I spent about equal time on both A Major and F minor, so I should be able to do most of the exercises on both of them at around the same level. As a side note, Vol. 1 of the Eugene book should be coming in this week, so that adds another option for technique work for me.
For the cavallini etude this week (Op. 4 #2) I feel like I could probably master it better in another week, but I probably got most of what I needed to from it. With the new MP, I feel like I'm still using a bit of bite to do large register leaps that I used to not do with the old MP, but that's likely due to reeds being too hard/reeds not being broken into yet. It's something to watch out for in any case.
On the Debussy, hopefully I can redeem myself a bit after last week. I did a lot of work with the metronome on the technical passages, so I shouldn't be too far off being able to play it fluently. The hardest part is still the little chromatic run near the end, but that's getting there. We'll see if I can play more in time than last week as well.
Hopefully I can work on learning my Symphonic band music this week a bit more since I got some less work, as well as the work for lessons. I have to take advantage of this week since next week I get busy again with about a million recitals to attend/play on coming up.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Weeks 6 and 7
It was a bit strange having a lesson on monday last week, but the lesson ended up pretty well. The rest of the week, on the other hand, not so well. I've been SO busy this week (two exams on monday plus an exam on Tuesday, plus a concert last thursday and rehearsals all over the place). After all this work going to the Wind Ensemble concert tonight was a much needed break.
It's not that practice hours were low, but I just could not focus on what I needed to like I usually can.
For the first time this semester, I feel like I haven't really improved much from the last lesson. On technique, I couldn't quite play my scales at 120 yet for the most part, and I was so unfocused that I had to make the executive decision of just focusing on the upper half of the circle of fifths for this week (up to 3 sharps and 3 flats). Even then, I didn't manage to get all of those scales up to 120 yet, and the tonic chord arppeggios aren't at 112 yet either.
This is largely due to me just not having enough time to work on scales. I just had too much new music to learn this week, with an etude, the debussy, the piece for Keith Miller's recital in a few weeks, the mozart piece for the festival, and new symphonic band music.
I did manage to get a good bit done with the cavallini etude and I know the debussy to the point where it's recognizeable at least, so at least I'm prepared enough for the lesson this week. Hopefully this next week will be much better for me with the lower amount of studying I have to do.
It's not that practice hours were low, but I just could not focus on what I needed to like I usually can.
For the first time this semester, I feel like I haven't really improved much from the last lesson. On technique, I couldn't quite play my scales at 120 yet for the most part, and I was so unfocused that I had to make the executive decision of just focusing on the upper half of the circle of fifths for this week (up to 3 sharps and 3 flats). Even then, I didn't manage to get all of those scales up to 120 yet, and the tonic chord arppeggios aren't at 112 yet either.
This is largely due to me just not having enough time to work on scales. I just had too much new music to learn this week, with an etude, the debussy, the piece for Keith Miller's recital in a few weeks, the mozart piece for the festival, and new symphonic band music.
I did manage to get a good bit done with the cavallini etude and I know the debussy to the point where it's recognizeable at least, so at least I'm prepared enough for the lesson this week. Hopefully this next week will be much better for me with the lower amount of studying I have to do.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Weeks 4 and 5
These past two weeks have been pretty intense for me on my clarinet playing. I performed mvts 1-3 of Cinco Bocetos in rep class two weeks ago, which went really well. After that I started to focus on learning mvt 3 of Weber concerto #2, and that Cavallini etude (caprice #6, op. 2).
I tried to push speed a lot on scales these two weeks, and I have to say that improvement has been slow. At some point my fingers begin to tense up a lot when I'm trying to play too fast, so I've been slowly increasing the metronome markings each day.
The cavallini etude is really challeging, but fun to play. I've been trying to push the speed there as well by playing the variations at the marked tempo or at least very close to it. I'm not sure why, but I'm having a somewhat difficult time with my G Major arpeggios on the last variation of this. It's gotten better, but they're still not as clean as I'd like them to be.
The Weber still needs a ton of work, but I've managed to get at least the notes learned for a good bit of it. I'd say I'm about 65-75% there as far as the technique goes (counting the crazy-difficult last page). The goal right now is for me to be able to play everyting at about quarter-note= 100, and after that I might push it up to about 112ish since it's a bit more exciting there (that'll probably be a few more weeks). I haven't quite figured out the articulation I want to use through the entire piece yet, but I've got a good idea for the most part.
I also worked on the 2nd mvt of weber a bit, though not as much as mvt 3. I worked on the Debusy Petite Piece the least, but it's also the easiest bit of all the work I had to do, so it warrented that.
It was weird not having a lesson last week, but I'm actually kind of glad since there was so much new material for me to learn. Hopefully the extra time helped you out some as well with the festival set up.
I tried to push speed a lot on scales these two weeks, and I have to say that improvement has been slow. At some point my fingers begin to tense up a lot when I'm trying to play too fast, so I've been slowly increasing the metronome markings each day.
The cavallini etude is really challeging, but fun to play. I've been trying to push the speed there as well by playing the variations at the marked tempo or at least very close to it. I'm not sure why, but I'm having a somewhat difficult time with my G Major arpeggios on the last variation of this. It's gotten better, but they're still not as clean as I'd like them to be.
The Weber still needs a ton of work, but I've managed to get at least the notes learned for a good bit of it. I'd say I'm about 65-75% there as far as the technique goes (counting the crazy-difficult last page). The goal right now is for me to be able to play everyting at about quarter-note= 100, and after that I might push it up to about 112ish since it's a bit more exciting there (that'll probably be a few more weeks). I haven't quite figured out the articulation I want to use through the entire piece yet, but I've got a good idea for the most part.
I also worked on the 2nd mvt of weber a bit, though not as much as mvt 3. I worked on the Debusy Petite Piece the least, but it's also the easiest bit of all the work I had to do, so it warrented that.
It was weird not having a lesson last week, but I'm actually kind of glad since there was so much new material for me to learn. Hopefully the extra time helped you out some as well with the festival set up.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Week 3
I'm really getting exhausted this week from a lot of work I've had to do over the last few days. I got two exams over the next few days, so the reading is going to be more intense than usual. On the plus side, I'd say this week was really productive for the clarinet.
I did a ton of work on adding a little more brilliance to my tone (the high note sound into the low notes thing). The biggest breakthrough on this was actually after friday when Dr. Burke talked about the mouthpiece only work. I've been doing that a lot and it has really helped me with my voicing and intonation, which in turn is keeping the tone quality more where I want it. Most of this type of work went like this:
I would play a C on the piano, then try to match it with the mouthpiece. Then I'd get my tuner out and see if I could sustain the C in tune for extended periods. I would also bend the pitch up and down and see how quickly and accurately I could get back to the C. After I felt comfortable with that embouchure and tongue position I put the MP back into the clarinet and played a high D, trying to keep it in tune as long as I could. Then I'd move down chromaticaly, keeping each note in tune and with the propper tone, usually going all the way down to the lower register. I'd also go up chromatically up to an Ab at times.
This was usually done in a mf dynamic at first, and then I'd get softer after a few tries and work on that.
I also worked on the Eugene method stuff, usually staying at the softer dynamics. Before playing anything that started on a low note I'd play a high D or C# to get the feel for tone. I didn't get to do a lot of work on the arppeggios for this key this week, but I did a good bit on the other areas.
The Sierra piece is coming alone nicely. I've been starting with this by working on the 5th mvt first, then playing one of the other ones. For the 5th mvt, I'm still learning the technique for it, but it seems that my biggest issue is keeping the sound from spreading on the leaps and keeping the tone quality there on the lower notes (specially at the beginning). For the 2nd mvt, the problems relate a lot to what I'm working on now: how to play softly with good tone.
I also worked a good bit on mvt 1's technique (I tend to rush some of those passages) and on the stuff we talked about for mvt 3 last week. I'd like to perform mvts 1,2, and 3 this week for rep class, but I'll have to see if I feel like the technique is ready for it by friday.
As a side note, I managed to fix a lot of the intonation problems with my clarinet this week with a little bit of handy work. Turns out one of the keys wasn't going down all the way, causing a slight leak on certain fingerings. This was why I couldn't use 1/1 fingerings on the instrument and it somehow made everything a bit more flat than it should have been. Problem solved now I'd say!
I did a ton of work on adding a little more brilliance to my tone (the high note sound into the low notes thing). The biggest breakthrough on this was actually after friday when Dr. Burke talked about the mouthpiece only work. I've been doing that a lot and it has really helped me with my voicing and intonation, which in turn is keeping the tone quality more where I want it. Most of this type of work went like this:
I would play a C on the piano, then try to match it with the mouthpiece. Then I'd get my tuner out and see if I could sustain the C in tune for extended periods. I would also bend the pitch up and down and see how quickly and accurately I could get back to the C. After I felt comfortable with that embouchure and tongue position I put the MP back into the clarinet and played a high D, trying to keep it in tune as long as I could. Then I'd move down chromaticaly, keeping each note in tune and with the propper tone, usually going all the way down to the lower register. I'd also go up chromatically up to an Ab at times.
This was usually done in a mf dynamic at first, and then I'd get softer after a few tries and work on that.
I also worked on the Eugene method stuff, usually staying at the softer dynamics. Before playing anything that started on a low note I'd play a high D or C# to get the feel for tone. I didn't get to do a lot of work on the arppeggios for this key this week, but I did a good bit on the other areas.
The Sierra piece is coming alone nicely. I've been starting with this by working on the 5th mvt first, then playing one of the other ones. For the 5th mvt, I'm still learning the technique for it, but it seems that my biggest issue is keeping the sound from spreading on the leaps and keeping the tone quality there on the lower notes (specially at the beginning). For the 2nd mvt, the problems relate a lot to what I'm working on now: how to play softly with good tone.
I also worked a good bit on mvt 1's technique (I tend to rush some of those passages) and on the stuff we talked about for mvt 3 last week. I'd like to perform mvts 1,2, and 3 this week for rep class, but I'll have to see if I feel like the technique is ready for it by friday.
As a side note, I managed to fix a lot of the intonation problems with my clarinet this week with a little bit of handy work. Turns out one of the keys wasn't going down all the way, causing a slight leak on certain fingerings. This was why I couldn't use 1/1 fingerings on the instrument and it somehow made everything a bit more flat than it should have been. Problem solved now I'd say!
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Week 2
Well, this week has been a mix of really good things and not so good things. I managed to get sick enough to where I didn't even touch my instrument on friday, only finger practiced saturday, and only did about half the usual time on sunday. The days I did practice, though, went rather well.
I don't feel like I managed to make too much improvement on the air intensity thing since I lost so many days of practice, so I'll need some more time before I get that settled.
The high B-C# interval gives me trouble still (I comes out easily, just not as smooth as I want it to be). I don't know if it's a finger thing or voicing.
I worked some more on articulation, but didn't really focus on it. I should be ok on that, though/
The Sierra is going rather well I'd say. There are small things in mvt's 1-3 that still give me trouble, but I feel like I could perform this much for rep class soon. In fact, I'm cosidering next week and just not doing the Cavallinni then since I wouldn't need a pianist and I just like this piece a lot more (plus I feel that it represents where I am in my playing better).
Side note: I'm not feeling 100% healed yet as I write this, so hopefully I'll be feeling better for the lesson tomorrow. I'll try for some extra sleep or something.
I don't feel like I managed to make too much improvement on the air intensity thing since I lost so many days of practice, so I'll need some more time before I get that settled.
The high B-C# interval gives me trouble still (I comes out easily, just not as smooth as I want it to be). I don't know if it's a finger thing or voicing.
I worked some more on articulation, but didn't really focus on it. I should be ok on that, though/
The Sierra is going rather well I'd say. There are small things in mvt's 1-3 that still give me trouble, but I feel like I could perform this much for rep class soon. In fact, I'm cosidering next week and just not doing the Cavallinni then since I wouldn't need a pianist and I just like this piece a lot more (plus I feel that it represents where I am in my playing better).
Side note: I'm not feeling 100% healed yet as I write this, so hopefully I'll be feeling better for the lesson tomorrow. I'll try for some extra sleep or something.
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