Week 4-5 of November

These past two weeks were actually better than I thought they were going to be on my clarinet playing, with thanksgiving break involved. I actually did get to practice about half the days that I was home, so that was a big plus, and while I didn't get to practice too much this week because of a busy concert schedule, I did play a lot in rehersals, where I managed to put in some work on the stuff I wanted to.

I worked mostly towards the technique exam these past two weeks, since that's coming up tomorrow. I feel like I should do pretty well on it, and I can usually get the scales down when I'm practicing. I guess I'll find out how I'll really do tomorrow.

I used my work on my scales to work on the resistance change during the throat tones a good bit. I think I'm starting to really get the idea of not letting the resistance control me, but I do think I still need to put some more work into it. I also used the scales to work on range a bit, and it does feel easier to play higher up in the altissimo register, depending on the day and how my reed is for that session.

The thing I ended up working on the least was the stuff for my jury, which is unfortunate. I wish I could have put more time into those, specially in really cleaning up the Saint-Saens movement 2. I still have a feel fumbles on the Rose etude, but that one is coming along well, and the Dunhill is coming along well too. The only thing I'm a little worried about in the jury is that I don't have a pianist for it yet, though I believe I don't need to have one both semester of the year (I have to confirm that tomorrow).

As a side note, I'm happy about how the symphonic band concert went tonight. And with this I also have my recital attendance finished up!

Weeks 2 and 3 of November

These past two weeks have been completely different from each other. The first week was pretty awful: I was stressed out, overloaded, tired, and sleep deprived. This week, on the other hand, I've taken the time to relax and do very little, and I'm back to feeling normal.

Last week I focused almost entirely on Saint-saens, but I feel I got a lot accomplished there, and I feel really good about how rep class went. I'm definitelly paying a lot more attention to intonation of individual notes now, though I have trouble telling some times still since my ears aren't quite trained enough for pitch.

After playing on rep class friday and having my history exam I decided that I needed some time off, so I did absolutely nothing on the weekend; this includes practicing of course. I feel somewhat bad about that part, but I really needed a break and I don't regret it. On monday I was busy with NCMEA, so I didn't have the chance to practice then either. That wasn't planned.

In any case, I actually feel like I'm playing better now than I would have been if I had not taken that break. Practice actually went really well, and I started to work on Phantasy Suite's movement's 1 and 2, and a little on 3. I also worked a lot of the new rose etude these past two days, and that's going pretty well; I actually felt good enough about it to add tonguing already.

I guess the lesson to learn these past few weeks is that a break can sometimes be a good thing.

Week 1 of November

This week (and next week) are really hectic for me, so my clarinet practice time has suffered a bit. On the plus side, the practices I did have were actually really good this week, and I feel like I at least got something accomplished with the little time I had.

First, on the scales. My fingers keep getting better at hitting the right spots on the keys. It's really feeling more natural to keep my left index curved now, and all my fingers on top of the keys even when they're not pressing on them (that part isn't quite as good yet). I think the times I have the most trouble with this is when I have to go across the break very quickly, of course, but in slow sections it has gotten much better.

I didn't bother tonguing on the rose etude this week, as I didn't feel like I was quite at that point yet. I should be able to add that this coming week. This pieced helped me realize that I actually have a good bit of trouble slurring from notes where I have lots of fingers down to notes where I don't have many down (like, from high D to high C or something like that, or octaves in that range).

I focused almost entirely on mvt 1 of the SS this week as far as rep is concerned. I took the time to practice several sections very slowly, not only including the runs but some other sections that I hadn't really worked on yet, so I feel like that piece is doing a lot better this week. On a side note, I need to find a pianist for next week still, so I'll try to contact one this weekend when I have a bit more time.