Reeds are the bane of every oboists life. My practice sounded terrible today - I don't know if it is me, the reed, the weather or my oboe. I think it maybe a combination of all of them - though hopefully not too much to do with the oboe itself. I have a relatively new reed and at the moment I don't really like it. I've only had it a week though so it may not be properly blown in. There are certain notes that just sound really terrible. But then I've also just had 2 days off practice so my lip is probably not great either. I need some serious work on long notes to try and get my tone back - feel like I am going backwards at the moment.
On the up side, I am starting a new piece - Chansonette by Harty, it's one of his 3 miniatures. From first practice, it seems rather nice.
Saturday 23 June 2012
Tuesday 19 June 2012
Catch up
I thought I ought to do a round up of the things that I am practising at the moment:
Technical exercises - I am still doing articulation exercises to try and up my speed. It is gradually having some effect I think. I'm also doing long notes based on arpeggios - trying to improve tone, dynamic range and tuning. Doing arpeggios is good as it means I'm doing notes across the whole range of the instrument.
Studies - this week's study is Luft No 20 which is in C# minor. I really like this one but it has some tricky passages and also a lot of rhythmic changees - lots of subdivisions as it goes from minims to crotchets to demi semi quavers to quavers to semi quaver tripets to trying to fit 5 notes into the space of 1 semi quaver....it is making my head spin a bit. Hopefully I will get another week to work on it.
Hindemith Sonata - There are only 2 movements. The first one grew on me a bit - though having heard a recording of it with piano I would still say that it is a Sonata that is more fun to play than to listen to. I really do not like the second movement at all. Slow, random notes, strange rhythms. It really doesn't do it for me at all. So hopefully won't be spending too much longer on this.
Telemann Fantasia No 8 - still working on the second and third movements of this as we haven't looked at it in a lesson for a few weeks. I really like these pieces but there are still a few bits of this that I am struggling to get into my fingers. It just doesn't seem to go as expected. Improving though.
Mozart Oboe Quartet - have been working on third movement in lesson which has some really awkward bits in the middle. It is getting better though.
I have finally agreed what I'm playing at the Adult learner concert and Garden Party.
Adult Leader Concert - second movement of the Mozart Oboe Quartet. Sadly the piano accompaniment for French Suite turned out to be too tricky and an alternative needed to be found. The first movement of the Quartet exceeded the time limit so this is my third (maybe even 4th) choice piece. My accompanist seems quite happy with this one though. I need to get practicing and make sure I have a VERY good reed to pull it off!
Garden Party - I've had a run through with pianist for this, which seemed to go very well. I am playing:
Mozart Quartet Movement 1
Piazolla Oblivion
Dring Italian Dance.
Hopefully this fits the bill of light, accessible, easy to listen to classical music and it should take just over 10 minutes. I just need to time the pieces and send the programe to the organiser (and practice of course!).
Piano exam 28th June. Playing my pieces for a friend tonight.
Technical exercises - I am still doing articulation exercises to try and up my speed. It is gradually having some effect I think. I'm also doing long notes based on arpeggios - trying to improve tone, dynamic range and tuning. Doing arpeggios is good as it means I'm doing notes across the whole range of the instrument.
Studies - this week's study is Luft No 20 which is in C# minor. I really like this one but it has some tricky passages and also a lot of rhythmic changees - lots of subdivisions as it goes from minims to crotchets to demi semi quavers to quavers to semi quaver tripets to trying to fit 5 notes into the space of 1 semi quaver....it is making my head spin a bit. Hopefully I will get another week to work on it.
Hindemith Sonata - There are only 2 movements. The first one grew on me a bit - though having heard a recording of it with piano I would still say that it is a Sonata that is more fun to play than to listen to. I really do not like the second movement at all. Slow, random notes, strange rhythms. It really doesn't do it for me at all. So hopefully won't be spending too much longer on this.
Telemann Fantasia No 8 - still working on the second and third movements of this as we haven't looked at it in a lesson for a few weeks. I really like these pieces but there are still a few bits of this that I am struggling to get into my fingers. It just doesn't seem to go as expected. Improving though.
Mozart Oboe Quartet - have been working on third movement in lesson which has some really awkward bits in the middle. It is getting better though.
I have finally agreed what I'm playing at the Adult learner concert and Garden Party.
Adult Leader Concert - second movement of the Mozart Oboe Quartet. Sadly the piano accompaniment for French Suite turned out to be too tricky and an alternative needed to be found. The first movement of the Quartet exceeded the time limit so this is my third (maybe even 4th) choice piece. My accompanist seems quite happy with this one though. I need to get practicing and make sure I have a VERY good reed to pull it off!
Garden Party - I've had a run through with pianist for this, which seemed to go very well. I am playing:
Mozart Quartet Movement 1
Piazolla Oblivion
Dring Italian Dance.
Hopefully this fits the bill of light, accessible, easy to listen to classical music and it should take just over 10 minutes. I just need to time the pieces and send the programe to the organiser (and practice of course!).
Piano exam 28th June. Playing my pieces for a friend tonight.
Monday 18 June 2012
The point of it all...
After all the stress of Friday, I am glad to say that Saturday turned out to be a wonderful day.
It was an early start - we left the house at 7:30am, which is quite painful for a Saturday and the doors opened at 9am. After registration and general introduction, we were straight into the sectional rehearsals - done with just the amateur participants. I was rather alarmed to find that I was the only one on first oboe so it was definitely straight in at the deepend. It wasn't too scary in the end though as the general atmosphere was very encouraging and supportive, everyone was finding the music hard. The 90 minutes rehearsal flew by and is was soon lunch time.
After lunch it was full orchestral rehearsal for nearly 3 hours (with a tea break fortunately). The professional players joined us for this which made it a bit less scary - they covered the hardest bits, made sure we came in at the right time, but also took a little bit of back seat when it came to the solos to let the participants have a go. It was really great to hear the whole piece come together and the sound was amazing.
Just time for a cup of tea and a piece of cake before the final performance. The concert was great fun, the sound was fab and, despite my misgivings about the difficulty of the music, we pulled it off. I think the professionals were definitely covering a lot of the Stravinsky bits but I still managed the (very short) exposed oboe bits in the Beceuse. The Gershwin was definitley my highlight though - a really, really fun piece to play that I don't think I would ever have had the opportunity to play!
So overall, a fantastic day which I enjoyed more than I ever expected to. I managed to play more of the music than I thought I would and both my reed and lip lasted to the end despite about 5-6 hours playing. I really enjoyed joining with other people and playing beautiful music in a fabulous concert hall. This really is the point of all the lessons and practice after all.
We played:
Walton - Crown Imperial (a good warm up opener)
Gershwin - An American in Paris (some amazing solos from the brass and clarinets, great fun!)
Stravinsky - Firebird extract, Infernal Dance to the end (challenging but we pulled it off)
It was an early start - we left the house at 7:30am, which is quite painful for a Saturday and the doors opened at 9am. After registration and general introduction, we were straight into the sectional rehearsals - done with just the amateur participants. I was rather alarmed to find that I was the only one on first oboe so it was definitely straight in at the deepend. It wasn't too scary in the end though as the general atmosphere was very encouraging and supportive, everyone was finding the music hard. The 90 minutes rehearsal flew by and is was soon lunch time.
After lunch it was full orchestral rehearsal for nearly 3 hours (with a tea break fortunately). The professional players joined us for this which made it a bit less scary - they covered the hardest bits, made sure we came in at the right time, but also took a little bit of back seat when it came to the solos to let the participants have a go. It was really great to hear the whole piece come together and the sound was amazing.
Just time for a cup of tea and a piece of cake before the final performance. The concert was great fun, the sound was fab and, despite my misgivings about the difficulty of the music, we pulled it off. I think the professionals were definitely covering a lot of the Stravinsky bits but I still managed the (very short) exposed oboe bits in the Beceuse. The Gershwin was definitley my highlight though - a really, really fun piece to play that I don't think I would ever have had the opportunity to play!
So overall, a fantastic day which I enjoyed more than I ever expected to. I managed to play more of the music than I thought I would and both my reed and lip lasted to the end despite about 5-6 hours playing. I really enjoyed joining with other people and playing beautiful music in a fabulous concert hall. This really is the point of all the lessons and practice after all.
We played:
Walton - Crown Imperial (a good warm up opener)
Gershwin - An American in Paris (some amazing solos from the brass and clarinets, great fun!)
Stravinsky - Firebird extract, Infernal Dance to the end (challenging but we pulled it off)
Friday 15 June 2012
the tyranny of the urgent...
It isn't so warm anymore :-(
It's been a funny 2 weeks really. Life feels very busy at the moment - with things that need to be done, and things that I'm doing for "fun". It's getting to that level of business that things that are meant to be "fun" are turning into things I just want to get out of the way so that they can be ticked off the list. I'm so wrapped up in the things that need to be done that I can't really relax enough to enjoy the other stuff.
So tomorrow I am doing an Orchestral Play Day where I have a day of rehearsals alongside professional players and get to play with them in a fantastic concert hall. I booked it months ago, it will be a great experience, I'm sure I'll love it when I get there and I have been really looking forward to it. But, when I think about it right now all I can see is another busy Saturday with no time to get any house jobs done and another weekend early morning which means I won't catch up on my sleep debt for the week.
I'm sure it will be fine, but I really need a rest, at home, to catch up on some of the important stuff in my life so that I am not just trying to keep up with the tyranny of the urgent.
It's been a funny 2 weeks really. Life feels very busy at the moment - with things that need to be done, and things that I'm doing for "fun". It's getting to that level of business that things that are meant to be "fun" are turning into things I just want to get out of the way so that they can be ticked off the list. I'm so wrapped up in the things that need to be done that I can't really relax enough to enjoy the other stuff.
So tomorrow I am doing an Orchestral Play Day where I have a day of rehearsals alongside professional players and get to play with them in a fantastic concert hall. I booked it months ago, it will be a great experience, I'm sure I'll love it when I get there and I have been really looking forward to it. But, when I think about it right now all I can see is another busy Saturday with no time to get any house jobs done and another weekend early morning which means I won't catch up on my sleep debt for the week.
I'm sure it will be fine, but I really need a rest, at home, to catch up on some of the important stuff in my life so that I am not just trying to keep up with the tyranny of the urgent.
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