feeling under the weather

Practice has not been good this week 

I have been full of cold.  Playing oboe with a cold is not fun, it is uncomfortable and excessively tiring.  I managed about 40 minutes on Thursday, none on Friday and 10 minutes yesterday.

On Saturday I went to a playday.  I went to this event last year and blogged about it here .  This year's event was at Leeds College of Music and I had persuaded a number of friends from orchestra to come. Some of them had also persuaded other friends and family to come.  I wasn't really well enough to go but I had promised lifts to 3 people and felt obliged.   So I went.  It was probably a mistake.

The people I took had a fantastic time and really enjoyed it.  I was very relieved that the oboe parts seemed much more straightforward than previous years and was glad I wasn't the only oboist there.  It was hard work and I was very glad to get home!  I'm sure if I had been well that I would have enjoyed it but in retrospect I should have spent the day in bed and let my friends take the train.

I am meant to have a lesson tonight and am still wondering whether I should cancel it.  If I hadn't cancelled one a couple of weeks ago due to the snow I probably would but I don't really want to miss another one.  I do feel a bit better so I will probably manage 30 minutes - and I have probably practised just enough to make it worth while.  I will see how I feel after lunch.

Hopefully this week will be better!

New things to think about

The holidays are over, practising has settled back into a routine and I had my first lesson of 2013 last night.   I have some new pieces to look at and some new things to think about imrpoving.

This week I have a new Ferling study to look at - no 42.  The keys get worse as the book progresses and this one has lots of flats to get my head around.  I am also starting the Derek Bourgeouis Fantasy Pieces.  I don't know if these are technically studies or just unaccompanied pieces but I don't suppose it really matters.  I haven't had chance to try the first one out yet but the performance notes indicate that a very smooth legato is required and carefully graded dynamics so I think it could be quite tricky.

We spent most of last night's lesson on the Arnold Sonatina. I  need to make the first movement more quirky and spirited.  Make sure that I don't slow down through the cantabile sections - or at least make sure that I pick the speed up again when required.  We also looked at the beginning of the second movment which will challenge my tone and stamina.  This is a great piece for working on vibrato and thinking about how to vary the speed of vibrato to add interest and colour.

I still need to work on the Vivaldi though we didn't look at that last night.

Key points to think about over the next few weeks -
  - keeping the quality of the tone consistent throughout register.  This was picked up in my previous Ferling slow study where my top A's tended to be more pronounced than the notes around them and disrupted the line of the phrase.
 - I need to breath more quietly and also make sure I don't nod my head forward when I breath in.  I wasn't aware that I was doing this so need to do more work in front of the mirror (or maybe get round to filming myself again) to train myself out of this. 

Orchestra practice starts up again tonight and I have an all day Shostokovich 4 rehearsal on Sunday so it is shaping up to be a busy week!

A perfect lesson in reedmaking

I've been doing a lot of reedmaking practice this week.  I've had a week off work, the weather has been too poor to go out so it's been the perfect opportunity.  I also had a reedmaking lesson with my teacher this week which gave me lots of new things to try and think about.

I have to admit that I was feeling quite pleased with myself at the start of the lesson.  Before my last reedmaking lesson I didn't even really know how to tie on a reed, and now I can pretty consistently make reeds that are playable.  I wouldn't necessarily play them in public but I can manage a practice session on them.  Surely it was only matter of tweaking them a bit to get that final refinement.  I was beginning to think that reedmaking wasn't really as difficult as people made out.  Which just goes to show that ignorance really is bliss.

Needless to say that this attitude didn't last long.  My teacher wasn't as impressed as I was by my reeds.  The tips are raggedy and to get round that I am clipping them too short, my scrape isn't long enough, some of them are overbound and my knife technique needs work.  My knife also needed sharpening.

She did say that they seemd to be bound on well and the scraping was generally quite smooth and even, for a beginner.  She even said that they played much better than she would have expected.

The lesson itself felt a bit uncomfortable at the time as I was being pushed out of my "comfort zone" and trying to do things differently but, in retrospect, it was actually a perfect lesson and I came out of it with three important things:
1. The bar set higher, no longer is it enough just to make a reed that plays.  My understanding of what I am aiming to do is increased.
2. Specific things that I need to change/ practice in order to improve.  We looked in detail at my scraping technique, and where it was going wrong.
3. Confirmation that I am making progress had been made even if it was slower than I would like.

I suppose it reminded me, again, that feeling a little bit uncomfortable in lessons is a good thing because it means I'm being pushed and that feeling frustrated that my actual playing, or reedmaking, doesn't match up to what I want it to be is also a good thing because that is what drives my practice.
So over this week I have sorted through my reeds and ruthlessly put aside those not up to standard.  I've been using those as scraping practice.   I have been practicing my scraping technique, cutting the reeds, scraping the tip, cutting the reed, scraping the tip - trying to avoid damaging the corners by keeping my knife parallel to the reed, not pressing down too hard, keeping my thumb behind the blade as a pivot not on top, doing small movemnets not large sweeps, moving up the reed to the corners and then moving my knife along so I don't just use one part of the blade.  I've also been sharpening my knife. Having made lots of space in my reed box,  I've started filling it up again by tying on another 7 to see if I can make some better ones.

Why study music?

Yesterday was not really a good day and I arrived at my lesson feeling rather fraught and frazzled.  I was not really in the frame of mind for learning.  We pressed on anyway.... through a slow Ferling study that needed quietness and calmness and controlled breathing, onto the Hindemith second movement with long, sweeping slow phrases followed by a chance to really go for it with fortissimos and accented notes.  Then a sense of spaciousness and elegance with the start of Telemann's Fantasia no 7.

By the end of the lesson I felt like a different person and was ready to face  "real life" again.

On a forum that I read, someone  recently posed the question "Why Study Music?" 

For me, this is why: it soothes my soul.

Term finally begins

The new term is now underway.  I was more than a little excited about starting orchestra again, and finding out what we would be playing for the next concert.  Everyone is usually a little rusty at the first rehearsal of the year, and also a little over excited.  There is a lot of catching up to do.  I have kept playing over the summer so thought I'd find it easy to get back into it.  In some respects that was true, but I particularly noticed that my playing had become much quieter over the summer. I  think it is the practice room effect - what sounds loud when I am playing at home suddenly seems very quiet indeed when I am in a large rehearsal room playing along with a full orchestra.  Hopefully that will remedy itself over the next few weeks.

The music for this session will be enjoyable:
Debussy - Petite Suite (which I think has some nice oboe bits in)
Mozart - Magic Flute Overture
Smetana - Vltava (a simpler arrangement of the original)

We are also going to be doing a Symphony but we will get the music for that next week.

I also had my first lesson of the term.  We spent time on Luft Study 23, Telemann 4 and Orientale - all of which I was working on over summer. 

for next time I will start working on  Telemann Fantasia number 7, Luft Study 24, Ferling Study 41.
Also continue Orientale focussing on phrasing, rubato, expression and we will look at the Hindemith.

Next lesson will be in 2 weeks time.

Run up to holidays

Well Summer seems to have arrived  - for this week anyway.  My lesson last night was rather warm, to say the least.  I thought it went OK though - Luft, Telemann Fantasia and a start on the Hindemith Sonata. I  need to add in my own articulation and some ornamentation for the Telemann. I'm also still working on the Mozart - so more than enough to keep me busy at the moment.

There seems to be a lot of things coming up over the next couple of months - leading into the summer holidays.  I am trying to take them one at a time.

This week was my final orchestra rehearsal till September.  We just had a bash through some things for fun.  I nice way to finish off the term.  I really appreciate the summer break from orchestra.  By the time the first September rehearsal comes round I will be raring to go again.

I am still waiting for a date for my piano exam, which could be any time from 11 June.

On 16 June I am doing a play day with a professional orchestra - those pieces need LOTS of practice!

On both 17th and 24th June I am playing piano in the morning sevice at church.

14th July I am playing in an Adult Learner's Concert - I think I am going to play a couple of movements from French Suite.  I'd like to be able to have a go at them with an accompanist - and it is Bastille Day so it feels appropriate.  I'll also be accompanying another performer though don't know who that will be, or what they will be playing yet.

18 July - last lesson before summer holidays

21 July I've been asked to play a couple of pieces at a Garden party in aid of a local charity.  Still trying to sort out accompanist for this - I may do the French Suite pieces again, or may give the first movement of the Mozart Quartet a go.  I may also do Italian Dance by Dring.  Depends very much on how things go with the accompanist and what they can manage.

Then it will be summer holidays and hopefully a chance to take things slightly easy.  Having said that, there has been talk of chamber music sessions with Orchestra colleagues...

Nearly back to normal...

I had a great lesson last night.  The Luft studies are definitely improving my technique which is sounding much less clunky, I need to work on maintaining tuning through out though.  It was very obvious that my support was going when I was running out of air leading to a drop in pitch - very slight but still noticeable.  This also happened when I took a breath too quickly and didn't quite reset everything.  I need to practice playing through more while focussing on maintaining my tuning.

We also did some work on articulation - I have some exercises to do with scales and metronome to clean up and speed up my tongueing.  They mainly revolve around repeating each note with different rhythms with the metronome and trying to push it up.  This is definitely a weakness and should help sort out some of the raggedy areas in the Mozart Quartet.

Tomorrow we are going to London and I have a visit to the UK oboists Mecca, more commonly known as Howarths of London.  I have a long list of reed making supplies that I would like to buy, my teacher also suggested that I pick up the Hindemith Sonata. I'm looking forward to having a good browse.

I then, sadly, have an oboe-less week as we are going on holiday.  After that things are definitely going back to some sort of normality, well maybe.

New term

It still surprises me how much the school calendar dictates the ebb and flow of my life - even though I have no real connection to the education system anymore.  The Easter holiday's are over and term has begun again.  I didn't particularly have any time off work - bar the Bank holidays but it did affect oboe lessons and to an extent practice.  When routines are disrupted, practice doesn't escape the effect.  But now it's a new term.  My first lesson was last week and it wasn't particularly good, I was struggling with a new reed and had had a long day at work.  Hopefully can start again this week....continuing with the Luft studies and Telemann and Mozart.  It would lovely to have something new to work on.

The Rite of Spring performance was also last week - with practice on Monday, Friday and Saturday afternoon followed by concert on Saturday evening it seemed to dominate the whole week.  I quite enjoyed it in the end, I managed to follow the parts and be familiar enough with the music to know when to come in pretty reliably.  The performance was OK - some bits were a bit ropey but there were also some good bits, we started together, we finished together and the general pauses were generally silent.  It was certainly a good experience for me and I learned a lot about orchestral playing.  I am quite glad to get it out of the way though - now to look toward the May concert and Orchestral playday in June. 

the joys of Spring

I haven't written about lessons for a couple of weeks but they have still been happening and have been particularly good too.

I don't know why the last couple of lessons have left me with a spring in my step but I think it maybe a combination of things:

1. IT'S SPRING!  More importantly my lesson now starts and ends in the light, last night I even got home before it was dark.  This shouldn't really make a difference but it does.  Just having blossom on the trees lifts me quite a bit and makes everything seem better.

2. No nerves in my lesson - ever since I blogged about being nervous and not being able to play properly in my lessons the problem seems to have gone away!  My lesson is 10 minutes earlier than it used to be, which means I tend to arrive from work and go straight in rather than sitting for 10 minutes in my car waiting to go in - don't know if that has helped or whether it is due to seeing my teacher more "outside lessons" at orchestra....either way it is good.

3. I think I've had a step up in my playing recently.  These are magical things that seem to occur periodically in instrument learning, for me at least.  I seem to spend months practising and grappling with certain aspects without apparently getting anywhere - and then somehow my brain and fingers  suddenly sort it all out and everything sounds a bit better for no apparent reason.  I feel like I've had one of those step forwards recently - my vibrato is starting to come out a bit more naturally and my tone is starting to ring more truly and clearly, dynamic range is coming on and my fingers are becoming more fluent.   Still a long way to go of course - especially on breathing and stamina, but I feel like progress is being made.  This may all be illusory of course and just down to the fact that.....

4. I have a really good reed at the moment!

Yesterday's lesson was spent mainly on the Mozart Quartet first movement, pulling it pieces phrase by phrase trying to get the note endings right, staccato lengths, phrasing in place.  Mozart is all about the details.

Next week we are going to start on reed making.  I'm quite excited.

Practice really does work - a reminder

My lesson last night seemed to whizz past really quickly last night, some weeks they just do.  Most pleasing was my Study (no11).  It was very different to the previous ones, slower, shorter but with lots of trills to get both my head and fingers around - all in Db major as well which isn't the nicest key to play in at the best of  time.  I particularly liked being able to see a definite and substantial improvement over the two weeks I practiced it.  I know that practice leads to imrpovement but sometimes it can be so gradual to be imperceptible over a short period of time.  It can be quite dispiriting sometimes, especially as awareness and sensitivity to shortcomings often grows at a faster rate than skill which makes it feel like I'm gradually getting worse rather than better!  This study was one that I definitely couldn't play to start with, the trills needed so much thought to work out which fingers I should be trilling and then how to do the turn aruond at the end.  The trills themselves were uneven and at one point I felt like I would never put it all together.   But somehow in that two weeks something clicked, my finger muscles developed and something slowly changed so that it changed from something I couldn't play to something I could.  It certainly wasn't perfect, there is still plenty of room for improvemet but it was a long way from  where it was two weeks ago.  Which just shows that practice is really doing something, even when it feels like it isn't.

juggling and fluttering

I feel like I am going through a particularly busy time at the moment trying to juggle work and lessons and life and rehearsals with two orchestras. I am hoping this is only for a short time as it is getting rather wearing.

I had a lesson last week which went well - we looked at the Luft Study no 11.  This had two weeks of practice due to half term so was in a reasonable state.  Now looking at Study No 12 which is actually completely different to all the others so far.  It is Adagio but has a large number of trills.  I think I'd rather go back to lots of semi quavers but I know that I need to pratice trills so it is definitely doing me good.   I am now working on the last piece from Richardson's French Suite and the Mozart is coming on quite nicely.  I need to get my trills sorted out in that one too! Telemann's Fantastia no 2 is also progressing.   I have another two weeks to practice again as teacher can't do this week's lesson.  So a few more days to make progress.

Last night we had sectional rehearsals for the Rite of Spring which seemed to go well.  We looked at the very beginning and the start and end of the second part.  I have a lot of rests at the beginning so I did have at least 30 minutes of counting rather than playing to start off with, which wasn't so great but part and parcel of rehearsals.  When I did get to play it was meant to be flutter tongued chromatics.  I haven't worked out how to do this yet.  I can roll my R's quite happily and flutter tongueing on the flute is reasonably straight forward.  But doing that with a double reed is quite a different matter.  I was trying to work out how I actually roll my R's to understand why it is difficult - I think I create a focussed high speed air flow and then allow the tongue to bounce off the stream of air pressure.  A little like doing a drum roll on a snare.  Trying to do that with a reed is so difficult because it is impossible to get that amount of air down it, and the reed then gets in the way of the toungue so that it doesn't rebound in the same way.  I need to do some more experiments but I think the embouchure needs to be different and less reed needs to be in the mouth.  Whether that will still then be in tune is a different matter.  for this piece i don't think it will matter.  The oboe is lost within the flutes and clarinets who are also doing the chromatic sections so I should be able to fake it a bit. 

Half term already?

Well despite my feelings of not really being fully prepared yesterday, my lesson went rather well.

The Luft study which I thought I hadn't done enough on, seemed to have worked its way into my fingers more than I thought.  I think the long practice on Monday, followed by a day off for my brain to sort it all out, was more effective than I expected.  Hurray!  I still have a couple of little things to look at - enusring ties are held on for full length and bouncing the staccato a bit more.  But I also have to look at the next one - which has some rather scarily large intervals to negotiate, good job it is half term next week so I have 2 weeks to work on it.

Telemann Fantasia no 6 - second and third movements.  Again, the third movement came together a bit better than in Monday's practice.  I still need to think about phrasing and dynamics here.  But will also start looking at No 2.

Richardson - Causerie, French Suite.  I need to slow this down a bit, and slightly lengthen the tenuto notes, as well as making sure I don't cut short the tied notes (again).  Another couple of weeks needed on this to polish the edges.

Reizenstein Concert pieces are finished off as far as lessons are concerned, so it is finally time to start looking at the first movement of the Mozart Oboe Quartet.  I bought this music quite a while ago and it has been waiting in the wings for too long.  I love this piece so I am quite excited about finally starting to learn how to play it!

I also now have in my possession the oboe 4 part for the Rite of Spring - but only temporarily.   I need to take it back to rehearsal on Monday and get the oboe 3 part.  The oboe 4 has some Cor Anglais sections so it needs to go another player.  However, I  should get some value from looking at this part - hopefully it will at least prepare me for the worst of the 3rd part on Monday.  I will have a look and a  listen over the weekend.

It is half term next week, which means no lesson.  It is  nice to have a week off lessons sometimes and feel I can plan my practice over more days.  It gives me more flexibility to manage my time - I just need to make sure I'm not tempted to take too many days off!

keeping on keeping on

Sometimes it's just about keeping going.  This has been one of those weeks.  Lesson on Wednesday was OK.  My reed was apparently giving its swan song at orchestra as it sounded terrible the next day.  So I now have a nice new reed.  Luft study was OK, it was a fairly straight forward one though - now moving on to Study no 9. We worked on the Reizenstein Scherzino, this has kind of grown on me, and it was nice to add some final polishing touches.  We also went through the Telemann Fantasia.

Practice so far has focussed on the next study - which is much more difficult than last weeks, a real finger twister.  I'm also learning the final movement of the Telemann and improving the second movement.

It's been a tiring week all round though, it has felt like a bit of a slog at times....but tomorrow I am going to the RNCM for a woodwind play day.  It will be a day of extreme sightreading and should be a lot of fun - provided my lips hold out.

Identifying the phrase

Lesson again on Wednesday and this time I played much better. I am not sure whether it is because I am back into the routine of lessons again, because I ended up being nearly late so I went straight in instead of sitting in the car for 5 minutes or whether just acknowledging it and trying to understand it has made it go away.  For now at least.  Either way I felt relaxed enough to be able to play as I normally play in my practice room. So I felt like it was a good lesson.

The Luft study had improved a lot.  An extra week of practice to make the notes more fluent while being able to focus more specifically on breathing and stamina really helped me put the whole thing together.  I need to remember that strategy of practising getting through a whole section - from breath to breath - and then putting 2/3/ sections togetehr at a time.  I'm moving onto the next one this week, so the challenge is to identify breathing points early in the process and stick to them

I am charging through the French Suite - the Passepied came together pretty well last week, the notes aren't so difficult.  There are couple of points of rhythm and phrasing to check, moving on to the fourth piece this week.  I had a play through last night, it is the shortest piece in the work and doesn't appear too complicated.   But don't really "get" it yet.  It feels like a random collection of notes at the moment, I need to make it feel like music, with phrases and direction.

We spent some time in the lesson on Telemann Fantastia No 6.  This is another "phrasing" challenge....it feels like a theme is emerging, which I don't think is co-incidental.  My teacher has set me a challenge to understand exactly where each note is in its phrase and which direction it is moving in.  It is new to me to think about this level of detail of interpretation, and I find it difficult and that it is good.  It has made me think about the piece in a different way.  I'll be working on this over the weekend.

There was no time to look at the Reizenstein in the lesson so I will keep on with it for another week.  Last week I focussed mainly on getting the finger twisting bits more fluent, and there is still plenty more to do on that.  However last night I went straight to the middle section which has long slow, legato, fluent phrases - almost quite myseterious.  I know I need to fix the rhythm,  it does changes from 6/8 to duplets to crotchets and in parts I am aware that I am just approximating what is written. Last night I didn't get beyond the first phrase though - tone, tuning, smoothness issues were leaping out at me too much.  So I focussed on trying to make it beautiful and tryig to maintain the quality of sound through the note changes.  Too often there is a dip, or even a break, the note goes flat at the end and the phrase ends rather abruptly.  I found it quite helpful to treat it as a technical exercise and focus on improving one thing at a time. It reminded me that these are things I should be thinking about when I do my scales at the beginning of my practice.  I think there was some improvement by the end...but still a long way to go.

remembering to breathe

Lesson last night went well though I was still very aware of tension hindering my playing.  I think I relax as the lesson goes on, but I struggled playing my Luft study as my fingers wouldn't move quickly enough and it felt like an effort to get through.  I also ended up not breathing in the right places, or forgetting to breathe,then  find my fingers stop moving and so I collapse in a bit of a heap.  I think probably the key to the whole thing is getting my breathing and support right.   I have another week on this study, which is good as I think there is still quite a bit to do.

We looked at Richardson French Suite No 2 - the rhythm turned out to be more straight forward than I originally thought so this has gone pretty well this week. It needs a bit more attention to dynamics and I need to ensure that I don't play through the quaver rests.  I'll do the tidying up on my own and for next week I need to look at Number 3.

Reizenstein Concert Piece No 3 -  I need to make the notes more fluent and pick up more of the style.  Make it more quirky and energetic, make the middle section soud more drawn out.  It is in a fast 6/8 and teacher recommended counting some of it in 2 in a bar, some parts in 1 in a bar to try and contrast them, I don't know why that makes such a difference to how it sounds - but it really does.  I had a go at this piece when I got back last night and it feels like it is starting to click a bit.

Telemann Fantasias - we are starting with No 6 in D minor.

Still nervous after all these years...

First oboe lesson since Christmas today.  I don't know why it is, but I still get slightly nervous playing  in music lessons and it is always the first lesson after a break that is the worst.  I don't remember it being like this when I was a child, and, to be honest, I had far more cause to be nervous then due to my tendency to wing it on the day rather than actually practice.  I know that I practice diligently now, I get on well with my teacher, she has never given me any reason to be nervous but I still find myself making stupid mistakes and playing as if I had never seen the instrument before.  Talking to other adult learners, this is not unusual, it is still frustrating though.  Having said all that, I still enjoyed my lesson - my vibrato is improving and I need to work on increasing my dynamic range.

Pieces to practice this week:
Luft Study No 7 (new study)
Richardson French Suite No 2 (new piece)
Reizenstein Concert Pieces No 3 (continued from last lesson)
Binge The Watermill (continued from last lesson still focussing on bringing out vibrato)

Music to buy: Telemann Fantasias