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.

Looking forward and looking back

Summer is nearly over and in less than a week the new term will be begin.  Despite having no real connection with schools anymore - the academic year still exerts its influence.  Everything seems to stop over July and August.  Life steps down a gear - though work still continues at usual it just becomes harder to get anything done.  August is my least favourite month.

But September is something else.  I love September.  A chill comes into the air, Autumn clothes are dug out, life begins to pick up again.  After the lethargy of the "summer" I feel a new energy to embark on new projects and get back to all my usual activities.  Orchestra begins next  Tuesday with my first oboe lesson the day after.  A new term, a new academic year, a new start.  I already have my new practice book, am wondering what music we will be playing in our first Orchestra concert and have started browsing June Emerson wondering what music my teacher may suggest we work on this term.

This week I've booked myself on two courses for next year.  One is a day's reed making course, the other a weekend wind ensemble playing course.  They are both months off but I am already excited.  Later this year there is a double reed day that I am hoping to go to, and in February an annual wind play day which is always lots of fun.

Summer practice has been reasonably productive though.  At the start of the summer I wrote a list of old repertoire that I wanted to play through.  I have come to the end of that list now - some pieces I lingered over for a few days (Marcello and Cimerosa concertos, Britten Metamorphoses, Poulenc Sonata), for others one play through was sufficient (Meyer Rustical Miniatures,  Schumann Romances).  I also played through the Ferling Studies that I studied in my first year of lessons.  I've played through some of the Luft studies too.

I've managed a little bit of reed making - not as much as I maybe should have done but I have managed to do 3 or so practice sessions on reeds that I have made myself.  A small step in the right direction.

I think I've improved on the pieces that my teacher asked me to look at:

Telemann Fantasia No 4 - I think I am just beginning now to really get to grips with the second movement.  It has been a struggle - but finally it is paying off.  A few more days will hopefully make this even more secure.
Harty - Orientale.  There are some timing bits here that I can't fathom but the rest of it is coming together reasonably.  Though need to work on the cadenza runs a little this week.
Hindemith Sonata Mvt 2 - this has really grown on me.  I have been playing this along to a recording in the last couple of weeks.  It isn't something I often do but in this case it has really helped in understanding the music.  Playing with the piano accompaniment has made a number of things click into place.

Luft Study 23 - notes are fairly secure and have been working on playing through, breathing, phrasing.
Luft 24 - well, I wasn't asked to look at this, but I have done and it is sounding OK now.

Scales are becoming more engrained, I've worked on playing extended major scales (tonic to highest note on instrument, down to lowest and back to tonic) and playing major scales in 3rds.  They are beginning to be more fluent now.

I think my tuning and vibrato has also improved over the last few weeks when I've been able to put in very consistent practice.

What will this year bring?  No exams to focus on this time, but I am looking forward to improving all aspects of my playing by exploring lots of new repertoire. I would like to focus on learning to make reeds so that I can more self reliant in that departmnet.  I would also love to buy a Cor Anglais at some point.  Let's see what the year brings.

Summer plans

Oboe lessons are finished for the Summer.  It will be 6 weeks before they restart.  I avoid going away in school holidays as much as possible - so practice will continue as (nearly) normal.  My teacher hasn't particuarly set me additional work over the summer so there is a chance to add in a few extras and focus on some more fun things.

Practice this week has been good so far.  I feel recovered from my illness, which was sapping my energy, and my general playing is much improved now that I am not preparing to play in front of people!

So this is what I am doing:

1. Technical work - I've put together a tick box for this to help make sure I'm covering all aspects regularly.  It is based on an articulation one that my teacher did for me.  I find it helpful as I can record which exercises I've done, metronome speeds, scale of the day etc.  I spent some time yesterday doing slow broken arpeggios, trying to make them as legato and smooth as possible with no bumps at the change of note or register.  It is very difficult but I think I made a small amount of progress!

2. Studies - my teacher told me to look at Luft 23.  This one is harder than it looks.  There are 6 sharps in the key signature and I was very confused as it why it didn't seem to be in F# major.  It only clicked last night that a number of the B's are also sharpened and it is actually in C#major with 7 sharps. No wonder it makes my brain ache.  I think I can just about cope with 6 sharps in the key signature but adding additional accidentals just tips it over the edge.  It shouldn't take 6 weeks to sort it out though so I may have a look at number 24 too.  For a little light relief I'm playing through the studies I've already covered - both Luft and Ferling - to remind myself of how they go and also so I can make note of which studies are particularly useful for certain techincal difficulties.

3. Pieces - only 3 to look at for my lessons. Orinetale - the final miniature, Telemann Fantasia no 4, Hindemith Sonata 2nd movement.  All progressing at the moment.

4. Revision - I'm going through my music and pulling out pieces that I've covered in my lessons over the last 3 years.   It shows me how far I've progressed - bits I found hard I can sometimes now do easily. It's also just nice to have time to play pieces for fun!

This week i have been playing:
Britten - Metamophoses (4 out of the 6).  I love these so much - I should play them everyday!
Albinoni - Concerto in D, opus 7 no 6.  I played the first 2 movements for my Grade 7 exam.
Cimerosa - Concerto.  This is tricky, I may do some more work on this.
Fiocco - Ariosa.  I played this at the Adult learner's event last summer, lovely piece of music!

Hoepfully over the summer I will have chance to do more reed making too!

I am sure that it will be September before I know it!

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.

It's warm...

It's been very warm this week - practice has happened in the evening's when  it has been marginally cooler.  I've been continuing with articulation exercises though not really seeing a huge increase in speed yet. I need to keep going though.  My study this week (Luft no 18)  is in F#minor and is also good articulation practice.  I need to focus on stamina, breathing and tuning for the rest of the week. 

Telemann Fantastia No 8: I've been working on articulation in the second movement nad trying to get accuracy and dynamics too.  The last movement is getting there.

Hindemith movement 1:  Still working on the basics - notes, rhythm, articulation.  I still need to work through the second half of this.  First half dynamics, phrasing is improving.

Mozart Oboe Quartet Movement 3:  Bits are OK, other bits are very ropey.  There is some ornamentation I'm struggling to get the rhythm to - it doesn't help that it comes very soon after a change from 6/8 to cut common time.  Articulation speed is also slowing me down - but that is something that I'm working on.

Extras: I'm working on the tricky bits for Gershwin.  I'll have another You tube run through next week to see if it's any better.

I had a play through Rendez vous and Causerie from French Suite yesterday.  Total time was 5 mins and 17 seconds which is slightly longer than my time slot for the play day so may need to only do one.  I've sent music to my accompanist - the first one is quite tricky so it maybe that I have to change my piece anyway.  Hopefully he can simplify it a bit to let me play it as it is a really fun piece.

I'm waiting for a piano exam date - 15th June would be my ideal date, so let's wait and see.

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.

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. 

Mozart difficulties

Practice has been going well so far this week - mainly focussing on Luft Study  and the Mozart.  My teacher currently has my Telemann - she is writing in some articulation and I'll get it back tomorrow at orchestra rehearsal.  Scales and technical exercises are ongoing.  I am trying to push my long notes to be slightly longer to gain more control over my dynamics and improve my stamina.

Luft No 10 is beginning to come together note wise, there are a few sections that just don't go as I expect - so I have spent some time today trying to get the right notes into my head to help my fingers go to the right place.  There is a section in the middle where there are near chromatic runs up and down the octave.  It would be easy if it was really chromatic, but there is a sneaky tone in the middle, and each one seems to be slightly different.  There are also come large interval sections with leaps of more than 2 octaves which are interesting to say the least.

The Mozart piece has also been proving quite challenging.  I am not sure if it is a good thing to know a piece before learning how to play it - it has certainly made it easier to learn the notes, but it also makes it more tempting to dive straight in and try and try to play it up to speed too soon.  Either way,  the difference between the music in my head and that coming out of my instrument seems very large at the moment.  Mozart is deceptively hard to play well on any instrument- it requires lightness, a sense of effortlessness and absolute precision in articulation and dynamic control.  I'm sure it will do me good in the end.

I've also been listening to Rite of Spring on You Tube.  The only thing I can say is "oh my word..."  It will be interesting to see how it goes, I'm hoping that - like the Mahler - it will be easier to follow with a conductor.

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!

Recovery and catching up

Saturday was a really good day with lots of playing....but it does seem to have completely upset my practice routine.  Obviously I couldn't practice on Saturday and Sunday my lips were so sore that playing was not an option.  By Monday I thought I would have recovered but my embouchure stamina seemed to have gone completely and even at orchestra yesterday I was struggling.  I have my lesson tonight and don't really feel as prepared as I should be. 

Due to the missed days of practice, I tried to spend Monday's practice session really focussing on the Luft study.  I spent a long time on this one - which is in Ab major.  This is my least favourite key as the fingering is rather awkward on the oboe, so this study has been good for practising fluency of left hand Eb fingering and use of the side Ab key.  It did make my head spin a little trying to sort out which fingers to use. Hopefully I'll get another stab at it, I would like another couple of weeks to consolidate.  I have had some play throughs of the third movement of the Telemann Fantasia but have not done as much on this as I'd have liked.  My embouchure gave up on Monday before I could really get stuck in.

Orchestra last night was a night of two halves.  We spent the first half working on Sleeping Beauty.  This could definitely do with some sectional rehearsal because in places it frankly sounds pretty dreadful at the moment.  There are a number of places with repeated staccato semiquavers from the wind (clarinet, bassoon, oboe, cor anglais) which need to be precise and give support to the tune.  These are difficult to play well at the right volume -  and we don't play them well, or together, or in time with the rest of the orchestra and they are generally too loud.  Hopefully we can get it sorted before we have to perform it.  Having said that, the last movement is sounding really rather nice now.

The second half was spent looking at Night on Bare Mountain. This is probably, on paper at least, even more difficult -but somehow it seems easier to play. The fact that it is so loud and fast and almost aggressive makes it  possible to just launch yourself at it and see what happens.  Getting each note  in place isn't as important as  the overall gist and the attitude.  It seems to work.  This is really good fun to play and feels like it is coming together.

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.

Need to relax more...

Thursday's Practice Time: 75 minutes

Scales and technical exercises:  Ran through harmonic minors , minor arpeggios.  Scale for this week is E major.  I’ll talk more about this section tomorrow.

Study:  A new study so initially sight read through to get a feel for it and see where the difficulties lie.  Like the other Luft studies, stamina and working out where on earth to take a breath are the biggest issues.  I tend to collapse in a heap somewhere in the middle, usually due to not managing to breath out enough stale air.  There are some awkward fingering corners but there have been worse and it all seems managable.  I focussed today on sorting out the trills in the first few lines – making sure I knew which fingers should be trilling and practising them slowly.  There's also interesting section of semi quavers with accented but untongued notes at the start of each group of 4.  These require a push from the abs/ diaphragm to stress them.  Watching in the mirror I seemed to be making a lot of physical effort without hearing much difference in the sound which suggested that something was going a bit wrong.  A bit more experimentation suggested that although I was pushing with my abs something else was happening with my shoulders and throat which was resisting that push so it made no difference except to upset my embouchure.  Focus of rest of study practice was doing this section slowly and being very conscious about pushing from the right place and relaxing my arms and shoulders.  There was some improvement by end of the pratice but this needs more investigation as there is definitely something amiss here.  I suspect this same resistance problem is limiting my dynamics at the top end and also preventing me fully exhaling my stale air before taking a breath.

Richardson: This is a new piece so my main focus, again, was on working through the whole piece to identify the problem areas.  First impression is that I like it (always goos).  There are some awkward sections from a fingering point of view, I need to think about how to play it musically – where are the phrases as they are generally uneven and not always initially obvious.  However teh  first hurdle for me is a rhythmic one.  It switches between 9/8 and 6/8 sections, I think I need to become more familiar with the individual sections before working out how to transition between them properly,   so I’ll focus on sorting out the 9/8 bits initially

Reizenstein: Did some work on the initial section, will focus more on this tomorrow

Binge: Had a play through this, I need to remember to build my phrases more rather than rounding off every 2 bars.  This is also a good piece for practising vibrato.  Vibrato does seem to be a bit of a mystery although some work has been done to identify exactly which muscles produce it and how it is controlled. Diaphragmatic “bumps” are meant to help you discover it and allow it to emerge in practice you don’t really use this muscle to produce it eventually.  I can feel a more natural vibrato emerging but I think I am trying to fight  it either by tensing up to stop it – probably linked to the issue above, or by trying to control it too much and imposing another vibrato on top of it using my diaphragm.  I think it is one of those things that you need to not think about too much.   Need to relax more and let it happen.

Orchestra: Ran through tricky bits in the Mahler to finish off, though in reality I think the trickiest bit of all will be counting the rests and making sure I come in at the right time.  There are lots of changes of tempo and time signature while counting large numbers of bars.  I am playing this with another local orchestra.  They needed a third oboist for the piece, my teacher is their principal oboist and asked me if I could do it.  Full day rehearsal for this on Sunday so will write more after that.

Overall felt like a good practice with a number of issues identified to work on over the next week.

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

First practice of the year

Good 45 minute practice today following nearly 2 weeks holiday.  My stamina and tone was better than expected and a number of things seem to have fallen into  place during the break.

I spent quite a bit of time on Luft Study no 6 - the hardest thing about these studies is stamina, and finding somewhere to breathe, and making it sound like music instead of an endurance test.  But it the notes feel a bit more secure now, and my brain seems to have sorted out the tricky section going up in thirds while I've been away.  Need a bit more work on making the final 2 notes sound a bit nicer, and less flat.

Rest of practice was playing through pieces for lesson on Wednesday and also had play through some sections of the oboe 3 part for Mahler Symphony no 3.  Again my brain seems to have sorted out some of the fiddly bits and I could manage to get through the section in 6 flats without tying my brain in knots.

I also did some vibrato practice.  This needs to be my main goal for this term.  I would really like to develop a vibrato which feels more natural and is more integrated into my tone.  It has definitely improved over the last couple of months - just need to keep going