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)

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 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.

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...

Concert, Gershwin, Reeds

The concert on Saturday went well I think.  The venue was lovely, my reed worked and we had a good turn out.  One of my friend's came to see me and she really enjoyed it, which was lovely.  I quite enjoyed it in the end but I didn't really engage with the pieces in the same way I had at other concerts and it did feel as if we hadn't really had enough weeks to practice.  Some of the pieces still felt slightly unfamiliar, which was rather disconcerting.  I think - aside from the Elgar - my favourite bits were the second movement of the Arnold Suite and the Britten dances.  We have two more rehearsals before summer break, though I can only make the first one.  I am looking forward to seeing what we do.

On Sunday I felt a bit overplayed so I didn't do a proper practice session.  But I did have a look at Gershwin's American in Paris which I am playing in an Orchestral playday in June.  I have been looking at bits of it but I had a go playing it with a You Tube recording for the first time.  It really is very difficult.  It actually made me feel rather stressed about the whole event because I know that there are bits that are just beyond me.  I think I need to make this a priority for practice over the next few weeks.  But one of the biggest problems is the speed of articulation required - which I have been working on but is not a quick fix.

I also picked up my reed making again.  I had a go at sharpening my reed knives - reasonably successfully I think.  I began scraping the three reeds I tied on a couple of weeks ago and very soon had 3 cracked reeds.  I'm not sure if it was a problem with tying on, not soaking enough before trying to scrape or just a bad batch of cane. I probably need to do the initial scrape immediately after tying on though when I know that the cane is well and truly soaked through.    I will do some more tying on later this week.

Summer concert

Tomorrow my orchestra has it's summer concert - not that it is particularly summery at the moment.  This is our last concert before the summer break and we will start meeting again in September.  The actual concert seems to have come round so quickly that I've not blogged anything about this program so far.   So this is what we are playing:

Suite In E flat - Holst
Suite of Dances from Gloriana - Britten
The Merry Wives of Windsor - Nicolai
Little Suite for Orchestra - Arnold
Sea Pictures - Elgar (with guest soloist)
Crown Imperial - Walton

It is a very British program - presumably due to the Jubilee.  It is also a program I am struggling to get excited about.  There is nothing I particularly dislike....well, maybe the Walton...but there is also nothing that I particularly love either.  There are no pieces that I am really looking forward to playing - which is a first for me.  But sometimes it is like that, and many people in our orchestra really didn't enjoy the Russian pieces we played last time.  I am sure the concert will be fun.  The Elgar sounds very good with our solo singer - I have very little to play in that so I will enjoy listening to her!  But I am also very much looking forward to finding out what we are playing next!

Taking on too much...

I thought I ought to write something as it has been a while

I went on holiday for a week, which was lovely, but meant a break in practising.  Since then it has been a struggle getting back into it, mainly because work and life has been so busy.  I have still been practising most days but it has often felt like a tick on the list of things to do.

I've also, possibly foolishly, have entered  myself for ABRSM Grade 8 Piano this session.  I haven't talked about piano here as it is something that usually bubbles along in the background.  I play when I feel like it and I play at church occassionally.  I don't have lessons but I work on things at my own pace, I don't feel guilty about not touching it for weeks at a time but will have times when I find I play a lot.   Last year I decided I wanted to retake Grade 8 to see if I could pass it properly - to see if I could improve on my "scrape through by one mark due to being good at sight reading" effort when I was 15. My piano teacher at the time said that I shouldn't really have passed which has always rather a sore point.  So, when I realised that I could actually play 3 pieces on the list, I thought I should maybe just get it out of the way.  So far so good.

The problem is  that now I feel I have to practise properly and regularly - which takes time and energy.  While I enjoy the actual playing, I find that after practising one instrument the thought of having to start all over again with another instrument makes my heart sink.  It is all just a bit too much.

However I know that it is a temporary problem and the end is in sight - the exam will be possibly as soon as 1 month away and then I can go back to focussing on my oboe exlusively.   I will also have finally learnt the lesson that working full time and trying to learn 2 instruments at this level really is not possible for me.  I need to make my choice and stick with it.