Tuesday, 27 March 2012
..two steps back
Hvaing written about how well things were going it was probably inevitable that it would all go a bit pear shaped. I have been unwell for the last two days and not been able to play - not too ill to go to work but by the evening it hurts too much to breath normally to even contemplate playing. I feel like I've lost all momentum. I am meant to be going to orchestra tonight - hopefully I will be well enough and will have enough residual stamina to get through . It could be a hard evening.
Thursday, 22 March 2012
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.
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.
Monday, 19 March 2012
A night of Russian Music
Saturday was our orchestra concert, our programme was:
Borodin - Steppes of Central Asia
Borodin - Petite Suite
Glinka - Ruslan and Ludmilla
~ interval ~
Mussorgsky - Gopak
Mussorgsky - Night on Bare Mountain
Tchaikovsy - excerpts from Sleeping Beauty
It generally went a lot better than I expected it to. The afternoon rehearsal was really rather ropey in parts and I was a bit worried that it would all fall to pieces a bit. I should have known that my fear was unfounded. There were some challenging moments on the night, a few entries in the Glinka were not quite where they should be, we were not quite together for parts of Bare Mountain. But, overall, I think it was the best we had ever played the programme as a whole and, from my perspective at least, there were a few spine tingling moments that made me (once again) proud to be part of this orchestra. The shimmering violins in the Steppes of Central Asia sounded just magical, our 80+ year old Cor player who has been struggling with the solo part really pulled it out of the bag on the night and really did herself, and us, proud. The sound of the full orchestra really going for it at the beginning of the Glinka made my heart sing. In Bare mountain we all nailed the sudden stop before it begins winding up with the bassoon chromatic scale....you could have heard a pin drop. The solos at the end of the piece with flute and clarinet were just beautifully played. I really enjoyed my duet with the flute in the Sleeping Beauty waltz and I managed to get the scale right in the middle of it.
I hope that the audience enjoyed it as much as we did. We had a modest but respectable number of people there. I do wonder sometimes if amateur orchestras at our level are actually more fun to be in than to listen to - certainly our audience could have heard better performances elsewhere. But I think an amateur concert is about more than just playing music.
I loved this article about amateur orchestras - which can be summed up by the following quote:
“A typical effort will be littered with a continuum of faults. The problem is that audiences, weaned on the synthetic perfection of commercial recordings, tend to be unthinkingly intolerant of faults in even live professional performances, let alone amateur ones. I argue (long and hard) that audiences must tailor their expectations, just as do those who tolerate the sound of ancient recordings, to 'listen through' the surface imperfections to the music that lies beneath. The tolerant are richly rewarded. Enthusiastic amateurs, perpetually striving against their limitations, restore to Music what is lost to the prosaic professional: the elements of risk and danger; the familiar becomes new, challenging, exciting!”
On Saturday we certainly stepped out of our comfort zone, it was risky for us but exhilerating to feel like we succeeded in pulling it off. Now on to the next one, continuing to strive against our limitiations...
Borodin - Steppes of Central Asia
Borodin - Petite Suite
Glinka - Ruslan and Ludmilla
~ interval ~
Mussorgsky - Gopak
Mussorgsky - Night on Bare Mountain
Tchaikovsy - excerpts from Sleeping Beauty
It generally went a lot better than I expected it to. The afternoon rehearsal was really rather ropey in parts and I was a bit worried that it would all fall to pieces a bit. I should have known that my fear was unfounded. There were some challenging moments on the night, a few entries in the Glinka were not quite where they should be, we were not quite together for parts of Bare Mountain. But, overall, I think it was the best we had ever played the programme as a whole and, from my perspective at least, there were a few spine tingling moments that made me (once again) proud to be part of this orchestra. The shimmering violins in the Steppes of Central Asia sounded just magical, our 80+ year old Cor player who has been struggling with the solo part really pulled it out of the bag on the night and really did herself, and us, proud. The sound of the full orchestra really going for it at the beginning of the Glinka made my heart sing. In Bare mountain we all nailed the sudden stop before it begins winding up with the bassoon chromatic scale....you could have heard a pin drop. The solos at the end of the piece with flute and clarinet were just beautifully played. I really enjoyed my duet with the flute in the Sleeping Beauty waltz and I managed to get the scale right in the middle of it.
I hope that the audience enjoyed it as much as we did. We had a modest but respectable number of people there. I do wonder sometimes if amateur orchestras at our level are actually more fun to be in than to listen to - certainly our audience could have heard better performances elsewhere. But I think an amateur concert is about more than just playing music.
I loved this article about amateur orchestras - which can be summed up by the following quote:
“A typical effort will be littered with a continuum of faults. The problem is that audiences, weaned on the synthetic perfection of commercial recordings, tend to be unthinkingly intolerant of faults in even live professional performances, let alone amateur ones. I argue (long and hard) that audiences must tailor their expectations, just as do those who tolerate the sound of ancient recordings, to 'listen through' the surface imperfections to the music that lies beneath. The tolerant are richly rewarded. Enthusiastic amateurs, perpetually striving against their limitations, restore to Music what is lost to the prosaic professional: the elements of risk and danger; the familiar becomes new, challenging, exciting!”
On Saturday we certainly stepped out of our comfort zone, it was risky for us but exhilerating to feel like we succeeded in pulling it off. Now on to the next one, continuing to strive against our limitiations...
Thursday, 8 March 2012
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.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
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.
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.
Friday, 24 February 2012
"Non-lesson" practice piling up!
I've suddenly realised that I have an awful lot of orchestral pieces to practice - in addition to normal lesson work and that maybe I need to be a bit more organised about it. So I spent last night doing a review to see where I am up to with everything and which pieces need some personal practice, in the hope that it will then seem more manageable. This is what I came up with:
Regular Orchestra (concert 17th March, 4 orchestral rehearsals to go)
Borodin- Steppes of Central Asia - no issues
Tchaikowsky - Sleeping Beauty - think I've sorted the scalic runs now so should be fine.
Glinka - Russlan and Ludmilla - again, although fast, the notes are fairly straightforward.
Borodin - Petit Suite - small sections in the final movement that I need to look at - I need to process all the double sharps!
Mussorgsky - Night on Bare Mountain - most of this is OK but I think I need to go through a couple of times on my own to tidy up bits.
Overall pretty good shape with a little bit of tidying up to do.
Teacher's orchestra (concert 21 April, 7 orchestral rehearsals to go)
Stravinsky - Rite of Spring - lots of issues!
Actually part 1 is in pretty good shape. I need to keep working on part 2, mainly slow work with metronome to try and get the rhythm right and then keep speeding up. Quite a long way to go on this with a good number of rehearsals so hopefully it will come together.
Regular Orchestra (concert 19 May)
We will start work on this after the March concert - have no idea what the programme will be yet!
Playday "Superorchestra" - (concert 16 June, rehearsals on the day only!)
Gershwin - American in Paris
Stravinsky - Firebird (extract)
Walton - Crown Imperial
I need to keep plugging away at these, a little every day. I will get some recordings of them to help, in the absence of rehearsals. The Walton seems reasonably straight forward apart from the speed! So I am just clicking up the metronome bit by bit.
Firebird is more straight fowrard than Rite of Spring and we are only doing an extract. I've worked through about a quarter of it so far.
Gershwin I've not really look yet, it looks rhythmically complicated and it is quite long so I need to get stuck into this.
I'd liked to have at least played my way through all of these by the end of March so then it will just be a case of getting the speed up and working on the trickiest bits.
Conclusion
It's kind of in hand - I need a bit of a push this week for March concert and can then focus on Rite of Spring while still doing 5 minutes a day on the stuff for June. And yes it does feel more manageable now.
Regular Orchestra (concert 17th March, 4 orchestral rehearsals to go)
Borodin- Steppes of Central Asia - no issues
Tchaikowsky - Sleeping Beauty - think I've sorted the scalic runs now so should be fine.
Glinka - Russlan and Ludmilla - again, although fast, the notes are fairly straightforward.
Borodin - Petit Suite - small sections in the final movement that I need to look at - I need to process all the double sharps!
Mussorgsky - Night on Bare Mountain - most of this is OK but I think I need to go through a couple of times on my own to tidy up bits.
Overall pretty good shape with a little bit of tidying up to do.
Teacher's orchestra (concert 21 April, 7 orchestral rehearsals to go)
Stravinsky - Rite of Spring - lots of issues!
Actually part 1 is in pretty good shape. I need to keep working on part 2, mainly slow work with metronome to try and get the rhythm right and then keep speeding up. Quite a long way to go on this with a good number of rehearsals so hopefully it will come together.
Regular Orchestra (concert 19 May)
We will start work on this after the March concert - have no idea what the programme will be yet!
Playday "Superorchestra" - (concert 16 June, rehearsals on the day only!)
Gershwin - American in Paris
Stravinsky - Firebird (extract)
Walton - Crown Imperial
I need to keep plugging away at these, a little every day. I will get some recordings of them to help, in the absence of rehearsals. The Walton seems reasonably straight forward apart from the speed! So I am just clicking up the metronome bit by bit.
Firebird is more straight fowrard than Rite of Spring and we are only doing an extract. I've worked through about a quarter of it so far.
Gershwin I've not really look yet, it looks rhythmically complicated and it is quite long so I need to get stuck into this.
I'd liked to have at least played my way through all of these by the end of March so then it will just be a case of getting the speed up and working on the trickiest bits.
Conclusion
It's kind of in hand - I need a bit of a push this week for March concert and can then focus on Rite of Spring while still doing 5 minutes a day on the stuff for June. And yes it does feel more manageable now.
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Remember this is meant to be fun
I think this week has helped me to remember to just go with the flow a bit more regarding practice. This is meant to be fun! I can get too caught up in making everything structured and sticking to the same routine every day. Sometimes that just doesn't work and it all becomes a bit of a chore. Sometimes it is good to do something different, sometimes it is good to take a day off. Take this weekend for example:
On Friday I got home to find some orchestral music on my door mat. They are practice parts for a "play day" event I'm booked on with a professional orchestra in June. It is an opportunity for amateurs to play along with the professional orchestra - with rehearsals in the day and a concert in the early evening. The places are very limited and I needed to be quick to book before it sold out. I was quite excited to see the music, so it was nice to be able to just dive in and have a play through. I did do some "normal" practice too but it was nice to put the routine aside for a while and just play what I wanted to play!
On Saturday I had a migraine and spent the afternoon asleep. By the time I felt human again, I could maybe have practiced...but there were more pressing jobs to do (like making sure I coudl play the hymns for church on Sunday morning). I took a day off and chose not to feel guilty about it.
Sunday afternoon I had the house to myself and had a very productive practice session. The study is coming along and I was able to increase the speed and plan in my breathing better. The Mozart is improving - there are a couple of bars with tricky rhythms and I spent some time getting them right. I played through a lot of the Rite of Spring - trying to get the tricky rhythms right with a metronome. And I worked on some of the play day pieces. I ended up doing a longer session than planned without even realising it. The time seemed to fly by.
Yesterday I had a long and tiring day at work, I feel like I am going down with a cold. Practice happened but it felt like a bit of slog. I got a few useful things done, but by the end I was more clock watching and my embouchure was tired. I may have been recovering from overdoing it the day before as well. I decided to stop earlier than planned.
The upshot of all that is, between a day off, a longer session, a shorter session, a normal session - it all eventually balanced out to be roughly the same amount of weekly practice that I normally do. I do appreciate having structure and discipline in my practising and I think it is important. But I need to stop that becoming a strait jacket and be more flexible at times and trust that in the long term it will all balance out. This is meant to be fun!
On Friday I got home to find some orchestral music on my door mat. They are practice parts for a "play day" event I'm booked on with a professional orchestra in June. It is an opportunity for amateurs to play along with the professional orchestra - with rehearsals in the day and a concert in the early evening. The places are very limited and I needed to be quick to book before it sold out. I was quite excited to see the music, so it was nice to be able to just dive in and have a play through. I did do some "normal" practice too but it was nice to put the routine aside for a while and just play what I wanted to play!
On Saturday I had a migraine and spent the afternoon asleep. By the time I felt human again, I could maybe have practiced...but there were more pressing jobs to do (like making sure I coudl play the hymns for church on Sunday morning). I took a day off and chose not to feel guilty about it.
Sunday afternoon I had the house to myself and had a very productive practice session. The study is coming along and I was able to increase the speed and plan in my breathing better. The Mozart is improving - there are a couple of bars with tricky rhythms and I spent some time getting them right. I played through a lot of the Rite of Spring - trying to get the tricky rhythms right with a metronome. And I worked on some of the play day pieces. I ended up doing a longer session than planned without even realising it. The time seemed to fly by.
Yesterday I had a long and tiring day at work, I feel like I am going down with a cold. Practice happened but it felt like a bit of slog. I got a few useful things done, but by the end I was more clock watching and my embouchure was tired. I may have been recovering from overdoing it the day before as well. I decided to stop earlier than planned.
The upshot of all that is, between a day off, a longer session, a shorter session, a normal session - it all eventually balanced out to be roughly the same amount of weekly practice that I normally do. I do appreciate having structure and discipline in my practising and I think it is important. But I need to stop that becoming a strait jacket and be more flexible at times and trust that in the long term it will all balance out. This is meant to be fun!
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