After Practice- Concert Soon!!

Brave

I think that I really improved my tone for this video, but I always have the problem that it loosens up or becomes less focused and clear towards the end. I am better and being more accurate with the rhythms and notes, which came with practice and listening to advice during rehearsal. Throughout the process, one of the most valuable things I have learned is how really to have an effective practice session, instead of just playing the pieces over and over again.

Sun Cycles 

I feel much better about the tempo for this excerpt than I did before. I used to go too slow or rush through it, and I believe I have found a good middle ground. My tone is also much crisper and clearer than before, and I no longer get tripped up towards the end. As I mentioned before, watching myself before practice and after was really effective throughout the process. Even though I did not record all of this in my blog, it really helped me see what kind of practice strategies worked and which ones didn't.

Before Practice Videos

Brave

Tone more focused... but then slowly became less focused again
Intonation needs work- seemed sharp, especially at high notes


Sun Cycles

Tempo much better
Better tone- still fuzzy though
Needs more clear articulation between notes- some blended together

Just checking in

In addition to working on my selected excerpts, I did a lot of exercises to practice scales and work on my tone and intonation during long notes. I also marked up my music with reminders for correct notes and proper articulation. Some things that I really improved on:

• Intonation
• More focused, clear tone
• Accuracy and articulation 

Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the improvements in the next post!

Post 2- After Practice

It has been a week since my last post. Now instead of recording myself before practice, I recorded myself after practice.

Brave

Reflect:

• Still need to work on some intonation, again last note
• Tone is still fuzzy and not focused
• Better rhythm and accuracy than before

Sun Cycles

Reflect:

• Improved accuracy but still need to prefect last few notes
• Intonation is better
• Tone still not clear

First Video- Pops Concert

For this set of blog posts, I decided to take small excerpts from the music and try to focus on certain aspects of them. I also want to have some videos before and after practice.

I will be focusing on

• Brave measures 65-86
• Sun Cycles measures 26-36

These first videos are me playing without any practice or warm-up. Later, I practiced them againand saw major improvements.

Brave

Focus

• Tone- making it less fuzzy and more vibrato
• Rhythm- perfecting articulation and counting
• Intonation- especially long notes

Practice

• I worked on this by practicing with a tuner, and warming up a lot before playing to improve my tone.

Sun Cycles

Focus

• Tone- again making it less fuzzy and more directed
• Accuracy- Being confident about every note
• Counting and Rhythms- making sure each note length is accurate

Practice

• I had a proper warm-up and played the excerpt a few times over and over to hit the right notes.

Defining Terms from Spring Concert Pieces 4/29

Terms and Definitions

Allegretto non troppo- Moderately fast tempo between allegro and moderato, but not too much

crescendo- A directive to a performer to smoothly increase the volume of a particular phrase or passage

diminuendo- A directive to a performer to smoothly decrease the volume of the specific passage of a composition

poco ritardando-- A directive to perform a certain passage of a composition with a ritard the tempo, to gradually delay the tempo little by little.

a tempo- An directive to return to the original tempo after a deliberate deviation

crescendo poco a poco- A directive to a performer to smoothly, and little by little increase the volume of a particular phrase or passage

Misterioso- A directive to perform a certain passage of a composition in a mysterious manner; mysteriously.

Soli- A directive to perform the indicated passage of a composition with an entire section of an ensemble as opposed to the directive solo where only one member of the section performs.

Taken from: http://dictionary.onmusic.org/

Band Festival Reflection 3/17

This year at festival, I personally feel like I have improved a lot since last year's performance and I think that our band in general sounds much better. Still, there are many aspects that we need to improve on and imperfections in all of the three pieces.

Mad Anthony March:

After listening to the recording, I think that we needed more balance in some areas. The band was not listening through to other sections and sometimes the low voices or high voices that need to be heard were buried. We also were not always together, even though the performance was much cleaner than the first concert we played it in. We also could have used more dynamic contrast; even though I could hear a difference, it would have been more interesting and musical if there was a bigger difference. I thought that our tone in this piece seemed pretty strong and confident, and it was much more accurate technically with right notes.

Old Irish Tune:

In general, we were not together and need to subdivide more, especially during the long notes to ensure cleaner releases. It also just seemed to get boring and repetitive, so I think we should have had more dynamic contrast and phrasing. There were also some intonation issues and again I think we could have had better balance overall. In one section, I heard the clarinets play with a choppy articulation, instead of smooth and connected. I'm sure the band as a whole could have worked on this as well. We definitely needed to look up more, to make the tempo changes, crescendos and decrescendos much more pronounced, because the piece was pretty flat without these major aspects.

Three Folk Miniatures:

All three movements as a whole had tempo problems and we were not always together, or looking up. There was a lot of improvement and some good aspects but those were the major issues.

First Movement:

I think we had a really confident and loud start, which was a good first impression for the piece. Then we sped up and it was much, much faster than we had rehearsed. There were some wrong notes or instruments were going flat/sharp towards the middle of the piece. Also, some parts were nat as grand or epic because we were going so fast and rushing through these moments. It took away from the musicality of the piece. However, I thought that the flute and oboe solos sounded very nice and there were no mess-ups.

Second Movement:

Another tempo problem: this time we were really slow. We all expected this to happen and planned for it not to, but of course it still happened anyways, and I found myself looking up and worrying because nothing could really speed us up. Also, the trumpets needed to be faster at all times. I thought that the flutes had really nice tone and managed to breath in the right places, though there were some intonation problems when we had to jump octaves. I heard a clarinet squeak and some of the low voices had a shaky, rough tone. I think that we needed to be more connected sometimes and just stay together.

Third Movement:

I think that we had another confident start but the low voices had some tone troubles at the beginning. The trumpets also had a shaky tone towards the middle and the end. I heard some dynamic contrast, which sounded good but the piece was not clean overall. The ending did not sound good at all; none of us were together and our tone and intonation did not sound right. We also needed to play more accented notes and sharper articulation and the end.

Improvements for the future- reflection

For the band as a whole, I think we should make it a goal to look up more, because if we could do this it would solve many other problems. During festival, we had many problems with tempo and dynamics, so I think that if we just payed more attention to the conductor, it would solve both of these problems. I also think that we all need to keep working on building a strong tone, as we have improved on it since the beginning of the year. In addition to these aspects, we should also just try to listen more to other sections to become more balanced and know what other people's parts are.

For me personally, there are also many things that I can improve on. I want to be a better player musically by having a better tone, vibrato and intonation. If I can do this, it will help make the flute section sound better and then the band as a whole. During festival, I believe that I played confidently despite the change in setting, and actually looked up a lot more than I do during rehearsal, so the improvements that I make are purely about improving my sound.
To do this, I am going to practice more long tones and sit down with a tuner whenever I practice. I will also practice using my vibrato at different speeds.