Practice Journal 1: Setting the Baseline

I chose two excerpts from different pieces that we are going to play on the Winter Concert. This early in the concert cycle, I videotaped myself playing these excerpts, so I can see what to work on and observe how much I improve over these next few weeks. I specifically chose these parts of the music because I believe that they are challenging and have a variety of different skills that I, specifically need to work on.

First Excerpt: Appalachian Mountain, Measures 11-26

After listening to myself play this excerpt, I noticed many aspects that I need to work on. Over the next few weeks, I hope to greatly increase my tone quality and intonation. I need to tighten my embouchure and make a clear sound instead of a fuzzy one. Also, I have to stay in tune at all times instead of shifting between flat and sharp. The high notes especially are a part that I really have to work on. I want to work on playing the correct rhythm and playing at the correct tempo. I really need to work on the quarter note triplets and the dotted eighth note slurs. My articulation wasn't bad and I made sure to slur in the right places. I should better differentiate the length of the eight notes and the length of the sixteenth notes. I was mostly accurate with the notes, but I did miss some accidentals while practicing. I could make sure to improve my phrasing and take longer breaths to play long phrases so I don't run out of air at the end. This time around, I was not paying to dynamics, so after practicing more, I hope that I will be able to carry them out more effectively.

My goals for the next practice journal are to make my notes more accurate and try not to miss accidentals. I also want to improve my style and articulation. Finally, I want to correct the tempo and play the right rhythm. Over the course of these practice journals, I hope to fix all the problems that I had with this excerpt and the aspects I listed above.


Second Excerpt: Chorale and Shaker Dance II, Measures 163-177

In this excerpt, I had different problems than those in Appalachian Mountain though some were the same. For example, I still had problems with my tone quality. My intonation also wasn't great in this piece especially with the high notes. This section was more difficult than the last one when it comes to articulation and tempo. It is much faster than the last piece and has a mix of staccato notes and accented notes as well as a few slurs. This made it harder to play the correct notes and watch out for accidentals; the key signature of C with no B flats did not help. I missed a few of these notes and could work on my accuracy. The dynamics were fine because there really wasn't any changes that I had to make. Since there weren't really any rests, I did not do a great job at phrasing and could work on that for the next practice journal. 

I mostly want to work on playing accurate notes throughout the excerpt as well as correcting my articulation. before the next concert, I hope to improve my tone, intonation and increase the tempo.