Festival Pieces: Pre-festival Concert Blog (2/27)

Later today is the Pre-festival concert and there is a lot that we as a band need to work on. Personally, I also need to improve a lot and since I have been practicing since my first blog, this is the official start of my process.

Second Movement: measures 23-38

I have definitely made many improvements since the first post, mostly with my tone. It sounds fuller and clearer. I still need to work on going faster and working on breathing at the right times.

Good parts:
accuracy
intonation
rhythm
articulations

Need to work on:
tone
phrasing
breathing
some intonation


Old Irish Tune: measures 33-48

The problems with this piece are similar to those of the other one, and I also have more intonation, tone and vibrato-related problems. I need to use more vibrato, instead of faster vibrato. Also, when I run out of breath, my tone turns fuzzy and the end of the long notes turn flat, so I also need to work on that. I also need to work on staying in tune when I jump to the higher octave at measure 37.

Festival Pieces: First Blog (2/20)

After looking through all three of the pieces, I decided to choose excerpts that are the most difficult for me, or the ones that I need to be more musical in. Since I already did an excerpt from Mad Anthony, I decided to try the Old Irish Tune and Three Folk Miniatures. Throughout the blog, I will probably stick to:

• Old Irish tune: Measures 33-48
• Isabeau s'y promène (3 Folk Miniatures Movement 2): Measures 23-38

Since I picked relatively slow and legato pieces, I want to work on having a clearer tone, phrasing, breathing and intonation. Of course, staying at the right tempo and having note accuracy will also be important. Today, I recorded the excerpt from Movement 2.

Second Movement: Measures 23-28

I definitely have a lot to improve on within the next month before festival. I have a fuzzy tone and cannot breathe in all of the right places. I need to work on making my breath last 4 measures and shape the music with phrasing and dynamic changes.