Practice Blog #5 - Reflection

For my final practice session, I decided to play an excerpt from Call of the Wild. I believe that this excerpt, although it is only about 15 measures long, shows off my best playing. I have practiced this section over and over again because in these measures, I am part of the main melody and therefore, have to play the correct notes with good tone. This excerpt is also a bit of a challenge because the first part of it from m.26 to m.32 is primarily in the lower range for flutes. It is very easy to play very soft with horrible tone in this area because the lower the flute goes, the easier it is for it to dip flat. The higher the flute gets, the easier it is for it to go sharp. Therefore, flute is a very temperamental instrument. The second part, from m.32 to m.41, is a confusing part because the time signature changes from 4/4 to 3/4 and back every measure. Rhythm and proper counting are hard to get in this area but I feel like I have mastered it. However, I can still work on more dynamic contrast between the first and the second parts, and proper intonation and breath control. This excerpt reflects my abilities on this instrument.

Practice Blog #5

Here is my final practice blog for the concert cycle. I have recorded an excerpt of my best performance.

Practice Blog #4 - Reflection

For this practice session, I decided to combine what I was doing for the last two sessions and run through the whole Mad Anthony. Since the concert is slowly approaching, I thought it would be helpful to use the comments I made on my last two blogs to help make this one better. After listening to myself run through the piece, I think that I am pretty good at taking the key signature into account, which is huge in a piece with four flats. I also played all the notes on beat and with relatively good intonation. I have achieved marcato style in most parts of the piece, though some of the faster passages end up being connected or short. I also feel I have good intonation throughout the piece. Some things that I still need to work on is not skipping notes or playing wrong notes in some faster passages. I have figured out that the trouble spots are in the intro (m.1 - m.5), and from J to the end. These places are areas where I play pretty fast, and one of my problems in when I play faster, tone and style kind of get thrown out the window. I have figured our a good way to solve this problem, however. When I come across a trouble spot while playing, I stop and play the passage four or five times, starting very slowly and slowly working up the tempo while making sure I still have good tone and all the notes are correct. This method has really started to pay off because I am seeing improvements in these areas.

Practice Blog #4

Here is my fourth practice blog.

Practice Blog #3 - Reflection

For my third practice blog, I continued to work on Mad Anthony. This time, I played from the beginning to E. I feel that there are many positives and improvements to this part. First, the good things. I had good dynamic contrast especially when transitioning from the intro to the A section. I also thought that I played with proper rhythm. Next, the improvements. I need to work on playing all the right notes. Yes, ti sounds simple but it can make a big difference. I really need to work on playing all the notes clearly and with good tone to ensure that the sound doesn't get muddled. I think when the music gets faster, I skip some notes or play them out of tune (which is really easy to do on a flute). This counteracts the music and makes it sound pretty bad. I think that if I just clean up any note errors, this piece could be ten times better.

Practice Blog #3

Here is the third practice blog.

Practice Blog #2 - Reflection

I couldn't get a video up this time because my camera isn't working so it won't record and upload. But I can always talk about my progress. I have decided that Prospect wasn't the challenge I needed, so I have decided to work on my Solo and Ensemble piece. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten it yet from my teacher, so I need a filler piece to work on during the next couple of weeks. So I decided to work on Mad Anthony. I always have some problems with faster pieces because I tend to make lots of mistakes. I decided to work on section J to the end. This part was what was giving me the most trouble. After playing it over a couple of times, I assessed my strengths and weaknesses. I think that I have really good rhythm and counting, which is hard to get with such a fast piece. I also have good marcatto style, though sometimes it borders on stacatto. Things I need to improve on are making sure I am playing the right notes. Even though it seems like a small change, it really helps improve the whole piece. Another important change is to use more air and work on intonation because this piece has a lot of it. To conclude, I think that although I am doing some good things with this piece, I really feel like it deserves more practice time because there are many things I can improve on.

Practice Blog #2

I finally worked out the technical difficulties I had uploading all my practice blogs so here is the second one.

Practice Blog #1 - Reflection

The piece I worked on was Prospect. I chose this piece because I believe that slower songs need more work than fast - paced pieces because they require more precision and skill to master even though they look way easier. I divided up the piece into 4 parts so I could focus on each section one at a time in oder to eradicate any mistakes and problems I had. In the first section (m.1 - m.34), I believe I have some strengths and some weaknesses. To begin, I think I did a pretty good job with making sure I had the right rhythm. I played half notes for 2 beats and eight notes for half a beat and so on. Except for m.19, where I held the quater note for more than one beat, I feel like my rhythm was pretty good. Also, I got the notes right throughout the section. For improvements, I think that I could work on dynamic contrast. The beginning is marked "piano" and I am playing it "mezzo forte" because of the high notes in the first 5 measures. Therefore, when I get to m.17, I am playing it at the smae dynamic and there is no contrast. If i work on making my high notes softer, then I could have more contrast. Also, sometimes I miss the dynamics altogether and the phrases in the music are very shaped, which doesn't sound good at all in a slow piece like this one. There are many thing I am doing and can improv at to help make this piece better.

Practice Blog #1

 This is my first practice blog.

Playing Test 1 - Country Wildflowers

Playing Test - Country Wildflowers

Playing Test 1 - Improvement March

Playing Test - March 

Playing Test 1 - Canto

Playing Test - Canto 

Playing Test 1- Concert F Scale 2 octaves

Playing Test - Concert F Scale 2 Octaves