Festival was a very new experience for me, as this is my first time doing Festival, and I thought it was a very fun and enriching experience. I thought that we did a lot better than we were expecting, and that we are definitely improving as a band. First, I would like to talk about the performance. Our three songs were very good, and I thought that our confidence was reflected in our music. Mad Anthony was the best song out of the three, obviously, since we have been playing it since November. Our beginning was really good and we had lots of good dynamics, intonation, breath control, and articulation throughout the piece. The trio from E to I was really good and the clarinets played out a lot better than they did at rehearsal. In terms of the flute, I thought that our section did a very good job with the little runs that we played while others were holding out notes especially in section A and B. Mad Anthony was definitely the best piece. Next was Old Irish Tune. This was also better than in rehearsal and I think we really captured the style of the piece. This song wasn't perfect, but it was very good. There were some intonation issues in the flutes when we got to the lower range, but we managed to keep a steady pitch as much as possible. I also think we had lots of good vibrato in this piece, which is very important. Overall, this piece was really good. Finally, Three Folk Miniatures. I think this song was truly the difference between a 1 and a 2. The first movement was really good, except it was way faster than it should have been. The trumpets sped it up at m.6 and it was almost too fast. The dynamics and everything else, including the flute solo was good, but the tempo was off. In the second movement, the opposite happened. At m. 7 and 8, the trumpets slowed down their part, which is not good because it becomes really boring to listen to with no forward motion. The third movement was the right tempo but it lacked some articulation and style. Overall, this piece needed the most attention and work. Festival was a really good experience and one that I will always remember.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Practice Blog #10
For this blog, I practiced the entire Three Folk Miniatures. I took into account the things I needed to fix and tried to fix them. In the first movement, I made sure I did the forte - piano in the trill, and kept the pitch steady during the trill. Also, I made every note was on the beat and staccato. For the second movement, I made sure I slurred all the notes that needed to be slurred and kept the piece moving forward. I need to work on my breath control. Right now, I can make it 3 or 4 measures, but I run out of air quicker than I want to, so I really to work better phrasing. Also, I thought that m.23 to 31 was a lot more controlled than it was the first time, and I worked on hitting all the notes at 31. In the third movement, I worked on the style of the piece - marcato - and made sure it stayed that way the entire time. I also worked on spacing my 8th notes at m.35 so they wouldn't clump together. Overall, I think this piece has gotten better, but it still needs some work.
Practice Blog #9 - Reflection
For this blog, I worked on the last half of the third movement of Three Folk Miniatures. For this part, I need to work on clearing up all the notes in m. 35 - 41, where I have repeated notes. Sometimes, they don't come out as staccato notes and they clump together. Also, I need to work on the 2/4 measure because not all of the 16th notes come out. Also, I need to make sure I have the right rhythm in m.42 to 44 because the time signature changes a lot there. My trill at the end is pretty good, it just needs to be more smooth and even. My timing on the notes in 24 to 27 are good and right with the beat. This section definitely needs more work.
Practice Blog #8 - Reflection
For this practice blog, I worked on the third movement of the Three Folk Miniatures. I worked on the first part of it from the beginning to m.24. In this section, I need to work on making sure I have the correct tempo and all the notes come out in this section. I also need to the 3/4 measure and count that rhythm properly. Also, I need to work on the trill in measure 8 because it is a bit slow and uneven sometimes. I have all the notes and the rhythms correct, especially on measure 5. Overall, this is the better part of this movement.
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