Practice Techniques

When I practice, I use a variety of techniques to help me practice better. Whenever I start my practice sessions, I always play from a low E to a C chromatically, using my mouth to change to octave from low to high and back on each note before moving to the next one.  This helps warm up my embouchure to play better when I get to my pieces. Next, I play through some scales to warm up. After that I tune myself before I start playing my pieces. Once I get to my pieces, I play through each one, just to figure out the trouble spots. Once I play through a piece, I work on all the trouble spots, one by one, till I start to understand the part better. When I find a trouble spot, I will play it over and over slowly, and then up to tempo eventually. Once I do this for one piece, I will do the same for all of my other pieces and finish up practice. This is my practice routine. 

Challenging Section Reflection

I felt that this section of the piece was the most challenging because there are a lot of runs in the section, which requires fast fingers. Also, the intonation can be difficult as some of the notes are high, and even though they are easy to play, they are sometimes hard to play in tune. Also, breath control is important because the runs in the section are very continuous and if you don't breathe in the right places, you are effectively cutting the phrase off and making notes shorter. Breath control is one of the main things I need to work on in this piece as well as articulation because all the notes are tongued and I need to work on my double tonguing in this section to make it easier to play. The notes and rhythms are quite simple and easy, but the other things, such as articulation and breath control are important to make this section sound better.

Challenging Section Performance

This is measures 95-111 from Moscow, 1941. I felt that this was the most challenging section of the piece.

Musical Terms and Ability Reflection

Musical Terms
Piece #1: Arabian Dances

• Tutti - The part of the piece that is played by the whole orchestra, not the solo instrument. 
• Forte - Loud 
• Fortissimo - Very loud 
• Tr - trill 
• Crescendo - Gradually get louder 

Piece #2: Moscow, 1941

• Andante - Walking speed 
• Poco accelerando - To gradually get faster 
• Poco ritardando - To gradually get faster
• A tempo - Return to the original tempo 
• Diminuendo - To gradually get quieter 

Ability Reflection 

I think that this music is easy as far as notes and rhythms go, because there is nothing too complex. Of course, there are some trouble spots, but those will be fixed with practice. This music gives me the opportunity to work on things beyond notes and rhythms, such as articulation, intonation, style and vibrato, which will help when we get music that is harder to learn. 

Introduction

This is the first post on my 2014-2015 band blog. My name is Harshini Sivakumar and I am a sophomore here at IA. I play flute and have been playing for 2 years now and I have really enjoyed playing flute. I also play piano and have been playing for 8 years, which really helped me learn flute because of the solid foundation I have received about the basics of music that are common in all instruments. I love to play fast music, but I am now playing more slow music and I really enjoy slow music that has a direction; music that is going somewhere. I also love to play both contemporary and classical music. My favorite composer is Chopin. I really love his waltzes. This is a little bit about me and my musical background.