August 2008

Presently...

August 9, 2008 09:49

Ah, weddings. I'm playing in one today with my constructed string quartet consisting of violin, viola, cello and bass. It sounds pretty good, especially after some arranging of music. It's going to be a really cool wedding as far as music goes. The bride has a singer and she is singing stuff from Fiddler on the Roof, Wicked and a song that was in Shrek.

Lessons have been going very well and I really think I've improved a lot in the past few weeks. I didn't have a lesson this past week and I'm looking foward to having one this coming week. I have some questions and I would like to cover the last page of excerpts. Right now though, I'm at a plateau with my excerpts. I can play them pretty well at moderate tempo (there's only 2 I can play "at tempo"). I'm just having a really hard time getting them at the tempo my orchestra director has indicated. I tend to hit this point whenever I'm preparing excerpts and perhaps I stress out a bit over them. I really just need to work slowly on them. I tend to jump up a little too fast in the tempo department on the metronome.

I'm also playing a mental game right now because I need to do well this year. I yearn to be in the first violin section and possibly the Chamber Orchestra. Technically, I'm violin performance and I need to do these things. I've told myself that if I'm not in the first violin section that I will change my grad school ideas. I would more than likely pursue music history in grad school.

I know I've improved but some of the new techniques aren't fully cemented in and I'm still learning some new stuff. What I need to do is to go back through these new techniques and iron them back out because they have gotten sloppy as of late, especially my new bowing technique. It's too "snappy" right now and I need to make it more fluid again. Also, I need to work on shifting down at fast tempi because that is currently sloppy and generally out of tune. However, I'm am optimistic that everything will work out for the best.

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