September 2004

September 28, 2004 18:19

oooh, i'm slightly sore. it's 9am and I've already done 3 hours of violin practice. I'm working tonight and have a full day at uni, so this was the only time i could get my practice done. Did work on scales, Kreutzer, my orchestra pieces, and then work on my pieces - Telemann and Haydn, then Weiniawski and Suk. Suk's come on really well, and really quickly. I really like the piece, and it's AMus level, but not too hard (or so I've found). And a fairly exciting piece to play.

Hmm, Got to get this concert organised. I'm organising a concert in December with some of my friends to show what talent there is in our younger generation of musicians. I know it's only End of September/Early October, but I've still got to get some posters up and advertising started - Especially around uni's seeing as the uni students will be off from uni in November.

Oh well, best get off to uni, got Orchestration and Arrangement, with an assignment due in

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September 21, 2004 17:49

Well, I'm on mid-semester break at the moment, so it's lots of study and practice for me. Yay!
During term time I find it difficult to get 3 or 4 hours of practice time in as well as study (hence one of my assignments which was due in at the beginning of the semester still hasn't been handed in, with only 3 weeks left of classes). So I relish these opportunities to really practice all the stuff that I've been needing to do.

Usually I get in two hours a day minimum, one on scales, etudes and some of my orchestra stuff, and the other focussing on one of my pieces. Now with all this extra time, I can do that hour of scales, etudes and orchestra work, an hour on my chamber orchestra music (which needs alot of work seeing as I can't hide behind a large section) and an hour or two on my pieces, usually split between Weiniawski's Legende and the Appassionato from Suk's 4 pieces for Violin and Piano.

Went to the optomitrist's yesterday. Turns out I'm short sighted. I've noticed my eyes getting worse and worse, but I didn't realise how bad they actually were untill the testing. She covered my first eye and i was completely shocked - I could only read the top line and make out parts of the second line. my other eye was a bit better, I could make the second and third lines. So I'm getting some glasses for long distances - lectures, driving, movies etc. SHouldn't need them in orchestra, but I do sit a long way from the conductor... hmmm

7 weeks untill my exams start. New piece to learn, and hopefully get my full driving licence as well... I think I should go do some stuff.

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September 15, 2004 01:55

I finished my first Orchestral Compostition last night, something I had been working on for over a year. It's called The Derby and is about the Western Derby, a twice yearly AFL match between the two local teams in my state. It's a pretty cool piece, even if I do say so myself.

That has prompted a fairly big update at my site (Ben Clapton, Violinist and Composer) and you can now listen to all of my composed pieces and e-mail me with the comments. Please do, I'd love to hear what you think of them.

If this aspect of my site starts getting used a fair bit, I might investigate getting recordings of my violin pieces to place on the site as well.

Oh well, I should go get some dinner. Working tonight and it's easier to work on a full stomach.

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September 2, 2004 05:47

ok, time for an update (i'm getting really slack in these):

Spent the last 4 weeks learning Legende, which I now have pretty much under my fingers. I'll perform that at Instrumental Workshop in the next few weeks.

Today I had Concert Practice, which was interesting because I only realised that I had it a week before-hand, and my accompanist cancelled at the last minute, but the university had arranged a replacement which was cool.

Performed fairly well, many comments said that it was a strong performance, and I just need to conquer nerves a bit more. There was a memory lapse in the start of the recapitulation, which I couldn't recover from, but apart from that it was strong, especially my cadenza which had alot of double stoppings in it.

My accompanist, a specialist in Classical and Baroque music, said that the edition that I had been using was a poor copy and I should find an original and get the ornaments correct.

Next confirmed performance will be early december in a concert I am organising in which will hopefully be the start of a series of concerts for young performers to give them performance experience. I have 5 performers lined up for a 2 hour concert which will hopefully pay for itself.

I reported a while ago that i had chosen my final piece for the year, Weinawski, well that's not quite true as I now have a 20th century piece which I'll start work on soon, Suk's four pieces for piano and violin op 17. I'm not sure which one I'll be doing, as I haven't actually started them yet, but I'm looking forward to it, they look great

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More entries: October 2004 • August 2004

September 2004

September 28, 2004 18:19

September 21, 2004 17:49

September 15, 2004 01:55

September 2, 2004 05:47

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