October 2005

Natasha Marsalli is from Naples, Florida.

Oct. 1, 2005 at 12:11 PM

Well, my lesson didn't go so well.
We started work on the Kabalevsky, which Mr. Neal said is going well, but there were several wrong notes. Which means....
I HAVE TO SING THEM!
Now, you must understand here, I cannot sing. Literally. I have no voice, range, whatever. I swear it's the worst voice in the world.
And Mr. Neal knows that.
I was singing for him for about 15 minutes when I finally broke down and said "Look, I'm paying you to teach me the violin, not singing lessons."
He gave me a disgusted look and said "exCUSE me, but I think I'm the one who decided that."
Smarty pants.

I know he's right though.
Singing is good for me.
I just hate it.
I'm a proud person; anything I can't do well, I don't do.
Ice skating, bowling, and miniature golf fall into this category.
I'm a good-for nothing teen. :-)

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I didn't even think it was possible to have a good week and be in highschool

Published: Oct. 10, 2005 at 10:07 PM
Well, i haven't written for a while, with good reason.
After two brothers, I finally have a sister! My mom had a baby, Tatiana Sophie Marsalli last Thursday and came home on Saturday.
Lemme see if I can get the photo working...
[img] http://photos.toast.net/ImageResizeCache/Baby%20Tatiana-25_t2005_10_6_20_19_49_q75_f8_600x450.jpg[/img]

She's a beautiful baby, with nice, long fingers for violin playing. We have a tenth-size sitting in the closet, waiting for her. But for obvious reasons, my writing has been curtailed.

My teacher was so impressed with my work that he gave me another few pages to the Kabalevsky. I'm doing a really nice job on it; not a quick job, but slow, very accurate, and terribly expressive. i LOVE working on pieces like that! Some people like to rush through the books, just to see how many pieces they can stick under their belt before college, but me? I like to spend lots and lots of time perfecting a piece, from the intonation to the expression.

Mr. Neal was further impressed by my perfect arpeggios in D flat major. His jaw actually dropped. He was astonsihed with my weekly progress on just about everything, from my etudes to my shifting exercises to my pieces.

Even school is going well. With my violin teacher's help, I was able to plan and schedule and stick to it so that I'm not behind in anything (albeit hanging on by the skin of my teeth) and I still have time for two hours of practice a day. With eight hour long classes (some with up to three essays each due), it's rough, but I can do it!

Yesterday, we had sectionals for orchestra, which went well. Our sectionalist ROCKS! He always brings his first violinists treats; this time it was a massive jar of jelly beans. Then, the hour I had been dreading approached; String ensemble. But to my surprise, we sounded not only good, but TERRIFIC! Everyone had practiced the music, was paying attention, taking notes, and yet joking and having a good time. I was astonished! This was so different from the "just get it over with" attitude of last week, and certainly a drastic change from the "why am I here?" attitude of last year. I swear we sounded like a professional chamber group! I think we're really coming together as a team as well. We all know and respect each other, help each other out, and joke around like collegues should.
Heck, if you go to a highschool, chances are, the guy in front of you will bang the door in your face, with not so much as a glance back, even if you're carrying eighty pounds of musical paraphernalia. For some reason, guy musicians are so much more gentlemanly. I wonder why...

All in all, it has been one fabulous day after another. Hopefully you all will have a nice day too!

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Of Midterms and Missed Lessons

Published: Oct. 13, 2005 at 8:37 PM
Man am I bushed!
Midterms are next week, so I've been studying like a fiend. I came home early from the university today so I could practice, and right as I was unpacking my violin, my teacher called...
"Hi Natasha! Um...it's quarter past two and we had a lesson scheduled for two..."
Oops.

So I packed up all my junk and drove over to his house for a lesson. It did NOT go well. I started the kabalevsky too fast and kept changing my tempi, and bungled all the things I had worked so hard on. It was kind of depressing.
I'll just have to work harder. :-)

But midterms are going well.
The material this year is so much more fascinating than last year. We get to read "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", "Animal Farm", "The Betrothed", and "The Scarlet Pimpernel"...
I finished Latin midterms today (everyone REJOICE!), Math midterms, three essays, and got six books on the Dark Ages for my research report next semester. Go baby go!
;-)

I'm such a weird kid.

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Oct. 14, 2005 at 10:53 PM

I practiced a bit today, but not much.
I was too busy writing up essays, studying, etc. My thesis statement on the Dark Ages is due next week, so I'm trying to decide what I should focus on (and trying to see if I can fit music in there somewhere).

Ah! And tomorrow's Saturday! I'm going to a concert series with a friend, and the first of them is tomorrow night! I'm psyched up about that!

Kabalevsky is going moderately well. I was a very good girl and even sang some of the hard parts today. In my little practice room at the university, the security system was malfunctioning, so i only practiced for an hour. There was a beeping noise that was driving me up the wall, cause it was just a BIT slower than the tempo I was taking....ergh!

I think I'll go finish my practicing now...

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We meet again

Published: Oct. 28, 2005 at 12:40 PM
We meet again, blog.
It has been too long.
:-)

My violin teacher is still in Georgia.
His house (about one black from the ocean) has no power, so he's just going to wait up North until that gets fixed.
Leaving me lesson-less.
I spent 45 minutes (off and on) on the final harmonic in Kreisler's Sicillienne and Rigaudon.
I'm surprised I'm still alive (and my family is still alive too).
I just can't make it fast enough, and that thing is SO important.
I could just play it in first position, but it doesn't have the same look or sound.
So I'll continue beating myself up with that.

I was also approached and asked to play Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata next year.
I'm not sure I can.
Anyone out there Can a person who plays the Kabalevsky Concerto play Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata?
Even if I could, I wonder if I'd have time.
Being a highschooler is so...draining.
But this year, I'm actually starting to enjoy it.
Oh, there are times when I feel like screaming (like, say, midterms) but otherwise, the material is interesting, and I'm getting good grades.
Maybe I'm just weird...

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Natasha reveals herself to be very dangerous and evil

Published: Oct. 29, 2005 at 1:38 PM
My parents are freaked;
I've settled in to one of my constantly-practicing moods. Of course, school curtails this for the most part, but on weekends, I am unstoppable.
I don't even clock my time on weekends after two hours.
Two hours is my minimum practice requirements, but with an orchestra concert in two weeks, I just have to practice more.
So on weekends, I just leave my violin out and practice whenever I feel like it.

I've been listening to Evanescence a lot this week.
I dunno why; that's the only style of rock I like, and it's just kinda nice to listen to something different, I guess.
I'm going to dress up as a goth for Halloween.
Last year I vowed it would be my last year trick-or-treating; all the people looked at me like I was a college student.
Even though I was only thirteen, I did look like I was eighteen or nineteen.
And the neighbors here are so stingy, it's not even worth it to go.
They give you, like, one packet of Sweetarts per house, no joke.
And we give their kids a handful of chocolate candy bars each.
Candy misers.
So I'm going to stay at home, in my death-like appearance, handing out...get this...garlic.
Ha ha ha.

This morning I realized that an American Girl doll is twenty inches.
And my baby sister is also twenty inches.
Mwahaha.
So I pulled out my old box of doll clothes and I found the princess one...so I think I'll dress her up for Halloween.
MWAHAHAHAHA!

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Big Bad Orchestra

Published: Oct. 31, 2005 at 3:20 AM
I usually don't mind long orchestra rehearsals.
But a three hour rehearsal, crowned with a one hour string ensemble is just too much for anyone. Both conductors are utterly merciless; my orchestra conductor made us go over the forst movement of Swan Lake over and over and over and over and over and over again, and it's nearly all tremelo. Then my string ensemble leader (as always) wants us to play with every ounce of our strength. Of course at that point, there's nothing left to pull out!
I didn't even really get a break; recently, I've been forgetting to shut my window in the evenings, and I leave my violin hanging a few feet away. Harmless, right? Oh no, I live in Florida (I forget sometimes...I've not lived here more than a year). So after several bowhairs snapped, and I was snipping them off with nailclippers during orchestra break, I discovered green mold on the frog of my bow. So I spent the entire break fixing my bow.
My orchestra conductor had a great story today; she lives in a highrise near the ocean down here. Well, during Wilma, a tornado spawned and hit her highrise. Some firefighters were able to pull out all the people, and then one of them said "Okay, I have one minute per apartment; what belongings do you want me to get in one minute?" My conductor immediately said "My scores, I put them in the bathroom". After he brought out all of her scores, her highrise collapsed. Freaky, no? Unh, school starts tomorrow. Thank goodness for daylight savings.

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Oct. 31, 2005 at 8:06 PM

My violin teacher is back! His house was okay and everything...actually I think my friend's clarinet teacher checked up on it for him, cause they're really good friends. Which is odd...but maybe not. I mean, my friend is a lot like his clarinet teacher and I'm a lot like my violin teacher, so...I guess it's fitting.

I got up at a wretched 5:30 to get my school done early today. I'm hoping that if I drink enough Coke and eat enough chocolate, I'll be up and awake tonight. Today, on the university campus, we had crusaders and hobbits sitting in the classrooms. Some kids never grow up...I fear I shall be one of them. :-P

I'm planning on wearing fake nails tonight. My fingernails have never grown out past my finger for violin reasons (I tell my friends it's a ritual part of the rules of my religion; violinism)so that'll be weird.

Mom decided she won't let me hand out garlic, cause it's too expensive for kids to take home and throw out. So I'll just roam around the neighborhood looking threatening.

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