November 26, 2005 at 6:31 AM

Why is it that some days you can be so motivated to work and get things done and other days it's all you can do to just get through the day in a half-functioning state?
It's been a really crazy week this week...very long days and lots to get done and be at and be ready for. It's been the week of exams at school this week. I had 4 exams and two quizzes. I'm not sure I'm ready to see the results next week yet though.....

Today I'm feeling less than energetic so haven't accomplished much aside from school and some less than serious practicing. Yesterday though was a very productive day and I think tomorrow seems like it should be a good day for getting things done! I'll keep my fingers crossed!

I will not dwell too much on this week though, I had a trip to Vancouver and a concert last weekend that I haven't written about yet and some other piece of interesting news!

The trip down to Vancouver was nice. I enjoyed the drive down though had a hard time staying awake for a good part of it. It was a good day for driving, not too sunny but not rainy and dark. It's about a 5-6 hour trip depending on the traffic and weather conditions. There was a fair amount of snow in the mountain overpasses but nothing on the roads that affected ones ability to actually drive. It was nice to see the snow! And now, as of today, we have quite a nice build up of snow coating everything!

Vancouver was untypically sunny and warm. My sister was singing with a choir at UBC so we of course had to go and see that! Her choir was really good and for the most part the singers all seemed to be enjoying themself. They are supposed to be the best or second best choir on campus which is pretty impressive especially considering many of the singers aren't voice majors, some aren't even music majors! After my sisters great concert what can you do but celebrate? Not a whole lot! We went to a place called "True Confections" where they have deserts that make your jaw drop. Cakes that are 6 inches high even! Of course I went for the cake that was completely covered in chocolate and was one of the tallest in the display case! I tried a dark Belgian chocolate and orange cake. Wow! That was yummy! It was 6 layers high and it took me two sittings to eat.

My lesson went really good. In even just the space of a week and with the little time I've actually had to practice I am noticing a difference in how the Bach sounds and how my scales and everything sounds. Slow practice is proving to be a good thing for me and everything we worked on with the Bach fugue has made it easier! My Mom has even begun to notice some big differences in the last few days as I'm starting to feel more settled and less anxious when I play/perform the piece. Technically we worked on the chords and how/where to attack them. We worked on it quite a bit last lesson too but I forgot one minor that was not so minor detail that has really made a huge difference that I am incorporating it into the piece. Musically I'm starting to not feel so "planned" I feel like what we've worked on and discussed is starting to come more naturally as the technical obstacles are starting to be less in the way as they become easier making the musical side of things less forced. Ah, for the day when I can pick up my violin and have it "work"! We worked on vibrato too....my pete peeve of playing the violin and it's finally starting to become more consistent and easy for me! I don't have to be yelling at myself all the time "loosen up!" "from the arm!" "keep it even!" which is a relief now if I can just stay motivated to keep practicing it until it truly is 100% natural.

On Sunday I played the Eckhardt-Gramatte Caprice No.10 in a Canada Music Week concert in my area. There was one younger violinist who played a very sweet, short melody. I taught her the week before as her teacher was away and she wanted to be sure to get in a lesson before the concert.Other than her and I, the rest was all piano. There weren't any really really beginning players but there weren't really any overly advanced players which was kind of dissappointing. It's nice to have a little bit more variety but the concert was not very long which was good because they have in past been marathon length. My performance went pretty good overall. Being 19th to play my hands were rather cold and it took a few bars to kind of settle in and warm up. There were a couple of things that I was really annoyed at my self for screwing up but they weren't things that the audience would have known at all and I think, I hope I captured a couple of the elements that I had worked on in my lesson the day before. There's still room for improvement though!!

The interesting/exciting news of this week is that I've begun writing a composition based on about an 8 bar melody from Mozart's opera that Magic Flute. It's for a competition. I have to write a variation or set of variations on this melody and then a panel selects certain ones to air on the radio and then one will be selected to win the grand prize of $1,000. It can't be more than 3 minutes in length and I have until December 30th to get it complete. I have many ideas jumping around in my head and some on paper so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with it. I have no idea what the chances of my winning or getting it played are but it's not such a large-scale work that it's not worth the time to do something like that and have a shot at those prizes.

This is starting to get long so I'll try and close up here. This weekend is another concert. I have rehearsals tomorrow for a faculty/adulty student recital which is on Sunday. The music school I teach at is having an evening concert on a historic boat in town (it's a big boat with a nice hall) and it's geared towards the schools adult students! One of my students and I are doing a duet together and then doing some group things and then I get to join in with some fellow faculty members for some other music which I'm excited about! I don't have all the music yet, I get the rest at tomorrows rehearsals but I'm very excited about doing a triosonata with one of the classical guitar teachers and my own teacher who teaches at the school.

Well it's 10:30 and I should probably go and peel my contact lenses off before they are permanently dried onto my eyes.

From Carley Anderson
Posted on November 26, 2005 at 3:01 PM

I understand completely how you feel...re:struggling through the day without a feeling of achievement, AND the dry contact deal. CONTACTS ARE A PAIN...but just enough pros to overweigh the cons. ;)

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November 26, 2005 at 6:31 AM

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