April 2003
Wow. Margaretha totally ripped apart my playing today, but thats good. i mean, i got knocked into shape because of her. well, first of all, it was my fault that she had to be kind of mean today. my tchiakovsky (the 2nd mvt of the concerto, just transposed for viola) was soooooooooo out of tune. i mean totally. second, i didnt do any of the sliding shifts....did i mention everything was out of tune? i was so upset i almost started crying.....i think i might study with her over the summer. shes all into like, expression, and then technique. she says im too technical and not enough musical. uhhh.....im a 16 kid from long island, how much does she expect me to know with it? anyway, she also told me some exercises to work on ym ashifting. my problems were that im usual in tune, but when im not, its b/c my whole hand isnt making the shift, and that i need to turn the hand over more, and shift with the whole hand, not just the finger. so i worked on that for about 40 minutes.....ugh....now, im gonna practicing some more. later all.
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wow. i am totally obsessed with the 2nd mvt. of the sibelius violin concerto. i have to get the sonnenberg recording. i have the heifetz reocrding(ughhh) and the mutter recording(mmmmmmmm). but sonnenberg plays it well. i heard the best recording of the walton viola concerto the other day with....WILLIAM PRIMROSE! hes so cool. too bad he's dead. waaaaa! i wish he werent so i can tell him he was the man. anyway, i have that concert for the retirement center this sunday. ugh annoying week of practicing. and i found out the walton concerto costs $30 to buy. why is it that i have a job but never any money? this is really sick. over the summer, im gonna take another day. i always need money, but never have any, yet i have a job. im just really mad about that. where does all my money go? ughhhhhhhh. well, msm will be over soon, so i will have more money due to not going out to eat every week....oh yeah..........and next week i dont even get a paycheck b/cthey were closed. how annoying! well, i gotta go. later....
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i have to say that yeserday was so much better than that nightmare day before. i went out with my friend alicia for lunch. then, we decided we needed something to do, so we played tennis at the courts at school. im sooo good at tennis, so i beat her so bad. hahaa. that made me happy, but i mean, it was still so much fun. but then, i had to go home and practice my stupid octaves cause my octaves in the walton concerto were out of tune. damn, i hope my lesson goes okay tomorrow. my body is sooooo sore, but its okay. i want to go play tennis. maybe i can....hmmmm, i have to practice first though. later....
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yesterday had to be one of the worst days of my life..i know i drama it up here, but it was reallly bad....see, first of all, i had to get my permit. my mom and i accidentally brought a copy of my brth ceritifacte instead of the actual one, os i couldnt take the test. she blamed it on me and screamed at me, and called me names that have no use being used. then my dad drove me later on, but couldnt find the place, even though he was going in the right direction. he blamed that on me.....then i found out this kid who i dont get along with ,and studies with my teacher, won that competition, which totally made me depressed....with my parents calling me names and telling me im a "jack of all trades, master of none" for not getting straight a's on my report card, and for grabbing the wrong certificate(my mom saw it before we left she could've said something.....)....to the competition, it was totally awful.....i actually started crying when my dad was literally screaming at me in the car, and i never cry...what a terrible day. well, from the competition ill just work even harder.
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well i just schedualed a concert for the nursding home again. i have to whip up some stuff soon....ill get easy stuff...bartok viola concerto, reger suites, hindemith sonatas...haha bad joke!(opmg i am such a loser)...no, really im probably gonna play the piece i did for the competition, plus maybe an old concerto, maybe something by Faure and something by Tchiakovsky, like his canzonetta....im so bored. this vacation is so boring. all i do is walk around the house, occasionally practice, do homework and write my stupid blogs. well better go do more homework. yay. later....
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Its weird how one day you have nothing to do, and the next you have a ton of work. Thats what its like today i guess. I have to study for my drivers permit, do homework, practice, and go on aol (which of course, HAS to be done). i also should finish ned rorems diaries....the thing with them are that they are of course, amazingly interesting, but i mean, how many hundreds of pages of someone elses diary can u read? yesterday i practiced this one passage of sixths in the Walton for 10 minutes. I really wanted it perfect. finally i did.(omg this blog is mad boring)....anyway ....stuck with work. i hate being a teenager. im probably gonna run around and bother my cat before i practice. shes sooo cool, i love her so much. later....
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Today I realized there are a few Paganini Caprices i can actually play! wow! a violist playing paganini you say? THATS MADDNESS! oh but no ,its not! My friend Andrew said a lot of the Paganini i could probably play, and that it is good for something, and he was right. in number 21, it has all these 6ths, which are difficult to play in tune(so are thirds, and there are a few with thirds in them) im gonna transpose the first part(meaning im omitting the upbow spiccato/presto part)in no. 21 and gonna practice it, since the Walton Concerto has some devilish passages of sixths that are infamous for being played out of tune. that paganini will help. i practiced about and hour and 40 minutes so far. actually, i did work on my upbow spiccato, although violists just about never use it, but what the hell! well i better go. later.
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i am soooo pissed off! i lost that viola society competition....oh well! on to better things! wow, i wonder who won.......hmmmm..well my teacher saidi i might not win b/c his students win every year and they have to pick someone else. and the recording wasnt perfect. none of his students won so i know thats what happened. cant practice my bach b/c my teacher has to put fingerings and bowings in since davis's suckkkk. well, later!
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awww, that was almost beautiful.....just kidding. no its not ur poetry i cant stand. its the others. god, some of them are like "and i tore up my cat and made it into a hat and then bathed myself in its blood as i blew up oranges in the microwave...."thats not poetry and too often i see stuff like that. but dont worry tiny tina, ur poetry is fine.
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hey. well my walton is sounding uhhh, interesting? yeah okay...its really hard, but i ican do this! anyway, not much is knew. just out from school and practicing and stuff. i was walking around last night and i was in sandels and a t-shirt and it was really cold, andi got numb....wow, thats a violist's story for u. i swear, im sooooo ghetto. anyway, karissa got into msm! yay! i knew she would. so she has to send more stuff about her finacial aid and see if she gets money. her and i have the most fun in orchestra. we talk about people, and other stuff.and we make fun of the other violists b/c THEY SUCK! hahahaha. they really do its totally hysterical. we make fun of the way they bow and do vibrato b/c its like, inhuman the way they do it. msm is...i dunno. interesting. a lot of good people go there. but others....lets just say i wish i were on their end of the year juries....why are people posting poetry on this site? no offense, but come on guys!i want to hear about evil tweachers and u playing the voomvofsky and granalius concertos.and come on....................................................ANYWAY! gotta call andrew later today,yay! hes in at cim! yay! the cerones are so cool. later....
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yesterday was awful. i realized this ummm "person" i like is thinking of well "things."(i have to be descreet) and everything went weird. i didnt have to bring my instrument to cac b/c we didnt play yesterday so i had to schlep the stupid viola back and forth. wow. havent practiced in like ,4 days? and i start up again today. yay?....ugh, so annoying. oh well, i really have to work on this Walton and get my fingers in better shape. and work more on my annoying bow arm. i hate bow arm stuff. so time consuming andi assume its worth the time. so jen had her uh, nysssma. the guy stoped her after two pages(her piece is 4 pgs.) and said "I can judge from that, thanks." ur supposed to play the whole thing.... awww. i felt bad. she improved this year.....?....bea had her jury. it went okay....her beethoven did. i am mad though. i dont have a jury until im a senior but i found out they dont give 100's.....thats so annoying, i hate systems like that. anyway, im gonna go....wow. i need a date.
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ahh! no school for almost 2 weeks! spring break! that means practicing at least 4 hour hours a day. arg. i hate practicing, but im hoping to achieve a lot this week, particularly bow arm work, alexander technique, going through the technicalities of the bach and walton, and getting my thirds PERFECT in the kreutzer no.33. damnit, i would have been on dont caprices by now.well, i better go. later :)
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so apparantly my jury went well. at first, it went awful, the part beforei played. my instrument was terrible acting. the string just wouldnt tune, and so my teacher had to take it and tune it with force. that was a bit embarassing, sincei i felt like a little kid. but, then i played and then kindof looked like "well, he CAN play. so yeah, it was just his instrument. he doesnt suck." so i did good. my teacher gave me an A and he said everyone else gave me good grades. so ill find out in two weeks their comments and grades for me. some people said they did really bad. in orchestra, it was so dumb. we are doing tristan and isolde, and in one part the viola play a chromatic scale up to a high b on the a string. and of course i could play it no problem. but the first stand couldnt! it was ridiculous, the seating. the conductor even imitated them playing. and i thought "why am i in the back?" its all b-llsh-t.ugh. i have so much homework. later....
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my lesson saturday went bad only for one reason: my damn viola kept going out of tune. See, i got it fixed up and he polished the pegs, making them slip so thats why it kept going out of tune. i have juries saturday so i did everything i could do to help them, including chalk. buti put a tiny piece of tape where the peg goes in the hole, and that helped. anyway, i started walton viola concerto today. the reallyb hard part are those high double stops that i play out of tune. the third page also has this really fast part at quarter note=138 on the metornome. that part is a really difficult. either than that i like it :) reading steinhardts book AGAIN! im gonna buy it. i love it so much. wow what a great musician AND writer :)well, i better go study my vocab. later :)and ps-andrew congrats on colleges.
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i hate lalo.
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a boring ,but nice weel sincei i gavent practiced since my viola is going to get repaired. i need to cut down on soda. okay, starting afteri i finsih this liter, no more soda! hah! so there. margaretha tomorrow. im bored i think im gonna stay up all night watching movies. later....
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More entries: May 2003 March 2003