Having only realized today that we are supposed to have been blogging about our group practices, Ill be completing the information for each one so far.
We have had 4 rehearsals so far where all of our group members have been present. Our first session was stressful, trying to sight-read some pieces, with some mild disputes over which songs we would be playing. We finally settled on one for sure, and played through Frolicher Landmann a few times until it began to sound more impressive. We worked well on trying to fit together as a group, rather than overplayed and drowning out the less significant parts. By the end of the practice session, we had selected three songs for sure that we could play competently, and decided to settle on a fourth the next day.
Our next session was very successful. We efficiently powered through our four pieces and had the rest of the time to work on areas we struggled with. By having one person lead us in, taking apart 4 bar sections, and by repetition, we worked out the kinks and started to sound much better as a group. Unfortunately, the second half of the session wasn’t as productive as we would have liked, due to loss of interest in playing some slow pieces several times, but we were confident in the improvements we had made.
The next session was shortly after we had been informed of the professional level of this performance. We focused on timing. Each piece, we took apart who would bring us in and how, at what tempo we were playing pieces, and starting together. Again, this was a fairly frustrating practice session. We started and stopped instantly countless times because one of us would be off each attempt. It took a fair bit of work before we became consistent in our openings. Once we became more confident in this, our playing as a group continued to improve.
Today was probably the most challenging, in terms of working on specifics. We treated our presentation like a performance. If we made a mistake, then wed get up, come back in, and try again. Sitting down took a few tries. Starting pieces became a challenge because of the set up on the stage, and we had to figure out our best situation for coming in together. We played through every piece a couple of times, trying to get a feel for how we fit in together in the auditorium, how loud we needed to play, among other obvious new variables that the larger room brought into play. We finished well, felt confident for tomorrow, and look forward to our performance.
Playing in the quartet has certainly been more challenging that first anticipated due to the inaccuracies of not having someone to lead you. It presents many new complications in performance, and made this assignment quite entertaining in the learning process.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
1. What has been your biggest improvement this year as a player?
I have consistently worked at things that I have struggled with. In the past, I would ignore those issues, skip over the section, and leave it at that. If I struggled with something in particular, I figured I would end up fixing the kinks in band practice. Instead, this year, I was much better at practicing on my own time to perfect my difficult sections. Not only did I try to practice more, but due to my regularity of playing, I also was able to find strategies that worked for me when trying to improve on a piece. I managed to try several different suggestions before realizing that breaking a piece down bar by bar was the most effective way for me. If I made a mistake on a bar, Id go back to the beginning. I did this until I made as few mistakes as possible, before my lips fell off.
2. What is the area you most struggle with?
At this level of playing, this year was my first being the only tuba player in the band. As opposed to junior band, where I found it easy to assess the volume of the other sections and balance to them, this year I found the noise around me overwhelming. It was very difficult to find where I fit into some pieces. I struggled to match the band dynamically and would often catch myself - or Mr. Haq would catch me- playing far too loud for the band. The result creates an obnoxious unpleasant sound that I tried to avoid, but it was very frustrating to have that much difficulty interpreting the dynamics of the group, and I feel like it was my weakest aspect this year.
3. What was your greatest musical highlight this year and why?
The final concert was my musical highlight. Although it was long in duration, I didn’t even realize that fact. Everything went so smoothly, every event, comment, speaker, and performance was funny, entertaining, and enjoyable. Whether I was on stage or in the audience, I enjoyed every moment of the concert. Seeing the look on Mrs. Stewart’s face was pretty priceless as well. I will never forget Mr. Stevenson doing “the hustle”....in that wig haha.
4. What areas do you feel the band accels at and what area do we struggle? Give specific examples.
I think as a band, we play very well together. The odd section stands out at certain troublesome areas of a song, but it is inconsistent in which group is struggling. When we notice an issue, it only takes a small piece of advice to correct, and the mistake is rarely made again. I also think we all play with confidence. As was observed at Nationals, we sight read a piece quite accurately, with hardly any mistakes. Obviously, with strong encouragement from the percussion section, but yet, we still succeed in playing with confidence. Whenever performing Rumble on the High Plains, we showed this quite clearly, with our intensity.
There are some things that could help us be an even better band, however. We don’t practice, collectively as a group. It hurts us when rehearsal comes along, because we can’t run pieces due to simple mistakes that are unnecessary. We aren’t able to get through our entire repertoire due to this fact, and a great deal of time is spent on note and rhythm errors needlessly. Another thing we struggle with is attendance. This, in particular bothers me. As I already struggle with finding balance in the band, being so inconsistent in the sections frustrates me. One day Ill play at a certain level, which is then too loud the next time. This issue was apparent at several rehearsals for me, and I hope that improves in the future. It also led ot certain sections falling apart at times, because some people in the section have worked on something at the last practice and others have missed. Therefore contributing to more inconsistency, and is a negative impact on the band as a whole.
I have consistently worked at things that I have struggled with. In the past, I would ignore those issues, skip over the section, and leave it at that. If I struggled with something in particular, I figured I would end up fixing the kinks in band practice. Instead, this year, I was much better at practicing on my own time to perfect my difficult sections. Not only did I try to practice more, but due to my regularity of playing, I also was able to find strategies that worked for me when trying to improve on a piece. I managed to try several different suggestions before realizing that breaking a piece down bar by bar was the most effective way for me. If I made a mistake on a bar, Id go back to the beginning. I did this until I made as few mistakes as possible, before my lips fell off.
2. What is the area you most struggle with?
At this level of playing, this year was my first being the only tuba player in the band. As opposed to junior band, where I found it easy to assess the volume of the other sections and balance to them, this year I found the noise around me overwhelming. It was very difficult to find where I fit into some pieces. I struggled to match the band dynamically and would often catch myself - or Mr. Haq would catch me- playing far too loud for the band. The result creates an obnoxious unpleasant sound that I tried to avoid, but it was very frustrating to have that much difficulty interpreting the dynamics of the group, and I feel like it was my weakest aspect this year.
3. What was your greatest musical highlight this year and why?
The final concert was my musical highlight. Although it was long in duration, I didn’t even realize that fact. Everything went so smoothly, every event, comment, speaker, and performance was funny, entertaining, and enjoyable. Whether I was on stage or in the audience, I enjoyed every moment of the concert. Seeing the look on Mrs. Stewart’s face was pretty priceless as well. I will never forget Mr. Stevenson doing “the hustle”....in that wig haha.
4. What areas do you feel the band accels at and what area do we struggle? Give specific examples.
I think as a band, we play very well together. The odd section stands out at certain troublesome areas of a song, but it is inconsistent in which group is struggling. When we notice an issue, it only takes a small piece of advice to correct, and the mistake is rarely made again. I also think we all play with confidence. As was observed at Nationals, we sight read a piece quite accurately, with hardly any mistakes. Obviously, with strong encouragement from the percussion section, but yet, we still succeed in playing with confidence. Whenever performing Rumble on the High Plains, we showed this quite clearly, with our intensity.
There are some things that could help us be an even better band, however. We don’t practice, collectively as a group. It hurts us when rehearsal comes along, because we can’t run pieces due to simple mistakes that are unnecessary. We aren’t able to get through our entire repertoire due to this fact, and a great deal of time is spent on note and rhythm errors needlessly. Another thing we struggle with is attendance. This, in particular bothers me. As I already struggle with finding balance in the band, being so inconsistent in the sections frustrates me. One day Ill play at a certain level, which is then too loud the next time. This issue was apparent at several rehearsals for me, and I hope that improves in the future. It also led ot certain sections falling apart at times, because some people in the section have worked on something at the last practice and others have missed. Therefore contributing to more inconsistency, and is a negative impact on the band as a whole.
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