So i fail a lot and totally forgot that i hadn't posted this yet, i appologize that its late!
Band Written Requirements:
1. What has been your biggest improvement this year as a player?
This year i think that i actually improved a lot simply because i practiced more, however i think that my biggest improvement came in my sightreading skills. Last year when we got a new piece in band i would struggle at first and have to hear the piece before i could play it through howveer this year i found that i was able to play through it just at first glance whcih iw as quite pleased with. I think that a huge part of this came from the fact that i really focussed on getting my scales down this year, especially chromatics, as well as did a lot of rhythm study stuff. Now i am finding that i can easily look at a rhythm and clap/play though it with ease as well that i can identify and play though most of the scales without trouble. I still have some issues with sharps but thats something that im going to focus on and try and improve even more for next year.
2. What is the area you most struggle with?
This year i made a lot of progress as stated before and think that i made good headway on fixing most of my "problem places" from last year however the thing i still consistently struggle with is tempo. I always tend to play things fast/want to speed up whcih only causes me to make mistakes. I did it when practicing band pieces at home and i ALWAYS do it when playing tests. Im not sure why that is but its something that i need to work on possiboly by getting a metronome when practicing so that i keep a consistent tempo and stop fluctuating so much.
3. What was your greatest musical highlight this year and why?
I have 3, first at kiwanis because we played rumble soso well! It was fabulous; one of those performances that you finish and just feel a sense of pride because you know youve played it well. Friends from other schools raved about it to me afterward saying that our band was amazing whcih is always really nice to hear. Second woudl have to be playing at nationals because that was just in general a great experiance, especially doing the sightreading portion which surprised me a lot since it actually sounded decently. Wasn't expecting that at all. I really enjoyed doing nationals though, and was super pleased with the silver(: Finally, the final concert was also a highlight. The ending of rumble just fel like an ending if you knwo what i mean? it got really emotional but in a more happy sort of way and was just a really awesome way to end the year.
4. What areas do you feel the band accels at and what area do we struggle? Give specific examples.
I think the band accels at playing things really musically. We are good at capturing the mood and essence of a piece and conveying that to our audiance. We demonstarted that this year when playing rep such as chillers and thrillers and the light eternal etc, the more performance type pieces which had a story-we were always able to convey that to our audiances be it parents, adjucators etc. I think that we need to work on our technical playing, things such as dynamic contrast and articulation patterns etc. All the small nit-picky stuff that are what really polish a performance we are good at but not great. For example in the holst we were able to play that musically but we didnt consistently play the staccattos vs. regular articulation. Its just a small thing, but something taht we could probably work on.
PS. I practiced on Tuesday for my exam for a solid 3hours, i honestly just played the exam stuff over and over again especially the study becauzse i was having some issues with that befiore hand. I just ran the problem spots over and over again. I had relatively little trouble with the chromatics since I'd been working on them all year so i only had to spend a little bit of time running those and then i moved on to the scale. I had a lot of issues with the D sharp for some reason, i would always p.ay it natural because that seemed like the natural movement for my fingers so i just went up and down over and over again, i still messed that up on my exam but it wasnt a huge thing. The thirds were easy enough and then i just ran through the study which was also relatively easy save for the bars with the high Dsharp in them, they were slightly awkward so i ran them a fair bit too. Overall i think that the exam on wednesday went fairly well, i had a few mishaps here and there but i didnt stop playing and it wasnt a huge mess up so i felt good about it overall(:
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Practice 22, 23, 24
Soo this is going to be a long one since its for the whole weeek;
i woud practice then get really busy and never got around to blogging.
Monday!
monday night i brought my flute home with me and practiced for the band exam requirements; i wasnt aware that we had to play both sections so i wonly practiced bars 43-55 in chillers and thrillers. Then i ran through my usual stuff such as the chromatics and scles etc. as well as the stuff for the chamber ensemble. We had 3 of our 4 songs picked out at that point in time to i ran through those 3 and then went through the rest of the book looking for what other song we could play as our fourth. That was about it; priacticed for a total of 15-20minutes on monday.
Tuesday!
my flute was at home still since i was on a field trip during the day; i went through what i had rehersed the day before and finally decidecd on a fourth song with my group so i practiced that as well. i went over the band requirements again and then i wasnt relly in the mood to do scales and such so i played through a few ofthem but then i went back and played through some of our older band rep for fun since we dont have tuesday and thursday for that anymore. I also began rehersing some of the class exam stuff too; i find that i am having some difficulty with the study in the red book because it has a lot of awkwadr rhythms; and im not sure of the tempo. im hoping that we will ply it together as a class once so that we can hear it and feel the speed you want it to go at. I also ran though the chromatics and dont find them too hard its just keeping a consistent flow from scale to scale that can be somewhat tricky. After that i stopped for the night practicing a total of about 40mins.
Wednesday!
Wednesday we had coffee house so i didnt get a chance to do any extensive practice. For the record, i thought coffee house went really well despite the length i think it was a nice way to end the year.
Ps. played the band exam today; unaware that we had to play both sections so i was really prepared for the first part but not so much for the second part. The rhythms in the second section are really easy except for the one bar which i cant play to save my life no matter how many times i tried it. Overall, i think it went decently though.
Thursday!
So for thursday i mainly focussed on playing the stuff for our class exam. I started out doing the E minor scale in thirds and learning that ascending and descending which i find to be fairly easy aside from the D sharp which i sometimes miss; im going to work some more on that until its really solid. Then i moved onto the chromatic stuff, i find most of the patterns really easy to play aside from the odd 1 such as ascending number 3 which i stumble over sometimes. Then i moved onto the study which i still have trouble with because of the awkward patterns//im not sure if im playing it right? ill ask you on monday to play it as a class just to ensure things such as the tempo etc. Aside from that im feeling fairly comftorable for the class exam; i dont think it will be too bad never theless im still going to continue practicing all this weekend//next week to be sure that everything is solid when i go to play. Total of about 40minutes thursday night.
i woud practice then get really busy and never got around to blogging.
Monday!
monday night i brought my flute home with me and practiced for the band exam requirements; i wasnt aware that we had to play both sections so i wonly practiced bars 43-55 in chillers and thrillers. Then i ran through my usual stuff such as the chromatics and scles etc. as well as the stuff for the chamber ensemble. We had 3 of our 4 songs picked out at that point in time to i ran through those 3 and then went through the rest of the book looking for what other song we could play as our fourth. That was about it; priacticed for a total of 15-20minutes on monday.
Tuesday!
my flute was at home still since i was on a field trip during the day; i went through what i had rehersed the day before and finally decidecd on a fourth song with my group so i practiced that as well. i went over the band requirements again and then i wasnt relly in the mood to do scales and such so i played through a few ofthem but then i went back and played through some of our older band rep for fun since we dont have tuesday and thursday for that anymore. I also began rehersing some of the class exam stuff too; i find that i am having some difficulty with the study in the red book because it has a lot of awkwadr rhythms; and im not sure of the tempo. im hoping that we will ply it together as a class once so that we can hear it and feel the speed you want it to go at. I also ran though the chromatics and dont find them too hard its just keeping a consistent flow from scale to scale that can be somewhat tricky. After that i stopped for the night practicing a total of about 40mins.
Wednesday!
Wednesday we had coffee house so i didnt get a chance to do any extensive practice. For the record, i thought coffee house went really well despite the length i think it was a nice way to end the year.
Ps. played the band exam today; unaware that we had to play both sections so i was really prepared for the first part but not so much for the second part. The rhythms in the second section are really easy except for the one bar which i cant play to save my life no matter how many times i tried it. Overall, i think it went decently though.
Thursday!
So for thursday i mainly focussed on playing the stuff for our class exam. I started out doing the E minor scale in thirds and learning that ascending and descending which i find to be fairly easy aside from the D sharp which i sometimes miss; im going to work some more on that until its really solid. Then i moved onto the chromatic stuff, i find most of the patterns really easy to play aside from the odd 1 such as ascending number 3 which i stumble over sometimes. Then i moved onto the study which i still have trouble with because of the awkward patterns//im not sure if im playing it right? ill ask you on monday to play it as a class just to ensure things such as the tempo etc. Aside from that im feeling fairly comftorable for the class exam; i dont think it will be too bad never theless im still going to continue practicing all this weekend//next week to be sure that everything is solid when i go to play. Total of about 40minutes thursday night.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Practice schudule #21
So i practiced breifly just before i came in to work here tonight,
Started out with some scales and stuff just as a warm up and then played through their relative minors still working on being able to ID key signatures with relative ease; especially in prep for doing orchestrations next year.
Then i ran through study #4 in the red book just as a refresher, and to work on getting quick articulation going.
Then i rna through the band pieces specifically focussing on counting the 5/4 section in chillers and thriller because i find that i always come in a beat eraly or a beat late. Then i looked at the monotonous section in Carmina Burana and just worked out counting out how many times we repeat because i find myself either falling inot a pattern and not counting at all or just simply getting lost in the music; either way it always comes as a surprise to me when we switch over to the other secion. I played them through once each and then i had to leave for work.
about a half hour overall.
planning on practicing some more this long weekend!
:)
PS. really pleased with nationals. It was lots of fun even though i was dead tired by today haha, im really glad we took the opportunity and did it though!
Started out with some scales and stuff just as a warm up and then played through their relative minors still working on being able to ID key signatures with relative ease; especially in prep for doing orchestrations next year.
Then i ran through study #4 in the red book just as a refresher, and to work on getting quick articulation going.
Then i rna through the band pieces specifically focussing on counting the 5/4 section in chillers and thriller because i find that i always come in a beat eraly or a beat late. Then i looked at the monotonous section in Carmina Burana and just worked out counting out how many times we repeat because i find myself either falling inot a pattern and not counting at all or just simply getting lost in the music; either way it always comes as a surprise to me when we switch over to the other secion. I played them through once each and then i had to leave for work.
about a half hour overall.
planning on practicing some more this long weekend!
:)
PS. really pleased with nationals. It was lots of fun even though i was dead tired by today haha, im really glad we took the opportunity and did it though!
Monday, May 11, 2009
lalala.
Ps. im going to appologize in advance as i know that i wont be doing too much practicing this week since i have 2tests, an essay due, a report due and a presentation on top of all the nationals craziness and usual rehersals! im really excited for this week but im not sure how much extra time im going to have..
Practice schudule 20!
Came home today with the flute.
did a couple of the studies from the red and purple book as warm up, mainly the nes that we did in class. I tried doing the exercse that we began in class a couple days ago and it was actually a challenge and i found that i really had to count out what i was doing.
then i moved on to band rep for nationals tomorrow
i ran through the light eternal, rumble, and breifly rhosymedre. I can sufficiently play these in my sleep now:) haha. but i still enjoy playing them.
i then worked on our current band rep, playing through chillers and thrillers and working specifically on therhythms and accidentals. I find that this is a fairly easy song to play,
finally i played through usion just bevause i like it and its fun.
Overall about 25minutes.
did a couple of the studies from the red and purple book as warm up, mainly the nes that we did in class. I tried doing the exercse that we began in class a couple days ago and it was actually a challenge and i found that i really had to count out what i was doing.
then i moved on to band rep for nationals tomorrow
i ran through the light eternal, rumble, and breifly rhosymedre. I can sufficiently play these in my sleep now:) haha. but i still enjoy playing them.
i then worked on our current band rep, playing through chillers and thrillers and working specifically on therhythms and accidentals. I find that this is a fairly easy song to play,
finally i played through usion just bevause i like it and its fun.
Overall about 25minutes.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Practice Blog 18, 19
So this is the blog for all of last week(:
Starting with Tuesday night, i brought home my flute after choir rehersal and ran through the D flat study for the test that we had on firday, i found that i waas having some difficulties with the articulation pattern of the study getting the slurred articulation and then staccatto, however the scale itself if comftorable to play. I foudn that the more difficult part was the descend so i started there and began playing each bar slowly and repeatedly, building upon the last one. I found that this helped but it still wasnt where i wanted it. After that i decided to practice fusion just becauseit is a really fun piece to play and i lovelovelove the melody, especuially in the fourth movement. It kinda sucks that we didnt get the chance to play that this year, i think if we had the time it would have sounded awesome full ensemble. After that i ran some of the other band rep in preparation for nationals in a few weeks, and then finally rna some of the class stuff like Carmina Burana and pirates of the carribean. I specifically worked on some of the rhythm stuff in Carmina Burana especially the sixteenth note riffs because they go very fast and are just technical. In total i believe that this was about a half hours worth of practice.
I also practiced Thursday nighht in preparation for the test on friday. I spent a bulk of time working on the study as it still wasnt where i wanted it in terms of comfort level. I broke it down again and then ran it a few times. I have no clue what happened in that test: i was really dissappointed in myself actually, because i was plating it fine and then randomly i made really stupid mistakes. I think i need to do some owrk on pacing, because sometimes especially in test situations i will find myself planning on playing it one tempo and then taking off and doing it twice as fast. That could have been what threw me on friday because i wasn't planning on playing it anywhere near that speed; and ended up rushing. After working on the study for a bit i went through and did some scale stuff kinda testing myself because i want to become really quick with my keysignatures so i would figure out what was in the key before i played it. Then after that i was bored and found some sheet music on the internet and played through those for a while. Did some band rep work, specifically Carmina Burana and that was everything. I think it was about 45minutes in total.
Starting with Tuesday night, i brought home my flute after choir rehersal and ran through the D flat study for the test that we had on firday, i found that i waas having some difficulties with the articulation pattern of the study getting the slurred articulation and then staccatto, however the scale itself if comftorable to play. I foudn that the more difficult part was the descend so i started there and began playing each bar slowly and repeatedly, building upon the last one. I found that this helped but it still wasnt where i wanted it. After that i decided to practice fusion just becauseit is a really fun piece to play and i lovelovelove the melody, especuially in the fourth movement. It kinda sucks that we didnt get the chance to play that this year, i think if we had the time it would have sounded awesome full ensemble. After that i ran some of the other band rep in preparation for nationals in a few weeks, and then finally rna some of the class stuff like Carmina Burana and pirates of the carribean. I specifically worked on some of the rhythm stuff in Carmina Burana especially the sixteenth note riffs because they go very fast and are just technical. In total i believe that this was about a half hours worth of practice.
I also practiced Thursday nighht in preparation for the test on friday. I spent a bulk of time working on the study as it still wasnt where i wanted it in terms of comfort level. I broke it down again and then ran it a few times. I have no clue what happened in that test: i was really dissappointed in myself actually, because i was plating it fine and then randomly i made really stupid mistakes. I think i need to do some owrk on pacing, because sometimes especially in test situations i will find myself planning on playing it one tempo and then taking off and doing it twice as fast. That could have been what threw me on friday because i wasn't planning on playing it anywhere near that speed; and ended up rushing. After working on the study for a bit i went through and did some scale stuff kinda testing myself because i want to become really quick with my keysignatures so i would figure out what was in the key before i played it. Then after that i was bored and found some sheet music on the internet and played through those for a while. Did some band rep work, specifically Carmina Burana and that was everything. I think it was about 45minutes in total.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
blahh.
keh so i practiced last night and i was planning on blogging about it tonight but im slowly dying of sleep deprivation and we have band tomorrow, so im gonna go to sleep blog about it tomorrow imstead when i can actually put my full effort into it and can think haha
Sorry!
Sorry!
Blogging assignment #1
For this assignment i chose to do Greg Patillo, the world renound beatboxing flautist. Greg is a professional flautist hailing from Brooklyn New York and is recognized as "the best in the world at what he does."
He went to school at the cleveland institute of music earning both his bacelors and masters degree there. He was taught his superior technique by one of the very best, Joshua Smith, the lead flautist in the cleveland Orchestra. after perfecting his playing technique through extensive schooling he moved to san fransisco, for a period, and was one of the founding members of the collaborative arts insurgency, a place where they have open mic once a week for upand coming artists or groups to perform in front of an audiance and start a fan base for themselves as well as get performing experiance. They opened in May of 2006 and have been successful and growing ever since. Currently Greg lives as a freelancing soloist as well as beng the lead flautist in groups such as PROJECT and the lalo quintet. Quite often Patillo is also a featured performer at The Box in NYC.
Since graduating school, Patillo has had a steadily growing fanbase both on and off of the nternet. His performance videos on youtube all have over 20 million hits and his myspace page has had a steadily growing number of friend requests from fans all eager to hear him perform. He has also been recognized for his amazing talents eing asked to appear in shows such as iCarly, on nickelodian and Lilly Alen and friends on BBC three in the UK. Last year he was one of 21 winners to recieve the the metropolitan transit authority's "Music Under New York" program which in essecnce gives him a permit to play in the subway and continue to extend his fan base all over NYC.
The piece i chose to look at by Greg Patillo is actually his rendition of the super mario brothers theme aka the ground theme. This theme is legendary and has been used in video games since the very beginning of super mario brothers over 2 decades ago all over the world. Prsonally i love super mario brothers and it is one of my favourite themes to a video game which i why i chose it. Greg Patillo takes the theme and places his own twist on it. First off, the piece is simple enough with a fairly simplistic melody but patillo adds in melodic scoops and riffs to make the melody more coomplex and intriguing. On top of this he adds in the beatboxing which blows my mind. He plays the piece in a manner where there is a consistent balance of the beatboxing and melody so that both are able to be heard equally and creates a texture to the piece that isnt heard in the original; more "rough", so to speak. That being said the essence of the game still comes across even with the beatboxing. I really like his use of accents throughout the piece to ephasize certain notes, as well as his use of dynamics throughout the different sections. Someties his tone suffered slightly and sounded slightly airy, however im sure that this is due to the beatboxing which would take a ridiculous amount of air on top of the aount already needed. I would really like to know how he trained his lungs to be able to hold such an amount of air, and be able to phrase so nicely with the beatboxing. His videos are thoroughly entertaining and as a flute player, his skill blows my mind.
Heres the link, enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crfrKqFp0Zg
He went to school at the cleveland institute of music earning both his bacelors and masters degree there. He was taught his superior technique by one of the very best, Joshua Smith, the lead flautist in the cleveland Orchestra. after perfecting his playing technique through extensive schooling he moved to san fransisco, for a period, and was one of the founding members of the collaborative arts insurgency, a place where they have open mic once a week for upand coming artists or groups to perform in front of an audiance and start a fan base for themselves as well as get performing experiance. They opened in May of 2006 and have been successful and growing ever since. Currently Greg lives as a freelancing soloist as well as beng the lead flautist in groups such as PROJECT and the lalo quintet. Quite often Patillo is also a featured performer at The Box in NYC.
Since graduating school, Patillo has had a steadily growing fanbase both on and off of the nternet. His performance videos on youtube all have over 20 million hits and his myspace page has had a steadily growing number of friend requests from fans all eager to hear him perform. He has also been recognized for his amazing talents eing asked to appear in shows such as iCarly, on nickelodian and Lilly Alen and friends on BBC three in the UK. Last year he was one of 21 winners to recieve the the metropolitan transit authority's "Music Under New York" program which in essecnce gives him a permit to play in the subway and continue to extend his fan base all over NYC.
The piece i chose to look at by Greg Patillo is actually his rendition of the super mario brothers theme aka the ground theme. This theme is legendary and has been used in video games since the very beginning of super mario brothers over 2 decades ago all over the world. Prsonally i love super mario brothers and it is one of my favourite themes to a video game which i why i chose it. Greg Patillo takes the theme and places his own twist on it. First off, the piece is simple enough with a fairly simplistic melody but patillo adds in melodic scoops and riffs to make the melody more coomplex and intriguing. On top of this he adds in the beatboxing which blows my mind. He plays the piece in a manner where there is a consistent balance of the beatboxing and melody so that both are able to be heard equally and creates a texture to the piece that isnt heard in the original; more "rough", so to speak. That being said the essence of the game still comes across even with the beatboxing. I really like his use of accents throughout the piece to ephasize certain notes, as well as his use of dynamics throughout the different sections. Someties his tone suffered slightly and sounded slightly airy, however im sure that this is due to the beatboxing which would take a ridiculous amount of air on top of the aount already needed. I would really like to know how he trained his lungs to be able to hold such an amount of air, and be able to phrase so nicely with the beatboxing. His videos are thoroughly entertaining and as a flute player, his skill blows my mind.
Heres the link, enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crfrKqFp0Zg
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Practice Blog #17
So after kiwanis last night i came home and did a bit of parcticing.
I started off doing some of the scale tudies from the purple book. I worked on the chorales in minor key signatures and then did some work on the chromatic scale at the back of the book and ran through the chromatic scale study on page 9.
then i moved on to teh red book and did some of the studies from there starting with 4.2 and working up from there, looking specificlly at studies with more difficult rhythms working on my sightreading skills.
after that i moved on to the blue book working through some of the songs at the back of the book as well as revisiting the rhythm study at the back. I found that this was somewhat difficult at frst because i hadn't done it in a while and had to think through the timing of some of the bars first.
After that i ran though the light eternal and rumble on the high plains in preparation for wednesdays challenge class. I didn't really feel like running the holst since we just played it haha, i thought that we deserved at least a silver in A class since i thought we played the suite better than Beal did but thats okay. I was also expecting medway to get a gold but...
anyway thats about it, prcticed for a total of about 40mins.
I started off doing some of the scale tudies from the purple book. I worked on the chorales in minor key signatures and then did some work on the chromatic scale at the back of the book and ran through the chromatic scale study on page 9.
then i moved on to teh red book and did some of the studies from there starting with 4.2 and working up from there, looking specificlly at studies with more difficult rhythms working on my sightreading skills.
after that i moved on to the blue book working through some of the songs at the back of the book as well as revisiting the rhythm study at the back. I found that this was somewhat difficult at frst because i hadn't done it in a while and had to think through the timing of some of the bars first.
After that i ran though the light eternal and rumble on the high plains in preparation for wednesdays challenge class. I didn't really feel like running the holst since we just played it haha, i thought that we deserved at least a silver in A class since i thought we played the suite better than Beal did but thats okay. I was also expecting medway to get a gold but...
anyway thats about it, prcticed for a total of about 40mins.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Pactice schudule 16
So tonight i started out by running through the chromatic scales as a warm up, i can now comftroably play almost the whole page; just a few minor problem places here and there but its much better than the beginning of the semester.
after that i ran thorugh some of the chorales from the purple book, some from class some not as well as some of the studies from the red book we have specifically looking at study number 4 from class and its accompanyment.
Then i ran through the holst suite for the test tomorrow.
i as planning on playing section 2 ofthe first movement as my difficult 8 bars but praciced them and can now play thme fine since i was only having trouble with the high Aflat, however im stull not wuite getting the articluation pattern with the slurs, so i can still do some work there and ran through the set of good 8 bars a couple times. Then i played the whole suite with the recording. I enjoyed this as a nice challenge because they have a quicker tempo and it forces me to really focus on the articluation paterns as well as work on quick finger movements which will help when we take it at a bit of a slower tempo with band.
Following that i ran through the other band rep before band tomorrow morning just as a refresher and something fun to do. I find that all of the trouble spots i had at the beginning of the semester with light eternal and rumble are gone now and that i am quite comftorable playing the whole thing.
I finished off the night running through my chamber choir rep. for tomorrow, going through the memory work etc. and that was it for my practicing:)
after that i ran thorugh some of the chorales from the purple book, some from class some not as well as some of the studies from the red book we have specifically looking at study number 4 from class and its accompanyment.
Then i ran through the holst suite for the test tomorrow.
i as planning on playing section 2 ofthe first movement as my difficult 8 bars but praciced them and can now play thme fine since i was only having trouble with the high Aflat, however im stull not wuite getting the articluation pattern with the slurs, so i can still do some work there and ran through the set of good 8 bars a couple times. Then i played the whole suite with the recording. I enjoyed this as a nice challenge because they have a quicker tempo and it forces me to really focus on the articluation paterns as well as work on quick finger movements which will help when we take it at a bit of a slower tempo with band.
Following that i ran through the other band rep before band tomorrow morning just as a refresher and something fun to do. I find that all of the trouble spots i had at the beginning of the semester with light eternal and rumble are gone now and that i am quite comftorable playing the whole thing.
I finished off the night running through my chamber choir rep. for tomorrow, going through the memory work etc. and that was it for my practicing:)
Monday, April 13, 2009
smart me(Y)
I appologize for my lack of practice last week, i had a huge amount of tests and assignments to do in lieu of midterms plus i worked late twice so my practicing schudule suffered a lot.
That being said i was a very intelligent person and forgot to bring home my instrument Thursday night after choir thinking i could grab it Friday, forgetting that we had no school, so the practicing that u was planning on completing for the weekend didn't happen either.
However I am going to practice extra hard this week to make up for it..
That being said i was a very intelligent person and forgot to bring home my instrument Thursday night after choir thinking i could grab it Friday, forgetting that we had no school, so the practicing that u was planning on completing for the weekend didn't happen either.
However I am going to practice extra hard this week to make up for it..
Monday, April 6, 2009
Practice Schudule 14. 15
So this is the report from the practice schudule on the weekend
Saturday i practiced for about 20minutes, mainly doing some of the scale and rhythm studies since i was somewhat played out of the band rep. As always, i began with the chromatic scale study on page 9 and worked through what was farmiliar but also went forward onto lines 5, 6 and 7. I found that these were surprisingly easy because i had been working on 5 for some time, however 6 and 7 are just beginning on one note higher so they came fairly easy to me, which i was quite happy with. I am finding that my ability to read sharps is now almost as comftorable as my ability to read flats which is good.
After that i went through the yellow book and picked some of the rhythm studies which we haven't done in class and worked through them. My ability to sightread rhythms has always been fairly strong howvere there were a few rhythm studies with 16th notes in thejm that were somewhat difficult. I found that at times i couldn't keep the tempo consistent, i would rush the 8th notes that followed them, so that is something for me to work on.
After that i ran through some of our class pieces, mainly pirates and bohemian and that was it.
Sunday I took to practicing the band pieces, since festival is right around the corner. I did a quick warm up with Bflat concert scale using different rhythm combos and then began rehersing the holst. Starting with the first movement, i played it through once and then lookes at the nit picky things such as where there is stacatto vs. sluring in the melody. Then i worked, once again, on the section after H. I am finding that it is becoming increasingly more comftorable for me to play aside from the high A flat which I always play as a high A natural since the fingering is more of a natural movement; i worked on the riffs with the high A flat for a while playing them slow at first and i had them down pat until i played the entire section and went back to playing them as A naturals. Im going to continue to work on that. After that i ran through the second and fourth movement which are very comftorable to play and then just for fun i played the third movement along with the recording. Its somewhat awkward but a lot of fun to play.
Saturday i practiced for about 20minutes, mainly doing some of the scale and rhythm studies since i was somewhat played out of the band rep. As always, i began with the chromatic scale study on page 9 and worked through what was farmiliar but also went forward onto lines 5, 6 and 7. I found that these were surprisingly easy because i had been working on 5 for some time, however 6 and 7 are just beginning on one note higher so they came fairly easy to me, which i was quite happy with. I am finding that my ability to read sharps is now almost as comftorable as my ability to read flats which is good.
After that i went through the yellow book and picked some of the rhythm studies which we haven't done in class and worked through them. My ability to sightread rhythms has always been fairly strong howvere there were a few rhythm studies with 16th notes in thejm that were somewhat difficult. I found that at times i couldn't keep the tempo consistent, i would rush the 8th notes that followed them, so that is something for me to work on.
After that i ran through some of our class pieces, mainly pirates and bohemian and that was it.
Sunday I took to practicing the band pieces, since festival is right around the corner. I did a quick warm up with Bflat concert scale using different rhythm combos and then began rehersing the holst. Starting with the first movement, i played it through once and then lookes at the nit picky things such as where there is stacatto vs. sluring in the melody. Then i worked, once again, on the section after H. I am finding that it is becoming increasingly more comftorable for me to play aside from the high A flat which I always play as a high A natural since the fingering is more of a natural movement; i worked on the riffs with the high A flat for a while playing them slow at first and i had them down pat until i played the entire section and went back to playing them as A naturals. Im going to continue to work on that. After that i ran through the second and fourth movement which are very comftorable to play and then just for fun i played the third movement along with the recording. Its somewhat awkward but a lot of fun to play.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Practice Blog 13
Just got home, from variety is; i thought it went well!:)
im super happy with chamber's perroremance tonight,
I practiced yesterday after i got home from choir/chamber rehersal for about 20minutes.
I started out by running through the chorale that we have to play in our groups for our test later this week, then i ran through chromatic scales and looked at some of theminor scales that wwe haven't covered yet.
After that i ran through the band pieces, and the pieces that we are doing in class as well.
I breifly looked at some problem spots but mostly just ran them through working on flow and transitions etc for the band pieces, and then some sight reading for the class ones; though we have played them in grade 9.
It was a short practice session but i accomplished what i wanted to do, and am planning to practice at least once again later this week.
im super happy with chamber's perroremance tonight,
I practiced yesterday after i got home from choir/chamber rehersal for about 20minutes.
I started out by running through the chorale that we have to play in our groups for our test later this week, then i ran through chromatic scales and looked at some of theminor scales that wwe haven't covered yet.
After that i ran through the band pieces, and the pieces that we are doing in class as well.
I breifly looked at some problem spots but mostly just ran them through working on flow and transitions etc for the band pieces, and then some sight reading for the class ones; though we have played them in grade 9.
It was a short practice session but i accomplished what i wanted to do, and am planning to practice at least once again later this week.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Practice Schudule 12
So this would be the report from yesterdays practice schudule:)
I kinda practiced sporadically throughout the day because i had preselection for work in the evening which i was kinda nervous for and for some reason playing makes me calm down, probably because i actually have to focus and its fun, so i always found myself going back to it throughout the day when i was taking essay breaks..
For the 40minutes that i did my actual practicing, i played through the scales that we have been working on in class from the purple book, as well as some of the chorales. I also reviewed the scale study that we did as a playing test at the beginning of the year since i hadn't played it in a while; I still found that this came easy to me and was super comftorable playing it. Then, as usual, i reviewed the chromatic study on page 9 and spent some time working mainly on lines 3, 4, and 5. 1 and 2 are really easy, and comftorable for me now.
After that i went through the Holst suite and did a fair bit of work on the picky things such as accent placement, and dynamics. I find that the rhythms and notes are really comftorable now and i can beging working on playing it "musically". The only section where notes are somewhat of an issue is the second section of the first movement, simply because the high A and B flat are really awkward and shrill; so i spent some time reviewing that just by starting slow and biilding up the tempo. Its still not exactly where i want it to be but its coming along, with a little more practice i should be able to play the riffs with the A and B flat with ease.
After this i went back and played through some of our old band rep like rhosymedre, rumble, light eternal and fusion just for fun. I still really enjoy playing these pieces and find that they are good just to play through for practice sometimes.
After that i sporadically came back to practicing throughout the day and just ran through rep, such as holst and pirates. as well as scores to random songs that i looked up when i was bored:)
Overall it was a good day of practice.
I kinda practiced sporadically throughout the day because i had preselection for work in the evening which i was kinda nervous for and for some reason playing makes me calm down, probably because i actually have to focus and its fun, so i always found myself going back to it throughout the day when i was taking essay breaks..
For the 40minutes that i did my actual practicing, i played through the scales that we have been working on in class from the purple book, as well as some of the chorales. I also reviewed the scale study that we did as a playing test at the beginning of the year since i hadn't played it in a while; I still found that this came easy to me and was super comftorable playing it. Then, as usual, i reviewed the chromatic study on page 9 and spent some time working mainly on lines 3, 4, and 5. 1 and 2 are really easy, and comftorable for me now.
After that i went through the Holst suite and did a fair bit of work on the picky things such as accent placement, and dynamics. I find that the rhythms and notes are really comftorable now and i can beging working on playing it "musically". The only section where notes are somewhat of an issue is the second section of the first movement, simply because the high A and B flat are really awkward and shrill; so i spent some time reviewing that just by starting slow and biilding up the tempo. Its still not exactly where i want it to be but its coming along, with a little more practice i should be able to play the riffs with the A and B flat with ease.
After this i went back and played through some of our old band rep like rhosymedre, rumble, light eternal and fusion just for fun. I still really enjoy playing these pieces and find that they are good just to play through for practice sometimes.
After that i sporadically came back to practicing throughout the day and just ran through rep, such as holst and pirates. as well as scores to random songs that i looked up when i was bored:)
Overall it was a good day of practice.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Practice Schudule 11
This week has been pretty busy and i didnt get in any practicing, so i have taken my flute for the weekend and am hoping to catch up this way.
I did a practice session today practicing for a total of 40minutes. I started off with the chromatic exercises in the purple book on page 9. I now find that lines 1 and 2 are very comftorable for me, and amd now working on lines 3 and 4; they are coming along fairly well its mostly the sharps that i am still having some trouble iwth but i feel that my ability to read sharps has become increasingly better as the semester has progressed. After a quick warm up with the scales i went into the standard of excellence book and reviewed some of the lines that we played in class over the week; i also went to the back and did the rhythm study since i hadn't done that in a while. I found that i could play all of the rhythms with relative ease, though some of the ones with sixteenths and triplets threw me off and i had to think them through. Once that was done, i played through pirates just because i really like that piece, especially the ending section with the triplets. Then i spent the remainder of my time on the holst suite specifically on the first movement, second section. I worked on being able to play it up the octave at the proper tempo though i am still finding that the high A flats and B flats give me some trouble just becuase the fingerings are really awkward. It is better than it was, but i still feel that it needs work and plan on practicing it again tomorrow.
I did a practice session today practicing for a total of 40minutes. I started off with the chromatic exercises in the purple book on page 9. I now find that lines 1 and 2 are very comftorable for me, and amd now working on lines 3 and 4; they are coming along fairly well its mostly the sharps that i am still having some trouble iwth but i feel that my ability to read sharps has become increasingly better as the semester has progressed. After a quick warm up with the scales i went into the standard of excellence book and reviewed some of the lines that we played in class over the week; i also went to the back and did the rhythm study since i hadn't done that in a while. I found that i could play all of the rhythms with relative ease, though some of the ones with sixteenths and triplets threw me off and i had to think them through. Once that was done, i played through pirates just because i really like that piece, especially the ending section with the triplets. Then i spent the remainder of my time on the holst suite specifically on the first movement, second section. I worked on being able to play it up the octave at the proper tempo though i am still finding that the high A flats and B flats give me some trouble just becuase the fingerings are really awkward. It is better than it was, but i still feel that it needs work and plan on practicing it again tomorrow.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Practice Schudule #10
So over the march break i practiced, not as much as i had hoped but i still accomplished some things.
On Saturday i started out by running through some of the scales, specifically the relative minors in the purple book because i find that they pose more of a challenge for me than the major scales do; however they themselves are not a challenge persay. After running through some of the relative minors i worked on my B flat scale and tried to develop a nice tone while playing the highre octave so that i could further develop not only my range but also my tone quality for the highger notes, thsi still isn't exactly where i want it but its getting much, much better and i find that i am beginning to be able to somewhat control the dynamic level while still maintaining a consistent tone, however only for a short period at present time. I am going to continue to reherse this until i am able to hold the higher octave notes for a longer period.
After that i ran throgh the band pieces, specifically working on holst suite. i am feeling fairly confident with this piece the only trouble spot for me is the second section of the first movement, the key signature is still posing somewhat of a challenge for me and i always seem to miss the D flats, and some of the A flats. I played the rhythm over and over until it felt fairly comftorable but it still needs some work. I then ran through the second and fourth movement and can play those no problem. Im excited to hear what they will sound like with the full band playing them tomorrow morning. After this i ran through rumble and light eternal and then left practicing for the night. I practiced for a total of about 30minutes.
On Saturday i started out by running through some of the scales, specifically the relative minors in the purple book because i find that they pose more of a challenge for me than the major scales do; however they themselves are not a challenge persay. After running through some of the relative minors i worked on my B flat scale and tried to develop a nice tone while playing the highre octave so that i could further develop not only my range but also my tone quality for the highger notes, thsi still isn't exactly where i want it but its getting much, much better and i find that i am beginning to be able to somewhat control the dynamic level while still maintaining a consistent tone, however only for a short period at present time. I am going to continue to reherse this until i am able to hold the higher octave notes for a longer period.
After that i ran throgh the band pieces, specifically working on holst suite. i am feeling fairly confident with this piece the only trouble spot for me is the second section of the first movement, the key signature is still posing somewhat of a challenge for me and i always seem to miss the D flats, and some of the A flats. I played the rhythm over and over until it felt fairly comftorable but it still needs some work. I then ran through the second and fourth movement and can play those no problem. Im excited to hear what they will sound like with the full band playing them tomorrow morning. After this i ran through rumble and light eternal and then left practicing for the night. I practiced for a total of about 30minutes.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Practice Schudule 9
So i have taken my flute home over the break in prep. for Nationals, which we will hopefully be attending (yn)
Tonight I started out by running through some scales, both major and their relative minor since i havent rehersed those in a while. I foudn this effective in refreshing my memory on what the differences are between a harmonic minor, natural minor, and melodic minor; since i havent reviewed that sort of stuff since last year.
After reviewing some of my scales i ent to the back of the purple book and looked at the chromatic scale there, just for a change instead of playing the chromatic study. I found this surprisingly comftorable to play though i haven't looked at it since exam time last year; it still felt like a very natural motion. After i found that the notes were all still there and comftorable - i worked on getting the scale up to a speed which i liked. I found that i could play it at a relatively fast pace without many errors, and was quite happy with that.
Finally i ended by working on the hols suite, specifically the second section of the first movement where we move into 6/8 time and a new key mostly because the D flat is somewhat awkward to play. and then the second m,ovement working on rhythms as well as long phrases. overall i feel fairly comftorable with the whole piece.
Tonight I started out by running through some scales, both major and their relative minor since i havent rehersed those in a while. I foudn this effective in refreshing my memory on what the differences are between a harmonic minor, natural minor, and melodic minor; since i havent reviewed that sort of stuff since last year.
After reviewing some of my scales i ent to the back of the purple book and looked at the chromatic scale there, just for a change instead of playing the chromatic study. I found this surprisingly comftorable to play though i haven't looked at it since exam time last year; it still felt like a very natural motion. After i found that the notes were all still there and comftorable - i worked on getting the scale up to a speed which i liked. I found that i could play it at a relatively fast pace without many errors, and was quite happy with that.
Finally i ended by working on the hols suite, specifically the second section of the first movement where we move into 6/8 time and a new key mostly because the D flat is somewhat awkward to play. and then the second m,ovement working on rhythms as well as long phrases. overall i feel fairly comftorable with the whole piece.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Practice Schudule 8
I was really proud of our successes in musicfest and am really hoping that we make the decision to travel to nationals, howvere when i practiced tonight i decided to omit running the band rep just because thats what i have played/heard for the past 3days:)
Tonight i really focussed on rhytrhms and scales.
I did the rhythm study on a concert B flat in the back of the blue book and took my time really focussing in on some of the harder rhythms for each time signature. Things such as triplets and rhythms with 16th rests that i sometimes found myself having to think about before i would play them. I want to be at a level of playing where when i am sightreading i am able to just jump right in as opposed to picking through some of the rhythms in my head before hand.
I also went back and reviewed some of the chromatic scale study since it had been a while. I looked at 1 and 2 again, and i found that they came pretty comftorably; then i also reviewed 3 and 4 which are still somewhat shayky but i am going to continue working on them. I still find sharps somewhat awkward to read and that i have to think about them/think of them in flats whereas with flats i can just play them. I plan to keep working on this though until sharps are close, if not just as comftorable as flats are.
Tonight i really focussed on rhytrhms and scales.
I did the rhythm study on a concert B flat in the back of the blue book and took my time really focussing in on some of the harder rhythms for each time signature. Things such as triplets and rhythms with 16th rests that i sometimes found myself having to think about before i would play them. I want to be at a level of playing where when i am sightreading i am able to just jump right in as opposed to picking through some of the rhythms in my head before hand.
I also went back and reviewed some of the chromatic scale study since it had been a while. I looked at 1 and 2 again, and i found that they came pretty comftorably; then i also reviewed 3 and 4 which are still somewhat shayky but i am going to continue working on them. I still find sharps somewhat awkward to read and that i have to think about them/think of them in flats whereas with flats i can just play them. I plan to keep working on this though until sharps are close, if not just as comftorable as flats are.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Practice Schudule 7
Since i was working tonight and on alimited time schudule i coud only get in 15minutes tonight.
I took this time as a prep for music fest tomorrow moring and really focussed on rep. I ran through all of them and then revisited some spots that i have had trouble with in the past; places such as the fuege, and the chromatic riff in rumbe as well as long, shaped phrases in rhosymedre. i went through and marked in breath marks for specifi phrases wher i know need to hold and reviewed some of the more difficult rhythms in the pieces. I ended by running all 3 of them again. At this point in time, i am comfident that we will havea great performance tomorrow and am looking forward to it!
I took this time as a prep for music fest tomorrow moring and really focussed on rep. I ran through all of them and then revisited some spots that i have had trouble with in the past; places such as the fuege, and the chromatic riff in rumbe as well as long, shaped phrases in rhosymedre. i went through and marked in breath marks for specifi phrases wher i know need to hold and reviewed some of the more difficult rhythms in the pieces. I ended by running all 3 of them again. At this point in time, i am comfident that we will havea great performance tomorrow and am looking forward to it!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Practice Schudule 5, 6
So this post will be conevring 2 days;
First, yesterday i brought my flute home due to the test today. I spent a fair amount of time perfecting that study and getting it up to a tempo that i liked. I did this by reviewing with the exercise that we sarted Monday in class to get the notes and rhythms back into my head and then i continued t play it gradually increasing the tepo until i liked the speed. once that was accomplished i added in the accents during the 3 bars after the second rest in the study. I found that it took some time to get the accents right because in an effort to m aintain a consistent tempo i would overblow. overall, i felt fairly confident going into the playing test today. After that was accomplished i ran the band pieces once each - practicing for a total of about 15minutes.
Tonight i started off by running through the test study as a warm up and ran through some of the chromatic scales, beginning to work on scales 3 and 4 - getting comftorable with the key and being able to play with fluidity. After that i went over some of the 'problem areas" in the band pieces
They were;
measure 147 onward (the fuege) in light eternal to review the notes and get it up to correct tempo one again
and measure 205 to the end in rumble because i still have trouble doing the end scale thing up to the c - i always either come in a hair early or leave it too late. i think i fixed the timing on those 2 bars though.
I feel fairly comftorble with those areas now and am lookig forward to playing in music fest!
First, yesterday i brought my flute home due to the test today. I spent a fair amount of time perfecting that study and getting it up to a tempo that i liked. I did this by reviewing with the exercise that we sarted Monday in class to get the notes and rhythms back into my head and then i continued t play it gradually increasing the tepo until i liked the speed. once that was accomplished i added in the accents during the 3 bars after the second rest in the study. I found that it took some time to get the accents right because in an effort to m aintain a consistent tempo i would overblow. overall, i felt fairly confident going into the playing test today. After that was accomplished i ran the band pieces once each - practicing for a total of about 15minutes.
Tonight i started off by running through the test study as a warm up and ran through some of the chromatic scales, beginning to work on scales 3 and 4 - getting comftorable with the key and being able to play with fluidity. After that i went over some of the 'problem areas" in the band pieces
They were;
measure 147 onward (the fuege) in light eternal to review the notes and get it up to correct tempo one again
and measure 205 to the end in rumble because i still have trouble doing the end scale thing up to the c - i always either come in a hair early or leave it too late. i think i fixed the timing on those 2 bars though.
I feel fairly comftorble with those areas now and am lookig forward to playing in music fest!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Practice Schudule #4
As last week was busy with semi prep i slightly slacked off on the parcticing however, i plan to make up that time with extra parctice this week. Tonight i practiced for 20minutes mainly focussing on the scale study that we have to play for our test on Thursday f this week. First i began with a warm up review of the b flat scale and g minor harmonic scale on pages 10 and 11. then i reviewed the chromatic scales. From practice before class as well as before the test I am finding that it is becoming increasingly easier to play the chromatic scales with fluidity - though they're not 100% up to where i woud like them to be come final exam time so i plan on continuing to work on them. I now feel comftorable with the notes so tonight i specifically worked on the articulation pattern really tyring to perfect the slurs and re-articulations. I find that it is still slightly incomsistent (e.g. i will be good for 2 bars, lose it for 1, then gradually get it back until the end) so i slowed it down which helped me. Then i spent the bulk of the remaining practice time working on the scale study which we have to play for our test Thursday. I did so by continuing the exercise we started in class where you play the bars separately and then piece them together as you go. I found that this method helped me and that i was able to play the study comftorably, with fludity right away. I ended off by running through the pieces for band and finxing some minor problem areas, such as the chromatic riff at 205 in rumble on the high planes and the d flats in the second part of the first movement of holst suite.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Practice Schudule 1, 2, 3
I took my flute home on Friday and made it my goal to get in 10minutes a day over the course of the weekend, beginning on Firday night. this would get me in a solid half hour of practice time but becaus eit was spread out i was able to focus on various areas of my playing.
Beginning on Firday night i parcticed solely band music, focussing specifically on spots of trouble for myslef or places where i thought i could improve. I started out by running 'The Light Eternal'. In this piece i ensured that i focussed on smooth transitions between sections as well as the fuege at 147. Next i played through the movements in the Holst Suite, specifically focussing on movement one after the key and time signature change. Though i found the rhythms to be easy enough, the key was somewhat awkward; i always found myslef playing d natural as a pose to d flat so i spent a time working on that by breaking down the bars and playing them over and over again until the fingering patterns were committed to memory. Then i moved on to movement 4 and breifly practiced 4 bars before 69 where the doublets to review the timing. Finally i played through rumble on the high planes focussing solely on the chromatic riff that comes up in the piece frequently as well as the chromatic scale at 205 and the last 4 bars of the piece. I now have all the notes down but have to work on getting my speed up to tempo; my plan is to keep playing the bars over and over again until they are committed to memory and i am able to play them at proper speed.
On Saturday i mainly focussed on reviewing my scales and thirds from the purple book; at the beginning of this semester i found that i had somewhat forgotten many of my minor scales and thought it would be good to go over a review and re-commit the fingering patterns to memory. I began with some exercises from the purple book focussing on fingering patterns as well as the chromatic scales that we have to play for the test we were told about Friday; In doing so i found out 2 things, first that i find descending a chromatic scale much easier to read than ascending as well that it depends on the note as to whether i can read it better as a sharp or a flat ( for example i would prefer reading d flat in stead of c# but would prefer f# instead of g flat). That being said i took that knoledge and really focussed on playing the full chroamtic scale at the back of the purple book up and down so that i can read ascending and descending equally and at the same tempo and also so that i can read any note as either a sharp or a flat. I plan on continuing to spend 5minutes at the minimum reviewing the chromatic scale each time i practice in order to boraden my playing ability. Also during this time i work on getting a good tone form my upper register by playing the b flat and e flat scales up the octave; i did this by working on fully filling my instrument with air as well as reviewing the fingeriungs - at this point in time i am comftorable with playing in the upper octave but will still continue to practice because that never hurts.
Finally Yesterday i did a mix of everything - I played some of the rhythm studies from the yellow coloured book really focussing on counting the sub divisions. I also re-reviewed the chromatic scales for my test, now, tomorrow and once again played through the band music. I found that i still had some difficulty playing the chormatic scale so i reviewed those a little further by breaking it down into a pyramid and slowing down the tempo but found that i had relativly little difficulty with the "trouble spots" in band rep. which i practiced on Friday.
Overall; i feel that i made effective use of my parctice time this weekend. I made good progress on band rep. and reviewing of scales and will continue to work on the chromatic scale by continually playing them until i can play ascending and descending comftorably as well as at a consistent tempo.
Beginning on Firday night i parcticed solely band music, focussing specifically on spots of trouble for myslef or places where i thought i could improve. I started out by running 'The Light Eternal'. In this piece i ensured that i focussed on smooth transitions between sections as well as the fuege at 147. Next i played through the movements in the Holst Suite, specifically focussing on movement one after the key and time signature change. Though i found the rhythms to be easy enough, the key was somewhat awkward; i always found myslef playing d natural as a pose to d flat so i spent a time working on that by breaking down the bars and playing them over and over again until the fingering patterns were committed to memory. Then i moved on to movement 4 and breifly practiced 4 bars before 69 where the doublets to review the timing. Finally i played through rumble on the high planes focussing solely on the chromatic riff that comes up in the piece frequently as well as the chromatic scale at 205 and the last 4 bars of the piece. I now have all the notes down but have to work on getting my speed up to tempo; my plan is to keep playing the bars over and over again until they are committed to memory and i am able to play them at proper speed.
On Saturday i mainly focussed on reviewing my scales and thirds from the purple book; at the beginning of this semester i found that i had somewhat forgotten many of my minor scales and thought it would be good to go over a review and re-commit the fingering patterns to memory. I began with some exercises from the purple book focussing on fingering patterns as well as the chromatic scales that we have to play for the test we were told about Friday; In doing so i found out 2 things, first that i find descending a chromatic scale much easier to read than ascending as well that it depends on the note as to whether i can read it better as a sharp or a flat ( for example i would prefer reading d flat in stead of c# but would prefer f# instead of g flat). That being said i took that knoledge and really focussed on playing the full chroamtic scale at the back of the purple book up and down so that i can read ascending and descending equally and at the same tempo and also so that i can read any note as either a sharp or a flat. I plan on continuing to spend 5minutes at the minimum reviewing the chromatic scale each time i practice in order to boraden my playing ability. Also during this time i work on getting a good tone form my upper register by playing the b flat and e flat scales up the octave; i did this by working on fully filling my instrument with air as well as reviewing the fingeriungs - at this point in time i am comftorable with playing in the upper octave but will still continue to practice because that never hurts.
Finally Yesterday i did a mix of everything - I played some of the rhythm studies from the yellow coloured book really focussing on counting the sub divisions. I also re-reviewed the chromatic scales for my test, now, tomorrow and once again played through the band music. I found that i still had some difficulty playing the chormatic scale so i reviewed those a little further by breaking it down into a pyramid and slowing down the tempo but found that i had relativly little difficulty with the "trouble spots" in band rep. which i practiced on Friday.
Overall; i feel that i made effective use of my parctice time this weekend. I made good progress on band rep. and reviewing of scales and will continue to work on the chromatic scale by continually playing them until i can play ascending and descending comftorably as well as at a consistent tempo.
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