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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.