Band Blog

12/14/15

1. General Reflection/Experience for the concert

The place that we held the concert at was very nice. It was very big and I wish that we held more concerts there. The audience this time was also bigger than usual too which was exciting. I wish that the music were better and faster though. I don't really like the slow music. The day before the concert I lost my expensive good mouthpiece and so had to use a random cheap one so my sound was not as good as I would have liked it to be.

2. Compare to first concert: growth, now stronger?

I think we are stronger now compared to the first concert. At first we did not know how to blend and adjust at all. Now we are used to each other and so now we can adjust our sound so that certain sounds are heard more over other instruments. We have also improved on our dynamics. Before we can barely hear a difference from forte to piano, but now it is a very big difference.


3. What makes a performance artistic? Did we do that?

The thought that goes into playing can make a piece artistic or not. Also the way that you play it after you think about it. You can't just play random notes, you have to think about the style you are playing and the time that you play it. We kind of did that. The songs sounded pretty good overall, but there were a few places that were kind of just jumbled together. Also there were some notes overall that was very blurry or very quick that did not match the styles that we were playing at.

2015 Frist blog

Lulu 

This year my goal is to improve my playing and get to the point where I do not mess up in my playing at all. I also hope to make into Symphonic Band next year, so that is my ultimate goal this year to become good enough to get into that.

My goal for this concert cycle is to get whatever solo there is for bass clarinet, if there is one. I also hope to blend into the other instruments perfectly and play not squeak at all. I also hope to do better with dynamics.

2 pieces that I'd wanna play

1. How to Train Your Dragon
www.jwpepper.com/how-to-train-your-dragon/10097981.item#.vqlqbo73-ix
I like it because it is from my favorite movie ever, and the song sounds really good.
It suits our stgerngths and abilities as an ensemble because we like playing songs that we know, and we have the instruments to play it.
It challenges us because it is in 6/8 and we aren't really used to it since we don't really play it.
2. Mulan
www.jwpepper.com/mulan/2401982.item#.vqlryo73-iy
I like it because it is my favorite Disney movie and it has a bunch of songs in it
It suits us because we know Mulan and this song isn't that hard
It challenges us because we have never played it before, and it might be really hard for us to change styles between songs since we can't change styles that easily.

week of 1/22

1/22  1. Identify a part of your music that you can already play accurately and fluidly 2. Identify a part of your music that needs the most work to be played accurately and fluidly. 3. Describe what gains you made in your sectional rehearsal, and what practice techniques you used to achieve that.

1. 
And the Fire Raged: 0-22,46-84
March: Basically everything else except 86-91
Prairie Songs: 139 - end

2.
And the Fire Raged: 22-30, 84-90
March: 86-91, when you finish 1st ending and go back for the 2nd ones
Prairie Songs: 84-100

3. I gained knowledge of everyone's parts in other sections that are similar to mine, and i learned whose parts fall on around the same rhythm as me, and which ones that are also low but don't play the same rhythm as me. We used the playing over and over of small parts that we were having difficulties on strategy to fix problems and mistakes in our pieces.

Post-Concert Reflection

Post-Concert Reflection: To what extent did we achieve a truly artistic performance? Back up your answer with some specific descriptions. How are you personally hoping to improve as a musician in the coming months?

We made a truly artistic performance by playing together and following the director closely. We also followed the music well. We played the songs at the right dynamics and did right note lengths. I am personally hoping to improve as a musician by practicing alot and learning as much as i can about music.

Week of 11/10

Week of 11/10: Define or explain all terms and techniques required in Abracadabra and Horkstow Grange. This includes phrasing markings, articulations, tempos, expressive texts, etc. Explain how you will realize these musical goals in your playing.

Phrasing markings: Slurs/ notes that you play together without break in between

Dynamics: p - piano/soft, mf - mezzo forte/moderately loud, mp - mezzo piano/moderately soft, f - forte/loud, ff - fortissimo/very loud, pp - pianissimo/very soft

Articulations: Staccato - short detached notes, Tenuto - hold the note for the full length of the measure, Accent - bring out the front of the note and slowly let it die off, Marcato - like accents but just the whole thing, breath mark - take a short breath there, triplelets - play 3 notes in the note space that it gives you, crescendo - slowly get louder in the time given, decrescendo - slowly get softer in the time given

Tempos: quarter note = c.138 which is a medium tempo, rit. which is to slowly slow down along with the director, quarter note =c.84 a pretty slow tempo, tempo 1 is to go back to the first tempo, fermata is to hold the note until the director tells you to stop, accel. poco a poco to m.150 to to speed up until measure 150 and hold that tempo, quarter note = c.168 is a pretty fast tempo, slower means to slow down a bit. slowly flowingly means to slur the thing more and make it sound more connected

Time signatures: 4/4 there are 4 notes in the measure and a quarter note gets a beat, 5/4 there are 5 notes in a measure and a quarter note gets a beat, 2/4 there are 2 notes in a measure and a quarter note gets a beat, 3/4 there are 3 notes in a measure and a quarter note gets a beat

To reach these muscial goals while playing, i need to pay attention to the markings and the meanings of them in my music and play them, and i also need to pay attention to the conductor when they change the tempos or the dynamics of the pieces

Week of 10/6

While performing from a different perspective, I basically heard the same things that I always hear since I sit in the middle of the room and everyone with different instruments is basically spread out around me.
I know that I still need to work harder to not squeak on my instrument and work on the dynamics and a few sharps/flats more still.