Sunday, April 28, 2013
Don't go on vacation
Thanks strings, winds, and percussion for a fun and exciting rehearsal on Friday! I'm looking forward to the next one, now that we know we can play through the piece.
So driving home on Friday I realized why the strings, and violins in particular, were having a difficult time counting rests. (Yes, these are the things I think about on my drive home. Shut up.) Strings, and violins in particular, do not count rests because strings, and violins in particular, are always playing. Wind parts in symphonic bands and wind ensembles have rests built in. It's just how composers write for winds. It's a physical necessity for wind players to get their instruments off their face. (In fact, we refer to any lengthy piece of music with little to no rest as being "on the face".) Strings don't have that limitation, and that's how composers write for strings. In orchestral literature the string parts do the heavy lifting. A trumpet part for a symphony might be 5 or 6 pages long. The first violin part for the same work will be 25-30 pages. (That's one of the reasons why you have stand partners - to turn all those pages!) And of course in string orchestra music, without the possibility of winds or percussion taking over the musical material, you will play almost constantly. Strings don't count rests well because they rarely have to! Winds do because you don't want them playing constantly. By the end of the piece the tone quality and intonation will be horrible and the wind players will be out of breath, as you have seen from me many times when I play along with you.
What does this have to do about vacation? My friend and mentor, Dan Durand, has told me many times that you can't go on vacation during rests. In other words, you're job isn't over just because you're resting. The music continues and you need to stay mentally engaged to successfully execute your next entrance. Don't space out!
Unfortunately, on Friday I missed my opportunity for my favorite way to sarcastically count rests...
So driving home on Friday I realized why the strings, and violins in particular, were having a difficult time counting rests. (Yes, these are the things I think about on my drive home. Shut up.) Strings, and violins in particular, do not count rests because strings, and violins in particular, are always playing. Wind parts in symphonic bands and wind ensembles have rests built in. It's just how composers write for winds. It's a physical necessity for wind players to get their instruments off their face. (In fact, we refer to any lengthy piece of music with little to no rest as being "on the face".) Strings don't have that limitation, and that's how composers write for strings. In orchestral literature the string parts do the heavy lifting. A trumpet part for a symphony might be 5 or 6 pages long. The first violin part for the same work will be 25-30 pages. (That's one of the reasons why you have stand partners - to turn all those pages!) And of course in string orchestra music, without the possibility of winds or percussion taking over the musical material, you will play almost constantly. Strings don't count rests well because they rarely have to! Winds do because you don't want them playing constantly. By the end of the piece the tone quality and intonation will be horrible and the wind players will be out of breath, as you have seen from me many times when I play along with you.
What does this have to do about vacation? My friend and mentor, Dan Durand, has told me many times that you can't go on vacation during rests. In other words, you're job isn't over just because you're resting. The music continues and you need to stay mentally engaged to successfully execute your next entrance. Don't space out!
Unfortunately, on Friday I missed my opportunity for my favorite way to sarcastically count rests...
 |
| One! One wonderful measure of rest! Ah, ah, ah... Two! Two wonderful measures of rest! Ah, ah, ah... Three! Three wonderful measures of rest! Ah, ah, ah... |
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Movie soundtracks
Inspired by Laura's "I am the Doctor" and Faith's digging up Game of Thrones sheet music. I'm working on both of these to at least sight-read, if not perform.
And someone remind me to try out electric violins on "I am the Doctor" please! I keep meaning to add those but keep forgetting about it. Kaila has a new ax she wants to try out!
Different people have arranged these and have graciously made sheet music for strings available. I'm re-arranging it specifically for us.
The same guy did a Game of Thrones arrangement, but I thought this was cooler/different. Talk about using full bows! That's a lot of music being made by four people.
And someone remind me to try out electric violins on "I am the Doctor" please! I keep meaning to add those but keep forgetting about it. Kaila has a new ax she wants to try out!
Different people have arranged these and have graciously made sheet music for strings available. I'm re-arranging it specifically for us.
The same guy did a Game of Thrones arrangement, but I thought this was cooler/different. Talk about using full bows! That's a lot of music being made by four people.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
SF day three
Sorry I missed day 2! We were in the city all day and got back late. We walked some of the Golden Gate Bridge - Maria, Kana, and I made it the furthest - halfway. It was so foggy we couldn't even see the bridge before we started walking on it! We then went to Fisherman's Wharf, ghirardelli square, and the Hard Rock to celebrate Kaila & Sarah's birthdays. I'll get pictures up on Monday but right now I'm posting from my phone.
Now for the performance results! We received the silver award, with an average score of 85.3 out of 100. Our 3 judges were Dr Kirt Saville from BYU, Dr James Arwine from Pasadena City College, and Dr Brian Sproul from the University of Utah. Dr Saville gave us a great clinic on stage after we performed, talking about matching bows and various ways to be even more expressive with our phrases. They loved the challenging nature of the pieces we performed, the musicality of our performance, and David & Miriam on Bailes - they played great today!
I did get 2 CDs at the awards ceremony tonight. I believe one is judges comments and the other is a recording of the group. We had microphones right in front of us.
Finally we received a big shiny trophy for overall orchestra award! Both the trophy and silver award plaque will be at the office front desk on Monday to check out.
And now everyone is in my room. Don't know how that happened. Popularity is my curse I guess.
Yes I rode roller coasters. The Grizzly is a wooden coaster, the Psycho Mouse is is a Goofy's Sky School type deal, and The Demon has 2 loops and a double corkscrew!
Bed check time! I'll see all y'all on Wednesday.
Now for the performance results! We received the silver award, with an average score of 85.3 out of 100. Our 3 judges were Dr Kirt Saville from BYU, Dr James Arwine from Pasadena City College, and Dr Brian Sproul from the University of Utah. Dr Saville gave us a great clinic on stage after we performed, talking about matching bows and various ways to be even more expressive with our phrases. They loved the challenging nature of the pieces we performed, the musicality of our performance, and David & Miriam on Bailes - they played great today!
I did get 2 CDs at the awards ceremony tonight. I believe one is judges comments and the other is a recording of the group. We had microphones right in front of us.
Finally we received a big shiny trophy for overall orchestra award! Both the trophy and silver award plaque will be at the office front desk on Monday to check out.
And now everyone is in my room. Don't know how that happened. Popularity is my curse I guess.
Yes I rode roller coasters. The Grizzly is a wooden coaster, the Psycho Mouse is is a Goofy's Sky School type deal, and The Demon has 2 loops and a double corkscrew!
Bed check time! I'll see all y'all on Wednesday.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
San Francisco day one
Our day of travel went very well! We stopped after the Grapevine (why is it called that?) to stretch and for lunch around noon. We met 2 other school groups at In N Out going the opposite direction, TO L.A. for their festival trip. We got to the hotel right before 4 pm. Unfortunately, joe/David/Thomas/Jon 's room was not ready, but they did get free wifi & breakfast for being patient during the hour wait. A lot of us took advantage of the fitness center and pool/spa. I particularly enjoyed answering Sarah/Maria/Kana/Caitlyn's rapid fire questions about anything AND everything.
IHOP seems to be the popular choice for breakfast tomorrow, then it's off to San fransisco.
IHOP seems to be the popular choice for breakfast tomorrow, then it's off to San fransisco.
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