practicelog

practicelog — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 23:09:16 GMT

Goals:
Week: practice every day
Make and finish some reeds

Month:
Finish working through rep. Motion exersizes
Review and polish all baret melodies up to the sonatas.

Website.

practicelog — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 05:27:38 GMT

For the longest time I've kept this journal mostly anonymous, but such things and my care for them are fading. I've started a new website and blog attached to it. The blog is a little more widely focused than this one, and I may still post here, but the bulk of my posts will be there if anyone is interested in reading my ramblings on music, life, and whatnot! :)

Happy oboing!

practicelog — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:38:46 GMT

T-2 hours to Vancouver Island audition. I decided to do this audition to really give myself a kick in the butt after taking most of the summer off, but now I'm actually a bit excited about it.

I made the decision to take a lesson with R, and he gave me some great tips on practicing the tombeau. It's always the common sense things that blindside me - I get the "OH of COURSE" feeling, and yet I WAS NOT doing this before?!? ha. yeah. Been practicing it with the metronome in eighths and then changing back to triplets changing the slurring patterns - basically making myself think about the notes instead of just going on autopilot . really been working on the half hole D to E too and making it as clean as possible.

Now if only my good reed hadn't died yesterday. Oh well, I made a new reed between rehearsal and the concert, and although it's still a little new and has a bit too much sound in the tip (what does that even mean? But it's how it feels and how it sounds...I mean, it's nice, but the tone isn't focussed in the high notes, and I have to remind myself not to bite down on it in an effort to control it - it's in tune...just...fuzzy? uhhhgh. yeah)

I will play on the reed I have. I will make it sound as beautiful as it is capable of. I will THINK ABOUT THE NOTES that I'm playing in the tombeau. I will make the Mozart PRETTY (pretty, goddamnit, not boring like paint drying....PRETTY!) heh. yeaaah.

I'm watching this beforehand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhygJyCvYeA
It's making me happy, so maybe there's hope for my poor benighted mozart yet.

practicelog — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 04:39:58 GMT

Okanagan prep is going well. Excepting the two Brahms symphonies I'm pretty familiar with most of the excerpts already. I need to play along with recording for both of them soon as I'm still not really sure what I'm doing.

Reeds are coming out pretty dependably, which is nice - using a bit of a bigger shape on a few newer ones because I tried a packet of the Marigaux shaped cane - nothing stellar yet so I might just go back to the Var cane or pick up some of the Glotin from work. I may just end up playing on the reed I'm playing on now, though, so I think I'll put it away for a while to prevent killing it too early.

Sometimes on the excerpts I know really well and have been working on since I took up the oboe...sometimes I get a little depressed about them - they're not perfect, they're not seamless, and SHOULDN'T they be? BY NOW? aaaaaahahaha. Yep. And then I slow tombeau down, put on the metronome, work it back up past the reasonable tempo, and then bring it back down again - and suddenly it's music. I just have to get to that point FASTER each time so that I can play it well the FIRST time instead of the tenth. Grargh.

I want bigger openings but I don't think I have the strength to play through everything on the bigger reeds. herm.

I'm doing all my woodshedding with a neckstrap now. It really relaxes my fingers and allows me to play for much longer with absolutely no tenseness or pain (which I WAS having before, and ignoring (bad!)) I don't think I would want to perform with it, though, because it does limit my flexibility as far as positioning the reed (although there's more flexibility than I thought there would be!)

practicelog — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 07:47:42 GMT

agh. not enough time to practice. at least got some time in with the telemann since I'll be playing that in two weeks. Making reeds tomorrow morning and spending some time with some silly time signatures.

practicelog — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 07:22:09 GMT

Consistent reeds right now. A few smallish openings due to large diameter cane, but those will probably turn into nice student reeds.

I've let myself get a bit out of shape, playing-wise, so now it's time to throw myself back into it. Working on the Telemann fantasies, Mozart, tombeau and trying to get all the excerpts for the Toronto audition together. I won't be taking it, but I'm going to work through them anyways - there are a lot of second oboe excerpts that I haven't really worked on at all, so now is a good time to do it.

I'm arranging Zappa, and although I'm working from a guitar book it's still a daunting task. I could spend ages just listening to the improv sections and going 'ooooooh what was THAT' but, luckily, I have a deadline, so minimal geekiness is permitted.

practicelog — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 22:42:58 GMT

shaped a whole bunch of cane and left it to dry. Warmed up on the nice reed for a treat. Played through some luft. Finally got all the way through the second one at 100, which was pretty exhilarating.

Attacked Piazzolla's first Tango Etude for a while...it's so fun but a bit brutally hard on oboe in some bits. I think I might give in and transpose the stuff that goes up to high A and G down the octave.

Played around with the mozart with the metronome...it's sounding...happier.

Fiddled with reeds. Should tie some more soon and order some staples.

practicelog — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 06:09:50 GMT

I've been really tired lately. Trying to work through it is hard but I find if I let myself do shorter practice sessions with breaks in between I'm still okay. I need to be playing with other people more. When I'm just by myself I get way too locked into having to make the perfect reed and I don't get anything done.

Worked on the Mozart a bit - took the stupid trill in the opening right out for a while and just tried to make it pretty again. (with the metronome) Succeeded in liking it a little...put the trill back in...still tend to be late getting to the B, though. stupid fricking mozart...but I LIKE IT! I LOVE IT GODDAMNIT!!!

Ahem.

Yes. Anyway, worked on the whole exposition just trying to find the music in it again as opposed to really note crunching...moderately successful, I'd say.

Fiddled with reeds.

Worked on the Luft. Repetitive motion is so relaxing.

Ignored the Ferling.

Played some Rossini with Ridiculous Rubato. I recommend this; It's deliciously fun, and no one has to know! NO ONE!

Yeah. Sleep time now, methinks.

practicelog — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:00:27 GMT

I have this huge fear. Most of the time I don't even acknowledge it. It's not a fear of one thing or person or situation, it's just a fear.

I remember a quote from back when I was obsessed with the stones...

Keith was the least interested in portraying himself as something other than he was. Keith is a man of belief and Mick is a man of fear. Mick works on fear, that driving thing, 'what if I fuck up?' It is a lot easier to be like Keith than it is to be like Mick

But I disagree with the last bit, I always have. I don't find belief, particularly in myself to be easy. I don't really think it should be easy, either. So many people are so full of themselves, so sure they're the best at whatever when really they're just trash. I've always felt that if you find something worthwhile you shouldn't be so disrespectful as to announce yourself the best at it when so many have gone before.

I've become a critic. Too much so. I'll play and only hear the mistakes. I love performing because it gives me the chance to just play and not critique, but even then I'll be listening and critiquing as I go. It makes music dead and awkward.

I'm done with fear. I can play the oboe, and I do have something to say, musically. I can make decent reeds and I have better tone than many more confident people. I need to stop letting my fear and my precious ego get in the way of making music.

stupidity doesn't end in school, apparently

practicelog — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:51:34 GMT

left my good reeds in water overnight and they molded...yuck. I poured some boiling water on them and left them to dry...you never know...they might survive it!!

Started a bunch of new reeds (neon yellow) still using the var cane as I've no money for anything else. Forcing myself to get all of them crowing a C before finishing them this time. I find if I'm starting and finishing reeds at the same time I get careless with my knife strokes and end up destroying most of them. They're all sounding pretty promising, actually, which is nice, but it's often deceptive.

Working on Mozart, Rossini and the Luft studies (in the opposite order, most days) and trying to channel this ridiculousness...I do need to just have fun with it.

practicelog — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 04:16:42 GMT

Why hello, Strauss concerto...how YOU doin?

practicelog — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:07:08 GMT

Spent two hours on the Luft. First study is up to a respectable 80. They're good to make reeds on because they really work everything. My reeds are good, but not great. Still struggling (of course) with reconciling what I want it to feel like, what I want it to sound like and what I'm going to scrape off or leave on. Ha. Much more definition now, though, thanks to M and her reminder of the basic shape of a reed...

now off to the first rehearsal of a new chamber orchestra. Exciting!

practicelog — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:30:13 GMT

AAAAAAAUUUUuuugh! My tonguing is evolving...but NOT FAST ENOUGH. haha. I feel like I'm playing better than ever before but it's STILL not good enough. Stupid learning curves. I have the Prokofiev at 144 really solidly...but I can't get the repeated quarter-2 eighth note bits to keep up as soon as I turn it up to 152. I'm starting to be able to do what feels like a flutter tongue on the eighths, which is something I've NEVER been able to do before, but it's not quite even and definitely not dependable yet. Gr. Argh.

My reeds are:

1)Pink - glotin cane - flat, fairly resistant but sounds lovely and dark when held up to pitch. Kills me in the slow excerpts, though, and not as lovely sounding as I'd like. Nice for the soft fast bits, though.

2)Neon-varigated-var cane - very in tune, a bit bright, not much of a forte dynamic, easy to play on - doesn't tire me out at all..

3)Neon-varigated - var cane - a tiny bit flat, darker, nice big sound, will play piano but I have to work for it - a bit noisy still - stays alive through the prokofiev but I end up playing quite sharp at the end. hmmmm.

I love the Brahms. and Beethoven 7 - I don't think I've ever played it with orchestra and now I really want to.

Another day of getting paid to not practice, then I get to go home and hopefully get in another hour.

practicelog — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:35:51 GMT

Working a LOT these days. Preparing for the Kamloops audition and trying not to let reception work make me crazy.

I had a really productive visit with M where we went back to the basics that make up a reed - the back, heart and tip, keeping the spine, thinning the edges instead of uniformly across the whole reed. I've been trying to make my reeds a little differently - I feel like I can't get enough volume out of them in orchestra, but I still want them to be flexible...and I'd ended up losing sight of the basic shape of the scrape. My reeds were starting to look fully scraped when backlit - like the ones you buy in the store! No wonder they were sounding so awful!! Ugh.

Sounding much better now, still not as much projection as I'd like, but at least I'm back to making reeds that I'm not embarrassed to play on! I seem to run up against a wall where the reed feels amazing and sounds great but doesn't vibrate quite enough in the low range...to the point where it just kind of won't take low notes, even with a lot of air, and piano is near impossible, but the mid range is gorgeous. The high range feels a little without depth, too, so I often scrape from the back or a bit from the heart, but then the reed often goes flat. Grawr. I know it's a balance issue, but it irks me. Meanwhile, I'm glad to be back to wondering which reed I should play on as opposed to which reed I can play on!

I'm also playing in a baroque concert the day after I get back from the audition - playing oboe AND flute! hahaha. Practicing flute again is both relaxing and annoying. It's nice because I don't have to work that hard for a tone I like (flute players would probably want something nicer, but I like what I produce on it for now) and all I need to do is make my fingers fly. It's annoying because the playing position for flute makes me sore. I do relaxation exercises and stretches, but it always gives me a bit of stiffness. Good thing I'm an oboist!

practicelog — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 06:50:45 GMT

I've been rethinking my approach a little lately. I really need to work on solidifying my technique. This isn't something that's particularly new or shocking, it's just more and more apparent that it's needed if I want to progress.

Working on the Luft studies and Bach's sonata in G minor. I haven't really played a lot of Bach, but I love it whenever I do, so it balances out the studies. On that note, though, I'm finding these studies sort of meditative at this point - spent two hours on one today just working it faster. They're very simple in a lot of ways, which makes it easier to go oh, yeah, jeeze, I'm really NOT playing that evenly or gee, I have some rather apparent awkwardness around the second octave key! ha. I'm being very careful to do stretching and relaxation excersizes between bouts of practice on them, though, as they are very, very repetitive and the last thing I need to do is give myself some stupid repetitive motion injury!

I think tomorrow I'll work a little on the Mozart again, then studies then some Bach. Mmmm. Tasty.

practicelog — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:57:16 GMT

Destroyed my best reed against the wall of a practice room on thursday. The cane I've been using is on back order so I'm back to using the soft var stuff and a bit of old noble I had sitting around. On average one piece out of six is decent, but the rest generally are alright for student reeds - just SO soft :(

I've got three that seem promising, but I have to perform tomorrow in the early afternoon - I haven't been in a situation where I've had to perform on new reeds in a long time. Not particularly looking forward to it.

Haven't been practicing much, mostly freaking out about reeds and flying from rehearsal to rehearsal. I'm going to grab some different repetitive motion studies from work on monday, though as well as a Bach sonata to keep me busy. Good times.

practicelog — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 06:28:33 GMT

Had a lesson with B today; wanted to get her opinion on my reeds and the excerpts I should play for the Brott audition tomorrow. We talked about technique and reeds.

It's always the things that I already really knew that jump up and surprize me again. I have been working on technique, and it has gotten better, but it's not rock solid yet. It needs to be rock solid and my reeds need to be bigger. I've fallen into the trap of making them too flexible because of the soft flat cane - and then I've been squishing them to get them up to pitch. Pah. I knew what I was doing but I was hoping it was just something I could fix magically...somehow...haha. Yeah. Audition tomorrow may not get me in. The reeds that I do have are a bit worn out from the intense practicing I've been doing lately.

I'm going to pick up some more interesting repetitive motion studies* - I've forgotten the name of the ones B has again, though, so I'll have to ask her about them. And the Mozart. Every day, it would seem to have to be. I really hate that piece. I hate it like I hated F# minor way back in the day. I suppose I'll just have to make myself love it...somehow.

Reeds are such a pain in the butt. Every time it seems like I have a breakthrough I just end up getting pickier. haha.

*I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but longer ones ARE more interesting.

practicelog — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:56:16 GMT

I don't think I've ever worked this hard on excerpts. Ever. I really want this one.

There's a pretty big possibility that I won't get it, that I'm not quite there yet, but even though I'm scratching my way in at the edges I think I'm getting better. I'm also really enjoying the improvement in my playing.

I made a decision to say yes to everything this month because I wanted to be playing more while preparing for this audition. I think this was a really good decision - it's such a treat to work really hard alone and then go out and play well with people. Playing with other musicians is really my only motivation, when it comes right down to it. I like some solo oboe stuff, but I prefer it when it's more chamber music as opposed to soloist and demure accompanist. Not that S is a demure accompanist, but you can't really fight the way some composers write. ha.

My oboe is definitely doing the micro crack thing again. I thought about bringing it in before the audition, but it's got a bit of suction and sounds good so I'm going to leave it instead of messing around with things right before. I played L's oboe, though, and it was so responsive!! Everything felt light and easy. Quite the treat.

I can't quite help wondering if I'll actually ever make it through the audition process. I know I'm getting better, but so are all these other lovely oboists, you know? It's such a mind game, sometimes. I won't give up, mostly out of stubbornness, but at some point I may have to make some reassessments. As usual, we'll give it another couple years.

practicelog — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:24:37 GMT

Ugh. Stupid cold. Had a fun rehearsal with D today, but when I got home and started practicing I found that air was sort of leaking through my nose. Ick! I can play a little but it's hard and I suspect not really beneficial, so I'm just making more reeds and thinking of beer. le sigh.

practicelog — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 07:09:49 GMT

reeds are being a little annoying. I've made a commitment to not freaking out about reeds, though, and I'm sticking to it and just practicing on what I have. I try to finish each session by working on one of the fast excerpts like rossini with a new reed - that way I start to finish them AND get a finger workout at the same time. Keeps me honest about whether they're really working or not, too.

I'm growing to like the Beethoven again. I listened to a bunch of different videos on youtube - Karajan's ones always seem to be the ones I go back to. I love the low strings in that movement.

tombeau should be fine. What a weird thing to say. Haha. but really, I pushed it up to 96 and then brought it back to 84 and I can think about PHRASING now!!! I NEVER thought I'd be able to do that. heh. it would seem that the phrasing makes it easier to play, which is something B told me years ago...

Fireworks are going off again. Coffee and sleep now I think - Oddly in that order!

practicelog — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:54:42 GMT

Auditioning is Expensive. Holy moly!

Though, it is amusing that the hotel is costing more than the flight. okay. food and then excerpts.

practicelog — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:10:59 GMT

I need a good recording of EVERYTHING.

Gah.

I just spent about 2 hours working on Beethoven 3. I STILL can't get it where I want it. I mean, it FEELS like it is when I play it, but then I listen to the recording....ICK. And apparently I lose any sense of internal pulse that I once had as soon as I touch Beethoven...

Hmm. Time to eat and sleep, methinks.

practicelog — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:01:48 GMT

neon yellow reeds this week. heh.

Strauss is humming along...I'm working on keeping my fingers completely relaxed and as close to the keys as possible...also listening for half hole bits that are sticking out. Played through Tombeau and Rossini...need to pick two more...I'll think about it tomorrow, though. Bedtime now!

practicelog — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 07:34:34 GMT

Blargh. Gave almost ALL my reeds to students this week! I started about 6 tonight though, with two sounding really promising right off the bat. Tomorrow should be fun trying them out after they've settled a bit.

practicelog — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:01:25 GMT

I think the only thing MORE annoying than the fact that I screwed up the tutti section from Don Juan is the knowledge that I played everything else way better than I ever have before in an audition!

I even made myself stop between excerpts when my hands started to shake and swabbed my oboe - and then I STOPPED SHAKING and played. So much improved from last year it's crazy and yet still not perfect enough. Gah.

So my plan is to work on E major related excercizes obsessively for the next little while and keep the Don Juan on my stand. Damned if I will let that tutti continue to bug me.

I'm also going to do the NAO audition again, so I'll have to think about what excerpts I want to do. I'd like to do Rossini, but I'm not sure if I play it well enough...I mean, I think I do, but I need a second opinion.

God DAMN I wanted this. Oh well...maybe everyone else will screw up the don juan too. That would be amazing.