The best way to combat the cold is to stay inside. I opted to stay inside, well at least for part of the night, and practice. I was able to play through my entire audition tonight. Even though it happened at a slow speed, I feel good about the end result.
The Koppel Concerto is now fully imaged I just need to work out the transitions and get a good solid tempo. I will not be at full tempo for the audition but my aim is to be comfortable as to play. I read through both of my Timpani excerpts, Brahms' Symphony no. 4 and Stravinksy's The Rite of Spring as well as the Delacluse etude. I also played through my snare drum excerpts and etude and my xylophone excerpts.
My plan for the next few practice sessions is to completely work through every single excerpt and etude, building up to the audition day. Basically, I will treat each practice session as the audition. The only piece left to brush up is the Cangelosi - White Knuckle Stroll. As I have traditionally performed this piece on a 4.3 octave marimba the next few days will test my accuracy as I put this onto our 5 octave marimba. The best way to do this is to lay a towel down below the A2 so that it creates a visual barrier for my peripheral as I am screaming down the scales.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Dare to Dance the Tides
Today began yet another process along the path. Back into the saddle of practicing. This time, not only for my recital but for graduate school auditions.
Tonight was a bit of a late night session, beginning at 11pm. But I've found that my best work happens in these late night practice sessions. A throw back to the days, nights rather, recording/sleeping in the studio while Greg Downs mixed. Along with practice sessions throughout the day I will be getting most of my work done 10pm or later between now and my recital.
The recital had to be rescheduled from my original date last semester simply because there just was not enough time to practice as much as I needed to and pass two music history courses at the same time. No one in their right mind would do this normally, much less in the middle of a recital preparation. As was the same course of action during Fall semester I will have to wait to schedule my recital. I am aiming for end of March or early April.
During my preparation for grad school auditions I have accomplished a lot of a headway in these pieces for my recital: Lonely City Suite, White Knuckle Stroll, and Concerto for Marimba movement III. All I have left on the Concerto is to finish learning the cadenza section. I'm sure I'll eat my words, as I have on the rest of the concerto, but the cadenza shouldn't take too much time to learn because the bulk of it is made up of embellished themes from earlier in the piece.
Work to be done; put the concerto with my accompanist, finish imaging Monte Nido, put Challenge together with my accompanist, brush up Wicca, and put the finishing touches on Mental Separation. This list makes it seem like so little to do but in fact this is a mountain of work to accomplish in just 8 weeks of time along with a few more auditions and my regular school work/rehearsal time.
As soon as I have a recital date I will post it here along with a proper poster to pass around.
Tonight was a bit of a late night session, beginning at 11pm. But I've found that my best work happens in these late night practice sessions. A throw back to the days, nights rather, recording/sleeping in the studio while Greg Downs mixed. Along with practice sessions throughout the day I will be getting most of my work done 10pm or later between now and my recital.
The recital had to be rescheduled from my original date last semester simply because there just was not enough time to practice as much as I needed to and pass two music history courses at the same time. No one in their right mind would do this normally, much less in the middle of a recital preparation. As was the same course of action during Fall semester I will have to wait to schedule my recital. I am aiming for end of March or early April.
During my preparation for grad school auditions I have accomplished a lot of a headway in these pieces for my recital: Lonely City Suite, White Knuckle Stroll, and Concerto for Marimba movement III. All I have left on the Concerto is to finish learning the cadenza section. I'm sure I'll eat my words, as I have on the rest of the concerto, but the cadenza shouldn't take too much time to learn because the bulk of it is made up of embellished themes from earlier in the piece.
Work to be done; put the concerto with my accompanist, finish imaging Monte Nido, put Challenge together with my accompanist, brush up Wicca, and put the finishing touches on Mental Separation. This list makes it seem like so little to do but in fact this is a mountain of work to accomplish in just 8 weeks of time along with a few more auditions and my regular school work/rehearsal time.
As soon as I have a recital date I will post it here along with a proper poster to pass around.
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