Shostakovich

Wow, I watched the YouTube of Leonard Bernstein conducting the 4th movement of Shostakovich's 5th symphony and I still feel shaky. Man, those trombones rock!

Great practice tonight, even before I watched the YouTube. I'm working on less material, more slowly, and I am making progress, and I like that.

Clef studies!

Lunchtime practice:

Very methodical warmup, without the tuner, just listening to myself. I became suddenly aware of how much weight I am typically putting on the right hand (slide hand) with my modified grip, holding the horn with my ring finger rather than my middle finger of my left hand. I switched to my middle finger, after padding it first with my homemade padding arrangement, but I know already that too much pain lies there. I need to be very attentive to this. I cannot keep putting weight on the slide as 1) that just slows my action down and 2) is probably a bad thing for the slide long term.

I worked on alto clef in my Ralph Sauer clef studies book and that was quite productive. Mr. Sauer says in his introduction that his idea is to give people new things to play, that are musical, as they learn clefs, so the student (that would be me, in this case) does not fall into patterns and not actually learn to read the clef. Sort of like the difference between speaking Spanish rapidly and knowing how to count to one hundred in Spanish.

I also worked on one of the Beeler scale etudes, this one in the key of Ab. I am discovering that I don't have a good sense of what Db should sound like. I did this today without the tuner at all and I kept being pretty fuzzy and out of tune on the Db. Quite interesting. 5th position! There's just so much room there!

return to a little reality ... and it's my 102nd straight day of practice

cool time practicing tonight. I am just bringing a different focus. Goofy little exercises, I'm just working over and over again. Is it that I'm tired of playing things not quite right? Or is it that what every one says is sinking in - play it right and then the speed will come. Or rather, that I have this little break where I can just luxuriate and play around. What heaven. I even played around a good bit with the trumpet tonight before I started on the trombone, trying to pick out a scale, figuring out the partials - such fun to go so high!!!! Wow.

I counted up my days and it really is my 102nd straight day of practice. Granted, a few of those days have just been buzzing a couple of scales on the mouthpiece (while traveling), or the occasional late night sneak in a few surreptitious quiet passages. But, oh, can I see the value of doing this every day. Not in being amazingly better, not at all, but in the desire, the need, now, to play something every single day. Ha, I am almost at a third of a year.

Oh, but for the promised reality. After my wondrously relaxing Christmas break, tonight I pulled out the Shostakovich and I realize that what I must do is play this enough that I almost have it memorized. I simply cannot be translating this from alto clef. I have to get this into myself and our first rehearsal is next week so chop, chop! And I just must get a recording of this symphony so I can get THAT into my head.

teeny tiny

The best laid plans ...

A beautiful meditative weekend led into clambering around town in the snow looking for groceries and gifts, then to throwing together a delightful birthday dinner for my sister-in-law Sharon, and family ... I made this soup, recipe from Carey. I used cranberry beans instead of fava beans (fava beans are too dry for my taste), no chickpeas, a different chili paste and only half of what they called for (didn't want it to be too hot for the kids), and substituted quinoa for the couscous. It was terrific!

All that did not leave much time for practice, sigh. I played a few scales after 9, quietly (and quite nicely on the high end, I might add).

Oh, and I have no idea why they said to saute the vegetables in water, I used olive oil.

Moroccan Fava Bean Stew

1 large onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 tomato, cored and diced
3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups water
2 cups diced pumpkin or butternut or acorn squash
1 cup cooked small fava or cranberry beans, drained
1 cup cooked or canned chick peas, drained
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
2 tablespoons harissa (Moroccan chile paste)
1 cup couscous

1. Saute onions and bell pepper in 2 tablespoons water for about 5 minutes.Add tomato and garlic and cook for 4 minutes more.

2. Stir in the remaining ingredients (except couscous) and cook for 30 minutes over medium heat until the squash is tender. Stir occasionally.

2. Stir in the couscous, cover and let sit for 10 minutes.

very steady and slow practice

I sneaked in a little late, practicing until 9:12 but I have such artsy people upstairs housesitting for Charlie that I just figured I could get away with it.

I did very slow scales, 2 octaves, very slow and in tune.

Then I worked on only the Beeler allegreto piece, carefully. I need to be playing it in 2 but I keep doing it in 4, so I got out the metronome and worked and worked on it to get it in 2. Singing it in 2. Playing only one note to get the timing right. Playing odd transitions very carefully, over and over again. Since I didn't have much time, I just used what I had to get it as right as I could.

I will try to practice more tomorrow; had a social obligation today that took seven hours. (One hour of prep, 6 hours to get there and back, and visit. Mercy.)

first bassoon part

I'm playing the first bassoon part for one of our student symphony pieces. A lot of eighth notes - three pages full, but I played almost 2 of the 3 pages just now, and it is fun music, if I can keep up once we do it at full speed.

I worked on the Allegreto exercise, and on a piece on pp. 12 - 13 of the Beeler.

I may do another practice session later on tonight. It is quite pleasing to have chops in such good shape after playing that Christmas music. I played for about an hour just now and could barely feel the effects.

Jesu, Joy

Why don't I have those positions nailed?

What's up with the trombone that it's so hard for me to know where notes are? After the last post, with Herb gone home, I just poked around playing Jesu, Joy from memory. I can sort of do it, but whew! it is tricky to find the notes.

Then I dig into it more. Is it tricky because I actually don't have the melody fully in my mind? Is it trickier now than when I was a kid because I am not spending the hours and hours on it, expecting it to come all at once instead? I think, maybe I don't have Jesu, Joy fully in my mind, but then I can sing it, so I do, but I'm not giving myself the time to take it from my head to the trombone.

Ok, mini-goal, I love Jesu, Joy, it sounds lovely on the trombone, that can be my song that I play when called upon ... but, oh, my, I also have to learn to play Happy Birthday as we are always called upon to do that!

Enter trumpet!

I asked Paula if I could borrow her trumpet to try it out, and she gave it to me for Christmas. Wow. I love knowing a lot of musicians.

Had the pop over for Christmas. He played cornet just a bit in school. He's where I get whatever smidgen of musical ability I have. I brought out the trumpet and he tried hard to squeak out of few notes. I popped it up and squeaked out a few, and even started to pick out some Christmas tune. Where did that come from?

Then I brought out my beautiful trombone (this is all after a bottle of champagne, mind you) and played taps. He asked me to play something I usually play and I didn't have something laying around in the back of my mind! That's ridiculous! I work so hard at what I am practicing that I don't just have a song laying around in the back of my mind to play?

When I was a teenager in Tokeen and poking around on the recorder for hours at a time, I remember I had that penny whistle tune down (from some Hoyt Axton cassette tape as I recall), had Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring memorized.

Must remedy this. Why else am I playing.

And why was it so easy to pick out a little bit on the trumpet when it's not on the trombone? The newness?

Remiss at Christmas

I have been rehearsing or playing every day since Saturday Dec. 20. Which takes a lot of time; hence my spacing out my blog (sorry to be so neglectful, pat, pat).

Our little Christmas at Eaglecrest yesterday went perfectly. The torchlight parade down the mountain afterward was just lovely, the lights swooping back and forth down the mountain like a gracefully choreographed dance.

Christmas music is great for exercising the chops. Now I am in good shape to return to my usual practice. Whatever that is.

Bloody Nose in Christmas Performance, Part II

Well, this was an interesting twist. I never get nosebleeds, but I got a doozy today right in the middle of the sermon at the Salvation Army church where we were playing Christmas music.

I had to slip out the back, but fortunately there was a door right behind me, so I slipped out, stopped the nosebleed, but there was no where to go to wash my hands or check my face (it would have been very gross to be sitting up there playing with dried blood on my face), plus blood had dripped on my blouse - all a very strange experience for me, as this just NEVER happens to me.

But, it was a strange and beautiful thing to be able to sit back there in the little anteroom and hear the music. Our trombone section was strong so it was OK that I sat out. It reminded me of why I like playing Christmas music so much. It's beautiful. It's singable. We know it.

This is it for this little group, and tonight I rehearse again for the Eaglecrest Christmas Eve music.

Christmas music, Performance I

Mall performance - sweet, sweet. My sister-in-law Sharon came with my niece and nephew - they loved the sousaphone when Peter whipped it up around his shoulders. The big news from their household is that one of the gerbils they are watching for their teacher over the holiday had BABIES this morning! Robert was quite pleased.

We had our first Eaglecrest rehearsal today at 4.

I, too, love playing Christmas music

Wow, this stuff is fun. I had one very nice early practice session, then my second session tonight was not so good so I just quit while I was ahead. It may have had something to do with the nice red wine I was drinking ... or maybe my mouth was worn out ... but in the earlier practice session tonight I could so see how just playing this stuff a few times makes a difference.

I can punt if I want!

I made it through all the rest of the Christmas music (see playlist at www.tinyurl.com/reindeerband). And I made the executive decision that I'm just not going to even going to try to play The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire) or March from the nutcracker. All else - fine - but these two, I just do not have the time or lips to get these down in the 36 or so hours before we play at the mall.

This is great music for an embouchure workout, I must say.

Intention, part II

My immediate intention is to play the Christmas music at the mall Saturday and at the Salvation Army church Sunday, to the best of my ability.

My goal today is two practice sessions, and in those sessions to make it through all of the music in our repertoire that I didn't play earlier in the week, at least.

Intention

From Elizabeth Gilbert, about prayer:

Prayer is a relationship; half the job is mine. If I want transformation, but can't even be bothered to articulate what, exactly, I'm aiming for, how will it ever occur?

Does this not ring utterly true about practice?

Half the benefit of prayer is in the asking itself, in the offering of a clearly posed and well-considered intention. If you don't have this, all your pleas and desires are boneless, floppy, inert; they swirl at your feet in a cold fog and never lift.

Substitute practice for prayer and you have it, in a nutshell.

Christmas music toasts the lips!

Whew! Christmas music is like marching band music, really works the chops.

I made it through Jolly Old St. Nick on our playlist before I just decided to give the chops a break. I need to pick up on Joy to the World when I get back, but that is not until Wednesday night. I'll take the music as well as my mouthpiece with me and practice some of it with the mouthpiece while I am gone (in Anchorage) ... we play Saturday and then Sunday so once again, I am cramming in practice.

But that is OK with this stuff, it is just plain fun to play and easy, too. I am not perfect but not too bad either. And I'll be flanked by Larrys both of whom play better than I, so I can tune myself to them and we'll all be better as a result.

Anatomy of a tricky piece

Set stage: Hohne duet, that I have been working on for a few weeks now. It has my tricky G, but also some fairly fast passages all above the staff, easy to get confused on.

1. Michelle starts in on the top line, desiring to hit the first note, an E flat, pure and clean. Michelle sings the note, bringing her voice in tune with the tuner.

2. It starts beautifully, cleanly.

3. The first little run is choppy, so the second little run, containing the dreaded G, is just plain crappy.

4. Michelle pauses, holding the trombone down, to her side. Almost in tears, she analyzes the situation: I have trouble with the G, which makes this piece hard. I am falling apart on the runs because I am not practicing them enough because I have trouble with the G.

What to do? Is there no hope? Am I worthless?

Deep breath. What do they tell us to do?

PRACTICE IT SLOWLY.

5. Michelle slows the pace way down, starts at the beginning again on the top line. The fast passages, while not PERFECT, all work. All of them. The G's come, while not perfectly, in general, nicely.

6. The practice session moves on to a Good Session.

Lesson: Slow it down. Don't cry.

Christmas band, etc.

A lovely fun Christmas rehearsal this morning, and now I've just finished practicing my lesson material ... my mouth kind of wore out and I started to feel a tiny bit discouraged, and there is simply no point in that, whatsoever.

Nice to get two solid playing times in today.

85 is a sweet little soft scale

I went out tonight for Friday night celebration of 8 years on the job. My octave party, I called it. So, tonight, after a bracing walk home from the Breakwater, I just played a little scale bit ever so quietly, sneaking up on each note from just a breath.

84 it is

I got a little distracted at lunch so didn't practice then. My practice tonight was not the fierce high practice I was intending, but a nice, solid practice nonetheless. I did do the Michael Davis warmup and am stoked to see how much easier it is coming. I also worked through the commissioned piece completely and sent feedback to the composer.

Now I must clean my slide.

Yesterday 83, today 84

Today I plan to come home at lunch to practice, and that will make my 84th straight day of practice.

Last night I was gentle in my practice, very little high range work. Quite a lot of new material from my last lesson, so I worked on that slowly and methodically. This is sometimes a hard task, because you don't necessarily get a sense of the music by carefully working on it, but I am really finding it to be the case that if you can play it slowly, you can play it at the up-tempo, and if you can't play it slowly, you can't play it well! Just like my teachers have always said.

So the task is, keep my interest while I am working on the new material. Mix it up.

My lunchtime goal today is to just do a warmup - maybe the Michael Davis warmup, speaking of mixing it up - and then to play through the new commissioned work by Thomas so that I can give him feedback. If I have any time left over, I will work on the Shostakovich.

Well, THAT was ambitious!

I did everything in my goal except for working on the little arpeggio exercise - but that's OK.

I feel great about my improving sight reading ability, which is still weak weak weak, but I am improved enough to be able to power on through and stay with the rhythm even while blowing notes right and left (blowing, as in totally not getting them right) - progress!

I like my tone, too. I like playing in the kitchen. I really hope I get this house as I could try out all these different playing spaces.

revitalized goal

Goal tonight:

- Warmup
- Previous lesson material - all
- One piece Beeler, one duet of the new lesson material
- Around about here, octave and pedal practice
- A treble clef piece read as tenor clef
- If any time left, 2nd movement of the Shostakovich!

Oh, and it looks like I will be doubling on the 2nd trombone part of the Shostakovich, which will be a great opportunity for me - to hear my part right next to me and to match it - what a cool chance and one that I have not often had.

did I mention ...

Did I mention that I love my lessons? Well, if I didn't, let me mention it now. I had a wonderful lesson. Jack says he thinks my playing just took a big shift; he asked me if I felt that way, too, and I do. I played well. I think it is because I have been listening to myself better. I wonder if it has anything to do with moving my playing into the kitchen where I can hear myself better. Or, maybe, slowing down a little in order to focus myself - on my legato, on playing in time, on listening, listening.

To Do:

I need to not try my notes before starting out, but to just boldly go where none have gone before and play the first note as if it will be coming out perfectly, to play as if I am the best trombone player in the world and my notes will be pure and beautiful.

Jack gave me some ideas about my troublesome G, that I will work with, though I played it pretty decently in the lesson when I worked on my octaves.

I also need to start working on my vibrato when I work on my scales.

That was just one good lesson. Meanwhile the snow is dumping down as if it must meet the weatherman's prediction of 12 to 20 inches. I actually took a cab to and from my lesson.

round two is not quite perfect

Round 2 of playing today did not quite have the perfect character of my earliest practice. OK, fine, be that way. ;)

I worked on the student symphony piece, it's the Bassoon I part for Beethoven's piano concerto. I picked up at measure 36 and played to measure 101. Need to pick up there the next time I work on this. I want to play through the whole thing to make sure I can do it. Of course I am playing it much slower than it will go. It will be a total workout at the called-for Allegro con brio. It's interesting so far.

I worked through the first movement of the Shostakovich. This is my second time through this piece.

Then I wanted some sweetness, so I played a couple of my easy solos for trombone, Liebenstraum and Bist du bei mir. Worked a little on Mendelssohn's On Wings of Song, but I don't have that in my head. I'll see if I can figure that out on Smart Music or YouTube.

love how playing makes me feel

There must be a lot of endorphins released in good playing sessions - I just love how a good hour of playing makes me feel. Washed with happiness.

I am very pleased with my progress and I am looking forward to a good lesson tomorrow. Got through all of my material, plus the little arpeggio exercise (still very rusty on that but I know that the work I did on it today will help with tomorrow, etc.).

I thought about playing in the empty room down the hall and actually went down there with my music and trombone, but there is no overhead light in the room and I could not see my music. I am quite keen on experimenting with acoustics these days, and am still playing in the kitchen. It just sounds great.

On this topic, last night at the Bach Society concert, Dennis was at the mic at the beginning of the performance tweaking something, and when he moved away, I felt a noticeable difference in the sound, just from the removal of that one standing person. I wonder if I imagined it? Or if my ear is becoming more sensitive?

with SINCERITY

After my beautiful practice time yesterday, I want to do two solid practice sessions today. I was going to eat breakfast first but am short on food supplies, so had to put a pot of brown rice on to cook, which takes an hour ... so I'll do my first practice session hungry - who knows what kind of an edge that will provide! Probably not the best of edges but you never know. (I'm kind of in a macro-biotic phase and don't want to eat white rice - picky, picky, picky.)

My goal for this two-phase practice today is to work all of my lesson material in my first session, and then to work my rehearsal material for the winter and spring concerts in my second session. HA! And to get in one tenor clef piece in the second session as well.

Off to hit it!

addendum

I have a lesson on Monday and today I feel like my hard work on the lesson material is paying off. When you play it carefully again and again, it really works. What a surprise.

The other lesson for me at the moment is that I really, really need to practice twice a day. I haven't for the last couple of weeks and I think that has been part of my low spirits and seemingly slow progress. I played Christmas music with brass band this morning so this is my second long session on the trombone and it shows, it makes a big difference. I am playing well. I love it.

79 I love brass band music

I am taking a break from practice to settle my lips down. I would love to continue but my mouth was falling apart on my high notes and I'd like to squeeze in a little more time today.

I need to head over for Magnificat at ... about 7:15, I think, to get there early enough to get a ticket and a seat. http://juneauempire.com/stories/120408/mus_364075923.shtml. Oh, that leaves me with more than an hour to get rested up and do a little more practice!

I did warmups up to my octaves and pedals, but then I started working on my Beeler and duets first to get further warmed up before I pushed high and stretched low. IT HELPED, especially with the high notes. I did not start breaking apart until the C above middle C. Very nice. The G in 2nd position came nicely even, though rough in 4th still.

I'll finish working the last half of the second duet and then want to move on to the Shostakovich, picking up where I left off a few days ago in the 4th movement. I also realize that I need to start working on the student symphony music. I am playing a bassoon part for the Beethoven violin concerto for the spring concert and there is an alarming numbe of eighth notes. As in, 3 pages. 3 pages of 8th notes on the trombone! Mercy.

And, rearranging my blog today, I see that one of my goals for November was to work on tenor clef music every day. Well, I have not been doing that. However, I will point out (to my little self critic since I don't see anyone else bashing me) that with the Shostakovich in alto clef that is a challenge in and of itself. However, the critic is right in that I need to keep working on the tenor clef. I moved my goals up in the page, but of course now I need to update them for December. Sigh.

day - whatever

Had the best gallery walk ever tonight, with wondrous friends and a very happy town. I bought a great print from Jim Hanes, bounced all over the place, many conversations, sushi at Seong's at the end of the evening ...

and just played a bit, my Peer Gynt and Amazing Grace and playing pretty, tonight when I got home (at 9:30 - gasp!).

Peer Gynt

It is such a pretty melody.

Last night, on a whim, I decided to try playing standing in my kitchen rather than in my little sitting room. Anyone who has been to my apartment knows it is tiny, so it is almost a joke to talk about playing in the kitchen ... it's just 6 feet or so from where I usually play in my tiny sitting room.

But standing in the kitchen, my sound is so nice. This idea to move my playing space is informed I think by my solarium playing with the beautiful echoes.

Nice practice, my sound was nice, my G's were even ok, and I played a few minutes after 9, as I started late due to a late BEAR on the front porch ... it is a long story, but she was one bear that did not want to move and she left a MESS.

numero 75

What's that, diez y siete y cinco? I don't think that is spelled correctly, but it's my 75th straight day of practice, no interruptions.

I worked on high notes only when I got to my troublesome G in the duet I am working on and I tried something different, I just blew them like I was blowing into a bottle and trying to get a high note out of the bottle, and they came more easily. Then, after practicing the duet some more, I worked on my octaves seriously and also my pedals and the pedals came - snap fingers - instantly. I think they work well when my mouth is very warmed up. That was pleasing.

I worked more on the Shostakovich, made it halfway through the section starting at Measure 111, in the 4th movement. This movement is the most challenging but also the most interesting.

Sometimes I feel like I play so poorly ... but I have been playing only by myself now for the last 10 days. I have a lesson Thursday and play the Christmas music this Saturday. That will perk me up, surely. But still, today, I enjoyed my practice and I think it was good to start without the failing notes right off the bat.

I usually start my practice sessions with a warm up, then practicing my octaves until I get up beyond my range ... then shift to practicing my pedals, which are pretty much below my range. So I start off every practice with some handy touches of failure.

Now. If I want to practice sounding beautiful, I must ask myself if I want to begin my practice sessions by pushing myself to failure.

Tonight I will wait until later in my practice to work on my high and low ranges, and really focus on playing with good sound first.

searching for reminders

Just at 2 minutes before 9 tonight, I got my beautiful trombone out of its case and played for 4 minutes. I played a little passage from Peer Gynt from memory, working about 20 notes over and over, playing by ear, trying to make each note, each transition between notes, beautiful. Making the natural slurs as perfect as possible but beautiful, too, and legato on the other notes smooth, pretty, pretty.

I just practiced a little bit each day while I was gone and so was feeling ... oh, maybe low, that I can't play as well as I would like. I read something today on the trombone forum today, though, about practice, and this one person said make it sound good, that is the whole point. So my tiny practice tonight was to make it sound good and to enjoy myself.

I am home now from my trip to Wrangell, as of the 6:15 am arrival time of the Malaspina, so I will get back to a more regular practice now.