Clarinet Practice May 27th

I went and bought 10 new good reeds the day before, so I had to try them out. I put one in water for about 4 hours before using it, and the other I just played after a minute of getting it wet. I didn't find that letting the reed soak in the water improved the sound or responsiveness of the clarinet. I played the other reed for about 10 minutes, reviewing the scales I learned in class. I memorise all my scales. I found I had all three of them pretty well down pat. Now I need to maybe touch up on them a bit so I won't get lost when playing them, and then I need to learn the two songs, and maybe I will even practice some sight-reading!

Clarinet Practive May 18th

I started by warming up with long tones, and then tuned. I played through the hard parts of Thrillers and Chillers a few more times, concentrating mostly on dynamics and making sure I was getting all the articulation. Then I went to Carmina Burana and worked on the 1 bar I still have trouble with. I understand it much better now, and am able to play it and make it fit in. I ended off with some long notes, and then I listened to Beethovens 9th here on my laptop, and wished I could play as well as they can. :-)

Clarinet Practice May 15th

I warmed up with long tones, both high and low, and made my dog sing :)) Then I tuned the clarinet, so that I know approximately what position would be in tune for next Wednesday. I also played some scales up to the fifth note and back down again, and did that from high C up to starting on high B, but I could not remember the fingerings for the higher sharp notes, so I stopped there. Then I got out thrillers and chillers and worked on the hard passages. That included the runs, and the section in the middle that I could not play (measure 143 I think it was) I also solidified the Devils Dance tune by playing through it twice, and also the Escape from the City. I spent some time working on phrasing and dynamics in the Dracula section and in the Voldemort section. Throughout the whole practice I tried to play for as long as possible at one time, because I noticed that my lips are getting weak. For that reason I need to practice again tomorrow. Over all I practiced non-stop for 25 minutes.

Clarinet practice May 6th

Today I practised in two 15 minute sections, since my lips were out of shape from not having played for 5 days. I started both sessions with long tones, and then worked on Chillers and Thrillers, which does have some challenging parts for clarintet. In general this piece is hard becuase of all the accidentals. I worked through all the parts with accidentals. The devil's dance part is hard because most of the intervals are not major ones, and no two are the same. The same goes for the challenging 6 bars or so right in the middle of the piece. I played through these parts slowly and made double sure I had all the notes right, then worked on memorizing the sounds and patterns of these parts. I also worked on the runs, especially the 2 bar section at the end. It really isnt that fast, but the notes are not as simple as a scale pattern. I think the 5 minutes I spent on the timing in that section were really helpful. I still need to work on the rythms in the ending March, which I will do after I have heard them again in band.

Music Practice April 23

I practised for the class playing test on Thursday. I had practised the scales and study during class, but I needed to go home and play it by myself, since I learn music from hearing the sounds that connects with the notes. I memorise the sound, not the physical action. After playing the scales and the study two of three times through I had it down pretty well pat, since I had practised fingerings in class. I still had to work on articulation in the study, so I spent the rest of the time working on articulations and intonation. Overall I played for about half an hour.