March 2013
1 post
1 tag
So remember that time I promised to be good about...
That was literally the last thing I typed in my last post. On January 30th. And now it’s March 24th.
Oops.
So things that have happened since the opera - let me get you up to speed.
First off, the opera was awesome. Doris Lang Kosloff is an AMAZING person to work with. Her conducting was spot on and the opera went off without a hitch. We all had a fantastic time, and I actually miss it.
...
January 2013
32 posts
OH GOSH SO FAR BEHIND ON UPDATES
Jan 24th: I had opera and wind ensemble rehearsals again. This was too far back for me to remember too many details about. But they went well and we got lots more done with the opera. It has some really nice moments.
Jan 25th: I was done with class at 2:30. I really don’t remember what I did for the rest of the day to be honest. I probably practiced at some point…
Jan 26th: Hartt...
Update for 1/23
Yesterday, I had my first rehearsals for the opera and wind ensemble. We didn’t accomplish a whole lot with the opera, but I definitely really like the overture. Wind ensemble rehearsal was SOOOOO much better than any symphony band rehearsal I’ve ever been in, and the pieces are way more fun.
Today, I didn’t have any rehearsals, but after class I practiced for a solid hour at least, maybe closer...
Ok, here's the final IPO update
Ok, so no symphony band and, as it turns out, no musical for me.
Matt thought I was going to be first chair in symphony band, but apparently I skipped that ensemble entirely and am now an official member of wind ensemble. Which is AWESOME because Glen Adsit is one of my favorite people at this school and I love his conducting.
I was assigned to the musical, but the musical director contacted...
Lied. No symphony band for me. Which I’m actually super stoked about because now I don’t have to put up with the conductor who I’m convinced absolutely hates me and doubts my abilities as a musician.
WIND ENSEMBLE
Also playing in wind ensemble. This semester could not get any better.
First chair symphony band
Principal trombone in the opera
Only trombone in the musical
Wind ensemble
Parts in orchestra
Everything is kick ass and nothing hurts.
IT GETS EVEN BETTER!!!
I JUST GOT AN EMAIL THAT I’M ASSIGNED THE ONLY TROMBONE SPOT FOR THE MUSICAL “ON THE 20TH CENTURY” THIS SEMESTER YESSSSSSS
IT PAID OFF!!!
That’s right! Guess who made first chair in symphony band, and also gets to play with the orchestra?! :D
I’ll get to play a lot of big, awesome parts in symphony band, according to my TA, and as of right now I’m scheduled to play the opera, Die Fledermaus, and the off-stage trombone parts for the 1812 Overture.
Life is awesome.
I beat 3 people in my studio, and my TA says that...
Updates 1/19, 1/20, and 1/21
Ok so I’m a few days behind because of the moving back in process. Now that everything has settled and auditions have passed, let me get you up to speed.
Saturday, 1/19:
I practiced minimally and packed for school. I read half of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and was in bed by 11:15. It was not a very good night, so my practicing wasn’t very productive. Oh well.
Sunday, 1/20:
I was all moved...
Updates for 1/16, 1/17, and 1/18
January 16th:
Chops too sore from over-practicing the day before. Didn’t practice.
January 17th:
Didn’t practice. No good reason for this, just didn’t.
January 18th:
My audition is on Monday and today is Friday and I feel AWESOME. I played the Larsson the best I’ve ever played it today after mentally telling myself that I just needed to use a lot of air and basically just not make mistakes....
Dammit! Over-practiced by a little yesterday. Chops were sore when I started practicing today. I’ll practice later tonight and hopefully they’ll feel a little better :\
Update for 1/15 #2
OH MY GOD CONFIDENCE THERE YOU ARE I MISSED YOU DID YOU ENJOY YOUR VACATION BECAUSE I CERTAINLY DIDN’T.
Well now that things are back to normal here’s a for real update.
LARSSON: Dear lord, finally. My triplets are starting to smooth back out and I couldn’t be happier. Everything else is pretty much there. And I’ve still got just under a week to polish it! There are like...
Update for 1/15 #1
First practice session of the day:
My intonation was really weird today.
My LARSSON is meh. Most of it’s good but the triplets at the very end are still kicking my butt. I will work on it again later I suppose.
MAHLER was pretty good. Weird intonation here though with my As…which is ironic.
SAINT-SAËNS was actually I think the best it’s ever been today. So yay on that.
...
Update for 1/14
I took a day off today. I just really needed a day to NOT feel like I was going to throw something out the window because my Larsson isn’t good enough, my Mahler isn’t expressive enough, my Saint-Saëns isn’t smooth enough, my Rimsky-Korsakov isn’t…I don’t even know what it’s supposed to be…and my Rossini isn’t clean enough.
So today was my break day. Instead of playing trombone, I napped, read,...
Update for 1/13
I played some Tyrell and Rochut today. Neither were very good considering I haven’t looked at them in weeks. My sound was pretty decent and I felt like I was keeping my air more constant.
I started in on the Larsson and it just wasn’t working for me today. I got very frustrated after a while and decided to just stop before I got angry and upset with myself. I had already played a bit...
Update for 1/12
Meh. I played through everything. It sounded ok. I was mostly just spending all of my time today playing with my new haircut. Not a very productive day.
Update for 1/11
It was late before I got to practice today so I only got to play through the Larsson a few times and that was it. It sounds awesome though. All the notes are there and it’s pretty nice musically. Sorry for the crappy updates for today and yesterday. I’ll get back to my better update writing tomorrow.
Update for 1/10
Super great. Things sound awesome. I don’t have much to say. I neglected my etudes again. Oops.
Reasons why Evan is the man #672
“Hayley even if you don’t get the results you want, you still tried really hard and became an obviously better trombonist. I can’t wait to hear you! And you feel great about yourself. It’s a win win all around.”
Update for 1/9
Oh my gosh. Guys. You guys…
Tonight was the BEST practice session yet. I’m not even kidding.
LARSSON: It’s so close! I’m nailing things I’ve been struggling with for ages! I finally took the time to strategize my breaths and everything is flowing so much better. It sounds like a real trombonist is playing it and not my pre-trombone-makeover-self. This really is so...
Update for 1/8
Nothing particularly exciting happened while practicing today.
LARSSON: Today was actually one of my worse days in terms of how well the Larsson went. It was a little discouraging, but I’m sure it won’t be a regular thing. Although I did nail the fast passage with all the F-sharps for once, which was nice.
MAHLER: I decided to be lazy today and only practice the first excerpt. I...
Update for 1/7
This has been a weird and unpleasant and overall not very good day so I couldn’t really get into practicing today. I played the first Mahler excerpt once. I played through the Larsson a few times. My will to practice today has just been sapped by a bunch of personal stuff.
Update for 1/6
Everything’s awesome. I slowed down a lot of parts in the Larsson and am starting to legitimately nail them. My Mahler felt a little stuffy today but started to get back to it’s normal, big, beautiful self toward the end of my practice session. The Saint-Saëns sounded pretty good. My intonation on the B-flat in 3rd is getting better. I actually bothered to play through the...
1 tag
Update for 1/5
No rest for the trombonist.
I went over my friend Ruby’s, but I still got some playing in. One of her moms makes jewelry and stuff from old instruments. She and Ruby gave me the most amazing gifts.
What you see here is a ring that’s a cross section of some trombone piping (She didn’t remember exactly which part) and some loops from joints somewhere on the same horn (Again,...
Update for 1/4
My sound was really full today. I’m finally getting my sound back after taking that much-regretted break. Things sound really great.
LARSSON: I think they things I noticed most improved today were my articulation and my sense of dynamic contrast. Mostly on the lower stuff, which I have a tendency to get shy about and play quite, but there is a crescendo and so I need to like, not do that....
I practiced today a LOT but I’m too tired to write the update right now. I will do it in the morning before I leave for Ruby’s house. Goodnight tumblr <3
3 tags
All day e’eryday.
EVERYTHING IS AWESOME AND I FEEL GREAT. GETTING BETTER EVERY DAY.
Updates
LARSSON: Still smoothing things out. It’s only getting easier. Triplets are sounding better and better. I’m in love with this piece.
MAHLER: Again, I love these excerpts. Today they sounded a lot fuller. I think I’m finally coming into the right sound concept. More than anything I need to work on actually caring about the...
I’m being that guy who starts the William Tell excerpt at 60 BPM and only increases my tempo by 2 BPM each time I play it right… Will. Not. Lose. Audition.
Got home from work and what was the first thing I did?
PRACTICED TROMBONE, WOO!
My excerpts are in a binder, hole punched so that each one reads smoothly without any page turning necessary.
At this point, I can play through everything. I’m not saying they’re good. They’re NOWHERE near ready, but I have a few more weeks to polish them!
I got in probably a good 45 minutes of...
I hate to admit that today was day one of my IPO audition preparation. I had hoped to start much sooner, but the material was posted late, and I spent the last week being rather busy.
By some miracle, things went ok today. I definitely need to work my chops back up, but overall I feel more confident in these excerpts than I have in semesters past.
NOTES TO SELF:
LARSSON: I really like this...
I listened to the first movement of the Larsson dozens of times. Finally sit down to play it for the first time. With some work, this is going to be ok.
December 2012
2 posts
Excerpts: Printed
Arban’s: Eh
Tomorrow: Hopefully spending the first part of the day listening to excerpts, then the second half practicing them. Should be interesting…
September 2012
2 posts
My friend's friend has gone missing, and we need... →
reinventingintuition:
This young man has been missing since Thursday. His name is Christian Aguilar. He is an 18 year old male from Gainesville, Florida. He is a student at the University of Florida.
Please, anyone from the area who might have any information, contact your local authorities. There is a good chance that he has been seriously injured from an altercation that supposedly took place...
Tonight I practiced with Becky.
Honestly, it was the best decision probably ever. FINALLY I understand the Bartok and the Brahms. Finally.
I might actually be ok in auditions tomorrow.
August 2012
3 posts
2 tags
It’s probably bad that my wisdom teeth, which have been impacted for a year or two now, hurt when I play trombone, isn’t it? Ugh…just what I need as the new school year starts…
End of the summer update
So this blog didn’t go exactly according to plan, now did it?
Oh well.
It’s the end of the summer and, of course, I just broke my trombone out of its case about two weeks ago…I think? Things are, somehow, going rather well. The excerpts this year aren’t TERRIBLY difficult. Which is good. Because I HATE excerpts.
Only bad thing is that playing is kind of making my wisdom...
Alright so this thing happened again this year where I saved all my playing till the end of the summer…
I have a little over 3 weeks to work on these excerpts.
Dear goodness.
Here goes.
July 2012
1 post
Welp, I really messed this one up, eh?
I haven’t picked up my horn once since Evita. A little less than a month ago.
Let’s give this another go, shall we?
I’ve got work 9-2 today, and every weekday all summer, so I’ll practice when I get home for a while.
June 2012
2 posts
reinventingintuition:
Pick A Number
Alfred Kinsey believed that human sexuality could be charted on a scale of 0 to 6, with 0 being “Exclusively heterosexual” and 6 being “Exclusively homosexual.” Owing to changing cultural boundaries and advanced research, Kinsey’s scale has recently been expanded:
0. So heterosexual that you think all other heterosexuals should be shot, because they seem a...
So Godspell was amazing.
EVITA IS THE NEW LOVE OF MY LIFE OH DEAR GOD.
It’s going really well and I’m falling in love with the show and the music and the plot and the history and a;skldmxlagskd.
So yeah.
I’ve been playing for 3-4 hours every night since Wednesday. I took a week off to go to Delaware, but this week has been like a boot camp for my face and I’m already...
May 2012
7 posts
Ok so I’ve been REALLYYYY bad about this…
I haven’t practiced in days.
I’ve been so caught up with Godspell.
I need to practice Evita because I’ll be gone the entire week leading up to dress rehearsals…
In other news, IPO excerpts STILL aren’t up…
I’ve been so bad about updating this.
And I’ve been so bad about practicing.
But a lot has happened in the last few days.
Lots of job hunting and potential job getting.
I’m helping with my high school’s production of Godspell. Which is a step forward in career experience, so I’m not terribly angry with myself.
Also, Rojak hasn’t posted IPO audition material...
3 tags
Got home from driving my sister to her orthodontist appointment.
Immediately picked up my horn and started playing through some Tyrells and Rochuts.
I’m really proud of myself for not procrastinating the start of this project. I always say I’m going to practice more and then never do. But I’m serious this time.
Tired lips never felt so good :)
Had a nice little morning workout.
Started off playing a little trumpet. My trumpet chops are better than I remember them being! And I can play scales from memory! Which is pretty darn exciting. For me anyway.
Did a quick run through of Barat’s Andante et Allegro.
Played F. A. Guilmant’s Morceau Symphonique for the first time in months and it felt AMAZING. It’s crazy how much...
Just woke up. Time to practice!
Things get serious today.
3 tags
It begins.
So tomorrow is the first day of summer for me.
I spent the last year studying at The Hartt School of Music, Dance, and Theatre as a Music Management student, applied classical trombone. I studied with Dr. Ronald Borror, one of the most wonderful men it has ever been my pleasure to meet, and probably the most intelligent man it has ever been my privilege to study with. If Doc taught me anything...
