Concert Report!

Both the studio day and the orchestra concert were fabulous!

Yesterday was our concert. Here'a link to a video of excerpts from 3 selections - Jurassic Park, Hoedown from Rodeo, and the 1812 Overture:



I'm sitting in chair #2, so you can see me playing! I was amazed that the celli look really coordinated (also I was amazed that I look really synchronized with our principal, who is an excellent cellist)

We played:
Jurassic Park
Grondahl Trombone concerto (has the distinction of being 1 of 2 Romantic trombone concerti; think pirates and battles and love songs and you've got it)
American Salute (was an arrangement of "when Johnny comes marching home" written for radio broadcast)
Rodeo (Buckaroo Holiday, Saturday Night Waltz, Corral Nocturne, and Hoedown)
1812 Overture
Stars and Stripes Forever

I think our concert last week, on Monday, was better (with the exception of Hoedown), but the venue, outdoors at the Ballard Locks, is fabulous and we love playing there.

Saturday, the day I spent in the studio recording music written by students of the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program. The films are created by students, who get orchestral music composed for their film, a win for both the filmmaker and the composers.

It was a long and tiring day. We started at 10am, finished at 5:15pm, with a 10 minute break every hour and a 1 hour break for lunch. By the last hour it was really hard to play well. We rehearsed less and recorded right away. The day is run like it would be if we were professionals (although Hummie said that the food, provided by the students, was an exception). We didn't see the music until we showed up. We all had headphones so that we could hear the click track (a smart metronome, synchronized to the film so that we would play the required tempo perfectly, even when it varied during a piece). We rehearsed whatever it was that we were playing a few times (sometimes just once) and then recorded 2 good cuts. Then we moved on to the next section. Hummie could see the film while he was conducting, but we couldn't see anything. He did tell us what each film was about, so that we would play with the right sound. One movie had an exploding monster in it, so he asked the winds and brass to make an exploding sound at the end of one piece. I think we recorded music for 3 films on Saturday. Hummie said that students in the program have now scored 93 films, and that 34 students from the program have gone on to score feature films. Pretty impressive.

Into the Studio!

Tomorrow I'll spend the day in the recording studio, playing film scores written by students of the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program. I wonder what music we'll get. Two years ago we recorded the music to this charming animated short, 2 Old Chicks.



The video was created by students in the animation program at the University of Washington. The original orchestral music for the video was composed by Steve Brush, Doris Bartha and JR Rhodes as part of the requirements to complete the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program. Hummie Mann, composer and the founder of the program, conducted.

Sight Reading day

During our chamber group today, we had an unusual configuration of players. We had 1 violinist, 1 violinist or pianist, 1 cellist, and me (cello or piano). So I volunteered to play the viola part on my cello, so that we could play piano quartets or string quartets. I suppose we could have doubled parts and played piano trios, but I like having my own part for chamber music.

Everyone was gracious enough to play easier pieces than we normally play, at slower speeds than normal. We played through Mendelssohn's first piano quartet (op.1 - wonder how old he was when he wrote it..but it already sounds like Mendelssohn), and 2 early Schubert string quartets, D87 and D74. I still had trouble sight reading the viola clef, managing to play maybe 50% of the notes correctly (repetition was a good thing; gave me time to figure out the notes!). I would get settled in and be able to read (sort of), and then something would flip in my mind and I would start thinking in another clef, tenor or treble and totally screw up. I tried to fake it by matching the harmonies or at least playing something on the downbeat or tried to sing my part. It was a workout! Tomorrow I will be able to play a cello part, and be a cello (thank goodness!)

My lesson yesterday was good; I showed my teacher the exercise I made up to try to learn how to change bow speeds when I change bow direction while keeping the tone consistent. He really liked it and I'm sure he'll use it or something similar with his other students. Inconsistency of tone and poor bow control when switching directions is something that he's pointed out in my playing, so I've been playing scales and making up exercises to try to produce a nice sounding tone and consistent volume when I vary the speed and pressure of the bow. Next up is really learning how to control the volume and tone so I can really do a good job of crescendos and decrescendos.

He's started me working on the Lee op31 exercises, and had me work on a relaxed legato bow and making eighth notes really even. It felt like moments of panic interspersed with calm. It amazes me that producing an even sound requires such uneven effort. Then I played the 3rd piece from the Hindemith Drei Liechte Stucke. I really like them. He has programmed the piano part into his computer, so I've had the challenge of playing well with the accompaniment. On these pieces it is not easy because the rhythms are offset and it's easy to screw up.

Practice Goals for June

One of the nice things about being a member of CelloBloggers is that one of the sub-groups is the Practice Club. There are 13 members and we are keeping each other honest by sharing our practice goals and reporting our progress. Here are my goals for June, which as it's more than halfway over, are a little late (but hopefully doable!)

--being ready for the last concerts of the season for orchestra. That means panic practicing to be ready for the first concert on Monday. We have a hard program; the 1812 overture, Copeland's Rodeo (rhythms are really hard on this!), a really neat trombone concerto, and some other pops and patriotic music.

--improving my ability to get a consistent and even sound when I'm changing bow direction. Today my husband said that for the first time he heard my play the longest sustained sound he's ever heard...meaning that he couldn't tell when I changed the bow direction! Now if I could only do that consistently and reliably...that's the goal

--and for consistency, practicing every day that I'm home. I'm traveling 3 out of 4 weeks this month, but have managed to practice all except for one day when I was at home. My excuse for the day that I missed was that it was the evening I arrived home from a trip and I had a pile of work to finish before the next day.

I forgot to add this last goal to my post, and it's an important one, and that's being very careful to be very relaxed and in good form with very little tension while playing. For the past few weeks I've been suffering from pain in my neck and having problems with numbness, pain, and tingling in my left shoulder, arm, hand, and fingers. My doctor sent me to get an MRI done and the MRI showed a bone spur and a disk protrusion in my neck, along with degeneration in the disk. I think this is the long term effect from a rear-end collision I was in 6 years ago. The pain started a few weeks ago but so far I've tried to keep it from interfering with my practicing. But I am so aware now of whether I have extra tension in my neck and arm...and have actively sought to get rid of that. I want to be able to keep playing the cello for a long, long time!

Shopping in the Asian Grocery Store

you wouldn't want to cook with fake fungus




and I'm not sure what this is, much less how it's prepared for consumption