Last night I was bored. I practiced euphonium for about an hour. I've been "meaning" to practice all summer, but the summer flew by so quickly. Working 4o hours a week at GPH and about 15-20 a week babysitting just limited my practice time. After about 20 minutes my lips were killing me!
I had such good intentions at the end of the school year! I was going to complete Morceau's Symphonique, The Flower Duet and get at least halfway through Rocheau. Well, I am ALMOST done with the second and third movement of Morceau but haven't even touched the first section. Every time I see those 6 flats staring at me I just move on to something else!
I ordered The Flower Duet back in May. It's a beautiful song performed and arranged by Adam Frey. I have it downloaded from Itunes and he plays with a trombone. I was so excited to get it. I have run through it many times. I was actually disapointed at how easy it was. I can't wait until school starts and I can find a trombone to play it with me. Even though it's simple to play, it has a lot of things that will need worked on to make it beautiful. A lot of time the beauty of the music isn't in how hard it is to play but rather all of the other technical aspects of it. It is a BEAUTIFUL song!
Yeah, and Rocheau (which is a warm up book)... well... I didnt get far. Actually, I have played one NEW piece out of it. I was also going to master all of the scales in bass clef...but as you can guess, that didnt happen. I added one and that was it.
I feel like I am still learning so much because I didnt play for so long. After I graduated from high school in 1998 with intentions of being a music major (which didn't happen) I hadn't picked up a horn. When I started at Evangel last year I thought I would give it a try. After all at one point about ten years ago I was going to major in Euphonium Performance. But that didnt happen. :o( Dr. Kolstad at Evangel gave me a chance and I jumped right back in. My first semester was tough and there were many days when I just wanted to give up, but I kept plugging along. My second semester I decided it was time for private lessons. Dr. K told me in my first lesson that I was learning the bass clef. I chuckled. YEAH RIGHT! I had played flute originally but in 8th grade my band teacher asked me if I would like to play the euph. I loved the flute and I was good at it, but I really LOVED the euph! The one hinderance I have had since day one...is the stupid bass clef. I never really tried and Mr. Cowan in high school never made me, so I just stayed in my comfort zone playing treble clef. Playing both clefs opens a whole new world of opportunities in music selection.
Dr K said it would take all semester to get a grasp of it and that it would be tedious but to keep plugging away at it. Three weeks later, I was playing bass clef regularly. Playing piano and being able to read bass clef was a huge asset to that success. I still struggle and the real test will be when I start next week in band again and they hand me all bass clef music, but I am excited about the challenge. I just wish I had more time this summer to prepare for that.
So after an hour of practice last night, I'm going to squeeze in another hour today and hopefully my lips won't fall off after 20 minutes! ha
Well that's my music blog today.
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