New year, new adventures

2011 is set to be one of the more adventurous years that I have ever had.  Between joining the Navy, moving out of Rochester, running a half marathon (hopefully), I've got a lot on my plate for 2011.  I am so excited, but also very anxious - new adventures almost always brings new obstacles.  Moving sucks, and I have to somehow make it through eight weeks of boot camp.  And the uncertainty of what Ben is going to be doing is kind of scary.  The prospect of living separate is something I really hope doesn't come to fruition.

As far as new years resolutions, I don't have any major ones.  I'm not a "new years resolution" type of person, I think that if you want to better yourself, you shouldn't have to wait for a new year to start making those kind of commitments.  I feel like I accomplished a lot in 2010 - I started running, and I completed two 5ks and an indoor triathlon!  Also I got some direction in my career, which I desperately needed.  I also performed my first non-school recital, which was quite an achievement considering I work full time in a non-musical job.  I would say that my audition hiatus of 2010 (besides the Navy audition over the summer) has helped my playing a lot.  I felt like I was able to focus on fundamentals instead of stupid excerpts.  I feel like my playing is more focused, and better executed.  Plus I can sight read a whole lot better now!

As far as resolutions for 2011, I want to keep doing what I'm doing.  Keep running - I want to do a half marathon before I leave for boot camp.  Also keep practicing hard as usual.  Maybe do another recital????  We will see.

I am feeling pretty good about the Navy Band audition in a few weeks, a lot better than I did a year ago for the Marine Band audition.  I'm just trying to be as prepared as possible - lots of slow practice.  I decided not to go back to H&R Block this year for tax season.  I liked working there, but it was just too much.  Last year, it was so busy at the tax office in January I barely had time to practice (check out my blog post from that week!).  And the most annoying thing was that as soon as February hit, it was completely dead until April!  I don't want that to happen again, and if I want to be in the Navy Band in DC I need to make clarinet a priority!  Even if it means I have to tighten my budget a little.

One more thing, here's a new years treat from my recital this past October, me performing Debussy's Syrinx.
(sorry about the camera angle, its just the way the stage and the camera was set up!)
 



I'm going to post the rest of the pieces soon, but this one is my favorite!

slow, slow, and more slow

The last couple weeks I've been really getting focused on this Navy Band audition.  I'm the type of person that believes that everything happens for a reason - I try to find the positive result of every negative situation.  I think that there is a reason that I'm having to wait until May to join the Navy, and that reason is this audition in January.  I really want to do well at this audition.  My recruiter is really excited for me, and he's putting a little bit of pressure on me to win this audition.  If I win, I will be superior to most of the recruiters in the office!  As of now, I will come out of boot camp and be an E-3 (Seaman).  If I win the audition, I will come out of boot camp an E-6 (Petty Officer First Class).  For most, it takes several years of enlisted service to achieve this rate.  So what does it mean, really?  Um, more money, pure and simple.  To the tune of about $600 per month!  So for me to get to E-6 right away would be awesome!

I read a blog the other day of Richie Hawley, who is the clarinetist in the Cincinatti Symphony - he quotes another renown clarinetist/teacher, Yehuda Gilad (ahem...his students are winning all the auditions, I might add!): "When you are on stage, everything leaves you EXCEPT your preparation".  Ain't that the truth!!!!  This may have been my problem all along.  As much as I thought I was prepared for all my auditions, I really wasn't TRULY prepared.  I was dependent on other things that I have in the practice room but vanish at the audition: calmness, steady fingers, etc.

Obviously I've had somewhat of an epiphany.  I realized that I did well at my Navy fleet audition was because I was SUPER prepared (I had almost 3 months!).  I practiced slowly, meticulously, and efficiently.  I had a great routine everyday - and it paid off!  I was confident, cool and (somewhat) collected at my audition.  So I've decided to do this to the nth degree.  I have settled on the same routine pretty much every day: about an hour of long tones/scales/articulation exercises (based on Robert Spring's warm up routine - modified for Sandy, a mere mortal), then I play through every Navy excerpt  slowly - even the "slow" excerpts I take about 10 clicks off the tempo.  I think about technique, breath control, tone, and especially musicality.  Well, all but one - the Dvorak Carnival Overture excerpt.  It is the obligatory band transcription excerpt, although it is much more manageable than others I've had to attempt (ahem...ARMY BAND argh).  For those who don't know,  in band transcriptions of orchestral pieces, clarinetists get all the violin parts.  Except generally its a lot harder on clarinet than on a violin (obviously the arrangers don't care).  I have a recording of the Marine Band playing the piece, and it literally sounds like the clarinets are one metronome click away from crashing and burning.  And that's the Marine Band.  Anyway, I've never played it before so I'm trying to get it up to tempo.  Its really high and really fast, but I'm slowly making progress.  I'm close to breaking the half note = 100 barrier, and the final tempo is half = 132.  My goal is to have it at tempo by Christmas, then I'll practice it slow for two weeks after that, then alternate slow and at tempo practice until the audition.  Hopefully that will work...eek.

In other news, I did not get chosen as a finalist for the Youtube Symphony thing.  Meh.  I was disappointed at first, but now I'm over it.  My video was pretty good, but it wasn't super.  It could have been much better.  Hey, it was pretty good considering I only allowed myself 3 weeks to prepare excerpts that I hadn't played in almost a year!  And I learned a lot about making videos, which is good.  I think I'm going to make videos every few weeks to check on my playing, since I don't really have a teacher at the moment.

Well, that's all for now.  Merry Christmas everyone!



    

My directorial debut????

First off, Happy Thanks giving!  Ben and I were lucky enough to spend time with our friend Andy and his family for the holiday in Syracuse.  It was really great!  And I had my first garbage plate ever on Wednesday night.  I guess I couldn't leave Rochester without having one!  Anyway....

For the past week I've been working on creating a video for the Youtube symphony auditions.  If I get chosen, I get a free trip to Australia to play with the 96 other people who get chosen at the Sydney Opera House.  Freakin sweet!  And the audition excerpts aren't too crazy, only three excerpts plus Mozart.  Here is my final video that I submitted:

I am fairly happy with it.  I would like to mention that I am thinking the scherzo in two, not three (see my last blog entry) and it seems to help A LOT!  I am pretty nervous about the Capriccio excerpt (the first one after the Mozart) because I'm rushing a little (ok - a lot!), but according to Ben it had the best energy.  I'm taking a risk by choosing style over technique.  We'll see if it pays off.

Making the video was pretty labor intensive - I used my digital camera plus my minidisc.  During several test recordings that I did a couple weeks ago, I found out how crappy the sound is on my camera.  So I recorded both video and sound separately using the above mentioned equipment and then merged them together using Windows Movie Maker.  It took some time to get it lined up just right, but I think the end result was worth it! Lets just say, the "microphone" that is on my camera really doesn't like the upper register!  So I did that first with all the raw footage, adjusted the sound settings so that all you could hear was my minidisc recording, saved the movie file (which takes forever!!!  Stupid slow computer) and then cut and pasted the takes from there.  I made four separate (and very organized!) videos of each piece, and then I sat down and critically watched (more listened, actually) all of them.  Here's an example (its my Beethoven takes - its the shortest one, I think you'll agree that I got it on the third take!)

The others were not so smooth, I had 5 takes of the Mozart, 7 or 8 of the Capriccio, and 5 or 6 of the scherzo.  It took a lot of time to decide, I worked on it Saturday night for about 3 hours!  Anyway, the end result was decent enough to submit.  Now I just have to hope that I get chosen as a finalist!  If I make it, then my video is up for voting!  So we'll see what happens.

In other news, yesterday was my birthday!  I had a really wonderful day.  Started out with a 4.75 mile run, which was meant to be a 4 mile run, but I ended up getting lost in the cemetery - lets not even go there with the jokes of getting lost in a cemetery on my birthday, haha.  I actually like running through the cemetery here because there is lots of hills, and its actually quite peaceful and beautiful, despite all the dead people.  There are grave markers of people who died in the early 19th century!  Totally awesome.  Anywho...I then taught a lesson, and she actually practiced so it was a great and fun lesson.  After that Ben and I went to lunch at Aja Noodle (which is our new favorite place to eat!) and then went window shopping at Eastview Mall.  The mall closed at 6 (WTF...no holiday hours???) so we came back home and hung out at home for a bit, I skyped with my mom and dad.  Then we went to Plum Garden for dinner - all I can say is SUSHI OVERLOAD.  It was so good though:

The sushi spread

Happy birthday to me!!

I was so full, I could barely move.  After dinner, we went to the cheapy theater and saw Despicable Me.  Cute movie!!  I enjoyed it very much.  After the movie, we came back home and we had birthday "cake" that Ben made, which was fruit pizza, it was sooooo good!  Way better than a regular cake :)

Here are the gifts that Ben got me, a new super fancy running jacket, and a skull shaped bottle of vodka with matching skull glasses.  I wanted it more for the bottle than the vodka, I've been eyeing it for awhile, since we go to the liquor store often because of Ben's obsession with whisky.  

Anyway, it was a pretty successful birthday!  And I still can't believe I'm 28.  That means I've been an official adult for a decade and that means in two years I'll be 30!  Eeeeeek!  Looking back, I've made plenty of mistakes in my ten years of adult life, but I've learned just as much!  I've also had plenty of successes and good times too.  At 18, I would have never thought I would be where I am right now, especially with the whole Navy thing!  Even two years ago, joining the military was crazy to me.  But I still think I will be happy with my decision to join, I think it is exactly what I was looking for.  

Now I'm going to enjoy my extra day off!  Time for Christmas decorations!  And then back to the grind tomorrow...