Date: 01/23/14
Orchestra: CYO
Attendance: very good
Repertoire Rehearsed: Beethoven
Little Things I noticed: It just makes me so happy to see the orchestra get bigger and bigger. We now have a nearly complete full orchestra!! Please welcome the new members of the group! And also the video recording is helping me tremendously with the blog writing :)
Note:
With a new brass section, and four cellos, and a bunch of talented youngsters playing Egmont, I'm sure Beethoven is smiling in his grave. He might even lend us some super powers.
And since we have a newly formed "brass section" now (including the saxophones who were part of the woodwinds before), I moved the seats around a bit, but I'm not too settled on the current seating, so we will probably need to do some more relocations in the near future. I want to try to find the best seating situation for our purpose.
We had Mr. Lin lead violin sectionals while I led the rest of the orchestra during the first half of the rehearsal. I now think that doing sectionals in smaller groups (such as per instrument), might be beneficial. I just need to figure out how I can do that effectively in terms of logistics.
We finally went through the ENTIRE Egmont Overture (and this was only our third rehearsal of the piece!)! That is a huge accomplishment in itself. I hope you guys are feeling somewhat proud of yourselves. When you have a larger goal, it is very easy to forget to appreciate your efforts in achieving smaller goals, but please don't forget, without accomplishing the smaller ones, we can never get to the big one. So try to really cherish the small things you accomplished and use that as motivation to get to the next step!
At this point, I think a couple of things need to happen as the next step. One is the obvious, being a little more physically comfortable with playing the notes you have in front of you. When you are physically comfortable, you are in control of the notes. When you have the control, then you have flexibility in terms of what you can do with the notes and play them however you want to, and whatever way you desire to play them - you'll have control over the timing, intonation, articulation, dynamics, and color, and you'll have the ability to adjust and fine-tune each of those aspects per note. Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing?
The second is to get to know the very piece better. So please keep listening to a recording of this piece many many times. You can never listen to it too many times. The more you listen, the more you discover, and the more you know, well, the better you play. If you don't have a cd, or mp3 file, you can always come back to this blog and go to the entry where I posted a link to a youtube video of the piece :)
Monday, January 27, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
random rant after being in bed for three days...
I almost never get tired during rehearsals. So when I did last Thursday, that should've been a warning for me. But then again, by that time, there probably was nothing I could've done anyway...
I got sick on the way back from rehearsal on Thursday, on the train. I ended up lying on the bed through the entire weekend... That was exciting...
To be honest, I wasn't eating well in the few days prior... In retrospect, this was only to be expected. Must. eat. well.
And because all I could think since Thursday night till now was, "shoot, shoot, shoot" (or it's equivalents...), my memory from Thursday's rehearsal is spotty at best. So I decided to to just randomly rant for this entry.
As a teacher, I receive emails from students and students parents about how they are not happy about their (or their kids') progress while practicing. Not as in complaints to me, but they seem confused when they are on their own. To be honest, I never fully understood any of these concerns. Only because, there is nothing wrong with slow progress, especially if you are not even practicing two hours a day, everyday. First, you have to do it, before you can hope to get better at it. With anything, really.
Imagine, you are born into a samurai family for instance (this may sound silly, but bare with me). You are told that in fifteen years, you are to go into a battle field and fight. Well, I don't want to die, so If I were in that situation, I probably would train every waking moment of my life up until that day, so the probability of me staying alive is greater. One day of slack, can cost my life. And on the flip side, no one can kill an enemy with THAT much determination.
You may think this example isn't here nor there in relation to practicing music. But I practice because I want to keep my job. And so long as I have certain skills, no one can take that away from me. Most of my students have other dreams beside being a musician. That's fine I do plenty of other things too. But I don't expect myself to be as good with those other things as I am in music, simply because I don't spend as much time doing them. Therefore, I look upon those with the skills with much admiration and respect, but I don't expect myself to become like them. I believe that I already have a role in society, and my priority is to keep it, and fulfill it as best as I can. In regards to other things, I do them simply because they make my life a little more interesting, and make me feel more like a human being than a music making machine. And therefore, I regard my other things just as important as music, only I don't spend as much time on them.
So, if a seventeen year old doesn't sound like Yo-Yo Ma, and is crying about it, I pity the student, not because his/her level is not high enough, but because of how out of touch he/she is with reality. I'm not saying one should lower the standards, but your goal should reflect the likely hood of how much time you would be spending doing the activity. If your goal is simply being better than other people, then you got a life time of misery awaiting for you. Like a samurai, who's sole goal in life is to survive, then you will lose sight of everything else around you, and you may survive, but will never live - not a humanly fulfilling life. You'd just be a cold-hearted fighting machine. And even a well conditioned machine, would eventually fail.
I'm a musician, but my goal is to live and show life, through music.
Somehow, humans have made this world a place a very fast pace, competitive, and I dare say, a destructive world, that favors machine like "warriors", and not very kind to life-loving artists. Sadly, even in the music world. Those that can play the instrument well (whatever that means), are favored over those who can transport you with sounds (people who can play music, rather than their instrument - there is a big difference). One of the pit falls of the classical music is that, it is sooooooo ridiculously demanding. When the notes are that hard just to play them, we focus on those stupid notes, and forget the message that those notes carry. And when we focus on the notes, we forget why we play music in the first place, and start liking them less. And that's why I love non-classical music as well. You can get right down to the music, right past the notes, because for the most part, the notes in other genres tend to be easier (unless you start improvising, of course - then it is all about your own battle with your instruments AND music).
Nobody likes school or work. Every time we get a day off from them, we cheer. Yet otherwise we go diligently, every single day. A lot of time is spent in those places. Of course you'll see some kind of result. After all, we spend more time in those places than doing any other activity. I just hope it is worth it.
As a teacher, I try to offer things I felt were left completely untouched during my school days. The ability to see other possibilities in life for one, felt like it was decidedly suppressed, and seemed like it was considered dangerous. Well, I'm not a dangerous person, and I think seeing possibilities is way too important of a skill to not touch upon. And the best way to teach that is through creativity. I think of creativity is one of most essential traits of a human being. If my job is not considered important, then you might as well remove brains from all people on earth and replace them with computer hard drives.
People might respect me if I say "I'm a musician". I think because many people think of people like Jay-Z or Miles Davis or Guns n Roses, when they hear the phrase. But when I say "I'm a music teacher", all of a sudden I find myself having much less audience, and respect for that matter.
Anyway, what does any of this have to do with having better practice sessions? There are two ways. One is to treat practicing as one of the things you do every day, whether you like it or not. We all do a lot of things we don't like doing everyday. Homework, job-related stuff, even tooth-brushing (who actually likes doing that?), etc. you might as well throw practicing in there. Do it without questioning.
The second and a more enjoyable way is to simply listen to yourself carefully when you do practice. You must know this, that every time you play a piece with your instrument, you are getting better at it. Try to listen to your improvements. Play and then try to listen for what's gotten better. But you must listen very very very very carefully, for reality isn't THAT kind. But it is true and you must know that it is true, that, every single time you play, you are improving.
I got sick on the way back from rehearsal on Thursday, on the train. I ended up lying on the bed through the entire weekend... That was exciting...
To be honest, I wasn't eating well in the few days prior... In retrospect, this was only to be expected. Must. eat. well.
And because all I could think since Thursday night till now was, "shoot, shoot, shoot" (or it's equivalents...), my memory from Thursday's rehearsal is spotty at best. So I decided to to just randomly rant for this entry.
As a teacher, I receive emails from students and students parents about how they are not happy about their (or their kids') progress while practicing. Not as in complaints to me, but they seem confused when they are on their own. To be honest, I never fully understood any of these concerns. Only because, there is nothing wrong with slow progress, especially if you are not even practicing two hours a day, everyday. First, you have to do it, before you can hope to get better at it. With anything, really.
Imagine, you are born into a samurai family for instance (this may sound silly, but bare with me). You are told that in fifteen years, you are to go into a battle field and fight. Well, I don't want to die, so If I were in that situation, I probably would train every waking moment of my life up until that day, so the probability of me staying alive is greater. One day of slack, can cost my life. And on the flip side, no one can kill an enemy with THAT much determination.
You may think this example isn't here nor there in relation to practicing music. But I practice because I want to keep my job. And so long as I have certain skills, no one can take that away from me. Most of my students have other dreams beside being a musician. That's fine I do plenty of other things too. But I don't expect myself to be as good with those other things as I am in music, simply because I don't spend as much time doing them. Therefore, I look upon those with the skills with much admiration and respect, but I don't expect myself to become like them. I believe that I already have a role in society, and my priority is to keep it, and fulfill it as best as I can. In regards to other things, I do them simply because they make my life a little more interesting, and make me feel more like a human being than a music making machine. And therefore, I regard my other things just as important as music, only I don't spend as much time on them.
So, if a seventeen year old doesn't sound like Yo-Yo Ma, and is crying about it, I pity the student, not because his/her level is not high enough, but because of how out of touch he/she is with reality. I'm not saying one should lower the standards, but your goal should reflect the likely hood of how much time you would be spending doing the activity. If your goal is simply being better than other people, then you got a life time of misery awaiting for you. Like a samurai, who's sole goal in life is to survive, then you will lose sight of everything else around you, and you may survive, but will never live - not a humanly fulfilling life. You'd just be a cold-hearted fighting machine. And even a well conditioned machine, would eventually fail.
I'm a musician, but my goal is to live and show life, through music.
Somehow, humans have made this world a place a very fast pace, competitive, and I dare say, a destructive world, that favors machine like "warriors", and not very kind to life-loving artists. Sadly, even in the music world. Those that can play the instrument well (whatever that means), are favored over those who can transport you with sounds (people who can play music, rather than their instrument - there is a big difference). One of the pit falls of the classical music is that, it is sooooooo ridiculously demanding. When the notes are that hard just to play them, we focus on those stupid notes, and forget the message that those notes carry. And when we focus on the notes, we forget why we play music in the first place, and start liking them less. And that's why I love non-classical music as well. You can get right down to the music, right past the notes, because for the most part, the notes in other genres tend to be easier (unless you start improvising, of course - then it is all about your own battle with your instruments AND music).
Nobody likes school or work. Every time we get a day off from them, we cheer. Yet otherwise we go diligently, every single day. A lot of time is spent in those places. Of course you'll see some kind of result. After all, we spend more time in those places than doing any other activity. I just hope it is worth it.
As a teacher, I try to offer things I felt were left completely untouched during my school days. The ability to see other possibilities in life for one, felt like it was decidedly suppressed, and seemed like it was considered dangerous. Well, I'm not a dangerous person, and I think seeing possibilities is way too important of a skill to not touch upon. And the best way to teach that is through creativity. I think of creativity is one of most essential traits of a human being. If my job is not considered important, then you might as well remove brains from all people on earth and replace them with computer hard drives.
People might respect me if I say "I'm a musician". I think because many people think of people like Jay-Z or Miles Davis or Guns n Roses, when they hear the phrase. But when I say "I'm a music teacher", all of a sudden I find myself having much less audience, and respect for that matter.
Anyway, what does any of this have to do with having better practice sessions? There are two ways. One is to treat practicing as one of the things you do every day, whether you like it or not. We all do a lot of things we don't like doing everyday. Homework, job-related stuff, even tooth-brushing (who actually likes doing that?), etc. you might as well throw practicing in there. Do it without questioning.
The second and a more enjoyable way is to simply listen to yourself carefully when you do practice. You must know this, that every time you play a piece with your instrument, you are getting better at it. Try to listen to your improvements. Play and then try to listen for what's gotten better. But you must listen very very very very carefully, for reality isn't THAT kind. But it is true and you must know that it is true, that, every single time you play, you are improving.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
new challenge for the new year
Date: 01/09/14
Orchestra: CYO
Attendance: excellent
Repertoire Rehearsed: Beethoven
Little things I noticed:
So I tried using a conductor's baton for the first time today... It's rather awkward, I have to say... Maybe I just have to get used to it... someone mentioned Harry Potter's wand. I wish it was a magical wand, that way, I can turn anyone naughty into a goat for a while as a punishment, and an amusement for the rest of us
Note:
welcome back!
hope you had a nice relaxing and joyful winter break! it's good to see you all again.
hope you had a nice relaxing and joyful winter break! it's good to see you all again.
so, the beethoven piece i gave you is a piece that is somewhat significant to me, for it was one of the first major classical orchestra pieces i ever played (i was nine), and left an incredibly positive, immensely huge, and long lasting (forever) impression on me. i felt that i subconsciously learned so much about music, just by playing and working on it.
i do believe it will have the same the same effect on you - the piece is that powerful.
and i was very impressed with your reading skill!! that is NOT an easy piece to sight read at all(!), but it didn't even feel like it phased you at all. amazing. this is a very difficult piece, and i was hoping to push you a bit, but judging from the way you handled the first rehearsal, maybe i can push you even more...
at any rate, i mean for us to perform this at a very high level, since we have some time till May. i figured with a piece like this, the longer we spend time on it, the better it is for us. it's like musical medicine. you can't possibly have too much beethoven in your life.
Here's the link to the best recording i found of the piece on youtube:
the link does not say who the conductor is or which orchestra or provide any information of this recording at all, but my guess is that it is Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. I've heard that recording before, and I think it's the same one. This video is doubly nice because it comes with the score!
new challenge for the new year
welcome back!
hope you had a nice relaxing and joyful winter break! it's good to see you all again.
so, the beethoven piece i gave you is a piece that is somewhat significant to me, for it was one of the first major classical orchestra pieces i ever played (i was nine), and left an incredibly positive, immensely huge, and long lasting (forever) impression on me. i felt that i subconsciously learned so much about music, just by playing and working on it.
i do believe it will have the same the same effect on you - the piece is that powerful.
and i was very impressed with your reading skill!! that is NOT an easy piece to sight read at all(!), but it didn't even feel like it phased you at all. amazing. this is a very difficult piece, and i was hoping to push you a bit, but judging from the way you handled the first rehearsal, maybe i can push you even more...
at any rate, i mean for us to perform this at a very high level, since we have some time till May. i figured with a piece like this, the longer we spend time on it, the better it is for us. it's like musical medicine. you can't possibly have too much beethoven in your life.
Here's the link to the best recording i found of the piece on youtube:
the link does not say who the conductor is or which orchestra or provide any information of this recording at all, but my guess is that it is Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. I've heard that recording before, and I think it's the same one. This video is doubly nice because it comes with the score!
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Great job everyone!
Just wanted to shout out a quick congratulations to all of you who performed in the NJSYO winter concert last week!!
I had a blast listening to you all (even while I was conducting, or I should say, especially while I was conducting).
I usually have lots and lots of criticism after each concert, and I usually debate whether I should even mention them, but honestly for the first time, I really have zero criticism to make for CYO, at least none directed to you guys (I have lots reserved for myself.......). I thought CYO was magnificent. I really do. You guys were awesome.
For chamber I don't have criticism per say, but I think that we are all aware of what went down, and it is important that we review those next time we get together. Still, the command you had on such complicated and challenging materials was quite awe inspiring. And we all know that we can, and have played EVEN better than that is quite astonishing. We just have to learn how to make it happen at the right moment, and we will do exactly that next time. I'm already getting excited about our next concerts!!
Meanwhile, have an awesome break. Rest well, eat a lot, sleep a lot, have fun, enjoy your presents, and listen to good music!
I will see you all next year!
Oh, and thank you all so much for the loveliest gifts!!!! I REALLY appreciate them!
Friday, December 13, 2013
we are sooo ready
Date: 12/12/13
Orchestra CYO
So I love rehearsing. As a kid, I was one of those weird ones that actually enjoyed the actual rehearsal much more than the break time. And if I had one rehearsal a week, then whatever day that the rehearsal landed on, was always my favorite day of the week.
I like figuring out the little things we can do to change the effects, and tiny little things we can do to make us sound a tiny little bit better. In ensemble rehearsals, topics were almost always less technical, and almost always purely musical, and I love that. And when we do talk about technical things, it is ALWAYS in context with that specific music we are playing, unlike in private lessons, where some (not all) teachers often remove all technical exercises from any kind of context whatsoever, resulting in something like a race/competition of the physical aspect of the playing, not dissimilar to athletic competitions. While I adore watching Olympics and World Cups and such, in music performance, the physical aspect of it is less than a very small portion of the whole act, and to focus on something so small, without the discussion of "why", misses the entire point. Once we figure out the "why", that tend to also answer a lot of our questions as to "how", anyway.
In ensemble rehearsals, even people that tend to generally be much less artistically inclined, are forced to think of music more musically :)
But it looks like my obsession to rehearsing has not only run the rehearsal a lot longer than I originally intended to (it was gonna make this a short one...) but also cost you guys a break, and some time to hang out with your buddies on your last rehearsal before the winter break.... I apologize....
But on the bright side, the work that you unintentionally put in, is paying off. I think you guys sound REALLY REALLY good right now. I can't tell you how excited I am for this concert.
So I mentioned how I love the sound of the clarinets and the flutes playing in octaves. To my ear, that particular combination creates a lot of warmth, and drama, with hardly any intensity to the character. Rich. moving, but gentle.
Combining of different instruments in certain way to create an effect is called "orchestration". Other common orchestration techniques that I really love is:
- flute and oboe in unison
- french horn, viola, and cello in unison
- cello and violin in octaves (very common, but definitely my favorite) also unison of the two instruments is very nice (quite intense)
- harpsichord and strings
- muted trumpet and english horn in octaves
and
- staccato clarinet and pizzicato violin in unison
Do you have a favorite orchestration technique?
Looking forward to Sunday!
Orchestra CYO
So I love rehearsing. As a kid, I was one of those weird ones that actually enjoyed the actual rehearsal much more than the break time. And if I had one rehearsal a week, then whatever day that the rehearsal landed on, was always my favorite day of the week.
I like figuring out the little things we can do to change the effects, and tiny little things we can do to make us sound a tiny little bit better. In ensemble rehearsals, topics were almost always less technical, and almost always purely musical, and I love that. And when we do talk about technical things, it is ALWAYS in context with that specific music we are playing, unlike in private lessons, where some (not all) teachers often remove all technical exercises from any kind of context whatsoever, resulting in something like a race/competition of the physical aspect of the playing, not dissimilar to athletic competitions. While I adore watching Olympics and World Cups and such, in music performance, the physical aspect of it is less than a very small portion of the whole act, and to focus on something so small, without the discussion of "why", misses the entire point. Once we figure out the "why", that tend to also answer a lot of our questions as to "how", anyway.
In ensemble rehearsals, even people that tend to generally be much less artistically inclined, are forced to think of music more musically :)
But it looks like my obsession to rehearsing has not only run the rehearsal a lot longer than I originally intended to (it was gonna make this a short one...) but also cost you guys a break, and some time to hang out with your buddies on your last rehearsal before the winter break.... I apologize....
But on the bright side, the work that you unintentionally put in, is paying off. I think you guys sound REALLY REALLY good right now. I can't tell you how excited I am for this concert.
So I mentioned how I love the sound of the clarinets and the flutes playing in octaves. To my ear, that particular combination creates a lot of warmth, and drama, with hardly any intensity to the character. Rich. moving, but gentle.
Combining of different instruments in certain way to create an effect is called "orchestration". Other common orchestration techniques that I really love is:
- flute and oboe in unison
- french horn, viola, and cello in unison
- cello and violin in octaves (very common, but definitely my favorite) also unison of the two instruments is very nice (quite intense)
- harpsichord and strings
- muted trumpet and english horn in octaves
and
- staccato clarinet and pizzicato violin in unison
Do you have a favorite orchestration technique?
Looking forward to Sunday!
Thursday, December 5, 2013
I have not forgotten!!!!
I'm usually not one to make excuses, but just so you know that I didn't stop caring about this blog or you, I wanted to let you know that I had been committed to doing things that took a lot of my mental energy elsewhere, and just wasn't feasible for me to do everything. This blog had always been on my mind though.
In fact, I was writing about what I had been doing, and how I was inspired by you guys to get through all that, when my phone rang to tell me that I had to be in a rehearsal VERY early the next day, when I just had a very exhausting and musically unsatisfying loooong rehearsal just before coming to a CYO rehearsal...
I had to cease my blog writing immediately then, to switch my gear to make sure that the next rehearsal, which was the last rehearsal I had for this concert, was a successful one.
This was a full concert of cello and percussion duet. It was a part of Sounds Of Arts Festival, organized by a group called MuSE, run by friends of mine. There were seven pieces, all of which were brand new, including one of my own. I had to breathe life into 7 new born babies that no one had ever seen or heard of before. It is an enormous task. I mean writing a piece itself is generally enough work for any individual, I think...
The week before that, I had to write a jingle for Fuji film. And the day after the concert, I received an opportunity to have pianist, Blair McMillen read through a new piano piece, which took place on Monday. Then I am currently working on a violin solo piece that a friend of mine from Turkey asked me to write for her violin recital next week... I have to finish it by today or tomorrow...
So yes, you've been on my mind!
Looking forward to CYO rehearsal tonight!
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