First Entry!

Date: 01/31/13
Orchestra: CYO
Coaches present: Mr. Lin, Mr. Luckenbil (thank you!)
Attendance: good :)
Repertoire Rehearsed: the scary one
Little things I noticed: There were only two tiny little paintings on the walls today. Felt lonely.

Notes:
  So I decided that I'd like to keep records of the rehearsals because my lite version brain apparently ran out of space, and I can no longer seem to remember anything anymore. And then I thought I'd even do it publicly. So in case you were ever wondering what is it like to be on the other side of this mysterious organization called NJSYO, and wanting to peak into some of our darkest secrets, you may just find some here :)

  Anyway, today I moved the flutes and saxes slightly forward, closer to me. I really like it this way. They become a separate and independent wind section, and become a great connector between the strings and the brass, and that seems to hold the group better, especially now that the brass are in the center of the orchestra. I get a nice full blend of sound this way.

  First half was sectionals. I tried to get the strings to accent the fourth beats, but was not very successful at first. A little while later, I noticed that a lot of people's bows were stuck on the upper half of it. Yes, some people were taking the two down bows without the "retake". That explained the less than explosive sound, and the measly accents. Back to the frog folks, back to the frog.

  The wind/brass/percussion came back up sounding strong! Thank you Mr. Luckenbil!
The second half of that main melody is tough to keep it up, and maintaining the sound without sounding like all your dark forces have shriveled away. A descending scale is a natural decrescendo and a potential car parachute. Sometimes a mental crescendo is needed to maintain the sound.

 I also talked a little about the meaning behind the notes/harmony and the importance of the fourth beat, which I was very excited when I found it! Ambiguous first three beats, then -  melody notes forming a major key at the same time also forming a minor harmony underneath (light and dark), which establishes the overall minor key (dark force), and by notes that are actually from another distant key (galaxy???) - all on the fourth beat. It's super cool, I think.

I can be a total geek...

Mr. Lin will bring the bass next week.

P.s. Let's see how long this blog keeping will last...