sevenhelz

Recently I've had a lot of experience on different instruments. I found playing baritone (for roughly ten hours all told) interesting, except that the first valve of the instrument I was lent froze up and made it unplayable. The baritone also causes me some back pain, and I can't get a very good sound out. On the other hand the valves and tongueing on the smaller instruments are much lighter. I was lent a Boosey and Hawkes sovereign euph for the remainder of one rehearsal, with an SM4 mouthpiece. That's roughly the same size as the AL4, but a subtly different shape (most obviously the outside being a different shape) so it was comfortable to play; I have borrowed the mouthpiece for the time being, as every time I've played one it's given me a good sound. It remains to be seen if this will last.  I also noticed how much easier my top range was with the B&H euph, so possibly the 967 is holding me back in this area.
I've been practising tongueing, single and double. I want to be able to single tongue fast enough to rarely need to double, because the clarity is much better and a stronger tongue means much more flexibility of style. I have also been playing lots of lipslurs, which are faster now but still not great.
My study, 'Polka', from the Vizzutti book of dances, is going well - I worked on the first page last week, and the rest this week. Practice techniques include splitting up runs and starting off really slowly and speeding up gradually; fairly basic stuff.
Our lectures these past two weeks have been on Shaping Performance, with links to the current musicology subject of how musicology can inform performance. The information and debate about early music has led me to the conclusion that I need to do much more background reading into my pieces. In practical terms, I need particularly to work out how I want to perform early music. For instance, the Marcello piece I'm working on is clearly not going to be in an extremely authentic style; it's not idiomatic, and I'm unsure as to the style required and the context it was written for. Trills and decoration are the most interesting thing to think about. D showed me how he plays them, and it's probably the best place to start, but I feel more research is needed.
The Alexander Technique masterclass was interesting. It made me think harder about posture, balance and relaxation, and I was very relaxed in uni brass band. I felt good and played well.


i am now without steve. i don't want to talk about it. i didn't really want to announce it, because every time i do we get back together within a week, but i suppose i should let people know.
isn't it interesting how neither the flat above me, nor the flat below me is making much noise, yet i can hear drums and bass sounds coming from Somewhere? i suspect it's actually below me, which makes me feel a bit bad about the guys upstairs - have banged on the ceiling before now...
i hope they shut the fuck up soon, it's pissing me off. also when i went down i found three guys, one of whom is disabled, and who were quite friendly. i don't want to have to go and beat them with a stick. a stick made of pure rage, heated and fashioned for optimum hitting of people.
on a related note, is it not a bit odd to leave your flat door open all the time? i mean, kitchen stuff is a nuisance to replace.

gah.
xx