sevenhelz

i has snow. not much, but enough to make me cold when i walked in to uni this morning. it was slightly surreal - i'd been telling myself there was no way we'd see snow, but there it was, melting on my eyelashes.

i love the eels.
i love aerosmith, possibly against my better judgement.
i love my flatmate shaz's version of cheesy pop.
i love euphoniums, especially when david thornton is playing them. OMG HE PLAYED MINE FEEL THE JOY XXD
i love family. i love them visiting me especially :)
i love getting on with people, even if i'm not the most important thing in their lives. i can deal with that, right now.

i don't love realising my easter hol is longer than i thought and i can't change my now-booked tickets without at least a £5 charge, but i'm still visiting the beautiful bluecassandra for a few days.

i've had a rough couple of weeks emotionally, possibly due to late period and resultant PMS. it turns out that's probably because my body is sync-ing with my flatmates, so that's okay. i've spent time this week just chatting with people, relaxing and not worrying about the work - yet i've also got a lot of things done, including keeping up my practise and improving my top notes (see learning journal, going up later tonight, for details) - and i feel more like myself now. more able to keep up with the work. more able to cope with the money issue, despite having worsened it for myself. i've stopped digging an emotional hole to lie down and die in, and the funny thing is, it feels like i'm only just getting over the holiday season, whenglitterybint's classes are looking forward to half-term!
i sort of wish we didn't have such long holidays. i need other musicians around me for motivation and encouragement. but i will survive.

love to all.
xx

This week's lesson/exam went reasonably well. I had played earlier in the day, and played some lip flexibilities to warm up and relax. I've been having self-confidence issues, though mostly outside of the practice room. I think back over what I've done and not done and feel bad. Then if I take it in with me next time I practise, my sound is wobbly and thin because my technique is out the window. I have a theory that all good euphonium players are arrogant, at the very least in how they play. It's the only way to get good sound, to have confidence bursting out of you.

I went home for the weekend and when practising at my bf's house, I tried his euph - I found high notes much easier! This gave me some insight into playing them on my own euph, and how to really push the air through. It has been easier since.
My breathing has not been good this week - I have good enough control for a big sound, but too many breath points. The loud & long note exercises don't appear to be working as well as they have in the past, though I may just not be pushing myself hard enough.
I asked D about posture, and he told me what i already know in theory, but also made me sit comfortably and then handed me my euphonium. It felt okay. I haven't had the same pain since, and must assume it was too much tension and bad posture in rests.
We're more than halfway through the first year of Uni and I've only just joined a band. A first section band called Grangemoor. It's debateable whether this is good; it's nice to have free time, but it's also good to get your name out there. I'd like to be in a championship section band by next year, but not on baritone, so there aren't that many bands that would want me. Grangemoor are very friendly though, so I'll stick with them for a while. Also, I miss contesting.

also visited mummy and daddy, which made me somewhat melancholy. got to the post-christmas point of not wanting to come back to uni, even though at the time i was near steve's house and he was on holiday. why? don't know. had a long talk with dad about our family's health, and babies of the future. i've missed him.

Had a minor cold this week, but surprisingly good sound. I also randomly found top notes easier - possibly just from pushing more air through? -When playing a ff top B, I managed to blow the second slide right out of the baritone (at Grangemoor). I spent the rest of the piece holding it in with my left thumb. I'm not sure the bari's doing anything good for my muscles - my right thumb/hand has been uncomfortable. Again, bad posture causes these kind of problems... I don't want to get to the point where I have to take time off playing because the hand position in itself is painful.
Lesson was encouraging. New study, "Polka" from the Vizzutti book of dances, is going well. Itcould be a little faster and I need to look at the second page. Towards the end of the lesson I played Gareth Wood's 'Aubade' and my bottom Gs weren't coming out; although my embouchure is generally secure in the bottom register now, I was having difficulty slurring down to it. D promised to think up a way to help this, but in practise next day I could slur down fine; I've now put it down to a tired lip, after the morning's rehearsal.
I made too many breath points in Andante et Allegro. Must look up Barat's other works - in our performance lecture we discussed interpretation, and what that means, and how you inform your interpretation; having a 'route map' may involve knowing the context of the work, including other pieces of the time, by the same composer, etc. It was a structured method of interpretation, which was handy.
This week's favourite type of exercise is lip flexibilities. Looking in the mirror I can see I still have a twitchy chin, and on loud notes or passages I'm pushing air under my lip for some reason. It's difficult to eliminate these problems with the loud note exercises I'm so fond of, but when I play lip flexibilities I have a nigh-on perfect embouchure; if I start with a bad set-up I can't play the faster exercises, but some work leaves me with a good embouchure for everything else as well as sextuplet semiquavers.
Grangemoor has decided not to play the Area contest as they're missing too many front row cornets. I've agreed to play baritone a little longer, to help out at a concert, but I'm mildly unhappy about it. In Uni band, there has been some talk of Scott leaving - whether these rumours have any basis remains to be seen. If he leaves, it'll mean a lot more work and responsibility for me, and I'm not sure my stamina is high enough yet, particularly with our planned concert repetoire.
Masterclass on singing on Tuesday - apart from general interpretation notes, I noted that Lynn Dawson recommended not swaying while performing. It is distracting, at least in singers. I'm not sure how much this applies, as have heard/read people stating that some movement can show how involved in a piece the player is. I may ask D, and take advice from other students etc.

D checked a few notes for tuning on my euph - good to have confirmation that the top B is flat. He's happy for tit to be played on 1+2 regularly, where my last teacher thought it changed the sound. Perhaps not so much of an issue since my sound has changed anyway. D explained that the prestige is better for the top register, and obviously has a trigger to mess about with pitch. He said he's probably forgotten just how much alternative fingering he used on a 967. I'm hoping to get a Prestige in the long run, though of course I want to try various mouthpieces as well, and that's more financially viable than getting hold of more euphoniums.

he called the new Besson euphs "interesting". not beautiful, though of course that was the first thing i was thinking. i'm still trying to work him out.

After carrying everything home from the train station, I quite a lot of back and shoulder pain on Monday, but massage and heat eased it considerably. Need to look up the chiropracter I've been recommended. There's also a masterclass on Alexander technique next Tuesday.


found out, paul duffy is playing for black dyke now. phil thinks he's third man down. go paul!
wonder if i can get a seat on black dyke's coach for whit friday? ;)

when i went home, mum gave me some glucosamine sulphate tablets to take. since then, my knee hasn't creaked, nor my hands. i hadn't actually been having trouble with my hands this winter, but i'm always frightened i will, since a few years back when they ached. it wasn't fun. it's why i wear fingerless gloves.

i forgot to hand in my learning journal, two weeks on the run. i now won't have a lesson for a week and a half, so i've got time to edit it a bit. i can't remember if i mentioned it, but we talked about LJs the other week and D said he didn't really mind what was in them, as long as it was useful to me (paraphrasing of course).

this was meant to be a short post about a couple of things i forgot. does anybody get annoyed at teeny posts, and want me to edit instead? it occurred to me i could, but by then i'd already been typing. <lazy helzy.
cold hands now. need heater and gloves, and maybe a nice cup of tea :)
isn't it nice when you can plan LJing as part of your actual work? that's what's so great about the Learning Journal shtuff.
okay i really am going now.
xxx