Band Written Requirements

1. What has been your biggest improvement this year as a player?

My biggest improvement as a player this year, would have to be my attention do details such as dynamics and articulation. Before I would notice them, but this year I took great care in trying to play 'piano' when it was required, or to really accent a note when its called for.

2. What is the area you most struggle with?

There isnt really an area I struggle with. I've been playing instruments for as long as I can remember, same with theory, so I've grown up knowing the basics. And I feel that I've grasped the new theory, but that might be due to Jazz class. But I do have trouble with making proper accents, and proper fortzandos (I will just have to continue practicing those)

3. What was your greatest musical highlight this year and why?

My greatest musical highligh of this year...I would have to say Maggie's, the Canadian Nationals, and the end of the year Coffee House. Maggie's was an amazing experience, and I never imagined our band being invited to Nationals, and my friends and I have always talked about entering Coffee House but never had the guts to do it. (We decided to just go for it, and dedicate Blue Monk to Mr. Stevenson :D)

4. What areas do you feel the band accels at and what area do we struggle? Give specific examples.

As a band I think we accel in our determination and enthusiasm, and playing right notes. When the challenge calls we answer it, like for the Second Suite. The Second Suite was hard, but we stuck to it. Our enthusiasm really stuck out with Rumble, and it showed by audience reaction. I think thats the best piece we've played, and the first time we've really engaged the audience.

All we need to do is focus on blending together more, and working on dynamics and articulation, and our tone. That was pointed out by many of the adjudicators, "Never sacrifice beauty/tone for dynamics" (Rumble). It was also pointed out that we needed to learn how to flow better for the sight reading song.

20 min June 1

I dedicated this practice time to my Exam practice. I practiced the chromatic scales, I'm alot better than I was when I first started. I can get through all 8 with little mistakes. I then practiced the E minor scale, line 3 and I figured out the scale in thirds. I then practiced the study, focusing on articulation. I then turned my attention to study number 8 in the red book. I am not up to speed yet, but I'm getting faster.

Blog Assignment: Dave Valentin

I have chosen Dave Valentin who is a 57 year old male flutist, born in New York City. He began playing the bongos and congas before he was 10 and was playing in Latin Clubs by the age of 12. After studying percussion in the High School of Music and Arts, he later converted over to Flute and began to take private lessons with jazz flutist Hubert Laws.

He soon began playing as a professional flutist in Latin bands and created many new techniques. He created a way of blowing into the flute to make it sound like percussion, singing into a flute, and using non-standard flutes such as the bass flute, etc. He applies these techniques to many genres of music, including jazz, R&B, salsa and merengue ( a style of music from the Dominican Republic/ Latin America.) He released his debut album in 1977 with Ricardo Marrero, and won a Grammy nomination in 1985.

The song he is playing is called Obsesion. What I like about this performance is all the unique sounds he can make with his flute, and yet he has a very clear and beautiful sound. He also sways to the beat of the song, showing that he's into it. He has an amazing sense of rhythm, his improvising sounds rehearsed it's so good. And he has to improvise for over 5 minutes, improvising for over 2 choruses/verses is hard enough.

Click to enjoy the stylings of Dave Valentin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ffWLC6ZTro&feature=quicklist

20 minutes May 6th

I decided to work on band pieces and a study from the red book.

I worked on sections 93 - 101, and 125 - 138 in the Carmina Burana. I find the second section harder because its 16th notes at a very high tempo. I used repitition to improve this section, it is not quite up to speed but it's better than what I could do before.

I then worked on Chillers and Thrillers. from 19 - 55. The random flats in the second half of this section throw me through a loop, so I decided I would concentrate on this section. I used repition and can now play the flats and naturals fairly well with the correct speed. I then worked on "Them from Dracula" because of all the high notes and the speed at which they are played. I used repition again, but I can play this section better. And I looked at "The Face of Voldemort" because I like it.

And last but not least I practed Study no. 9. I found that halfway through the song my rhythms got messed up, so I practiced those bars more than others (bars

Over the Weekend

I'm not sure if this counts...but over the weekend a bunch of friends and I got together and decided to play old pieces from Jazz class. We spent just over an hour and half on them, telling each other how we could improve on them. We learned that we're a little rusty with improv, we were all thinking of taking jazz next year so that's why we decided to bring them out.

We brought out a timer, and we went over the pieces a few times and tried to improve our playing. So I don't know if this counts, but I decided to post it anyways :D

April 14 15 min

I dedicated my time to the Holst, since we are having a test on Thursday and its the piece we're playing on Monday.

I worked on the first two movements. For the first movement i worked at improving the first two bars. I can play it much better than i could this morning. I then worked on speeding up the first movement and I worked on my higher register. I still can't play anything higher than High High F, but I've almost got G. I then worked on my timing and volume for the second movement.

Practiced for 20 min April 5

Today I practiced the pieces Rumble and the Holst.

I focused my attention on the first two movements of the Holst. I tried to speed up my tempo for the first movement, and attempted to become better with Dynamics and Articulation by repition. I then practiced the second movement, making sure to count out all the beats so that I could perfect my timing. I still need to work on dynamics because its very hard to play quietly while up in that register.

For Rumble i practiced the run at 205, I'm still not as fast as I should be, but im getting better. I then practiced measures 41 - 58, practiced the eighth note fall. I can now play it at the same speed as the rest of the song.