The Study in G sharp minor by Muller (no. 76 from 80 Graded Studies). The page looks very 'bristly' - all accidental sharps and double sharps
And the third movement of the Mozart concerto on my beautiful new Yamaha 650 which I am playing in at present

Wow!! enjoy your new instrument. I remember posting about mine. It's well played in now though but I still love it

Been playing in our last concert of the year. A lovely morning and we played well. Despite the fact that one o my close colleagues was well hung over - make that still drunk!! I had to keep both of us organised!!!

The church we played in partnership with did a fantastic up to date nativity play with a lovely solo from a young girl.

And our playing was soooo well appreciated it was great!!! Happy, genuine appreciation all round.

Maybe this post should be in happy thread/...... (Goes off to find it...)

Sounds like a great day Dawn

Yep And planning on more practise later - to work up some of the things I'm doing at Headingley before seeing oldnotes on Tuesday. That and the Weber Concerto I'm doing with my teacher.

I've started learning the Giga, no. 19 from 21 Bach Pieces transcribed by Giampieri. Lots of notes! If nothing else, it will be good for my stamina as there are very few places to breathe. I took Barry's advice and worked out the breathing-places first.

And I tried one of your running scales, Dawn - F major, just for fun - and it worked fine so I am happy

A bit of all sorts! I've been revisiting all the pieces which I haven't played for six months or more, to see how they sound after being left for a while! Some of then actually sounded better!

I've also been playing Moon River from Guest Spot Film Themes, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, You're So Vain and Baker Street from Guest Spot Seventies Hits - some tricky Rhythms (for me) in the latter in particular but pleased to say that I managed to play along with just the backing track (ie no clarinet) and keep up!

I've also been practising Frensham Pond again. I'm pleased with how it sounds now - especially the high bits. Teacher hasn't heard it yet but I've downloaded it from ITunes and the next step for me is to play along with that and see if I can stay in time - that's a task for another day, though!

Final rehearsal for Sunday's choir/carol concert in a very large, very dark and very, very cold church. We all kept coats, hats and scarfes on but, as pianist, I found I couldn't play properly with my gloves on. Hope someone gets in early on Sunday morning to put some heat on!

I havent been playing today- taking a break

I've been practising one of my grade 3 pieces if anyone would care to take a listen and comment on how to improve......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzfNi1Kekhc

Hiya rabbit

It's generally very good. I've got a few pointers for you, which I will PM to you.

Cool thanks

You have mail

Choir accompanyments for tomorrow's carol concert, plus Headingley pieces.

I've been practising trying not to move my hands / wrists too much when I'm playing if that makes any sense.

Teach noticed me doing it at my last lesson, tried to stop doing it, faster bits were better technically but I lost my musicality apparently

Now playing with arms glued to sides. My incessant foot tapping is back too. Ah well............

Makes sense to me.
I think that reducing unnecessary movement is something of a constant battle.
Strange how I tend to move more when it's faster and so makes much more sense to be economical with movement.....
Not sure about arms glued to sides...

I wouldn't get too hung up on that. I'll occasionally tap my toes inside my shoes. Indeed, I think overly thinking about staying still isn't a terribly good thing...

Just make sure you're tapping your feet in time!

As long as you are, then I don't see a problem! I too am a foot tapper - have to make sure I'm not wearing shoes when I practise, so that I don't make too much noise on our wooden floors!!

A few short weeks ago, I was waving my clarinet around all over the place whilst playing but since I've begun to really target the upper altissimo notes, I have found that my notes sound best with my clarinet and chin held at a particular angle and this has definitely stopped me moving around quite so much! You may find that you naturally reach a point where you need to hold the clarinet still or steadier to produce the sound you want but I would try not to worry about it too much - just enjoy playing!

Arms glued to sides = (probably) too much tension...

my practice schedule resumes today!

I was hoping that mine would yesterday but tohugh I've managed some piano the clarinet has had to have a rest because I've had a cough and sore throat. Kept it up til Christmas eve but not had it out since.

Aw get well soon sbhoa...

What I was playing yesterday and will be playing again today (holiday music course):

Junior wind band: Little Drummer Boy

Jazz Band: Tequila

Orchestra:
Sibelius - Karelia Suite
Bizet - Farandole from L'Arlesienne
Stravinsky - Berceuse and something from The Firebird

We did this at Jazz Band at school. It was my first Jazz Band rehearsal ever, and I'd only had the sax for 4 days, so when the conductor shouted out in the middle of the piece that she wanted me to do the tenor sax solo, I was surprised, and as expected, I messed it up completely! I got the hang of it by the time we had to perform it at Open Evening!

Making a start on pulling apart Gerald Finzi's Clarinet Concerto...

Had a bit of a play through some of the new clarinet music I got for Christmas.

Must mean you're feeling better!

Or I'd had enough of neglecting my poor clari.
Managed to do some practice and some just playing but my mouth was very dry and my chest uncomfortable at one side if I tried to make the breath last as much as usual.

cool! that's still on my to buy and do later list

not played today but spent a couple of practises this week on new music.

Must get back to the Weber concerto tomorrow.

At least you managed to play Get well soon...



It's one of my 2010 projects. I want to play this somewhere with Tom Piano sometime in the year...

No practice for me today , have streaming cold and just sitting here breathing is hard enough.

hope you're fit enough for clarinetting very soon.

Hope you feel better soon, Clarimoo!

I've been making a start on some pieces for grade 8: it's Brahms E flat, first movement / Schumann Fantasy Pieces 2 and 3 / Mozart concerto third movement / possibly Saint Saens sonata fourth movement for list A; Finzi Fughetta or Lloyd Webber Air & Variations for list B; and Bach Giga (from 21 pieces) / Rachmaninov variations / Muller Study in G sharp minor for list C. Can't decide!

Any suggestions anyone?

list A : I like the Brahms, you do need a good pianist though. The Saint Saens is a very good option : the start is the hardest part. Mozart of course is wonderful!

list B : The Finzi is wonderful. Not easy, but entirely wonderful! My other favourites there are the Malcolm Arnold (the whole Sonatina is very good), and the Bernstein. The Lutoslawski, in my opinion, is difficult, and not terribly rewarding.

list C : Do look at the Paul Harvey, if you like jazzy things, it's excellent. Hailstork I don't think is particularly great, apart from the Harvey, I like the Rachmaninov and the Lennox Berkeley.

Thank you barry-clari and jazzycat, you are very kind. Its only a cold but it's making me feel "bleurgh" at the moment.

When are you hoping to take your Grade 8 jazzycat? I think you should learn as much of the music as possible and present what makes you feel fabulous. Its all lovely music. I have been learning the Brahms and the Finzi Fughetta. I would like to take Grade 8 eventually but I have no concrete plans at the moment.... I will have to see what my teacher thinks first.

I spent the afternoon playing saxophone duets with an old grade 8 pupil. Unfortunately we had to stop as her neighbours banged on the wall

been playing more of the same, plus some more tunes in Jazz Band: 'Cute' and 'Cold Duck Time'



We do this regularly at the school jazz band, but this one has a different arrangement, and the clarinets and trumpets never get the tune.

Thanks Barry for your advice. I will probably have a look at the Harvey and maybe add it to the list of possibles.

Clarimoo: the plan is for next July. I usually learn more than one piece from each list and make up my mind as late as possible! You're right, there are many wonderful pieces and it's hard to choose what to do, bearing in mind one is also supposed to present a balanced programme...

At the moment it's looking like Brahms/Finzi/Bach
but it might be Mozart/Finzi/Muller
or Mozart/Lloyd Webber/Bach
or maybe something else...

I can't remember if you're going to the East London Clarinet Choir playday on 23/1, or not, but Paul Harvey is doing one of the conducting sessions for that

Lovely.

I would love to be able to present Mozart / Finzi / Bach. But I think I have a good few years of work to do first. I darent even raise the subject with my teacher yet in case I get told to "not be so presumptious and get back to those scales......"

S of course I will get back to those scales just as soon as I can shake off this cold.

Mozart/Finzi/Bach...

Inspired, clarimoo! Why didn't I think of that?

*adds to list of possibles*

I did grade 8 last July.

List A: I really wanted to do one of the Mozart movements, but my teacher said that because they were extremely well known, the examiner might be more picky with them than a less well known piece. You might want to take that into consideration, but don't let it stop you choosing it. Instead I chose the piece by Devienne (I think it was called sonata in C minor)

List B: I did the Lloyd Webber. It's a beautiful piece, and although it's a tricky piece, it's great when you can pull it off. It earned me full marks in my end of year exam at school last year, and I'm about to relearn it for a class at a music festival.

List C: I tried both of the Muller studies, and eventually settled for the one in G minor, (because I was having trouble getting my head around all of the sharps in the G# minor one. I think they're both nice though, because they have a tune as well as being technical.

And to get down to simpler things I've been having fun playing the Miss Marple theme from the Guest Spot TV themes book.

Oh the Miss Marple theme is great! We played it in band practice in October with an oboe soloist.

Thanks Kingsley13 for your advice

And tonight forum.. I've been playing...... EVERYTHING!!

I've practised my sax. The ensemble piece for Headingley and Saxgirl (Keri Degg's) Songs for Claire. I got this for clarinet but as it's written for sax I decided to give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised With practice I could do it some justice!

Then I practised all my clarinet pieces fr headingley - Didn't fall apart quite as much as last night thankfully.

Then I ran my piece for my Headingley piano solo (still a bit ) It took a couple of goes before I played it rather well and with only one slightly duff place where my finger hit two notes at once .

I felt inspired today, so went to my old teacher and had a "lesson" where I sightread the Weber Clarinet Concerto No.1, something I've always wanted to learn and then spent some time sightreading a piece for the Advanced Certificate on saxophone. I came back after 2 hours of playing, and worked on two of the grade 7 flute pieces, as well as those dreaded scales . I then got out my violin and played through a few pieces I'd learnt. I was surprised and pleased I could still play 3 octave scales and still be fairly in tune

P.S. Being inspired has also hit my bank balance - I've managed to spend ?55 in two days on new music - oops!

Well done I'm working on that and it's certainly not an easy sight read

Mind you it doesn't help that my copy is a bit faded.

Today I've been playing a whole host of stuff - at Headingley.

That is impressive, Appassionata! There are a number of very awkward corners in that...

I've been playing on the flute today:

Dvorak - New World Symphony.


Made a video and put it on youtube =)

Found it

Very good! If I'm allowed to give you a little advice : watch your left hand little finger doesn't walk away from the flute, and when it gets louder in the upper register, try not to resort to blowing harder to achieve the top octave. But overall, you ought to be happy with yourself.

Thanks. It was by no means perfect, but was pleased that there was nothing in it that I found hard, so maybe I have improved!