band
band last night was really good, but really hard work. In youth band, Amy is doing a lot of interesting things and since we don't have a concert for a while, she's been using large chunks of rehearsal to ddo things other than jsut play and rehearse. I'm really keen and excited about the year ahead. One thing shes been doing is trying to get us to know each other better, before she became the conductor, I'd been playing in the band for about 6 years and still didn't know some of the players in my own section! She's been getting us to move around our sections a bit and I've foud that helpful as I've played 2nd flute for the first time in ages! From the back row, I was able to observe that the fltue section is actually pretty good, but they coul ddo with some pointers on things like posture, breath control and tuning. I went up and said this to Amy and she said that was exactly what she'd been thinking (not just for flutes, but the whole band) and asked me if I wanted to be section leader. I was excted as I've effectively been section leader for a while now anyway, but now it'll probably be official. She called it 'music camption', but it's effectively the same thing. Although in the past I've never wanted to be a msuic teacher, I'm actaully keen about possibly helping teach/guide members of the band and think it could be something good to put on my resume.
Senior band was good too, but Mark worked us very hard and my piccolo chops were stuffed. He was beng really picky, but since there's only about 5 weeks till the competeition, he has to be. Although it's tiring, it's totally worth it, the band sounded so much better afterwards, though it would've sounded even better if we all weren't so tired. There are two many alto saxes, but when all the horns are there, it doesn't matter so much as the sound is more balanced. I jsut got tired of being played at my saxes all night, I was in front of the bari again and we flutes are surrounded by tubas all the time too and since our oboe section increased in size by 300% I feel a bit squashed it sometimes, since I play piccolo 90% of the time, I need less elbow room, but it sometimes means I play into Micahala's ear and have a flute obsturcting my stand sometimes. One of the bassoons was out of tune towards the end as our tuning shifted as we played and although we were in tune, we sounded flat, but that bassoon sounded quite funny.
I'm probably not going to update as much now, not because I don't want to, but because few people read or comment anymore, many of my friends now spend more time on the new forum. I stayed up till 2 last night talking to Ivan and weezy on MSN, so I'm rather zonked as I ahven't had much sleep. Was going to go down to the beach, but it's cold. Hopefully I'll go down and see my brother, I want to show him the Into the Woods DVD
Senior band was good too, but Mark worked us very hard and my piccolo chops were stuffed. He was beng really picky, but since there's only about 5 weeks till the competeition, he has to be. Although it's tiring, it's totally worth it, the band sounded so much better afterwards, though it would've sounded even better if we all weren't so tired. There are two many alto saxes, but when all the horns are there, it doesn't matter so much as the sound is more balanced. I jsut got tired of being played at my saxes all night, I was in front of the bari again and we flutes are surrounded by tubas all the time too and since our oboe section increased in size by 300% I feel a bit squashed it sometimes, since I play piccolo 90% of the time, I need less elbow room, but it sometimes means I play into Micahala's ear and have a flute obsturcting my stand sometimes. One of the bassoons was out of tune towards the end as our tuning shifted as we played and although we were in tune, we sounded flat, but that bassoon sounded quite funny.
I'm probably not going to update as much now, not because I don't want to, but because few people read or comment anymore, many of my friends now spend more time on the new forum. I stayed up till 2 last night talking to Ivan and weezy on MSN, so I'm rather zonked as I ahven't had much sleep. Was going to go down to the beach, but it's cold. Hopefully I'll go down and see my brother, I want to show him the Into the Woods DVD