January Technique Challenge; Taffanel et Gaubert

Each and every year at this time we make pacts with ourselves to make and keep resolutions for the new year. Each and every year these tend to go stagnant after a few weeks or even days so I figure why not create a more communal way to keep some of these goals alive and fresh throughout this coming year; 2017!  One of my major goals is to solidify and enhance my technique, so using the darkest months of the year I want to close myself away and bust my fingers to the bones so that when the sun shines this summer I can attack the audition trail with newly rejuvinated confidence that I am held to the technical standards of the greats!

Below is my created 4 week plan for the month of January. While coming up with it I realized that there are many excercises in the Taffanel et Gaubert book I have never even looked at let alone practiced, so using the Moyse technique book as a guide I strung them together and this is what I got! Each week I have goals with each exercise listed below. Let me know how you play with this to fit your specific technique goals! This is ambitious so we might not complete everything each day or each week...lets see how it goes!

Week 1 - January 2nd - 8th

     EJ 1 and 2 - Quarter note = 104 to start, reaching 120 by Friday.

          *Take up to high D

          *Two articulations a day; ex artic 1 line 1, artic 2, line 2. This gets you through 

             all artics by Friday.

          *Play at Piano or Pianissimo dynamic (since I'm bad at it)

          *Saturday just do all slurred at 120.

     EJ 5 - starting at quarter note = 72 to start, reaching 100-104 by Friday

          *Do two letters a day along with two articulations a day (meaning each letter 

            done twice aka repeated with two articulations).

          *There are 6 days of this built in so Satruday is included.

     EJ 6 - starting at quarter note = Comfy (for me somewhere between 60 and 72) and 

     shoot to get up to 104 by Friday/Saturday.

          *Monday, Wednesday, Friday = all Sharp keys

          *Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday = all Flat keys

*****Sunday the 8th is a rest day/tone day*****

Week 2 - January 9th - 15th

     EJ 3 - A starting at halfnote = 80, B starting at quarter note  60. Goal to get A up 104 

     and B up to 80.

          *Take up to high D

          *Monday, Wednesday, Friday are sharp keys

          *Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday are flat keys

          *Skip Articulations 1 and 2 and do one articulation a day starting with 

            articulation 3.

     EJ 8 - quarter note = comfy goalish 100-112

          *Monday do A and B alternating articulation 1 and 2 with each changing key

          *Tuesday do C and D alternating articulation 3 and 4 wih each changing key

          *Wednesday through Friday do ONE letter a day alternating articulations with 

            each changing key (articulations 5 - 10 covered)

          *Saturday is a break from this exercise

     EJ 9 - to be done EXCATLY the same way as number 8.

*****Sunday the 15th is a rest day/tone day*****

Week 3 - January 16th through the 22nd

     EJ 4 - starting at half note equals 120. Goal is 132 by Saturday.

          *Skip articulation 1 and 2 and do one articulation a day starting with 

            articulation 3.

     EJ 7 - starting quarter note = comfy

          *Consider doing with all breath attacks...

          *Do each indicated key a day (Day 1 - C, Day 2 - Dflat, Day 3 - D, etc)

     EJ 10 - starting quarter note = Comfy

          *Change the articulation at each double bar and don't always start with the first 

            articulation each day.

*****Sunday the 22nd is a rest day/tone day*****

Week 4 - January 23rd - 29th

     EJ 4 - Starting half note = 132 and getting to 144

          *Do same as last week

     EJ 12 - quarter note = comfy getting to 100

          *mixed articulations as wanted (maybe a different one each page cycling 

            through constantly during the week)

     EJ 14 - starting eighth note = comfy 

          *Do two letters a day

          *Consider all slurred or tongued and go for smoothness and speed.

*****Sunday the 29th is a day of chocolate because you're done!!*****

Congratulations you have now completed my 4 week January Taffanel et Gaubert technical challenge! This will be a learning experience for all of us so I will be updaing weekly on how possible it is to get all of this done, whether or not I was able to truly meet my metronomic goals, and if this does, in fact, seem to be helping. I would LOVE it if you did the same!

Happy New Year and Happy Practicing!!

XOXO

Brandon

School Series Response; University Vs. Conservatory

School Series; University Vs. Conservatory

First, here is a link to my video comparing Universities to Conservatories:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fMkd7VVHQQ

Now, a few follow up responses to my video.

1) There's a lot you seemed to not talk about.
     This is just ONE video in what will be a series. Each week (or so) I'll cover a new topic related to higher education and after posting this I realized I should have led with my second video. If you have a topic about higher ed you want to hear about let me know so I can include it if I'm not planning to already!

2) But what about the teacher being so important?
     I do mention in my video how important a teacher is! As I was making the video I realized just how much I had to say on that topic so it will be its own video. Keep a look out on either Sunday or Monday for this video to go up.

3) Thanks for mentioning the cost issue!
     This will also be its own video but yes it was pointed out to me that many teachers recommend university for undergrad because of lower costs and conservatories for graduate degrees which are shorter and make swallowing the debt much easier. We'll talk about how to navigate this more in a video on affording school.

4) Everyone is different how can you say what works for them?
     Each of these videos will be my OPINION based on my experiences. No one should take my words as absolutes (although I should point out that many do share my opinion). As I mention, though, your teacher is your best resource when trying to decide what is best for you.