Taffanel et Gaubert Technique Challenge Week 2

If you've been following the regalement, congratulations! You and I have made it through another week of the Taffanel et Gaubert Technique Challenge and I must admit, it was not as heavy as I thought!

When I was putting this week together I envisioned EJ 3 taking twice as long and also giving me a ton of problems but at the end of the first day I discovered it wasnt bad a all and in fact was SUPER boring. To remedy this I ended up changing the articulation for each scale rather than by key to keep my interest and get more out of the exercise. Again, I found the flats harder than the sharps, but I was surprised to see that by the third day I was having little to no problem with high C# and D (save for D Major). Next time I do EJ 3 it will be MUCH faster.

EJ 8 and 9 also gave me less trouble than I thought (could it be that the first week of the challenge helped?!) and with this exercise I also ended up mixing the articulations a ton and deviated further by doing two letters a day for the whole week (rather than moving down to one on Wednesday).

Once I was through 3, 8, and 9, I felt incomplete so I finished the challenge portion of each day with two letters from EJ 5 and REALLY tried to push myself on the tempo and articulations doing each letter until I could achieve the 92 metronome marking I set for the week.

In spite of being sick, I feel like with my variations it was another successful technical week. Let me know how it went for you! (Scroll to the bottom of the post for a reminder of next weeks set).

Happy Practicing!

*Keep reading or a day by day detailed version of the above*

Day 1:
Wow EJ 3 is BORING! 80 was too easy and I ended up mixing the articulations more to keep myself into it. Can't believe how easy B-C# is! On EJ3 B - trouble with D Major combined with articulation 7.
EJ8 was not bad and I ended up being able to hit all the articulations for each line.
EJ9 not bad and kinda fun! Haven't really done the descending broken arpeggios before.
Decided to add two letters of EJ5.
     EJ3 A - 80, EJ3 B - 60, EJ8 - 72, EJ9 - 72, EJ5 - 92

Day 2:
Bumped EJ3 up to 92 and really still not too bad. Again supervised by the high C#/D ease! In EJ3 B I kept the metronome at 60. Noticing how these exercises are making my tone REALLY suffer...note to do tone exercise after before practicing symphony music...My lips got TIRED. Gflat Major went WELL!
EJ8 - Easy and need to bump up tomorrow (did not bump up today).
EJ9 - This one was harder...keep at 72.
EJ5 - Letters C and D with articulations 7 & 8.
     EJ3 A - 92, B - 60, EJ8 - 72, EJ9 - 72, EJ 5 - 92

Day 3:
EJ3 A - the sharps were EASY! Feels good to know that. B wasn't bad...it's getting easier and also getting better at high C#/D. Bumped metronome up today.
EJ8 - fine nothing significant to report
EJ9 - Fine, nothing major to say
EJ5 - Letters E and F with articulation 9 and 10
     EJ3 A - 92, EJ3 B - 66, EJ8 - 80, EJ9 - 72

Day 4:
EJ3 A - Took up to 100 and it went really well! Deff gonna hit the goal even up to high C#/D! B - Harder but went well...can up the tempo now.
EJ 8 - Letter F was so easy I took the tempo up to 92.
EJ 9 - Took up to 80 with ease
EJ5 - Letters G and H - Articulations 1 and 2
     EJ3 A - 100, EJ3 B - 66, EJ8 - 92, EJ9 - 80, EJ5 - 92

Day 5:
EJ3 A - Not bad but trying too hard to get out high D. B - going up to high D was ok but coming down from it was ROUGH...not going to hit goal with tempo on B.
EJ8 - Fine
EJ9 - Fine
EJ 5 - Letters I and J with articulations 3 and 4.

Had to cut the week short due to a double rehearsal/concert day. Feel good still!

Looking Ahead:
Taffanel et Gaubert Technique Challenge Week 3 Set:

Week 3 - January 16th through the 22nd
     EJ4 - starting at half note = 120, goal is to achieve 132 by Saturday
          *Skip articulation 1&2. Do one articulation a day starting with artic 3
     EJ7 - Starting quarter note = comfy for you
          *Consider doing with all breath attacks
          *Do each indicate key a day (Day 1 - C, Day 2 - Dflat Day 3 - D, etc)
     EJ10 - Starting quarter note = comfy for you
          *Change the articulation at each double bar and don't always start with
            articulation 1 each day.


Happy Practicing!!

Technique Challenge Week 1 Check In

WEEK ONE DOWN

Today marks the end of the first week of my January 2017 Technique Challenge featuring Taffanel et Gaubert! I hope that everyone who is participating enjoyed the first week and learned something about their playing as I have. First up; some general things.

I had no idea going into this exactly how long it would take to complete the set I came up with and I was suprised to find that between me being able to play some things faster than I thought, and with the minimal amount of extra time I needed to spend on each exercize, I only spent about 45 min to an hour each day on this. I had a hard time getting all the way up to high D on the scales (mostly I had MAJOR problems between high B and high C#) so I am probably going to incorporate some kind of exercize for that into this coming week's set. Number 6 also gave me some hard times but not as much as I had anticipated! I started to notice problems more when I began playing around with the articulations and was also suprised that, to me, the flat keys were substantially more difficult than the sharps (especially G-Flat and...believe it or not...E-Flat). Although I am not revisiting this particular exercise this month, I am going to make SURE I include something similar to it in my Febraury challenge (to be determined in the last week of this month).

Keep in mind that I am also participating in the Etude of the week group on Facebook in case any of you did this week's challenge and thought it was too little. I need time for this, my etude, and all the other music I have to learn for work ;)

Let me know what you thought about this week!! If you want to read on about my week I'll have a more detailed description day by day next OR you can skip to the bottom of the post to be reminded of this coming weeks set.

Happy Practicing!!

Day 1: EJ1 and 2 I had a hard time getting up to high D...spent a bit of time working it. Had to take GFlat and above at 60 for this day. EJ5 ended up being WAY easier than I though starting at quarter note = 72. I also ended up taking both of them up the octave. EJ6 A - I had to REALLY work on the turn arounds at the top on B Major and E Major and set a goal that I would not stop near the high B each day for breaths so I could force myself to be able to navigate the awkward fingerings by the end of the week. B was easier than I thought it would be and the tempo was slow enough that I ended up doing this exercize on all breath attacks rather than with the first two articulations. A - Quarter at 66, B - Quarter at 60

Day 2: EJ1 Ihad a hard time changing the articulations between the lines but I was able to bump from GFlat and above up in tempo. on EJ2 I decided to start on low C (wondering why I didn't automatically do that in the first place). My fingers did NOT like trying to get up to high D so I worked on this so I could bump up the minors to the same tempo as the majors. I do this exercize with a tuner and see where I land at the end of each double line...that day I was SUPER flat for some reason. EJ5 I also took D chromatic up an octave. EJ6 A- Dflat Major I had trouble with the turn around. EJ6 B I had a REALLY hard time with Gflat.
     EJ1&2 - 108 (Gflat and up 66), EJ5 - 72, EJ6A - 66 B - 63

Day 3: EJ 1 and 2 were SO easy EXCEPT for still high D and C#...having a hard time with B-C#...EJ5 was ok but articulation 5 (slur two tongue 4) was hard. EJ6A - I had a hard time with A Major and made sure to do this all slur again for fingers but did C Major as all breath attacks due to slow tempo and boredom. B - Had a bit of trouble with B Major and E Major...also did these all slured for fingers. C Major was done in all breath attacks.
     EJ1&2 - 112 (Gflat and up 66), EJ5 - 80, EJ6A - 66, B - 66

Day 4: I had been over practicing a bit this week so I was starting to feel that in my chops. EJ1 I didn't worry about playing piano because articulation 7 (tonue one, slur two, tongue one) was difficult. I bumped Gflat and up to 72 and ended up getting it at that tempo but not consistantly. EJ2 I had an  easy time of low C, C#. High Dflat was hard but going to high D in g minor wasn't bad. EJ6 A - I did a different articulation for each key. B - also did a different articulation for each. On A Flat Major I found that articulation 8 (Tongue one, slur two) was hard and I FAILED while doing G Flat Major and had to resort to all slur in order to get it.
     EJ1&2 - 116 (Gflat and up 72), EJ5 - 80, EJ6A - 72, B - 66

Day 5: EJ1&2 I was suprised how easy articulation 9 (tongue one slur two) went considering how difficult it was in EJ6 the day before. This was the day I decided that I need to make an exercize out of high Bflat-B-Dflat because high B-C# is just NOT happening for me. EJ6A - I did a different articulation for each key and it went really well so I decided the next day to up the tempo again. B - the sharps are apparently WAY easier than the flats for me.
     EJ1&2 - 120 (Gflat and up 72), EJ5 - 84, EJ6A - 72, B - 66

Day 6: EJ1 went well and I was able to comfortably get a rep up to high C#/D at 80! EJ2 went well but I had a bit of trouble around eflat minor. I was also able to get a comfortabe rep up to high C#/D! EJ6A went ok...but GFlat Major was HARD with articulation 7 (tongue one, slur two, tongue one) and I ended up needing to do it all slured to get it at the tempo I had set. B was hard for me. Eflat Major was meh...and for each A and B I did mixed articulations for each keyand it was hardest to do on B.
     EJ1&2 - 120 (Gflat and up 80), EJ 5 - 92, EJ6A - 80, B - 66

Week 2 - January 9th - 15th
EJ3 - A starting at half note = 80, B starting at quarter note is 60. Goal: get A up to 104 and B up to 80.
     *Take up to high D
     *Monday, Wednesday, Friday = sharp keys
     *Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday = flat keys
     *Skip articulations 1 and 2 and do one articulation a day (start on articuation 3)
EJ8 - Quarter note = comfy possible goal 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 with each changing key
     *Wednesday through Friday do ONE letter a day alternating articulations with
       each changing key (covering articulations 5 - 10)
     *Saturday is a break from this exercise
EJ9 - to be done EXACTLY the same way as number 8

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.

Why Hello Again!

When I graduated form the San Francisco Conservatory I had a ton of social media goals to try and make sure I was able to help out other musicians on the brink of embarking on their own careers and I must say that although I did a great job last year I have been failing miserably this season! Please accept my apologies and know that I am going to do my best to go back to blogging at least bi-weekly and am hoping to get my youtube projects back up and running! Here is an update as to what I have been up to the past few months:

My baby the Concerts at St. Mary's concert series is really starting to bloom and take off! I am in the process of obtaining fiscal sponsorship so I can function as a non-profit next season and already have 5 concerts planned for 2015/2016 including 7 premieres! Our final concert of this season is on May 3rd including works by Quantz, Mozart, Mercadante, and a world premiere by Michigan Composer Matthew Hatty all works featuring the flute quartet (flute, violin, viola, cello).

The freelancing ball has really gathered speed which is the bulk of why I'm so busy. I have been lucky enough to have almost a concert a week this season but they tend to come semi last minute and are ALL over the place from Toledo to Kalamazoo and beyond.

My studio has been building steadily over the past two years and I am now teaching 2 days a week at a music store plus 1 day a week out of the house. I also am the flute technician for North Farmington High School which takes me out there about once a week for several hours. I hope to move exclusively to my home for teaching next year in terms of private students if I am still in Michigan.

Coming up I have 6 auditions one each in Battle Creek, South Dakota, Cincinnati, Chicago, Fort Wayne, and Seattle. I have also been accepted as a fellow at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara this summer and have been frantic making sure my bills and students will be taken care of while I am gone.

I am hoping to go into more detail on a few of these soon but for now I just wanted to update y'all and let you know that I have not given up on my freelance support project! 

Happy Practicing and talk to you all again soon!

How to Handle the Pit

Sunday was the first concert of my chamber series "Concerts at St. Mary's" and after months of planning and scheduling and stressing having it finally come to fruition is an amazing thing! I want to take this space to thank again Michele Williams and Nathan Hubbard who performed with me today for rolling with the punches and time restraints and helping me to put on a great show!! I also want to thank anyone who might be reading who came out. It means a lot to me how much support I have!!

Sometime soon I hope to do a post on putting together a concert series (part 1) but I want to see the aftermath of this past concert and how it effects the next one (regarding audience size especially). I am very hopeful that I can generate a strong following for years to come!

Currently I am also in the middle of the rehearsal process for Elektra with the Michigan Opera Theatre. The opera is great but a bit insane and I am so excited to have been given the opportunity to perform it! This leads us to todays topic of discussion; opera pit do's and don'ts.

Victor Borge compared the Orchestra Pit to a ditch on the side of the road calling it the "orchestra ditch" and this sometimes is exactly how it feels to be part of a production where you are cut off from the action happening on stage. I love this comparison also because when being told you will be in the "pit" you never really know what you're up for. Right now with MOT for example I am in a proper pit (uncovered) but this is not always the case. Sometimes you are in a totally separate room with microphones feeding in the sound to the theatre and sometimes you are sitting in plain view in front of or to the side of the stage.  Once while I was in San Francisco I was even in a pit that was us sitting in the front row of theatre seats! Talk about awkward...we were all staring the vocalists in the face the entire time and the conductor was facing away from them!

Having said this I am not ready to make point number 1. Make sure that the "pit black" you own also looks nice! You will never show up to a gig having not known what kind of pit you will be in but I have been totally appalled showing up to performances when we are in plain view, have been told to wear "pit black", and musicians show up in a faded black polo and black jeans. WHAT?! I mean come on you are looking into the eyes of the patrons and it is so disrespectful to them and the vocalists that you came dressed for beat poetry in a bar that illegally still allows smoking inside. "Pit black" sometimes does include black jeans, etc but please also make sure you have on hand black slacks and a black button up with a black tie. It's simple, comfortable, and looks great.

Point number 2; DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES IN THE PIT!!!! There is always that one person who thinks "oh my feet don't smell" or "I need to air these puppies out". Typically it is a musician who doesn't need to breathe as part of playing and let me tell you this is MURDER for the wind players! Your feet? The DO smell. They ALWAYS smell. Don't do it!

This brings us to smells in general (point 3). Don't wear perfume or cologne. Someone might be allergic for one thing and for another when you're in a small underground type pit the smells all combine together and make it hard to breathe after a while. This is especially true if you are a smoker because the smoke scent will follow you no matter how much you spray yourself after break and then you bring not one but TWO smells into the pit and I don't want to feel queazy while playing Mozart y'all. Lastly, please wash your performance attire before and between performances and runs of the show. Sometimes 25 musty tux jackets make the difference (and not in a good way).

My final point is keep talking in the pit to a minimum. You might feel that because you aren't seen it is ok but I find this to be exceptionally distracting while I am playing or counting rests. Also most pits now have microphones in them to help to get a better "mix" of the orchestra and chances are you will get picked up and be heard in the audience. It is not always audible but be careful...you never know what might be overheard!

Hopefully this sheds some light on life in the ditch! If you are so inclinced the performances for Elektra are; 

Satruday October 18th at 7:30 pm

Wednesday October 22nd at 7:30 pm

Saturday October 25th at 7:30 pm

Sunday October 26th at 2:30 pm

The Elektra set from the pit

Blah!

Sometimes it is hard to care. Sometimes it is hard to want to work hard. Sometimes the idea of getting up is so daunting that we pretend the alarm never happened.

I am the first to admit that although it appears that I am always optimistic, always trying to move forward, and am "doing it" that I have my days as well where I wish real life could pause itself. Sometimes I want to wrap myself in a blanket burrito with Netflix and eat chinese food and pretend that I am 12 years old again (cough cough last night). This has been a lot of the past week for me honestly. The spark has fizzled out a bit.

The reason I felt the need to write today (considering I also did not want to blog this week) is that I allow myself to embrace these feelings because I know that my personality will eventually take back over and kick me in the ass like I need it to. That is something that as musicians, artists, workers of any kind we need to train ourselves to be. I am naturally a go-getter but after so many tumbles and falls there is a point where anyone will break down a bit and it is only with constant diligence that we our able to train ourselves to care beyond what is natural. 

Let's face it, if you want a career in the arts that's what you need. You need to care beyond what is natural and take pride in what you produce. You do not have the privilege to waltz into a rehearsal super hung over and just kind of "keep your head down" because your tone and intonation will suffer and be noticed. "Dressing down" a bit one day is not possible when the dress code for most orchestral performances is a tux and any other time you are more than likely to be asked to wear some kind of button up shirt tie combo (if you're a guy at least). Worrying about work before you get there is unavoidable if you warm up prior to rehearsal and honestly the soundtrack in my head is enough to deafen anyone.

When life gives you lemons, sometimes you just need to bite down hard. Accept the sour taste it leaves you with. We can learn from it and we can also just let it pass. Eventually you will feel normal again. And if you don't? Play Bach.

B-Randon...OUT!