#40

Sooo, it's been an incredible summer so far- I'm always learning new things and learning how to act when in new situations. I'm kind of a nerd, so social interaction is still something I have to work at, but it is getting better. I'm seeing people outside of the work environment and learning how to fit in with this crowd (I know, it's hard to believe!)

I've already been to 5 parties this

summer! 2 grad parties, 2 birthdays, and 1 orchestra party.

(picture stolen from Nicole's blog, thanks Nicole!)

SDYS International Musicamp - Pool Party

Currently I'm doing the SDYS International Musicamp which is awesome. I'm sitting with one of my bassoon friends of two years ago (Banri) and a Clarinet (Martin) from Bulgaria, the same country that my teacher comes from. I'm learning bits and pieces of Bulgarian, and it's a fun language! Very challenging, especially since it requires you to make noises not found in English. :p

Zdravei! Means hello in Bulgarian, better yet there is "Costa!" Means "Wassup?" in Bulgarian :D

It's very fun hanging with all the international students, we come from so many different cultures that when we hang together, the common language is laughter and music. You can't tell what he's saying, but between the hand gestures and the facial expression/pigeon english (not always) we can usually understand each other. Musical ideas are another thing entirely. You don't need to speak any language to express those ideas. Everyone gets it. It's great how we try to verbalize our musical ideas and everyone is mystified, until you pick up the instrument and demonstrate- the comprehension is instantaneous and ridiculously gratifying! haha

We have a Venezuelan group of boys who play in the orchestra and in their own string quartet- they are very young, talented, and romantic. That's mostly because they are Venezuelan and hugging/kissing is totally a cultural norm. I was even told by one that he loved me. Too bad he's only 15. ;p LOL

They are going to teach us to Salsa before they leave, which is very exciting for me since I recently became infatuated with the idea of dance! It's so exciting and passionate yet controlled that you can get goose bumps just from watching it! :D

As for the music, we are performing, it is Beethoven 4th Symphony and Mozart 35th Symphony- both are big pieces for double tonguing.

Double tonguing is a special technique where the wind player has to tongue the reed/mouthpiece with the tip of the tongue and then quickly chop the air flow with the mid section of the tongue to give the illusion of tonguing. It works and is the only way to play Beethoven 4 which has a crazy hard/fast solo for bassoon- the strings disappear and suddenly the Bassoon is busting mad double tonguing with the spotlight fixed upon them! It's that bad. Everyone pray for me. I need it!

That's the hard technical part, the other hardest part is the intro to Beethoven 4, it's deathly quiet while the woodwinds play a series of chords where intonation is perilous.

It's laaate, so until next time! Caio!

(here's a picture of us right after rehearsal is finished. As you can see the bassoons are always the last to leave because it takes 7 minutes to properly clean the instrument. I'm the one with brown hair half covering my face, and Banri, bassoon is on the right. I'm talking with Martin at the moment. That dude is hilarious!)

(Omar is the Venezuelan guy putting his viola away, and the bassist on the right in Henry) For those of you still interested in the musicamp and it's happening- please visit Nicole's blog you can find it by going to the comments section and clicking on the blue stuff by her picture, it will take you to her blogger profile, then scroll down and it will have another link blue that says something like "the Turners" and that will take you her blog which features even more pix and a video in which Wilfredo stars on cello (he plays violin) and features his brother Omar on the left. I show up in as much as I appear on the right and so does Andy.