Saturday, July 11, 2009

away from school

So I'm on summer break and it's great. I'm back home now and have one student.

I am taking a lesson with Benjamin Kamins this Monday- it should be interesting.

For this past month while Valentin was in Bulgaria, I've been studying with Ryan Simmons, Curtis graduate and the Second Bassoonist of the San Diego Symphony. He's a really great teacher. He had me working on the Bach Suites. We didn't make it past the first one before he stopped me at Minnuetto II and asked me to play it more sadly. I tried to concentrate the way he was telling me and focus all of my sadness into the instrument... but alas I had no idea what to do- esp. on the spot and burst out laughing. 
yes there I was trying to play this beautiful sad song and all I could do was cackle. It was appalling. 
On the flip side, I have been fortunate enough to have experienced very little sadness in my life, and what little I have experienced did not want to come out as music... more like sniffling sobbing. Not something you pay to hear (unless you're very sick...)
So Ryan set me on slow 'sad' etudes. Back breakingly slow. 
The etude I'm working on for Ben Kamins is #20 Milde Concert Studies. It starts off slow, but it's enough of a technical etude to tax me in that direction too.

Just when I thought I had gotten everything to work just fine for this etude, Valentin comes back from Bulgaria and I go to the lesson. He makes me think about this etude very differently and I suddenly couldn't play it. It was totally weird. He gave me some musical pointers, and made sense of the etude's structure.. ideas which I might be able to back with my Eastman theory... but am not going to.

So my goal is to come back with this etude and be able to play it cold. Under any circumstances. Even if it turns out that the cat has rabies and is chewing my toes off.


I am positively addicted to Phillipe Jaroussky- he has the most amazing voice.


--ahh back tracking-- 

ok this is random but I bring it up because of my previous comment about the cat having rabies (and it's late...)

My sister saw this little ditty online posted on facebook by a friend and we both love it sooo much! It comes from our cold heartless british background. haha

Hushabye baby,
hush quite a lot,
bad babies get rabies
and have to be shot.

:D 

Anyone who shares in my distaste for noisy children will appreciate this bit of frigid nonsensicality. 

So the parents were in Switzerland for the last week and have returned. It's nice they're here, but I wish they would stop being sooo... how do 
we say... parenty? 
They're here to offer guidance over every single little thing that you've done a thousand times without them knowing, but since they're there they might as well interject some helpful advice just in case you could figure it out for yourself.
yes sarcasm is the refuge of losers... and I'm happy to be hiding there. Because when I do something stupid and immature it's usually delibe
rate and there's no use in hiding it. Making it painfully obvious... it adds flavor.

Lesson tomorrow. Yay. Valio is going tell me what I'm doing wrong with my reeds and help me not to be so "sloppy" I hope. Though that reference was to their basic construction last time.. so hopefully these blanks won't be so bad. ahhh :/

I'm going to put a new poll on the bottom of this blog... this one shall read;

Is it lame to keep a blog you started in highschool through college, and beyond?

Yes/No
 
 
Don't forget to check the bottom of this blog to poll Your answer!!!

ok. now it's really late. 

A quick shout out to Andre, Tabs, Daniel, Lynnann, Carl, Seth Man, Hillary, Brettt, and Lukeyloo. I miss you.

(ps. Congrats to Hills on the competition :D)

I like this photo emmy took at mission bay... I look super emo but it's also kinda artsy. :D