Gone Pro

I won the Navy bassoon audition!!!

I'm so excited to have a performing job that will pay me a decent salary, even if I have to go through bootcamp to do it. (yes I still have to do bootcamp, bummers) I'll be with a fleet band, no idea where I'll get stationed yet but it could be 1 of 9 locations. I'm voting for warmer weather...

This of course means I won't be attending grad school after all. I'm sad to be giving up my dream but excited to be making a decent living and going on this exciting new adventure to unknown places!!!

Now let's talk about the audition process.

Making a tape for the air force band taught me a lot about how I practice and showed me exactly what I sound like. The sheer level of honesty I had to have with myself was difficult initially but got easier and caused my overall level of playing to increase significantly.
By becoming very picky with myself over the span of 2 weeks, I was able to make huge leaps and bounds without spending a ton of time practicing. I probably spent 2 hours a day with most of it spent recording myself and listening, so realistically I only had the bassoon in my hands for 45-60 minutes a day. I did not do this for 2 hours straight, I would break it up into chunks. Luckily for me my schedule permits that style of practice, it wouldn't work for everyone.

• My practice sessions started with 5 minutes of long tones, I set a timer and turned off all electrical distractions and didn't stop playing long tones (in all registers) until it went off. 
• Then I started recording.
  Record - Listen - Delete - Repeat
• When I got a good one I saved it by writing down its number and proceeded to continue recording it until I had reached 30 minutes of recording (at least.)

This means that I would only get to 4 excerpts (or less) a day. Sometimes I would get an acceptable take, sometimes I wouldn't. I made an effort to forgive myself for the latter and exercise patience.

The way I critiqued and isolated what I didn't like in my recordings was based upon two factors: Pitch and Rhythm.
I would often practice with the metronome in my headphones and my tuner in front of me. This gave me instant feedback during practice performances (I treated each recording like a performance) and also helped in the focusing of my goals. Ultimately you cannot have a metronome and tuner on you while actually performing so it's important to truly internalize the precision required to execute the excerpt flawlessly.

I also used a Legere plastic reed for both the Air Force audition and the Navy audition, which was another game changer. While I loved using that reed (which is no longer fully functional sadly) I will say that bias against plastic reeds is still VERY strong. I mentioned using a plastic reed in the Air Force audition but did not for the Navy audition. I won the Navy audition. 'Nuff said? Obviously there's more to that story but you'll have to talk to me in person to hear it. lol

If you got through all of that, congrats and thanks for reading! I hope it was helpful. Remember to subscribe to my blog to hear more candid first person experiences from a bassoonist in todays musical climate.
Want to join my Skype studio? Online lessons are becoming increasingly popular, so grab a slot in my growing Skype studio by leaving a comment and/or sending an email!

Mental Practice

Some may think this crazy, but mental practice can actually be much better for you than physical practice and ANYONE can do it!

Mental practice is rehearsing a known skill by visualization or variations of practice that don't involve the bassoon, such as Eurythmics or singing.

Here is an inspirational TED Talk suggesting that practice is fundamentally a mental game and that practice time in a distraction free environment is *critical* to effective practice.

Of course if you have never done something before, like play the bassoon, and you try to do mental practice to learn how.. this will not work.
Now before you throw your hands up in despair because 'mental practice doesn't work!' consider this:
you ARE in fact practicing even when you have no clue what you're doing.. but this is bad practice and it is likely to end up being a hindrance.

So mental practice IS effective, but be careful how you train your brain! We already know that focused practice is the way to improve but what if you practice badly? Will you perform badly? In short; yes you will perform badly. Preparation is everything!

In essence, mental practice is most effective when it is the mental clarification and repetition of a previously practiced skill.

Note: it is easy to do mental practice incorrectly, so this is the time when you should be very careful and strict with yourself.

   ♫♬♪♩♫♬

   In this video Dr. Duke at The University of Texas at Austin and the Colburn School, who has done some brilliant research as to how our brains absorb information best, interviewed some of the top music teachers in the nation.

You can find this video and more like it at Center for Music and Human Learning: https://cml.music.utexas.edu/online-resources/

Try your Voicing

By the end of the year there are 2 questions I ask that I expect my students to answer and on which they can elaborate. We review these questions at every lesson and they guide my selection of every assignment for my students.

Teacher: "What are the two most important things in music?"
Student: "Pitch and rhythm." 

Teacher: "How do we control pitch on the bassoon?"
Student: "Air speed, embouchure and voicing."

Now if you're scratching your head and asking, "What is 'voicing?'" please let me elaborate.

All teachers know what it feels like to instruct a student to adjust intonation and it can be tough to teach if your student doesn't have much instinct for it.

Teacher: "Try to match the tuner."

Student: *grips instrument firmly, inhales deeply* "H00000OOOOoooooonk"

"Voicing" can make even the most confused students better able to grasp an otherwise difficult and advanced concept and helps put them in the driver's seat when playing their instruments. It gives them something quantifiable to use.
Bassoonists and all wind players, have been unwittingly using voicing for years, but this is my attempt to make the process more formulaic and address it in familiar terms.

There are 4 vowel sounds that make playing the bassoon much easier to explain and understand. Each register has its own recommended voicing. These are general markers, but bear in mind the lower you play the more open your voicing and the higher you play (until G4) the more closed your voicing.

Bb1-E2 using /U/ is advisable

F2 and G2 are transitory using full or partial hard /O/ 

A2-A3 is /AU/ as in taught 

B3-F4 is hard /E/

I will include an educational demonstration video soon. 

The Orchestral Bassoon addresses a similar topic but refers to voicing as merely a way to change "color" rather than pitch. There is much overlap between color and pitch so I focus on pitch over color. To clarify, I do not think that I and the author of The Orchestral Bassoon mean exactly the same thing when we use this term or even on how to use it. I am linking to it here so that you can see what someone else has to say and to pay due homage to a concept that did not completely originate with me.

Without terminology, expressing voicing in an unquantified way is very difficult and our only option. This is why playing exactly in-tune, especially starting in-tune, is considered an advanced skill. We teachers have a hard time explaining it and thus our students are left to themselves to discover (again in a non-verbal way) how to play in-tune with only their blinking tuner and undeveloped ears for feedback.

Once we start using familiar terms, in this case linguistic terms, we can start to make more accurate suggestions for what our students should do.

What is Practice?

First off, great news. I was recently accepted to the graduate bassoon program at UT Austin and will be doing so on a full ride! Woohoo!!! I'm so excited to have the amazing opportunity to work with other musicians and to hone my bassooning skills for the next 2 years!!

More good news, I recently sent a tape to the San Francisco Air Force Band and they gave me a call back. Audition is in April, wish me luck!!

This video got me really thinking about the purpose behind practice and how it actually works on a neurological level.. it's really fascinating. Take a look, you won't regret it.

Once you've watched the video, I'm sure you'll be as shocked as I am. The implications for musicians are incredible. It brings everything into a new light. We can now say "Once was a time it took 10,000 hours or 10 years to master a skill, now it takes (potentially) less than 1 year."
It also brings to light the very nature of what practice is. What we now know is that muscle memory is a myth.
Everything your PE coach told you is wrong. jk

So if we aren't training our muscles to learn something, what is doing the learning?
Our brains.
Our muscles are a crucial part to accomplishing anything obviously, but they only serve as the soldiers and your brain is the commander. If you already knew that, consider something else, your muscles can do nothing independently. That means anything and everything you play is controlled by your brain.
Have you been screwing up that fast passage recently? Time to stop retraining your fingers and start retraining your brain.

We already knew the key to perfect performance was perfect practice but I bet you didn't realize how close perfection was.. it's literally a neuron away...

Last thing: do you control your brain?

Ok then, there is nothing stopping you from perfect performance. Get it!

Reed Making Tutorial FAQ

Hey guys!

Check out my new Reed Making Tutorial on Youtube!

As always, email me if you have questions but below is a list of FAQs:


What is cane? 
The word CANE in this case is a collective plural like the word DEER (ex. look at all the wild deer in the forrest.) For our purposes the word CANE refers to pieces of bamboo in various stages of processing that are going to be used to make reeds.

Where can I get cane?
Here is a good source: http://www.BartonCane.com

Why do I need cane?
You don't need it unless you want to make your own reeds. You can always buy reeds from a music shop or better yet, from your teacher. If you don't have a teacher, feel free to send me an email and we can arrange a lesson through my LessonFace platform, or you can book me directly through LessonFace. I would be happy to mail reeds to you!

What are all these names/types? (ex Rigotti, Rieger, Glotin, Donati, Gonzales)
These are brands of cane and tell you where the cane comes from. Different types of cane come from different parts of the world. You can google the location based upon the name of the cane. Just like brands of toothpaste (colgate, crest etc.) each brand of cane is slightly different. Cane is a living fiber like all plants, and depending on the weather, there can be variations in the quality of any cane harvest. So brand names can be important but variations in crops are to be expected.

What is the difference between shapes?
If you go to Bartoncane.com you will see different pictures of cane. You'll notice there are slight variations in the way the cane looks. Some of them are wider in the middle, some of them have end that flare outwards. I use the Rieger shape when I'm not using Legere Reeds, however I prefer Reiger #1 over Reiger 1A which isn't showing on their website at this point in time.

If this FAQ didn't answer your questions, shoot me an email and I'd be happy to help you!

Bassooneo.ire(at)gmail.c0m

Graduate School!!!

Wire placement measurements as promised in my Reed Tutorial 1

Some very exciting stuff has been happening and it's time for an update!

The fabled recording of "When Life Gives you Lemons" may ACTUALLY be completed in the upcoming year of 2017. Who knew making a recording like this would be so difficult, it's been an uphill battle for sure. Our first audio engineer dropped the project due to sudden lack of interest, and the second audio guy dropped off the face of the planet evidently... If you want anything done right you've got to do it yourself I guess. lol *dies a little inside*
Now that I have a computer again, I will be able to complete the recording myself and give credit to the brilliant work that has already been put in by the talented performers involved. *fingers crossed!*

In other news I am going back to graduate school for bassoon. Not sure where just yet, but I'm very excited by all the excellent options presenting themselves.

Currently I am working on a project to make learning how to make reeds less daunting for intermediate bassoon students. Some of my current students are starting to ask basic reed related questions so I'm optimistically hoping to make a series of short videos that answer questions pertinent to the daunting tasking of making your own reeds. The first tutorial is just past the first draft phase, I will post that video to this post when we finally decide to make it public. After that video is finished I'm hoping to make even shorter videos that shine light on specific issues that come up regarding the "how to" and where to find the correct materials to use, so your feedback is critically important! Ask me your questions via email and I will do my best to answer them in a video. :)

bassooneo.ire@gmail.com



Until next time, thanks for reading :D

Reeds

It's been two years folks. It's good to be back.

Recently I've noticed a lack of 'how to' information on Reed making. I theorize that it's partially because reed making styles are sometimes closely gaurded by those who adhere to cultish exactitude on Reed making strategies. It's also the case that though some kids learn how to start making reeds in highschool many are often clueless until college, when they are *forced* to start making their own. I'm hoping there's still room for me to put out my two cents on Reed making. I personally believe that whatever strategy works for you is what works for you. You don't have to make reeds any one particular way, you become your own craftsman. Heck, I've met at least ONE seasoned professional who makes it a point to make ANY reed sound incredible. Then he gets payed big bucks to play on it. I once heard him say "and my student found this one under a couch.." as he starts to play on something resembling a reed, but mostly cat hair... Ok that's an exaggeration but there was hair on it and it did look pretty sad. BUT it sounded fine.
So the opinions are fairly polarized.

ANYWAYS I intend to put out a series of videos that shed a little light on the complicated process of making reeds. I will of course be happy to answer specific questions via email or video chat. (You'll have to email me to set up vid chat)
Bassooneo.ire@gmail.com

BUT FIRST YOU WILL NEED THESE ITEMS:

You will also need a plaque. (Not featured)

My mandrel is double sided but yours does not need to be! You can get two separate tools, just as long as you have a 'shaping mandrel' and a 'forming mandrel'

Tools to avoid: throat reamers.
Yes they're cheap.. And for good reason. Steer clear. Popkin makes the best regular reamer, opt for titanium.

There are a HUGE variety of knives you can buy, a really simple one that you can sharpen yourself is featured. Technically it's an oboe knife.

When you go to order your mandrel tips and drying rack (not featured) you can find them at Forrests the Double Reed Specialists

The tip clipper is made by Rieger. Still going strong, you can probably get that from Forrests too..

Make sure your pliers have 3 sections, one for rounding, one for clipping wires and one for grabbing wires.

ROM Double Reeds made my steel 'knife sharpening rod.' It is the simplest sharpening tool I have ever found and works well when you already have a good sharpening job on your blade of choice. It's a one tool wonder and doesn't require oils and clean up requires only your shirt tip. How's that for low maintenance?! Disclaimer: this is a good tool to have but not imperative for beginners.  

Alrighty then! Go forth and get thee some Reed tools! Don't forget to email if you have questions! Until I post my follow up vids, cya.

Long Distance

Let me tell you, life as as starving artist is pretty crazy, especially in one of the fastest gowing cities in the nation. I love Austin but the rent is skyrocketing and driving away the artists, who like myself, were just scraping by. I'm in a somewhat more stable place now out in Nebraska, it's never where I saw myself living and I don't wish to stay for long. However I have family out here so it's been really good for my mental and emotional health. Thanks family :) *hugs*

Since I've been out here I've encountered some amazing opportunities! I got to play with the Omaha Symphony (first time with a pro symphony!! woohoo!!) and I'm currently working as a stage manager with the Lincoln Symphony. Those things have been great fun. Jeff McCray, the professor at UNL was kind enough to give me a lesson since I've been here. (thank you!) I also got to meet an amazing accordion player named Julia who plays locally in small venues. She too studied classical music and we had a lot of fun busting out some tango pieces. Bassoon and Accordion actually sound pretty cool, it's kind of like the guitar and bassoon duo I had, but much louder and somewhat more brash. Playing with accordion doesn't require the same amount of dynamic sensitivity that classical guitar does (ie playing at 50% volume) but that's good because I've been working with the same reed for a month now and really need to make another... hahahaha.

Lemon Bar was scheduled to put out our first tracked recording this past fall, however there were a few hitches in the road and the production date got pushed back.. indefinitely. I am very excited to say that this is about to change because I have *awesome* friends/colleagues who made it a point to help me finish this project. (thanks guys!!) So we're doing it, long distance style!

The percussionist, Daniel Fears, who incidentally filled in on bass guitar for my recital when we premiered "None More Black" back in 2013, will be recording himself from his studio in New Haven. He is currently finishing up a masters of music at Yale in bass trombone performance, and yes he is an amazingly multitalented, driven, and wonderful individual. Check out his work here.
Josh Edwards, our new recording guy, will be helping our gifted pianist Hanna Lee record herself in Austin and then he will mix the track. Josh is currently completing his bachelors at UT Austin with a concentration on electronic and computer music. He is a classical guitarist and has studied with respected instructors such as; Adam Holzman, Chad Ibison and Isaac Bustos.

Then there's the bassoonist, who doesn't have a studio but instead tried to record this past weekend from her auntie's bedroom because that's where the acoustics were best. lol

So there you have it! New Haven, Nebraska and Austin! Fingers crossed y'all!!

and remember, when life gives you lemons, make Lemon Bars! ;)

Lemon Bar!!!

Click here to go to the Facebook Fan Page!

I don't talk about it much on my blog, but I've started a band and it's called Lemon Bar. I've been writing for the band since last August (right before I graduated). Check out our recordings on SoundCloud!!

The first piece is called Integration

The second is Superhero

People have been really responsive to our music which is SUPER EXCITING. So far the band has 3 gigs lined up;
June 7 in Smithville for Olde World Bakery
Guns and Giggles, a comedy venue on June 14 and
Red Eyed Fly, July 25th

I'm really exited. :)

The recordings aren't even that great and are completely live, recorded in a classroom with my handy cam zoom. No mixing etc. We'll get better ones at some point, this is all we could do with the resources and rehearsal time available. This is good because it means that when we have the time to tighten up our performance, we'll sound even better.

Both pieces have their own history.

Integration got its name because it is dedicated to my late grandfather Robert Clark, who passed away in January 2014. He was an accidental hero because he unwittingly integrated the Topeka YMCA back when segregation was on its last limbs on a national level, but still a seemingly insurmountable issue in Topeka. The piece pays homage to the idea of integration by taking a classical motif and a jazz motif and... (dun dun dunnnn) INTEGRATES THEM. lol

Superhero got its name simply because our drummer at the time thought that the raw idea behind the piece sounded like a superhero theme. He was trying to tease me, but fortunately our keyboard player was able to smooth over some of the hard lines... needless to say I was not trying to write movie music.. haha

The Making of Bach 'n' Roll

Like all good ideas, this one started out as a seed and had just the right kind of nourishment from the sun, wind and rain to blossom into something people can enjoy.
I was running in the park on a beautiful late winter day and I thought to myself, "gosh I wish I could just come out here and make music in all of this beauty!" Then I saw other musicians in the park, who apparently had the same inclinations. :)
I realized that a bassoon isn't something you see everyday just playing in the park, and that if I did this, it would attract attention. Then I thought, "hey wouldn't it be cool to film people's reactions and post it online?"
I made mention of this to my amazingly multi-talented roommate, Kamryn Armstrong, who had already made "music videos" of her own. However, her videos were not just recorded from an iphone.. she had a tripod and fancy camera, not to mention expertise. Click here to check out her work. She VERY kindly said she would help me make this video and was true to her word. With her input the idea just took off. She suggested multiple Austin iconic locations, outfits, even times of day. She was absolutely pivotal to this video, helping me do everything, even down to the types of cosmetics I chose to use. I got really lucky that she was there!!
Learning the Prelude from the 1st Bach Cello Suite was a challenge unlike any other piece I had memorized, because it was not intended for the bassoon. This posed a challenge because there are only two real places to breathe during this piece.. one is at the very end (lol) and the other is smack dab in the middle of the piece. Because bassoonists don't play this piece it did two things for me; it presented a challenge of creativity (finding places to breathe), a challenge of endurance (try not to pass out), and made me feel more at liberty to play without fear. After all, I have never heard another bassoonist play this, so that radically decreased pressure. During MQVC, I had been working on the Prelude from Bach's first Cello Suite as something I let myself do in order to keep sane during competition preparation... almost as an antidote towards playing music that 9 other people were going to play and be judged/compared on based on an unknown set of standards. Playing this piece meant freedom from comparison. After practicing for this competition, (which felt like forever)  it had gotten to a point where I had played the Prelude soooo much, that I started quizzing myself, seeing if I could do the whole thing from memory. It took about a week at that point, but I memorized it and solidified it.
When it came to shooting the film we did it in 4 locations and and 3 separate trips. One by a building that shall remain nameless so that I don't get sued... The other 3 were out on Congress near 7th, the Lamar Bridge, and The Wall of Hope. The latter two took place on the last day of SXSW. We made several full takes but there were other takes where I was just supposed to play a section of the piece and Kamryn would do a special close up of my fingers.. or shoot from a slightly different angle. I probably only had to play the piece from beginning to end 12 times while filming.
Once we had our clips, it was time to edit. I spent the entirety of ONE day editing and creating a patchwork of clips that followed the general meter of the piece. It was a little rugged sounding to the ear, switching locations where background noise always changed depending on the clip used, but you could tell it was the Prelude and it had overall flow. Because we shot film from 12 different live performances, there were multiple tempos. This meant that the background noise wasn't the only variable in sound when playing back these clips and posed a challenge sometime while trying to find suitable pieces to put together. I have to say again, I got very lucky that I was able to get all these live performances to line up well enough for the video-patchwork-skeleton.
Recording the track that we laid over the video-patchwork-skeleton was much easier and faster than filming. We got our take on the 3rd run through. Parker Johnson was a beast and used some very expensive equipment that he set up in his UT dorm room to get the sound we were looking for. That's right, no studio required, just the dorm room of a college kid. We used only two microphones.. which was interesting. I have never used less than 3 to get a good recording. Here is Parker's email if you need to contact him about his awesome bassoon recording set up: aparkerjohnson@gmail.com
Lining up the track with the video was just plain fun. The idea was to watch myself (on patchwork skeleton video) played on a small device (in this case, Parker's phone), and listen to that recording through headphones (attached to phone) while playing the Prelude in such a way that it fit with what I was watching and hearing. Parker would hit record and cue me and I would hit play on the video and play along with what I saw and heard in the headphones as best as possible. This was tricky because there are a lot of close ups on my fingers. Close ups mean I had to try extra hard to replicate (be) my exact self from a previous clip.. but since there were so many clips and different me(s), it meant guestimating as best as possible how and when I should play it. Then there was the actual music to take into account. I needed to make the musical performance that would be entertaining and clean... and make sense with the footage. I am proud to say that we did not edit the music at all. It is a full complete take from a live "studio" performance... annnnd it lines up pretty well. Did I mention we got it on the 3rd take? :)

Shot taken by Jacob James Garcia

YESSSSSS!!!

Public reaction to the bassoon was very exciting. Some people lined up to listen, others stopped to take photo and video. According to Kamryn (who is a saint/trooper and wearing the cream sweater to the right) people were taking video or photos from the side walk, or even their cars, with phones, cameras or ipads as they passed by on Congress. I got asked to do a podcast by one of the more stationary audience members who took an interest in project Extra Orchestral Uploads and we ended up meeting a LOT of really cool people. More on the podcast later.



As a cool side note, we released the video on Bach's birthday in homage. Happy birthday you philandering scoundrel. Soli Deo Gloria. ;)

Don't forget to Like, Share, & Subscribe to my channel so that I can feed mahsef! Click HERE to go to video!

Annnnnnd if you haven't already, hit me up for a lesson! Can't be here in person? Try my awesome LessonFace platform and have me over for a lesson in your living room.

Thanks for reading and supporting y'all :)

Extra Orchestral Uploads

The Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition and Symposium was fun and I got to meet a lot of very talented and dedicated bassoonists as well as see some dear and familiar faces. Congratulations to the first place winner Ivy Ringel, who is a great person! We got to carpool on the way to the airport with equally awesome person and second place winner Sandra Bailey, who played beautifully. Congratulations Sandra!! It was a fun ride and I had the honor of exposing these out-of-staters to the Texas phenomenon otherwise known as Whataburger. It was as glorious as to be expected... hahahaha

David and Julie Threatte of Barton Cane. Hook'em

Also, if you don't get your cane from Barton Cane, you're missing out. I've gone exclusive with their product because it is so consistent and high quality. Plus, they take the time to get to know you, where else do you get that? You can thank me later. 

Thanks to my amazing pianist Wenci Fan who put up with me!

I was really inspired by Sergio Azzolini's interpretation of the Vivaldi and Klaus Thunemann as well. Click here to hear Sergio's inspired performance! I feel that Azzolini's performance sounds very improvised which led me to make the daring decision to improvise the second movement of the Vivaldi live in concert. Playing in a style that sounds improvised is currently stylistic for baroque music.. however actually improvising on the spot, especially in a competition setting isn't done that often, but my gut said it would be a good move. I have my own theories of how baroque music was once performed... muahahaha. But in all seriousness, I don't think humans have actually changed that much in the past few hundred years and that what we once found amusing would still be amusing today... including a live improvised performance.
A lot of the music that I write for my pop band calls for improvisation, so it was a very natural thing to improvise Vivaldi. It was exciting, nay thrilling to improvise for an audience, as well as a freer experience for me as an artist to be able to make decisions that fit my current mood while playing.


Speaking of, my band is gearing up to make some recordings soon. We have six pieces so far and the idea is that once we have the recordings, we'll be able to interest venues with our music and get some gigs. FINGERS CROSSED Y'ALL!!!


In other news, I, with the amazing help of Kamryn Armstrong and Parker Johnson have recently released a music video on YouTube featuring the bassoon. Don't forget to 'like,' and subscribe to my channel!

There will be a blog on the making of this video coming soon! Peace out y'all!

Studio Recital 2014!!!

I am very proud to announce the first studio recital I have ever thrown, Studio Recital 2014!

It was a great opportunity for my students to play some music in an intimate setting for a live audience. Performing is a crucial part of learning and has an indispensable way of solidifying progress and building confidence! I must say I am VERY proud of their performances. With the exception of one student, all the pieces were tailored specifically to address challenges each student was facing in order to give them incentive to overcome those challenges. The crowd that showed up to support the students was also pretty impressive. We probably had around 20 people to see five students perform. It was a good day for all. It also provided an opportunity for my amazing collaborator Wenci Fan and I to air out some of our Meg Quigley repertoire, an opportunity I would not have otherwise had since I am no longer in school.

That leads to another interesting thought, competition preparation. I feel no one ever talks about this but it's quite the mind game. I have discovered from making the tape for the semi-final round it requires a lot of careful preparation. However preparing for the next round is even harder. You have to out-do your last performance.. which of course means practicing the same repertoire for an even longerrrrr span of time. No sweat right? Except when you play the same thing for MONTHS it starts to become very wearing. I must say that there are days when I have woken up, set up the bassoon and then stared at it... almost all day.
Now I know my situation is a little different from the other girls preparing for this competition, simply because I am the only one who is not currently in school. That means I am not getting any sort of regular check up from my teacher.. because I don't have one. I have to be my own teacher, and though I think I'm doing ok, another set of ears is indispensable. Especially a set that is older and wiser. I know I could probably be doing a lot better with more regular help, but I kinda dig my independence too. I really hope I get to go to graduate school for bassoon someday. I really love doing the bassoon thing and don't think I couldn't live without it.

Composing has also been an interesting challenge. To have inspiration you really have to do more than sit in front of a piano. So I'm trying to stay active with things I love, like spending time with people, dancing, and learning other repertoire. It's great.

Until later!

If you would like to take a lesson from me, please check out my online lesson platform and book your lesson today! The first 30 minute lesson is always free! You can be anywhere in the world to use this lesson platform! I highly recommend!

MQVC and why You should take a lesson with Me!

Life in Austin has been quite an adventure so far. I started a band a while ago, for which I have been writing music. I don't know much about composing, but I'm having fun and the very talented musicians in my band know how to rock out! It's been awesome. We've only had a few rehearsals so far and are building up our rep list so that we can take some gigs downtown. When I get a recording I'll be sure to upload to YouTube and share. And yes, I am playing bassoon in this band. :)
My bassoon students have been doing really well and it has been exceedingly gratifying to see them improve and grow to love the bassoon in new ways. One of the parents wrote to me one day a very kind letter of encouragement which I asked if I could post, provided that the names were changed. She agreed. Here is her letter:

"Katie,

I wanted to thank you for your kind encouragement today.  I am, of course, the proud mother, but I see Natasha as a wonderful mixture of courageous and, sometimes, timid teenager.  It took courage to show you “her” music and you couldn’t have been any nicer!! Thank you for your perfect blend of encouragement and constructive corrections.  I think Natasha is responding beautifully to your instruction. I look forward to her lessons and her subsequent practices. They are sounding SO much better!! 

With great appreciation,

Lily"

And in other news, I made semifinals (click to see my bio!) at an international bassoon competition called the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition and Symposium. It's open to anyone to attend and happening January 18-24th at Round Top, which is in Texas. It's a really big bassoon event, and it is incidentally the venue through which I first met my teacher Ms. Jensen back in 2010. I'm really excited to have the chance of performing for so many people. The event lasts for several days during which the semi and final rounds occur for the competition, but also many master classes from distinguished bassoon professors and other performances from acclaimed bassoon professionals. It's all bassoon all the time! There of course will also be people there trying to sell bassoon stuff, because we all know that when bassoonists geek out, they geek out hard. Which of course is great for people trying to sell stuff to them. hahaha

And finally in other-other news, I got to play in a rap song that will be coming out at part of an album called Bealerious, which should be coming out in late January. Click here for the Soundcloud link! Chris Beale is the mastermind behind the album (hence Bealerious) and when I told him his music would be all the better featuring a bassoon, (winky-face) he gave me the opportunity to feature in a song called "Right on Time." It is a rap song featuring Megz Kelli, a talented rap artist with the band "Magna Carda." So excited for RAP BASSOON!!

Recording in Sewell Studios for "Right on Time" in Bealerious

If you would like to take a lesson from me, please check out my online lesson platform and book your lesson today! The first 30 minute lesson is always free! You can be anywhere in the world to use this lesson platform! I highly recommend!

From Escondido to International

People have asked me why I named my blog "Escondido Bassoon Teacher" and there are two reasons. As a 16 year old when I first started writing my blog I had two motives. The first was to make sure that when you google-searched "bassoon teacher" my blog would show up. This took a few years to actually happen, but I'm glad I did because now (years later) my blog is pretty good about popping up when you search the term "bassoon teacher. " Escondido is simply the town in which I spent the majority of my childhood.. and at age 16 I though it was important that people to know exactly where I was in case they wanted a lesson... haha 

Now that I no longer live in Escondido, I have kept the word Escondido because of something my teacher Valentin Martchev told me before I left for college. He said in a thick Bulgarian accent ; "Katie Clark, no matter where you go or how well you impress people, never forget where you came from, it will keep you stable and give you perspective."

This was coming from a man whom I respected above all else, and who practiced what he preached. So even though Escondido is a retirement center with a downtown that makes a hollow ringing sound when you step foot in it, or where you can hear peacocks and parrots every evening, or find a random buffalo next door, it will remain a part of who I am for as long as I am.

That being said, because of cutting edge technology, I am now available for lessons world wide. If you live anywhere with an Internet connection (which you'd need to read this) YOU can now take lessons from me. 

Introducing LessonFace, the most innovative technology in music lessons. Click here to see my profile!

Please message me if you would like a lesson and we'll work out a time!

Skeptical? Click here to see a demo of the amazing sound quality I got from a very old MacBook. Honestly, I am truly surprised at both the sound quality, and instant relay. It's as if I'm inside your computer! 

The password for the video is: bassoon

Please excuse my appearance, the owner of the company, named Claire, took a live recording of me fooling around on my bassoon while I was in my grungy exercise clothes right after I got back from a run, just so that I could check the sound quality of lessons before getting involved with the company. I was impressed and I think you will be too. It's much better than other video relays.

Here are some step by step instructions for getting started. Click here!

I hope to meet you soon!

How Then Shall We Practice?

As Charlie is aware,

the biggest thing upon which I like to focus in lessons is how to practice. 

Most of the time learning how to practice is the entire point of lessons. You are your best teacher, but first you need to know what is important and how to teach yourself.

I found this article interesting and helpful. It focuses on the larger game-plan aspect of practicing. 

Too often it can be overly daunting to start practicing when you know there is a lot of work to be done and it must be complete, even though you have no idea how to get it all done. 

The answer to that is to break it up and break it down. Little bits are not nearly as scary as a huge menacing mess. Once you master the little bits, just practice connecting them until you can play the whole passage. No sweat right? lol 

Although conquering obstacles is rarely easy, this checklist of questions may expedite the process:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~In which key am I? Am I fluent in the corresponding scale/arpeggios/intervals?

~Am I in tune with myself? If not, is my pitch fixable with an adjustment to support, embouchure or my reed?

~In which meter am I? Does that affect my interpretation of the rhythms? Can I tap out my rhythms in the abstract? 

~If a passage is not clean, what interval can I isolate in my practice to fix it? If it doesn't improve with slow repetition, is there something wrong with my technique which I can see in the mirror? Is there an alternate fingering that will work better?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As with all practice be sure to be careful and stay aware of your body. Injuries to musicians are too common and can be prevented through caution and awareness. Even non-musical activity requires awareness as injuries can occur at any time. Try to avoid undue strain or poor posture, and remember to give yourself time! 

Once I got a fortune cookie with a very helpful thought. The paper within the cookie read; 

"Infinite patience produces immediate results."

Although this isn't entirely true, patience is key to progress. It is also a virtue in which I am often found lacking... but I will say that I get a lot more done when I give myself the opportunity to delve more deeply than impatiently demanding instant perfection as I consecutively build bad repetitions. Because of this, my patience with myself has increased enormously, largely due to the fact that a patient attitude yields faster results than imprecise floundering! Go figure. 

Like the Falling of Small Rocks that Precedes an Avalanche..

I got an email today from someone in Europe who wants to play None More Black with his band!!

HOW EXCITING IS THIS?????

There is next to nothing in the popular genre, especially of serious popular pieces, for the bassoon. In that sense, NMB is a jewel of a rare nature.

I am currently working with a composer to create more "popular" pieces that can be played by bassoon and a variety of other instruments. These types of works are, especially serious ones, so uncommon that almost anything we come up with will be a well needed expansion of bassoon repertoire.

Traditionally bassoon pieces that aren't classical in nature (and some that are) tend to focus on the comedic aspect of the bassoon or rely on amusing gimmicks. We have well enough of these comedic works, where are the pieces I can go downtown to play and make a few bucks playing it?

The answer used to be, "you picked the wrong instrument," but as of very recently "popular" works including the bassoon are in progress. 

 I don't know why it is, but people can't seem to take the bassoon seriously as a viable source or genuine entertainment. I will point out that if you read the poll of words-that-people-associate-with-the-bassoon, the two most unfailingly popular choices are Exotic and Expressive. If this is the case, why is the bassoon sequestered to the back of the orchestra?? It doesn't need to be..
An instrument with such qualities needs to get out there and just do it!!

There are tons of solo string players, but I could name on one hand the list of solo bassoonists I know. However I digress, the music we're working on  is not purely soloistic in nature, but rather features the bassoon with nontraditional ensembles. The fact that previous "pop" pieces for bassoon are intended to be either comedic or a novelty I think is too bad, and it's time for change.

Bassoon is hard enough to play, but when the only real performing jobs are limited to classical repertoire, you can understand why it would be stifling to play the same sorts of things over and over. I never want to play a Bb 3 ever again. You bassoonists know what I'm talking about..

It's high time we started improvising, but the sad truth is, bassoonists typically don't.

_____________

Here is the email I found in my inbox this morning;

"I really liked the piece by Ben Stonaker, I am wanting to bye it for my band so that I can actually play the bassoon in the band. That would be really cool! 

There are som things I am wondering about though, prize and parts. 

I am basically wondering about what the prize is, and if the guitar solo and so on is written or if improvised. 

I live in Norway, so do you ship over here? 

Thanks, and please excuse me for my terrible English.

Sincerl, Didrik"

(thanks Didrik for giving me permission to post!)

I have great hopes that this is only the beginning, and that once serious pop bassoon music starts to become available, a whole new genre of pop bassoon repertoire choices will not only be accessible to future generations of bassoonists, but to a certain degree expected. Obviously only time will tell if this experiment will work or not, but nothing ever got done by not being tried. :)

Fingers crossed!!

Rock Bassoon

My latest bassoon adventure has gone to the dark side, in fact there's None More Black... hahahaha (to unsubscribe from lame jokes click here)

None More Black was a project for my senior recital and completely voluntary on the parts of everyone involved. The idea was to write a rock song for bassoon and play it! I really wanted to play something people could relate to better. I love classical music, but how often do you go downtown and hear classical music blasting from a bar? Or bassoon in a downtown setting?
Though I think hearing classical music in a bar may be a long shot, I'm really hoping the fate of the bassoon will not be so grim. One step at a time.

I digress. The wonderful people who made this song come to life did everything for free and are totally amazing. You guys rock. Literally.
We world premiered NMB May 3rd, 2013 but due to some funny business with the microphones, we rerecorded with fancier mics (though tragically with slightly less sophisticated recording equipment) in early June. C'est la vie d'une etoile de rock. hahaha (please don't kill me)

iphone pic of  hastily scribbled theme 

Ben Stonaker is the composer. He hails from Louisiana and is currently working on his doctorate at UT Austin. He was a rock musician for the longest time, but turned rogue and now writes music of the new variety. He was the perfect guy to write this piece, which wittily features quotes from Paint it Black and Freebird (6 minutes in). NMB is also centered around a melody sent via text message.. from my phone! Gotta love technology! Incidentally, I look back at this picture and I cannot for the life of me understand what possessed me to write B double flat.. or C flat.. *sigh*

It was great collaborating with him. Funny note, he ended up sight reading the piano part at my senior recital.. sight reading a concert is badass.. no matter how you slice it! Ben Stonaker, you are a beast.

Other news from my senior recital, click here for my fav recording from the recital that is not rock related. This is Eugene Bozza's Recit, Sicillienne and Rondo for bassoon and piano. Suyeon Kim (possibly the best pianist I know) was kickin' it with me for this one and recently got a job as a full time professor in Colorado. Congratulations Dr. Kim!!
Special thanks to Dadio who came out with Mom and recorded and uploaded it all from his phone.

Right now I'm just trying to finish school. I supposedly graduated, but in reality I have 2 online science classes to finish, one of which I finished last Tuesday and the other I'm hoping to knock out early in the next 1-2 weeks. Cannot wait to finish.

I also have been teaching at the Long Horn Band Camp again this summer. It was fun! I really love the kids and we always have a great time. I never get tired of their excited young faces or cracking jokes when I'm supposed to be teaching. I'm so ADHD myself that I really try to make lesson times as relevant and engaging for the student on as many levels as possible. I understand how difficult it can be to focus on what teachers say, I was there not that long ago!

One amusing excerpt from a lesson went as follows:

Me: Try singing this note before you play it again, and really tune it..
Student: *grins* I can't.
Me: Nonsense, now sing.
Student: *still grinning* I can't.
Me: *sings horribly but in tune* look, if I can do it, so can you! 
Student: *worried smile* I can't...
Me: We haven't got time for this, now just try.
Student: *sings well and in tune*
Me: AHA!! YOU CAN!! Now don't tell me you can't anymore because you clearly can! Now let's do that again and really listen to tune it with the piano. *plays interval of a 5th*
Student: I can't..
Me: You just did... 
Student: *sings pitch eventually tuning well*
Me: Great, now do that on the bassoon!
Student: *tunes bassoon and sounds amazing*
Me: Never tell yourself that you can't, because you only set limits for yourself. You just proved that you can, even though you thought you couldn't before!

Not that long ago I was the one saying "I can't." in lessons.. I was so sure I knew my own limits! So I totally understand how much saying "I can't" is a complete waste of time. It is completely counterproductive to put limits on your own infinite creative potential. Thank you Ms. Jensen for knocking some sense into me. 

On that note, it's time for sleep. Until next time!

Senior Recital, AHS, Blanton, the future....

The future is wild and unknown. lol

I've decided to defer on Northwestern's offer of admission for a year in the hopes of hanging around in Austin for a little bit longer to freelance and teach. I'm hoping to expand the types of acceptable venues in which the bassoon can be played, and one of the ways I'm doing this is with my senior degree recital.

The recital will try to dispel preconceived notions about the limits of the bassoon by doing a couple of things that people have said could not be done, either explicitly or implicitly. The opening piece will feature classical guitar and bassoon, which if you've been reading my blog you know Thales and I have been doing for a few months now. BUT even at the last master class at which Thales and I performed, there were incredulous professional musicians sitting in the audience literally saying "it can't be done..."
right up until we did it.

So that's going to be the overall theme of this recital. It CAN be done and it SHALL. lol

The last piece on the program is composer Ben Stonaker's None More Black.

Ben was inspired by the Rolling Stones' song Paint it Black, and as its name implies there is a quote from the Stones which necessitated the similar name. Click here to see Paint it Black if you aren't already familiar with that song.
On a side note, rehearsals for None More Black start Wednesday and yes this is a rock'n'roll piece. ;) *yay!*

Besides all of that, the recital will be given with the advertised function of being a benefit concert for the Austin Humane Society. Readers of this blog are familiar with my infatuation with our furry friends, and it struck me that I could actually do something to help them with my music! I am VERY excited to be raising money for the AHS, so please come to my recital and donate for all the puppies and kitties that are saved and need homes! There will be food afterwards and I would love to meet you!

As to my future in Austin, I am very excited to be moving out of the dorms and into a real apartment! I will be playing with Thales a bit, branching out into other venues of performance in smaller settings, some possible orchestral involvement, and doing a lot of teaching.

Above is a picture my student's mom took of the lesson we had outside in the beautiful spring weather! Such a joy to be outside right now!

Also, Thales' dad came to one of our performances at the Blanton and took some video and photos! What a dad!! See some of those below.

peeking at the music

Click HERE for the video! In the video we do a lot of talking in an effort to better reach our audience. The people were very receptive and enthusiastic. Many of them came to thank us afterwards and a few of them asked if they could hire us to play at house parties and other events, to which we answered YES OF COURSE PLEASE HIRE US. :D One guy even tipped us $20 at the end, so Thales and I went to enjoy some well needed lunch afterwards! Woot!!

Thales and I LOVE playing for people in intimate settings! Special thanks to Thales' dad and the wonderful Evan Leslie who coordinated this event and gave us the opportunity to perform!!

Mystery Music

So there is a lot going on and I haven't been diligent about blogging it.. dun dun dun...

So fast and wild recap. GO!

I'm on YouTube again click HERE!

This was a small free performance at the Fine Arts Library at UT which was part of Russell Podgorseck's Excessive Noise Series. My chamber buddy in the video, Thales Smith, was particularly inspired by one of the pieces performed by a soprano and guitar at this concert... so Russell rewrote it for guitar and BASSOON.
I am very excited to say that we are playing it! Will post on YouTube when we perform it!

My senior recital is coming up and I am planning on making this recital a little bigger than the standard affair, ie. less boring. I'm also hoping to use my recital as a benefit concert to raise money for the Humane Society. I will be playing a lot of traditional repertoire, but also something a little less standard.. it's a piece currently being written for my recital by one of the composers at UT, Ben Stonaker. Nope, it's not even in the New Music genre, though there will be one of those obligatory pieces on the program... you knew it had to happen. lol (actually 21st century genre is required to graduate..)

Can you guess the genre of this mystery piece Ben is writing??? ;)
click here for hint
Or leave a comment if you care to guess!

Applying to grad school has been crazy, I've a applied to five already but only taken the auditions at 3 so far. I may not even be done yet, Ms. Jensen keeps suggesting new places for me to apply, but I really want to stay at UT for obvious reasons. So we'll see what happens. I've heard back from only one of the schools at which I auditioned so far (and was accepted yay!) but still waiting to hear back from the other two. I'm not sure where I'm going to come up with the money for grad school, but I'll find a way.

And lastly, I'm finally FINALLY graduating!!! (at the end of the summer.. shhhh...) So EXCITED at the prospect of actually having a degree in my hands!!! The amount of credits I have is insane, I've already earned a degree and a half but I won't get the degree until I finish jumping though all the hoops and climbing over the red tape that is my particular set of degree requirements.

Currently I'm on spring break and SXSW is in town, so naturally I have been doing some serious spring cleaning. Absolutely necessary.  Feels so good. Annnd I'm going to a free show tonight that I am very excited about!!

Previously in this blog I have mentioned my brief encounter with eurhythmics, for which I am so thankful, it has truly been a gift that keeps on giving. Ms. Jensen asked me to help one of my younger studio mates with rhythm comprehension (which I have struggled notoriously with myself) so I gave a mini master class to our freshmen and took the cutest video of them while we had fun exploring rhythm in physical motion! With minimal goofiness.
XD

k, gotta catch a show (and practice). Until next time! :)

Five Sacred Trees!!!

I don't think I've ever posted video of my performances before, but last Thursday I played for a piano masterclass and my wonderful teacher Ms. Jensen sneakily recorded the whole thing from her ipad. hahahaha
As my grandma Connie says; "nothing is safe anymore!"
hahahaha it's TRUE!!

Well now I'm on YouTube and thus famous... lol or not.

I almost didn't do this, all the way onto the stage I was kicking myself because I had awoken sick that morning with some cold virus/sinus infection thing and was feeling quite poorly. Why I did it still confuses me, but I'm sure glad it worked out. :)

Five Sacred Trees by John Williams, movements 1-2

Click here for movements 3-5

It totals 24 minutes in length and I'll have to play it this Tuesday in Studio Class, the whole thing from memory, to qualify to compete in the concerto competition. Prayers much appreciated!!!

I have to say, that what with this piece being as hard as it is and me being as sick as I was (am), I must give credit where it is due and that would be to Jesus Christ, who sustains me. Without Him I could do nothing.

Also to my pianist Suyeon Kim, who is beyond amazing, incredibly talented, dedicated, ever supportive (even when she has to teach me my part) and just plain nice to boot. I really lucked out.

Also to Ms. Jensen, who has been incredibly patient with me for the past 2 years. I would have gone crazy trying to teach me by now. lol

You guys rock!

Smell ya later!