New semester starts soon at the music school
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I went to my first vocal ensemble rehearsal and had a great time.
The director is very creative in running the rehearsals. As I already said, she spends a lot of time with improvisational exercises and movement, which is great musically but also a good way to get comfortable and get to know each other.
She had us move around and stand next to different people, so she could see how our voices blend and place us in our parts. I was really surprised that this ended up with me singing first soprano. I am not all that comfortable in the upper part of my range, so I think this will be a fun challenge, but also that she may end up moving me to second soprano.
Most of the music is a capella, but one had a beautiful piano accompaniment and she asked if I'd play that. The chords and harmonies are unusual, but it's in C and didn't seem to require big hands or a lot of speed, so I said, "Sure," and ended up sight-reading it with the group. It went well, so it looks like that will happen. We don't perform until January, so I'll have time to polish it up.
I'm so happy to be able to do music with people again!
@Mary-Anna That's great, Mary Anna. First soprano! Congrats. Second Soprano is nothing to sneeze at either.
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I just couldn't get it together at class today. Happens sometimes. The piano in class differs so much from mine at home despite being a Steinway and bigger than mine (and the room at school has high ceilings). The treble doesn't have as much power when compared to the bass, if I do say so myself, and the teacher agreed with me. Rough class. I should have a few weeks before I play again, so hopefully I can square away the parts that are causing me trouble.
For one thing, the piece opens FF and goes FFF in the third measure! Not something I'm very well practiced at. In attempting to play big, I get flustered and lose my place. LOL. I think I'll need to remember that big comes from relaxing into, not trying to go beyond oneself. We'll see. They say we learn the most when things go awry, so that's my positive take on it.
The industrial revolution cheapened everything.
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I just couldn't get it together at class today. Happens sometimes. The piano in class differs so much from mine at home despite being a Steinway and bigger than mine (and the room at school has high ceilings). The treble doesn't have as much power when compared to the bass, if I do say so myself, and the teacher agreed with me. Rough class. I should have a few weeks before I play again, so hopefully I can square away the parts that are causing me trouble.
For one thing, the piece opens FF and goes FFF in the third measure! Not something I'm very well practiced at. In attempting to play big, I get flustered and lose my place. LOL. I think I'll need to remember that big comes from relaxing into, not trying to go beyond oneself. We'll see. They say we learn the most when things go awry, so that's my positive take on it.
@mary-anna that sounds great! And you get to sing the fun parts! Also, it's cool that you're able to play the piano for one of the pieces too! What is the music?
@Bernard I'm sorry you had a rough class! It definitely happens to all of us!
I should have a few weeks before I play again
Oh so you don't play every week? Does the class meet every week?
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@mary-anna that sounds great! And you get to sing the fun parts! Also, it's cool that you're able to play the piano for one of the pieces too! What is the music?
@Bernard I'm sorry you had a rough class! It definitely happens to all of us!
I should have a few weeks before I play again
Oh so you don't play every week? Does the class meet every week?
@ShiroKuro Yes, the first soprano part is fun, because in the music we've had so far, it tends to be high harmony rather than the melody. I've always sung alto or second soprano because I enjoyed singing harmony and also because I was usually singing in choirs where everybody didn't read music. Some of these songs are totally in my range and some of them are a leeeeeeetlllllle bit high. Fortunately, one of them is the one where I'm playing piano, so I'm saved from struggling with it.
The music is a mix, so far. We're doing an a capella version of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" with som really amazing harmonies. There's a Leadbelly blues song that I think is called "Sylvie." I forget the name of the one I'm playing piano on, but it's a setting of a really beautiful poem about light and community. I sang in the choir director's large choir last year, so I already knew she had what I consider to be good taste.
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@mary-anna that sounds great! And you get to sing the fun parts! Also, it's cool that you're able to play the piano for one of the pieces too! What is the music?
@Bernard I'm sorry you had a rough class! It definitely happens to all of us!
I should have a few weeks before I play again
Oh so you don't play every week? Does the class meet every week?
Oh so you don't play every week? Does the class meet every week?
Now that there are 3 of us, there isn't time for each of us to play and discuss each week. The class is now about 20 min. theory, and 20 minutes each for two students. The hour goes by quickly. So, we're rotating in order and every week one of us will not play. Next week will be my week "off" so to speak. Yes, class meets weekly.
The industrial revolution cheapened everything.
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Good news. Even though I was the only one signed up, there were three of us for the first class on Tuesday. The woman who voiced hesitation about returning decided to come after all, and there is a new classmate as well. Pros: We hear a larger variety of music; we get feedback from more perspectives; since there is not enough time for all three of us to play each week, we may get an extra week of practice to work on feedback. Cons: We probably won't get to play every week. This semester the teacher is starting off the class with about 20 minutes of theory discussion which I really love.
I'm working on the c# minor Polonnaise, Op. 26, No. 1 in class.
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@ShiroKuro Yes, the first soprano part is fun, because in the music we've had so far, it tends to be high harmony rather than the melody. I've always sung alto or second soprano because I enjoyed singing harmony and also because I was usually singing in choirs where everybody didn't read music. Some of these songs are totally in my range and some of them are a leeeeeeetlllllle bit high. Fortunately, one of them is the one where I'm playing piano, so I'm saved from struggling with it.
The music is a mix, so far. We're doing an a capella version of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" with som really amazing harmonies. There's a Leadbelly blues song that I think is called "Sylvie." I forget the name of the one I'm playing piano on, but it's a setting of a really beautiful poem about light and community. I sang in the choir director's large choir last year, so I already knew she had what I consider to be good taste.
@Mary-Anna We are also doing Landslide this term! We haven’t sung through it yet, though.
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Oh so you don't play every week? Does the class meet every week?
Now that there are 3 of us, there isn't time for each of us to play and discuss each week. The class is now about 20 min. theory, and 20 minutes each for two students. The hour goes by quickly. So, we're rotating in order and every week one of us will not play. Next week will be my week "off" so to speak. Yes, class meets weekly.
@Bernard ah, got it. That’s a neat way to set up the class. I wish they had something like it here (did I already say that above?
Re music theory, I’m pretty sure I wrote about this back then, but I enrolled in an online (mostly async) music theory class through the uni here, but I quickly dropped because I really didn’t like how it was taught (and it was a huge time commitment right when I was getting for a research trip).
I think it might have been different with a different instructor (or if it was a in-person class), but it was taught in such a decontextualized way, it was very frustrating.
I would love to try to study music theory again some time, but I think it would need to be tightly connected to playing
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