Nadine O.

Hi Nadine, I hope you’ve been having a good week so far!

From now on I will be sending out a weekly homework post that summarizes what we worked on during our lesson and the various things I would like you to work on at home. So keep an eye out for these emails! :)

Last week we talked about your interest in joining an ensemble for September and making a goal to work towards an audition. I lent you my grade 8 RCM book and we started to sight read the first piece in that book. Continue to try and sight read through it and we will continue to work on it next lesson. For any ensemble audition I mentioned that the required repertoire is usually one fast piece to show technical skills and then one slow to show musicality skills and probably a few scales as well, depending on the ensemble. So we will continue to work towards this goal. In the meantime, Barnaby brought to my attention the ensemble ‘Toronto Concert Band’ please check out www.torontoconcertband.com for further information. There is no audition requirement for this ensemble. You join, meet new people, make great music, and have fun! :)

At the beginning of each lesson we always start with our long-tones to warm up. I would like to suggest that instead of starting on your mid range ‘B natural’ that you start an octave above that to work on your higher register. Your mid register sounds great but I would like to focus more on the higher register. I recommend that you spend at least 10 mins on these before playing any repertoire. It is important to warm up before moving further into your practice session.

We also focused on playing the 2 octave G Major scale and started to work on a study. We worked on tonguing and playing various articulations. (ex: slur two, tongue two, full staccato, etc..) The studies that we work on throughout the summer will help facilitate these skills as well. Try to have your study ready to play for next Tuesday and I will listen to see how its going and provide feedback. As for your celtic book, I know you enjoy playing this style of music so please continue to bring this and we can work on that as well. The piece you are currently working on in the celtic book feel free to write in some articulations and dynamics where you see fit since there aren’t any. I will review it next week and we can play it together to see if it musically makes sense.

 

Overall I’ve been really impressed with your progress thus far and I will see you next Tuesday!

Have a great weekend!

 

~Andrea