Fall Concert 2015

Fall Concert Reflection 2015

Aniela Crayton

Thursday October 8th, 2015

Mr. Wolf

Symphony Orchestra B4

Things I Did Well-

• Musicality: This concert I really liked the music a lot, especially the Angel piece.  Due to that, I seemed to be more into the music and play it a lot more musically, and with more emotion. To add on, I also feel like because it was my first time playing with Symphony I was able to feed off of others musical ideas and learn from them.
• Cuing: Last year I didn't cu very much, and had a harder time staying with those around me. On the contrary this year everyone around me was cuing and so it was easier to know when to cu, especially in the unfinished symphony during parts when we would pizzicato.
• Bow Usage:  Some parts of the piece, specifically measures 265-266 in the second movement I had to practice conserving enough bow.  I feel that practicing the scales with 8 and 12 notes per bow helped a lot!
• Rhythm: Some parts of this piece the rhythm was really difficult, but I felt that I did a pretty good job at nearing in on them as practicing them.
• Tone: As I practiced the piece more, I was able to improve my tone and become more confident.  During the concert, I felt very confident in many areas, the whole orchestra had a good tone in most of the piece, which also made it easier to be more confident, and have a good tone.

Things I Could Improve On-

• Memorizing more of the pieces: I felt that I had a good amount of the piece memorized, more than I did last year, but have more would have been helpful.  In some parts of the piece I would get lost, or off tempo, because I wasn't able to look up enough.  To improve for next concert I am going to make sure that I memorize the specific areas that I know I had trouble with.
• Better Intonation:  The unfinished symphony piece had a lot of accidentals, and many times I would miss some of them.  Especially during the 32nd notes I had a hard time getting the accidentals.  I can improve this by practicing passages with accidentals slowly, and then progressively speeding that passage up, while stilling making sure the notes are right, and in tune.
• Rhythm: Though the rhythm in both pieces weren't extremely difficult, there were a few passages in the unfinished symphony that I had trouble with.  For example the 2nd movement before B and E.  Sometimes I would lose track of where we were, and then in some areas the rhythm changed for one measure.
• Certain Techniques and Articulations: There was one specific area in the unfinished piece that I was not able to get.  It was the technique in measures 222-227 of the first movement f the unfinished symphony.  I practiced this technique a lot, but wasn't able to get it.  I feel that being able to play faster and practicing grace notes will help me master the technique used in those measures