Audition #1 Done

Well, audition season has officially begun for me. Lincoln on Saturday went pretty well, I thought. I played through movements 1 and 3 of Hindemith without accompaniment first, and while I missed a few notes, I felt like I played it musically. Next, they asked for Ride and another excerpt of my choice- I played Prokofiev 5. Ride was ok, but Prokofiev showed me off a bit better in my opinion. I would say that Prokofiev was the best thing I played for them, and it was also the last.

In other news, the car died again, this time in Lincoln, on South 27th, right across the street from Southpoint mall... I am now going to have a discussion with Arnie's to express my serious dissatisfaction at their service.

Car

Well, I jumped over another hurdle today for auditions: the car is (finally!) fixed.  According to the mechanic at the dealer, the ignition module was overheating and would cause my car to die and not start. Hopefully, this means the end of annoyingly sporadic engine stalls. One of the times it died, I was about to pull out on to Main Street to go south from the corner by Rice... about 3 seconds longer before cutting out would have left me stranded in the street, just over the hill from view of oncoming traffic... it would have been bad. Anyway, there goes another lump of cash that I had not intended to spend on my car.

Studio stress

I have noticed that there have been multiple blog posts and breakdowns over the past couple of weeks from various members of the studio experiencing some feeling of personal failure in one thing or another. I just want to give you all something to think about while you are feeling the stresses of college bearing down.

You will fail at some point in your life. It is an inevitable fact of life. The most important thing about failing some personal goal is to know why you should get back on the horse. Most of you know that I took last winter semester off from school, though many of you probably don't know why. Here it is: I got burned out, every year, for about 3 years in a row. I did very well during my first 2 years of college, with the only possible exception being that I decided I didn't want to get an education degree (which I am starting to think was a mistake). Over the course of years 4 and 5, I gradually slumped until I reached a point where I only practiced a couple of times a week. For some reason, I decided that I wanted to do a recital, but as a composition major (at the time), it wasn't required, so I didn't take it for credit. I picked somewhat difficult literature for it, but nothing that was terribly out of my range. It would have required a bit of work to do. I ended up having to scrap a whole piece and a movement from the recital because I simply had not put in enough time working on them. Thankfully, I was sharing the recital with someone, so it was still substantial in length. To this day, I kick myself for not working harder on that recital. The next semester, I flat out quit practicing because I was not required to take lessons (I had reached the minimum requirement). I guess you could say that I just let myself go when it came to school. Eventually, I just decided that I didn't see the point in paying for college when I wasn't succeeding anymore, so I took some time off. It was exactly what I needed: a swift kick in the pants realization that I couldn't live without music. I also realized that I had limits: I couldn't (and didn't need to) participate in every ensemble (at one point or another, I have been in marching band, wind ensemble, symphonic band, brass ensemble, brass quintet, jazz ensemble, choir, madrigals, church choir, and bell choir). So my question to those of you who are doubting yourselves is this: what would you do if not music? I could not imagine many of those whom I have seen stressing out lately doing anything else. Spending spring semester of 2009 working full time made me realize that I cannot live without music and playing tuba. I hope that none of you have to go to the lengths that I did to figure that out.

I guess the main thing that I want to say is this: we all fail, at some point or another. Use your failures as lessons, learn from them, and you will grow stronger.

Audition

First audition is set for 9:20am on Saturday at Lincoln (just got confirmation last night). I think I'll play movements 1 and 3 of Hindemith, as well as some orchestral excerpts (see the playlist on CMO - I have been listening to some of the ones I didn't know as well). I feel pretty prepared, I guess. Practicing has been going pretty well, I just need to learn the excerpts a bit better. I would take either UNL or Wright State, and would have a tough time choosing between the two if they both offer an assistantship. I guess I would probably take UNL, as it is closer to most of my family, and closer to all of my college friends, but it also depends on how lessons with both of the professors go. Also, I really don't like the music building at Lincoln... it feels very closed in compared to Wayne. On the other hand, UNL gives its assistants health insurance. I'll let you all know how it goes when I get back on Sunday.

More on Graduate Schools

For those who haven't heard yet, yesterday was a pretty good day. I applied online to Iowa, UNL, and Wright State. I also got a few professors to write letters of recommendation. I am really excited about Wright State... it seems like it might be a really good fit for me, and everything has just kind of "clicked" with them. Dr. Miles has a pretty open day for a visit and a lesson on the Wednesday that I'll be there, and that night, their Wind Symphony (which is their highest band) has a concert. They also have a concerto competition and an annual honors recital, both of which are apparently very competitive. Dr. Miles was also able to reply to my email, even though they had a snow day (Kent State has not been as good yet about replying). Things are also working out pretty well with Lincoln, as it looks like I will be able to go down there on graduate audition day, and Mr. Fuller has been very willing to schedule a lesson for me. Lincoln also has an assistantship in technology, which I think I would really enjoy. Iowa is right now the most uncertain, as Mr. Manning's current assistant is still contracted for another year, but there is the possibility that he will find a job and the position will be open. Iowa would be an amazing opportunity. First audition is Lincoln on the 20th, and Iowa and Wright will be the 8th and 10th, I believe.

One other awesome thing of note is that both Mike and I will be in Intercolleiate Honor Band, which is awesome, because it really shows how far our studio has come - we are showing up some of the big schools.

Refocused

After a long night of practice (3 hour session), I have decided a few things.
1. 3 hour sessions are not as productive as they would be if broken down.
2. I can play for 3 hours when needed.
3. I am going to apply to only as many graduate programs as is reasonable.
4. I am in much better shape than previously suspected  with the VW... but not there by a long shot.

I did some more research on grad schools after practice, and here is what I have decided on:
1. Iowa
2. Kent State University (Open TA confirmed) -Kent, OH
3. UNL
4. Wright State University (Open TA confirmed) - Dayton, OH
5. UNI

Based on what I found out tonight, all i need to work on besides solo repertoire is:
1 Bordogni etude
1 Kopprasch etude
Orchestral excerpts including: Die Meistersinger, Ride of the Valkyries, Sensamaya, and Symphonic Metamorphosis

I think that cutting down the options is going to help relieve some of the stress and anxiety from earlier in the week.

2am second thoughts

I'm up doing some research into a list of 11 schools (below) that I was considering applying to for graduate study in tuba performance. It seems that several of the schools have audition deadlines that fall before midterm break, which is when I had kind of planned to try making some visits. Others seem to have really high bars set for entrance. After a not-so-great practice session, I am really starting to have some doubts about whether or not I should try out for some or even any of these schools. My grades have not been the best, so it doesn't seem likely that I would earn an assistanceship, and there's no way I could afford any of these schools without one.

Practice tonight was only somewhat productive. It is amazing how much more comfortable steel mouthpieces are than plain old silverplated. I didn't notice that I hadn't been getting the red ring around my lips from playing for the past month until I got it again tonight. Oh well, at least I can play without hyperventilating now. Some of the VW concerto got better, but that's about it. I wish the building were open for at least another hour...

More on mouthpieces

I am really glad that I did some of my homework before ordering mouthpieces. I had originally expected to keep the 72, as it had once been my main mouthpiece, but it turns out that it was too bright for the horn. It has awesome rim (which is something that Perantucci is not as good at), but was just too shallow. The 82, which I am keeping as my small ensembles and solo mouthpiece, keeps the rim but adds a bit of depth, darkening the sound to a pleasingly bright sound, but not overbearing like the 72. This left the 88 and the 90 to contend for my large ensemble mouthpiece. Now, the 88 is pretty much the biggest mouthpiece around, and the 90 is supposed to be its smaller replacement. The 90 actually proved to be too small, and it was difficult for me to remain consistent with articulation and tone. The 88 was a bit squirelly too, but with time I should be able to keep it in line. So, for $165, I now have two really good matches to my horn. I can't wait until practice time tonight to really start getting used to them.

Mouthpieces incoming

I just dropped a couple hundred dollars on some Perantucci mouthpieces to try out, and they are shipping today. Hopefully, after a couple of days, I'll be able to narrow the selection down to two of the four, as I would very much like to get some of that money back.

Models ordered:
PT-72
PT-82
PT-88
PT-90

The 72 and 82 seem to have the same rim, based on specs, and the 90 is the slightly smaller version of the 88. Basically, the 72 will be the main solo/chamber mouthpiece, and the 82/88/90 will be for the bigger stuff like band. I can't wait to get them sometime later this week.