Things I have to learn...before the 21st

I am so excited about going to the UNCSASummerStrings program! By the way, I have also been admitted to UNCSA to study viola there for my senior year of high school, so I am super happy!

We also got our music to practice, and I have to learn so much by the 21st. Each piece we have received is quite renown, but they are very hard pieces to play. I've known about these pieces before & I listen to them all the time!



But when I look at the score, it's a totally different story.



Here are the pieces I have to master, well, by the 21st.
1.) Bach- Brandenburg Concerto No. 3: I'm playing first viola.

2.) Shostakovich-String Quartet No. 8: Probably the darkest piece of music I have ever heard. The second movement is just intense. Did you know that one of Prokofiev's inspirations for his compositions were victims of the holocaust? I think this is his best example.  

3.) Grieg-Holberg Suite: I remember watching the advanced orchestra at my school play this my Freshman year. Another time I listened to this piece live was when my grandma took me to New York City for my sixteenth birthday. We watched the Julliard String Orchestra. The ensemble played this piece along with others (such as a viola concerto called xx purple). They played it so well and the piece kept tugging at my heart. The orchestra played the slow and beautiful Sarabande and the part after the violin-viola duet in the fifth movement so well that I almost cried tears of inspiration & joy, but I didn't cry because I would have just looked like a total classical music nerd, which I'm obviously not. 

Wish me luck in learning all of this. I am determined to learn all this music to a proficient level, so wish me the best of luck!

Violin

My violan teacher suggested that I work on the first two pages of vivaldi's violin concerto in G minor found in suzuki violin book 5 this week. There are four pages. My violan teacher believes that it is better to have the notes polished than to learn new notes and not have the notes from previous parts of the piece be up to their full potential.

In my opinion, this violin concerto is actually quite easy. There are just a couple parts for me that need a little tidying up. The measures on pages 1 & 2 that I find need a bit more attention are: 36-47, 65-75, and 84-95. For the last couple of days, I have been just zipping on through the first two pages of the concerto, not polishing up the suggested parts. I would call the last couple of days of violin practice anything but progressive.

I knew I needed to solve this problem, so I came up with another practicing technique!

What I did was I decided to rephotocopy the first two pages. Then, I cut out each line, stacked them all together, and shuffled them together! What this does is it allows you to focus on just the notes on the small sliver of paper! 

If you are going to do this, photocopy your reportoire first! Do not cut up your reportoire with all of your markings!!! Also, if you have already memorized parts of your reportoire that are not on the lines, then this excercise might not work for you, but if you think this excercise is going to help you, then you will need to force yourself to stop playing once you have gotten to the end of the line!

I hope this helps!! Happy practicing over this fine summer!!!

Viola

Today was the last day of Raspberry Ridge! We also had our recital!

Orchestra: Good, good.

Ensemble: We got our group together, we thought we were going to be fine!

Free time: Last couple of minutes to practice as a quartet without the cello.

Choir: Boring...but not with Kendall around!

Lunch: We had a guestspeaker that could sing and whistle at the same time!

Sectionals: Fine!

Tennis: I lost every match! Yay me!

Theory: I got to take home a timeline that will become quite useful when school comes around again!

Snack: We had to leave early!

Our quartet peice at the performance: I thought I did terrible! I got really nervous! I hit all the right notes but my bow wouldn't stop shaking! It was awful! I also forgot to repeat a section! I need to find out how to get less nervous! The audience said we did great! My dad who has musically inclined hearing said he heard the first violin (ehem, ehem) make tons of mistakes and not me! Well, this year's chamber peice was better than last year's! Last year, I froze up during our chamber performance! I need to find out how to get less nervous!

Viola

Penultimate Day of Raspberry Ridge! I hope I spelled that right!

Orchestra went well. I think we will be okay for our performance. My ear started bleeding again, so I missed 10% of rehearsal!

During ensemble, I thought we were fine! We will do great during tomorrow's performance!

Snack was normal. I don't even remember what we ate today.

During free time, I practiced Bach's Cello Suite in G Major 1st movement. I sounded fine. I have been practicing that peice for a long time. I have been practicing that peice for a long time because I might audition for MYCO on that piece.

Choir practice was awesome with Kendall!

For lunch, we had a little recital by the Pendergraft siblings! One played the violin while the other played the cello. They played 1D & Wade in the Water! They did great!

After Lunch, I had sectionals! We are fine!

I played tennis! I lost and won a match! Yay Kt!

Theory was interesting too! 

For snack, we had these awesome strawberry shortcake bars!

 If you ever find these in a store or if someone offers these to you, take it! No exceptions!

Soccer was fun! Then I went to my lessons! It was awesome! I learned so much!

Viola

Third day of Raspberry Ridge!

Orchestra: We practiced Handel's Messiah. I practiced that as soon as I got home today!

Ensemble: I got some help from a fellow violist named Hannah! She helped me out during free time! If Hannah & I have one thing in common it's that we both know that our quartet recital is now less than 72 hours away & that we have to pull it together! At this point, I don't care if our first violinist is getting all the notes (yes, he says he practices, but nobody is perfect) I just care about myself getting all the solo parts!

During free time, Hannah helped me out with the viola solo part-in front of everyone on the camp's basketball court, but being that there were ensembles everywhere and a private teacher helping each and every one of our qaurtet members, it wasn't very unusual.

"It's not the music that you remember, it's the people."-Hannah

During choir rehearsal, Kendall and I were separated. Very clever, conductor. I never saw that coming!

During lunch, Dr. Holly was a guest speaker. He spoke about his hidden talent which is how he had memorized the dates of when composers were born and when they died. He memorized quite a lot of composers. However, I stumbled him on Viotti (1755-1824)! I need to remember to ask him next year to see if he will remember!

Ensemble: Normal!

Tennis: I learned that our tennis instructor, Clare, was learning Spanish because her husband is Bolivian. I talked to her some en Español.

Theory: I explained the definition of vernacular. Vernacular is the local language of a location. For example, if someone in, let's say, Germany, says their Bible is written in vernacular, that means that their Bible is written in German! I also talked to Ms. Boyce about Ms. Bierk. I hope she is doing better! If it weren't for Ms. Bierk, I wouldn't be where I am now!

Free time: We had a guest speaker named Chisun. She had a very inspiring story to tell. She talked about her story of how she became a believer in God. She talked about how she was applying for colleges and how she kept on getting letters back saying "we can't accept you into our college". The more rejection letters she kept on recieving, the less she started believing in God. Chisun soon came to a point where she thought this whole God thing was bogas. Chisun soon got accepted into UNC. She didn't really want to go to UNC, but soon figured out the reason God decided to put her there. As a college, UNC has the second largest Christian community. That is why God put her there, so she could return to her faith. Chisun told everyone that she would be happy to talk to anyone abot their problems and I decided to talk to her. I talked to her about my whole chaamber story and she gave me her advice:

"they can practice for hours, for days, or maybe not at all, but Kt shall be the one that will end up excelling!"-Chisun

That was my day. Thank you Chisun!

Viola

Today was my second day of Raspberry Ridge camp.

First we had orchestra rehearsal. We practiced Jenkin's Palladio (easy!), Dvorak's Waltz in A major (medium), and Handel's Messiah (I had to sight read that, but everything was okay). It was a good rehearsal.

I then had ensemble practice. I thought that I had my viola solos in our quartet down, but I was wrong. I individually told our coach that I would like to play the viola solos for him so he could tell me what I could do better on them & for some reason everyone else in the quartet had to stop and listen. I got nervous and all of last night's practice went to waste. Just the fact that we have about 72 hours until our concert scares me. Time is running out! To be honest, I really hope that our first violin is practicing, or else we are dead. That ruined my day (and my self-esteem).

I then had free period. I did some more art. Yesterday, I started painting a Day Lily.

See the red part? Well, everything about my painting was perfect (in my standards) until I started painting in the red part. Now it is ruined! That's the one thing I hate about art. If you mess up one tiny detail, you end up messing up everything!

I then had choir. I got to sit by my friend Kendall! We had so much fun making jokes that one of the counselors had to come over and tell us to be quiet! Made my day!

Then I had lunch. Kendall & I decided to try dipping veggi sticks into vanilla yogurt. It didn't taste like anything. We then dipped pretzels in the vanilla yogurt. That was awesome! We were so loud during lunch. All we talked about was food!

After lunch, I had ensemble. I got the Halelluia down. Yay me.

After ensemble, I had tennis. I made such a fool of myself, but it's always good to try something new everyday!

I then had theory. In my opinion, it is the most boring class I have ever attended. I really was thinking about skipping, but I have never skipped class before; I consider skipping class to be a taboo. 

Don't skip class! 

Ten minutes into theory, we got cut short because a priest from the Chapel Hill Bible Church was here to pray and give us a sermon. That didn't mean that class was cut short. But today's class was better than I thought. We talked about how Shiniki Suzuki met Einstein. It was very interesting! We also talked about the history of music and history in general through an amazing timeline. 

Camp was over. I played soccer. Life is good.

Viola

Today was my first day at Raspberry Ridge Strings Camp!

First, we had orchestra! It went better than I expected! I hate to brag, but I was second viola- only because there were 3 violas. 

Next, we had ensemble. I am playing viola in a quartet. Our Quartet piece is K421 4th movement by Mozart.

I really need to work on the viola solos- for the fourth millionth time! 

Next we had snack, chips & salsa. Then we had choir. It was fun. It started raining intensely. Then we had lunch, we got dismissed early from choir practice. After lunch we had sectional practice. We talked about the fact that the counselours might take out the Dvorak waltz. I really don't know what to say to that. The violins sounded really good downstairs when they were doing sectionals. The viola part is easier. Then, I had theory. I wish I could have kept that timeline. When I was getting out of theory, I learned from my friend Kendall that my viola and her violin were made by the same maker-Antonio Fiorini. I can't figure out whether that is a coincidence or not. No wonder they looked so similar! I then had tennis, but since it was raining, we played ping-pong. I got hit in the face. Then, I had theory, whoops mix-up in my schedule. Then, one of the teachers at the camp Ms. Boyce, showed us her old violins. They were really cool! Then we went home.

I must practice.