Views: 1039 A 'Me' Blog - G Strings and Journeys
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So, Mowen said:
In response to my mentioning I had a cello exam. And I love music! It's one of the best things ever, miles better than sliced bread (but sliced bread sucks, silly comparison), so I thought, 'why not elaborate?'. This will be a blog about me.
So, today I finally did my grade 4 cello exam. To be honest, I'm terrible at practicing regularly, I started 5-6 years ago and could have gotten much further if I actually practiced properly. Heck, I accelerated from learning grade 2 to learning grade 4 when I needed it for GCSE music. If I'd taken A-level music I would probably have been doing grade 5 or 6 today.
Anyhow, I played three pieces, Scherzo (Webster), Shepherd's Hey (Grainger) and Pastime with Good Company (attrib. to Henry VIII). Somehow I managed to forget to make the bow hairs taught for the first piece, which went pretty well considering! It only occurred to me about halfway through that the reason it felt rather different was because I'd not tightened the bow. Rest was pretty unremarkable, few errors on the notes but I kept going and had good tone. Aurals went well (except the repeating by ear, that was dreadful) and I got lucky and was given an (or so I thought) easy sight reading piece.
But today was also special because it was book return day. Now college is done and over with, leaving me to start Uni in October. I'll see (almost) all my fellow leaver's at the ball on friday, but now we're all moving on. It's a sad day but also exciting. I don't think it will really sink in until the ball is over. Still, four of my mates are going to the same uni as me (one on the same course), so I'll have a couple of familiar faces, plus one girl I met at an open day, assuming she got in. For the rest, adventure!
P.S. I also learn keyboard (I wish I had a piano ;_;). My cunning plan is to learn the first page of La Campanella. That way, I can play it when guests start to leave and they think "OMG, this guy is a virtuoso" when in reality I'm grade 4 at best, maybe 5 at a push.
P.P.S. The 2nd lowest string on the cello is tuned to G, thus the title is not at all misleading!
Quoted:
Whoah whoah whoah... I think you need to elaborate on this some time. :) Probably not in this thread but that's so awesome!
In response to my mentioning I had a cello exam. And I love music! It's one of the best things ever, miles better than sliced bread (but sliced bread sucks, silly comparison), so I thought, 'why not elaborate?'. This will be a blog about me.
So, today I finally did my grade 4 cello exam. To be honest, I'm terrible at practicing regularly, I started 5-6 years ago and could have gotten much further if I actually practiced properly. Heck, I accelerated from learning grade 2 to learning grade 4 when I needed it for GCSE music. If I'd taken A-level music I would probably have been doing grade 5 or 6 today.
Anyhow, I played three pieces, Scherzo (Webster), Shepherd's Hey (Grainger) and Pastime with Good Company (attrib. to Henry VIII). Somehow I managed to forget to make the bow hairs taught for the first piece, which went pretty well considering! It only occurred to me about halfway through that the reason it felt rather different was because I'd not tightened the bow. Rest was pretty unremarkable, few errors on the notes but I kept going and had good tone. Aurals went well (except the repeating by ear, that was dreadful) and I got lucky and was given an (or so I thought) easy sight reading piece.
But today was also special because it was book return day. Now college is done and over with, leaving me to start Uni in October. I'll see (almost) all my fellow leaver's at the ball on friday, but now we're all moving on. It's a sad day but also exciting. I don't think it will really sink in until the ball is over. Still, four of my mates are going to the same uni as me (one on the same course), so I'll have a couple of familiar faces, plus one girl I met at an open day, assuming she got in. For the rest, adventure!
P.S. I also learn keyboard (I wish I had a piano ;_;). My cunning plan is to learn the first page of La Campanella. That way, I can play it when guests start to leave and they think "OMG, this guy is a virtuoso" when in reality I'm grade 4 at best, maybe 5 at a push.
P.P.S. The 2nd lowest string on the cello is tuned to G, thus the title is not at all misleading!
It was an absolute drag. Teacher was a screamer and showed no respect, but mum considered her an "angel".
She refused to let me quit until I'd made some sort of improvement, which never happened. I would've enjoyed music if I was able to choose what I did and wasn't pressured into doing anything. 6 years, every monday for 2 hours, wasted.
For instance, I pleaded my mum to change to drums, but she insisted on piano.
Now, I'm not going to bother picking up another instrument, because I had such a **** time.
Also, misleading title D:
< plays in band
but being alone recording myself? i will sweat and mess up a lot
also i played baritone but i really wish i played a string instrument
That said, now the exam is done I can finally get around to working on my pile of arrangements. I've a couple of ideas floating around for Daylight's End (Diana log-in music), so I might focus on that one. Assuming I ever upload anything to my youtube account (or maybe use soundcloud, video editing sounds tiring), I'll link it.