"I love you, you're perfect, now change"

On Thursday and Friday night I had the performances for the musical my project team were organising this year, "I love you, you're perfect, now change". It was one of the best experiences of my life!
After 6 months of stressful rehearsals and organisation it is all over. The result was phenomenal. I have learnt a lot about the skills of communication in a team, having to let people go and how to approach it and organising rehearsals. Finally putting on the show felt amazing. Seeing all the work we had done finally coming together as well as the huge sense of relief. Everyone who saw it seemed to really enjoy it. I am proud of my team as well as myself :) Can't wait to do project next year! It is also a path that I might consider taking because it was a lot of fun and next time will only be easier!

Meadow's Chamber Orchestra

Last week I played the Faure Pavane with the Meadow's Chamber Orchestra. I was quite nervous because I never knew anyone in the orchestra. Also we only had one rehearsal the day before the concert. It was nothing like anything I have ever done before, there were only two clarinets and normally I am used to playing with about eight! It was very exposed so you have to concentrate extremely hard because if you don't come in there is no one to cover you. The concert was amazing. It was a great experience and I am glad I did it. Everyone in the orchestra were very friendly, helpful and great musicians.

Capital Concert Band

I have recently joined the Capital Concert band. They rehearse once a week on a Thursday night. I am really enjoying it so far and have already gone to the Royal Scottish Conservatoire to play with them for a conducting course. This was really fun and interesting watching the attendees of the course learn to conduct. I learnt a couple of things myself!

The Fournier Trio

On Tuesday night I went to see the Fournier Trio play in the Eastgate in Peebles. They consisted of piano, violin and cello. I can say it is one of the best concerts I have ever been to. The standard of the players was outstanding, and absolutely flawless. They played the Piano trio in E major by Mozart, the Piano trio in D minor by Faure and Brahms' Piano trio no 2 in C major. I would love to go and see it again. They really inspired me to do more quartet playing.

TA Band

A week past Sunday I went to the TA band open day. I met a whole lot of new people of all different careers but all like playing music. We started off by getting a chat about what it involves being involved in the band. We then went and played for about an hour and a half with the band. We then had a break for lunch then went back down and played some different music. Some of the music was quite tricky but some of it was easy. I really enjoyed it. It was a great experience and was great to meet new people and play some different music.

Performance Week 3

On Monday we started the week with sectionals for concert band. I found this really useful just having the clarinets on their own to work through the difficult parts. I then went to a talk from Ninian Perry who is a freelance musician. He started off his a career as a performer and now runs paragon, a music ensemble with the aim of helping people create and perform their own music. His talk was really interesting about his life and it was interesting to hear about paragon as I had never heard of them before. I then had contemporary ensemble. We quickly ran through a new piece which we are thinking of performing in the next performance block. I then went and had a run through with Catherine for our clarinet and guitar piece. We decided that we were not going to have it up and running to performance standard for the concert on Thursday night so we have had to postpone it for the next performance block.

I started Tuesday morning with choir, where we just ran through all the pieces and gave them some final touches before the concert. I then had Jazz band. We also just ran the pieces and fixed a couple of sections. In concert band we put all the parts we had worked on in the sectionals and made sure as a band we were doing them. It sounded much better.

Wednesday was the day of the Jazz band concert. We had a rehearsal in the morning which went really well. I then taught my clarinet pupil. I could see a great improvement and taught her a new piece. I then came back to college for half past five and watched the first half of the concert. It consisted of all the pop bands. It was really good, I had never seen any of them play before but I really enjoyed it. The folk band played while I was warming up so I never saw them, but I saw the big band play. They have improved so much this year. It was amazing. I really enjoyed it. The upside down band then played. It was really good and we got a really good response.

On the Thursday we had the classical concert. Throughout the day we were just running through all the pieces and getting everyone into their places. The concert started at seven o'clock. The choir were first on and sang really well. I watched all the other performers who were good and then the concert band were last. I was playing the solo in the second movement of the Holst piece. My hands were shaking but I felt amazing after it. Shrek dance party had a false start as no one came in so we had to start again. Once we were finished the applause was amazing. Overall I think the concert was a lot better this year than it has ever been.

Performance week two

On Monday I had concert band where we did a lot of work on the second military suite in F. There are quite a few tricky parts in it which needed a lot of work but sounded a lot better after this rehearsal. In contemporary ensemble we got the music for a piece called In C. It is basically made up of 53 cells which contain different rhythmic patterns which are repeated until the player decides to move onto the next one. In choir, we had sectionals for the first hour to work on our two pieces then put it together for the second hour.

I only had choir on Tuesday, where again we had sectionals for the first hour and then came together for the second hour. We started a new piece called "Jesu, joy of man's desiring" by J.S Bach.

On Wednesday I have choir again. In contemporary ensemble we ran through In C before the performance on Thursday. Catherine and I also decided on our piece for guitar and clarinet. I got asked to join the jazz band where I am going to be playing bass clarinet. Simon wants to have two bands. A regular big band and an upside down band which consists of 5 clarinets playing the saxophone parts, saxophones playing the trumpet parts and a rhythm section. We are playing Jumpin' at the Woodside.

On Thursday I had wind band followed by a performance of In C. This lasted for an hour and we could just drop out when needed. I was really tiring and my lip was sore by the end of it but it was really good fun and amazing to be a part of. We then discussed what we are going to be performing at the concert next Thursday.

On Friday I had jazz band where we ran through the piece we are playing. I also taught my first student today which was very exciting. It was strange teaching especially someone I know but it was fun. I hope to get more students to teach.