No. 1 J.S. Bach

No. 1 is now a piece of music that comes easier to me, meaning that over the time that I have worked with it, I have figured out most of its parts. The change in rhythm is normal to me now, its not complicated as before, I’m able to play it through, with a couple of mistakes with the notes, but the changing in the rhythms, just comes naturally to me, it’s not complicated anymore. I have some problems, in certain phrases, that has F# or G# and that just keeps going, that’s complicate because the song doesn’t have #s in its key signature, and when you have to abruptly change it, it’s confusing. This issue is workable, because it’s not like I don’t know the notes, I just need to make it a habit to not go over the notes when I’m practicing, and I also need to practice more at home, because I’m leaving everything for later and to practice it at school, when supposedly I already need to know it, this becomes an issue, because in class I’m not able to move forward, and I’m just stuck in the same place over and over again. From December to now, this song is pretty much worked out, because I know the rhythm, the notes, and everything that I need to play, this song is almost ready to be recorded, and it’s going to sound really nice when I play it as a duet.

Harry Potter

Over the summer, I got as a present, a couple of books for my clarinet. One of the was the movie music from the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire film, which brings it own CD with the other instrumental parts, so you can play along. The CD contains a Demo, which is kind of a guiding song, that is the instrumental parts, but has the clarinet playing over it and marking you the rhythm, sort of guiding you, if you are not able to play the whole thing. The songs are pretty easy, they are not complicated and have rhythms that you see since you are in 6th grade. They are simple, and if you have seen the movies, you can actually remember the songs because they are heard all throughout the movie. The easiest one is the theme song, that is at the end of the book, called Hedwig's Theme, which is the theme song, from the first movie and since then the theme song for all of the movies. The book contains many songs that are Waltz, which are ballroom songs, for dancing with a partner. In the movie we can see that they are dancing songs, because they appear in dance scenes, for example the Potter Waltz, appears in the part of the movie where there is a Christmas ball in Hogwarts. The Neville Waltz, also appears in the movie as a dancing piece of music, where Neville is found dancing alone in his room, practicing before the ball. Another song that shows that it is for dancing is Foxtrot Fleur, which is a Foxtrot, another type of ballroom dance, we see this song this also in the Christmas ball. This three songs are pretty easy, because they have a common melody. The rhythm is typical, so it gives you a kind of base ground, which allows you to play it since the first time you see it.
Another song that is for dancing is the "The Quidditch World Cup" which is a type of Irish Jig. An Irish Jig is a folk song from Ireland, that has a common tune, that is heard often in movies. For me, this one is the hardest of all of the songs, because of its rhythms. I get confused the first couple of times I play it, but then, it is easier to play, because I get used to the rhythms. All throughout the song, we can see that is very repetitive, and it only changes a couple of notes, but has the same rhythms.

I like this book, because the whole thing, the CD music and me playing sounds really good, because it is dancing music, that has always been, one of my favorite types of music, because it has a constant rhythm and they are very alike, and have something that always makes you want to dance. I also like this book, because it is Soundtrack music, it is my utter favorite type of music, because if I have seen the movie, I know where each tune goes, and its true meaning, the sadness, happiness, etc.

When I record me playing this music with the Cd, it will probably sound really nice, and is going to be considered my project for the year.

Little Fugue -- Snell

Little Fugue, is a really easy duet. Its a two page duet, actually composed for the trumpet, but it can be played in the Clarinet. The song mostly consists of low and high notes that stay in a range in which I'm able to play easily. Rhythms are really easy, they are quarter notes, eighth notes, and the occasional 16th note, so that the duet has a nice melody and for ornamentation. The hard thing for me in this song is remembering the notes, because you have three sharps F# C# and G#. F# is easy to remember because there are lots of songs which have F# constantly, but the G# and the C# are harder to remember, because I normally play them in a song, but the key signature changes at some point, so I don't play the whole song with those notes in #. When I play it once and even twice, I remember that I need to play the notes, and I play them each time they appear in the piece of music, but when I play it for the first time in the week, I don't remember and it just sounds odd. This song is really workable, if I sit on afternoon and work through it, because the rhythm is not hard and its kind of catchy once you play the whole thing a couple of times. The things I need to remember when I'm playing this song, is the #s in the song, and where they are, so I don't have so many issues when I'm playing the whole piece of music.

El Capitan

El Capitan, is an easy song, there are little chances of you to get lost in this song, because the rhythm in this song is not complicated and you repeat most of the phrases all through the song. For me the hardest part of the song, is in measure 5 where I need to play really high notes that are still kind of hard for me to play fast, because the sound is not nice. The problems start when I have to play a high D, that already starts to sound scratchy, and then I have to change to a high E and an F which also sound bad. When I get to measure 13, everything is repeating, the rhythms are repeating, so its easier to remember what I need to play. All the song is repeated until you get to measure 40, where sometimes the rhythms are confusing, and you mix them up, that is what mostly happens to me in this songs, that I get confused with that part of the song, and then the rest of the song is not in pace, I am not in the right place. The other part that is really hard for me to play, is in measure 70, where once again, I have to play really high notes, that are hard for me to play, because they are not in my range of notes, that are comfortable to play. This part consists of 16th notes with one 8th note at the beginning, the notes are high Es and high Fs, that are one of the hardest notes for me to play.

So I can play this song perfectly for the concert, I have to practice this song everyday, and have to practice getting the sound out nicely for the E and the F. I am going to be able to do this by playing everyday the fingering chart slowly, and going back and forth, note by note until I get a nice full sound. Also it could be better if I corrected my posture, I should sit on the edge of the chair with my back straight, so the air flow is better and not cut.