Practice and Voice Lessons 3

I think this week was fairly productive as far as my voice goes. I did ok with Die Forelle on Wednesday's recital and my voice lesson today was good as well. I need to focus more on my aria and especially on the intervals in my English and other German song. That will just take some practice over this next week though. One thing that I think has helped a lot with my phrasing in my singing this semester is my Poetry Workshop class. It focuses mainly on writing and reading poetry, and this I think has helped me to straighten out any problems with phrase flow that I was having. I think I will try to either put my last German piece Anakreons Grab or my other English Linden Lea on this next Wednesday's recital, so we'll see how either one of those go.

-Eric-

Practice and Voice Lessons 2

So far so good on this week. Recital went really well with Bois e'pais on Wednesday and my lesson today was really good. It's getting to the point in my lessons that most everything covered is small changes and minor details. I'm starting to realize the difference between my head resonance and mouth resonance, and I am starting to be able to differentiate between the two with particular vowels. This has been the hardest part so far with my voice, and finally being able to feel and understand what I'm doing while singing is a big relief. Its all snapping in to place right before my Senior recital. Up for next week is Die Forrelle by Schubert, so we'll see how well the German goes.

-Eric-

Practice and Voice Lessons Post 1

Practicing this week has been pretty successful I think. I had some difficulty in my rehearsal with Mr. Pfaltzgraff with placing correct intervals in the music, but after practicing on it some more it was better in my lesson on Thursday. I have slowly been starting to figure out how to brighten my voice, but the problem I'm having is in order to do that I have to drop the soft pallet slightly. What I need to figure out is how to keep it bright as well as rounded off and in tune. Hopefully that hits before March 2nd and especially before April 2nd with my senior recital. I am slated to be on student recital on next Wednesday and Bois Epais is on the list to memorize and perform, so here's to working on French!

-Eric-

Double Lung Transplant for Soprano

Here's a really interesting video of an operatic soprano that went through a double lung transplant.

Start to the semester

Hey guys, I haven't been on here in awhile and figured I should update this blog. So we're a couple weeks into the new school year and so far so good. I am unable to take euphonium lessons and be in low brass ensemble this semester because of 300 level juries for percussion. That on top of my voice lessons and Class Piano 3 will take up a lot of time and I don't feel that I would be able to put in the required practice and playing time that would be expected with lessons. So we'll see if I can't get back into it next semester. Other than that, our first marching show at the game this last Saturday went good, now its on to the band trip this weekend. I also started my weekly meetings with the on campus Dietary specialist this week. She's having me record how much I eat and when I eat for this week. So if you see me at lunch, help remind me to write everything down. We'll see if it works and if I can start losing some weight! Well, I guess that's everything for now. I found an interesting video online the other day that I will attach to this post. Its a good video for future educators to watch. Later- Eric

Summertime

Well, its summer. Since I haven't posted anything in awhile I figured it was time to write about something. Pretty much so far all I've been doing is working, cleaning, and practicing. Between planting grass seed for Pheasants Forever and working at Casey's here in town I've been keeping pretty busy most days. I've got some friends coming up this weekend for a camping trip...but then it rained 4 inches so we probably won't be going camping. Also been helping my youngest brother take care of 6 chickens, 2 dogs, and 4 calves. And if anyone knows where I can get a half jersey half holstein calf for sale, let me know cus I need another one for a matched pair. I have this crazy idea of raising a team of oxen, and I need another calf, lol. I ordered Song and Wind and Acting for Singers, I think I'll start with Song and Wind first and then read Acting for Singers and see if I can't learn something over the summer. I'll keep you all posted on how the books go.

Catch ya later,
Eric

Euph lesson 3-29-10

I thought that my lesson went pretty well today. I got caught a little off guard by one of the rubank lessons on pg. 29ish. I had been spending so much time on fundies and on the articulation studies in the back that I neglected to practice the etude type study at the beginning of the book, woops. Oh well, I'll just have to make sure and add it and the next one to my practice list along with my scales and fundies book, as well as the articulation studies. I've been learning a lot this semester, and I am definately finding out that there is a lot more to brass playing than meets the eye. I knew this already, but now I'm getting a better first hand look at everything I guess. The only bad thing about it is that between low brass, percussion, band, choral conducting, and choir, I can't decide yet whether I would rather teach instrumental music or vocal music. Most people focus on just one main area, but I've been learning everything I can about both sides of the music spectrum. Maybe I should start to narrow down my fields a little bit, but there's just so much good music, and when you can sing, play percussion, saxophone, and euphonium, its hard to choose sometimes. I guess its a good thing that I've got another year to figure that out.