I had a tough one today. Counterpoint is going to be a lot of work, but I like the professor. He’s a nice guy. It’s something that I really am not real excited about, but I know I need to learn it, and I know I will eventually be able to build off of it the rest of my musical career. So I just need to bite the bullet and go for it.
I also had my first oboe lesson today. We did a lot of scales, and talked about rhythm a lot. Bottom line is I need to be rhythmic in everything I do. I mean absolutely perfectly rhythmic. Even in my “reed testing toot toot warmup” as my professor put it. We set goals for the upcoming quarter: Le Tombeau, La Scala, and Mozart Concerto. No problem. Piece of cake. Right? Oh, and did I mention, a recital in November? And WW Quintet. And Orch. And Wind Ensemble. And Lord knows what else.
First orchestra rehearsal today. The good news is I had fun. The bad news I had too much fun. The conductor said several times, “A little less 1st oboe.” Well, at least he can hear me. I think this is going to be really good for me. I need to get better at balancing with a woodwind section (I haven’t had to worry about it much for a long time.) I got my butt kicked on Symphonie Fantastique. The whole piece just is very conjunct while playing it, and 1st oboe has lots of 3rd octave work (high Ebs to F#s, maybe G?) The final movement has a nice nasty little trill part that definitely isn’t sightreading friendly, as was proven in my placement audition. OUCH!
Tomorrow is a new day. History of Opera, oboe studio, and Wind Ensemble. Oh boy. Can’t wait.
My mouth really hurts tonight.
