Little Mermaid
Grease
My Immortal
BY FRIDAY, MARCH 28TH AT MIDNIGHT:
"Little Mermaid, measure 30: tempo change causes us to fall apart. We can fix by watching, listening, counting.
Little Mermaid, measure 47: eighth notes aren't together. Fix by subdividing.
Grease, measure 112: dynamics aren't present. Create change in dynamics with bow placement and speed.
My Immortal, measure 438: intonation in the Bbs isn't low enough. Fix by extending first finger back towards scroll."
- For each song, list specific measures with issues and how we should fix them. For example:
Little Mermaid, measure 47: eighth notes aren't together. Fix by subdividing.
Grease, measure 112: dynamics aren't present. Create change in dynamics with bow placement and speed.
My Immortal, measure 438: intonation in the Bbs isn't low enough. Fix by extending first finger back towards scroll."
Little Mermaid:
ReplyDeleteWhen we enter, it is supposed to be forte, but it seems we are perhaps scared of the notes on the page and come in sounding like the squeamish sea urchins late to the party. In order to fix that we should use more weight and adjust bow placement. In measure 8, it seems like we stumble into it instead. In order to fix that we should pay attention, watch, count and stop guessing. The second chance at the beginning in measure 34 was better but intonation fell apart after that when the need for shifting occurred. In order to fix that, we can develop fingerings and play through those measures slowly. Lastly there are guesses made throughout on rhythms and where to come in. This can be helped by subdividing and listening to the people around you. Lastly dynamics were ignored accept when we arrived at the most recognizable parts and at the end. This again could be fixed by changing bow weight and speed but also making note of it.
Grease:
Int the beginning the first note is out of tune. This can be fixed by adjusting and checking finger placement if the instrument isn't out of tune. It seems during the meter change from 4-4 to 6-8, we stumble in. This can be fixed by watching and counting. There are intonation problems through the 6-8 section as well which can be fixed by taking note of the key change and playing through the section slowly. Particularly in the first violin section, when it's div. it seems particularly top heavy. There should be two parts played per stand (Just because one likes one part better over the other, in order for balance, both parts have to be played equally), and the bottom part should play out. Also, a lot of guess work is being made onto when to come in. This can be fixed by counting and watching. Overall the piece again lacked dynamics. This can be fixed by adjusting the right hand and making note of it in our parts.
My Immortal:
The violin entrance in measure 5 is very weak and timid and the f sharps on the e and d string could be higher. There is a little guess work going on for entrances making them not all together and crumbly. These issues can can fixed by subdividing and playing through difficult parts slowly. It seems unbalanced and the 1st violin part seems oppressive compared to the others. This can be fixed by breathing into each note and blending in with the other parts. Especially in the second half of the piece, the intonation falls apart, notably when shifting occurs. Most of the time the part, especially the 1st violin part is not together. Our part is the voice and it doesn't help when we make Amy Lee sound like a dying cat being run over by a freight train. Lastly with the combination of a the slow tempo and the lack of dynamics, the song becomes very boring. This can be fixed by living it up with the use of phrasing and marked dynamics.
1.) My Immortal: Measures 1-6: The pizzicato is rushing a little, which can be fixed by subdividing. So when practicing alone, we should try playing and counting out loud "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" along with a metronome to stay on tempo.
ReplyDeleteMeasures 17-23 and 42-59: We seem to have trouble with intonation, which we can fix by singing each note with the note name and then playing each note like a whole note, using a tuner to help, unless we finally have it perfectly in tune every time.
Measure 17, 19, and 38: I personally have trouble with the rhythms because the slurs and ties make the rhythms look more difficult than they are, so I wrote the rhythms in and will practice counting out loud while clapping and then counting out loud while playing.
2.) The Little Mermaid: We really need to work on intonation in the first 7 measures, which we can fix by singing the notes in tune with the note names and then playing each note slowly with the help of a tuner until they are in tune.
Measure 62, 63, 67, 68, 75, and 76: we sound very jumbled with the rhythm, which we can fix by slowing down the tempo, clapping and counting, and then subdividing out loud while playing and speeding up the tempo a few beats every time we get the measure perfect multiple times a the previous tempo.
Measure 97 and 98: We play this part wrong almost every time by playing by ear rather than what is on the page, which we can fix by slowing it down and counting and clapping, then gradually speeding it up with the metronome while playing and counting out loud.
3.) Grease: Measure 59 and 60: I Have trouble with the rhythm, so I wrote in the counting and will slow down the tempo and subdivide while clapping first and then count out loud while playing along with the metronome and gradually speed up the tempo.
Measure 126, 130, and 134: When playing this repeating part, we often play what we hear in the movie "Grease" rather than what's on the page, which we can fix by writing the counting in, slowing the tempo down, clapping and counting out loud with a metronome, and playing and counting aloud with the metronome.
My immortal: measures 1-80 Is really boring. To solve this problem play with more emotion and focus mainly on dynamics in this piece.
ReplyDeleteLittle mermaid: all the notes sound alike, when there's an accent don't ignore it. Grease: measures 45-53 can be rough at times. Practice makes perfect
ReplyDeleteLittle Mermaid: Whenever the song changes/ tempo changes, the whole orchestra tends to fall apart. To fix this, we should work on tempo changes more in class and look up.
ReplyDeleteGrease: Throughout "you're the one that I want," the first violins come in late almost every time. To fix this, we need to subdivide and look up for specific ques.
My Immortal: The biggest issue is that the violins have barely learned some of the rhythms. To fix this, we need to clap and count all the measures with any sort of tricky rhythm. Another problem is that it sounds stale and whinny. We need to work on dynamics and also articulation.
Grease: as almost everyone before me has pointed out, measures 59-60 sound like a mess because some sections are playing the rhythm wrong while others are playing it right. I think that the people who don't have it down really need to clap& count at a slower pace. Also in m 121 and 122 the cellos have a confusing part (that we went over today) but we mostly just kind of dont play at that part and it's pretty noticable. Again, clapping and counting the rhythm at slower pace and then playing it arco would probably help us learn it better.
ReplyDeleteMy immortal: basically every time the plucking part is played (so, like, half of the piece for the cellos) it sounds really unemotional and robotic. I think putting emphasis on the important notes (basically every other note) and adding dynamics would fix this.
The little mermaid: The tempo change from the first song to kiss the girl sounds really rough because it picks up speed. I think practicing the transition by playing the end of part of your world at its tempo a few times, then playing the second song at its tempo. After that, each song's rhythm will be in our head so it'll be easier to practice the transition from one song to the other without stopping and without getting confused on how the rhythm tempo and style changes
Amanda sheets
My Immortal: Overall we need to work on Dynamics because it just sounds bland, we can do this by fist marking all the dynamic changes and using our bow speed and weight to acuratly excecute the markings, also in all the pizz parts such as measures 1-13, we need to work on giving it more of a melodic feeling and not playing the straight eighth notes. I think we could fix this by adding accenting and some dynamic levels in the pizz parts.
ReplyDeleteThe Little Mermaid: All of our intrances are very weak. We need to pay attention to tempo changes by subdivinding and working on dynamics. Also in the first couple measures the intonation is very off so, we need to play the notes slowly to get them in tune.
Grease: In the entire hopelessly devoted section almost every other note is out of tune. To fix this we all need to go through and mark our pieces carefully as well as practicing on our own and playing each note and making sure they are in tune,
overall we have most of the technical things down in all of the pieces,but thats what they all sound like is technical. I think in all ofthem we need to put more feeling in to the pieces in order to make them enjjoyable for the audience even if they are easy for us to technically play we need to put a lot more thought in to the presentation of the style of the music and how we excecute the phrasing and artculation and the melodic style of some of these pieces. I think if we listen to the pieces more and well just simply put more thought and effort in to the pieces it would help.
Little Mermaid: Measures 1-7 are out of tune for the firsts, and not loud enough. We need to work on the shifting slowly at first, and figure out the fingerings. In measures 12 and 13 the firsts aren't all playing the same rhythm. We should clap that rhythm and work on not just playing what we hear. The firsts also missed our entrance at measure 84, so we definitely need to count and watch.
ReplyDeleteGrease: I think the seconds missed some G#s after the key change at measure 37. We need to make sure we pay attention to key changes and mark them in our parts if necessary. The upper octave in the first violin section from 63 to 74 is really out of tune and wimpy/screechy sounding. We need to play lower F naturals and use more bow.
My Immortal: DYNAMICS throughout the whole piece are pretty much not there. We need to watch and pay attention to the dynamics marked in our parts because right now it sounds boring and unbalanced. Also, we need to use more bow especially when we play on the E string. At measure 30 I can't hear the firsts at all, so we need to come in stronger there and play out because we have the melody. Throughout the entire piece, the firsts are struggling with rhythms so we need to clap the ones that are giving us trouble (measures 11 and 12, 30-33, and several others), then practice those measures by themselves slowly, then gradually faster. Intonation is a huge issue on this one too, especially on the E string.
Jennilee Burton
Little Mermaid-
ReplyDeleteIntonation was a problem throughout the piece. The cellos struggled specifically with the g-string notes from measures 26-34, the half notes measures in 67-68, and the section from measure 71 leading into the eighth notes at measure 76. All of this can be fixed by practicing and listening to each other.
Grease-
When the cellos have the melody from measures 45-59, there are spots where the intonation is fine and then there are spots where it’s not-so-fine. We just need to work on continuously listening to each other and consistently being in tune. The rhythm that the cellos have at measures 121-122 continues to give us trouble; it just needs to be practiced more and carefully counted. The first time through the repeated section at measures 125-140, the intonation was kind of iffy in my opinion. Once again, this can be fixed by practicing and listening to each other.
My Immortal-
Every time a section(s) is playing the pizzicato eighth note part, it sounds almost forced. It needs to sound less robotic and more natural; this can happen by paying attention to the style of the piece and loosening up a bit while playing those parts. Also at measure 13 when everyone who’s been playing pizz for 12 measures comes in playing arco, we need to remember that the dynamic marking goes to mezzo piano, softer than the dynamic marking that was in place during the pizzicato part. In order to not overpower the melody, everyone coming in arco needs to remember to play softer. This will also ensure that the crescendo at measure 16 takes full effect.
Little Mermaid: We need to be more confident and play what is written on our page and not what we hear in our head throughout the entire piece. In measure 2, the half note in way out of tune. We all need to listen to each other and match our notes instead of just doing our own thing. In measure 67, the rhythm got all mushy.To fix this we should clap it and practice it until we get it right. I'm not really surewhat happened in measure 70, but it had something to do with rhythms. So to fix this we need to clap the rhythms, and practice them until we get them right. In measure 116, it would be nice if we would actually play. To fix this, we need to practice that measure so we feel confident enough to play loudly.
ReplyDeleteMy Immortal: In the beggining, we need to make sure we don't rush the eighth notes. To fix this, we need to look up more often. In measure 13, we need to learn the rhythm better so you can here the 2nds. To fix this we need to clap the rhythms until we understand them and then practice with them on our own. We need to be more confident throughout the whole piece so it doesn't sound all wimpy. Also, we realllyyyyyy need to have more dynamics so we don't fall asleep.
Grease: In the "Hopelessly Devoted to You" part, we need to make sure all of our sharps are in tune, because it sounds gross. To fix this, we need to practice more on our own and listen to everyone around us so our notes match. In measure 92, we need to make sure we are playing whats on our paper and not whats playing in our head.
Grease: measures 125 to the end the seconds need to play louder. To fix this we need to put my pressure on the bow.
ReplyDeleteMy immortal: overall the piece sounds like it's dragging apse can fix this by playing with more emotion. In the pizz sections we are rushing a bit we can fix this buy counting more.
Little Mermaid: the seonds need to play louder in the pizz section. The intonation is also a problem throughout this piece we can fix that buy practicing more.