Saturday, February 17, 2007

After Solo and Ensemble


I actually have a very scary story about how Solo and Ensemble went. The night before Solo and Ensemble I had a basketball game but before the game I was working on the score to give the judge so he could give me a grade on the music, but I set it down and then forgot it!! Yeah kinda scary but anyway so I go to solo and ensemble but in stead of playing my original piece I had to sight read a performance and get this I still got the highest rating!!!! I still got a 1!!!! I was really excited and everybody kept congratulating me and all I could do was thank God for giving me the courage to play something completely different and still do great. Do any of you have any scary situations where you didn't think that you were going to do good at all and then you found out you did awesome if you have stories please share them with me! Well I have to start practicing what I am going to play at states, oh, and I wont forget my music this time!!!

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Fun Pieces of Music


Well if you didn't already know I am a bit of a brass favor er. I love all sorts of brass groups. For Christmas I got this really awesome CD from the kings brass and it was probably one of my FAVORITE gifts compliments of my sister Donna and it had so many amazing songs on it like Fanfare For the Common Man and Rodeo truly an amazing gift. My favorite song on the CD was probably Fanfare For the Common Man the song sounds simple and is simple rhythmic wise but intonation can really come back and bite ya if your not careful I just love the style and all the notes. It is a very good piece. The kings brass group is a really amazing group and I would recommend their stuff anywhere so if you have the chance to pick up a CD or see a concert do it!! You wont regret it. What I want to know is what are some of your favorite pieces of music to play and to listen to?

Monday, February 5, 2007

Solo and Ensemble


This Saturday I get to go to my solo and ensemble where I am going to play a piece called "Call" by Bernard Fitzgerald and it is quite fun. I am really excited!This is going to be the first time at solo and ensemble for me and I cant wait, I hope that I do really good. I am looking for advice, should I dress up for solo and ensemble or should I just be comfortable I can't decide. For those of you who don't know what solo and ensemble is, it is where students from high school go and play in front of three judges and get graded 1-10 on different topics like intonation and articulation, 10, is the best and if you get like an 8 or up then you get a 1 which is good. If it is your first year then all you do is go and play a solo and get graded.On your second year you have to memorize i think five scales and then play your solo and on your third year you have to memorize 18 scales sight read and then play your solo. If you get mostly 1's then you get to go to states and play there and if you are really good then you might get a scholarship it just depends on how good you are. The only thing that stinks is that my solo and ensemble is like three and a half ours away and I will have to wake up really early like around 4:00 AM because I play at 8.(If you have any helpful hints or any advice whatsoever then please give it to me!!)

Important people in your life


There are many important people in others life I want you to share with me who you look up to the most, and who is an important person in your life? Well I will go first the most important person in my life is probably my sister's. My sister Jessica and I never got along when we were little kids as a matter of fact she was always so mean to me that we were constantly fighting. One time she was so mean that I got the meat cleaver off of the wall and chased her around with it so she went and locked herself in the bathroom. Then she crawled out the bathroom window went around the house got a handful of ketchup and when she got close enough for me to swing at her she smeared it all over herself and I cried and threw down the knife and she called me a retard and beat me up. Our last conversation before she went to college was I told her that I was glad that she was going to college and she said that she was glad to so as you can tell my sister and I didn't get along very well but when she went to college everything changed. But now my sister is my best friend and we talk and get along fine. So my question is, who is an important person in your life?

The Trumpeters Tune


Well this is where it starts, my blogging life starts now! This site will feature fun stuff about music, my trumpet and my wonderful family. Well as you already know the title of this blog is The Trumpeters Tune and it is called that because of my love for music and playing the trumpet in general. Many people would describe me as a band geek and as much as I hate to admit it I probably am. One thing that I love about being a band geek is that when I start using musical terms around my mom; who sadly to say was not gifted with music,she gets so confused and it is really funny to try and hold a conversation with her about anything musical. If there are other people that are "band geeks" out there they probably agree with me when I say that talking with a musically deprived individual about music is quite fun. Well here is some stuff about me, I am a freshman and I attend a school in northern Michigan where I sit first chair in a band over two other trumpeters. Our band is about 23 people large and don't let our size fool you when we play it is awesome. But there are always those people in a class who's whole purpose in band is to fool around and talk the whole hour which by the way can get really annoying after a while. I love my trumpet it was a gift from my mom for Christmas I loved it. There are pictures of it at the top. I am very curious to here your thoughts on instruments you play, favorite pieces of music,or anything musical in general. If you are interested in any music camps or attend any you should consider attending cornerstone university's music camp. It is a christian camp that has very smart and nice people and you learn so much about music theory and how to play right. It is especially fun for brass instruments cause they have an awesome brass group.