Long Time No See... and I Tried Something Different With Practice

I think it would be odd to type this entire blog post without acknowledging that it's been an entire year and a half since I've posted on this blog. Call me laden with excuses, excuses, but I am seriously bad at keeping blogs updated. And, well, a lot has changed since I last posted on here.

As we all know, our good ol' friend Miss Rona has been seriously impacting our lives for the last 6.5-ish months or so. It's literally turned this year into 366 (yes, 366) days of Absolute Trainwreck. And as a result, we've all been stuck in quarantine for literal months. For a musician like yours truly, that means performances for the time being have suddenly gone to zilch. For an orchestral musician like yours truly, that means orchestra rehearsals have also gone down to... zilch. The last time I was in orchestra rehearsal was on 3/12/20. At this point, that was probably my last orchestra rehearsal of the entire year, and I didn't even know it at the time.

Anyhow, I digress. Because of not being in orchestra and therefore not playing sitting down nearly as much as I used to, over quarantine I developed a less-than-ideal habit of slanting my bow while I played. It got so bad that sometimes my bow would literally slant over the fingerboard. And I blame Rona for that. I have this theory that being in orchestra for so many years and playing sitting down has been the reason this problem has been avoided, since playing sitting down has forced me to keep my bow straight because otherwise I'd hit my leg with it, and I think I sort of unknowingly relied on that all these years to avoid this problem. Until orchestra stopped, and this problem developed. And as a newly minted violin performance major (before you ask, no, I didn't end up going or even auditioning for Juilliard, contrary to the aspirations listed in my profile on here. I'm actually attending TXST, a way more reasonable choice.) who has been playing violin for 8 years and has far exceeded the beginner stage, I need to fix this frankly awkward habit, and STAT.

I have been trying to work on it for the past month and a half now and it's gotten better sometimes, but other times it will go back to the awkward slant. One of the dealbreakers that made me want to fix this is how uncomfortable I look when I look at pictures or videos of myself playing. In the moment, I'm completely comfortable and it feels natural, but when watch myself it looks completely unnatural and uncomfortable.

So, as you can imagine, this bad habit of mine has been a major focus in my practicing lately. And speaking of practicing, that brings me to my next point, which is the latter part of the title of this post. So last night I tried a little something different with my practice. And by last night, I literally mean, last night. Here's what I mean by that.

So I would classify myself as a total night person. By that I mean, if I am asleep anytime before midnight it means something's up with Daniela. For me to fall asleep even as early as 11:30pm means that I am probably not feeling well or something. This whole year there has been maybe 1 or 2 times I was passed out pre-midnight. So as you can imagine I really value my late-night waking hours. I'm literally saying this as I'm typing this lengthy blog post at 12:42am on a school night.

That's not to say I'm normally ever productive late at night. Usually I spend these cherished hours binge watching YouTube videos or noshing on late night snacks. Or both. But last night I decided to try something different. Since I usually feel most awake at night, why not practice at midnight?

So that's exactly what I did. Practicing late at night is something I've never really had the chance to do since in my home there's no place to do it without waking up the entire house (or neighborhood, for that matter). But since I live in a dorm now, and thanks to Rona causing the practice rooms in the music building to become extremely restricted I have found that my prime practice place is in the basement of the dorm (also killer acoustics in there too. Seriously.), I can do that kind of thing now without fear of waking up the whole building.

It ended up working out so well. First of all, it was the first time I had the entire basement all to myself. Our laundry room is in the basement, so when I'm practicing during my usual daytime hours there's people walking back and forth to check on their laundry, and while I do enjoy having a captive audience, I also enjoy having the whole space to myself to practice in peace. And no one is doing their laundry that late at night so that was definitely a plus.

Since I finished my to-do list in the wee hours of the day, as in even before I even went to bed, once I woke up I had an entire free day ahead of me. And I loved it. I could lounge around on my phone for as long as I wanted after waking up without fear of getting up too late and starting my schedule really late in the day. Because of that, the whole day felt way more leisurely. And that was an amazing feeling. It felt like having a day off without actually having a day off.

The only downside to this late-night productivity is the fact that it caused me to not get to sleep until really late, since being productive (especially doing something that engages the body more, like practicing, as opposed to doing homework or sitting in a lecture) gave me energy and made it harder to fall asleep. Sure, I was already up late, but it took me more hours on top of that to finally drift off into dreamworld. I didn't even fall asleep until 5am. Which was not as big of a deal since it was the weekend, so I didn't have to be up for anything, but doing this late-night productivity thing might not work so well during the week since I have classes I need to be up for. Which is why for now, I'm only planning to do this during the weekend, and maybe in the future I'll start doing it during the week if it works out.

I know that everyone thrives at different times of the day. Some people have their peak productivity in the morning and will happily hop out of bed at 6am and start simping on that to-do list (my dad is that person). If that's you, hey, more power to ya. Me personally, I feel most awake in the hours of 12-2am and I noticed last night that I felt way more productive at 2am than I ever have during the day.

Well, that's all I got tonight. I'll try to post more here, but don't hold me to it. Sometimes I go a year and a half or more without posting, and that's the procrastinator in me coming out. Well anyway, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk and I'll see you hopefully in less than a year and a half.

Solo and Ensemble Update!!!!

Horray!!! Two posts in one day!!! Really makes up for one post in 3 months :)

Anyway, I am feeling pretty excited today (hence all the exclamation points)!!!! I just got finished with solo and ensemble an hour or two ago (my excitement might have something to do with that... 😉😉)!!!!

Anyway, I found out my score!!! I know you're sitting there in suspense wondering what it is, but first, I'll tell you the story of how it all went down, and I'll tell you my score in the story.

When I walked into the room, I relaxed when I saw who the judge was. This judge was someone I knew from one of the music summer camps I've been to, and I can tell she likes me a lot.

While I played, I could see the judge smiling throughout my performance, which I knew was a good sign!!! So I felt more relaxed as I played.

When I finished, the judge was way more chatty than the other judge!!! That's also a good sign. I then waited and waited for my score. Finally, as I was waiting for my score, one of the parents who I guess was volunteering came up to me and said, "Are you Daniela?" I responded, "Yes." She then said, "I have your score, and I regret to inform you that you got a 1!!!!"

I was scared when I heard "I regret to inform you" but when I heard that I got a 1, I knew she said "I regret to inform you" as a joke. I was so excited!!!

Well, I guess that grand idea I got on 1/28/19 really was a good idea!!! I'll have to tell my 3 months ago self that I won't regret doing it!!! :)

My Solo and Ensemble Story and Tips

It's been a few months since my first (and most recent) post on here. I haven't really gotten around to posting much on here, but here I am, almost 3 months later. Since I have a solo and ensemble competition today, that's my main focus for this post.

Recently I did UIL solo and ensemble for piano and violin (the one I have today is hosted by my school district.) Normally I do just UIL and not my school district's solo and ensemble, but I didn't get the rating I wanted last time, so I decided to do this one to have a chance to work on everything the judge commented on and see how well I do.

On 1/26/19, just over three months ago, I had the violin solo and ensemble. I played the first movement of the Bruch violin concerto in G minor, which I had been working on for months. (I'm playing the same piece today). Before it was my turn to play for the judge, I found out they were running really behind schedule. I was out there for like 4 years (realistically, more like 30-45 minutes), just waiting for my turn.

Finally, I went in the room with my accompanist. Here's the thing: I don't get nervous at concerts and performances, because it's not like I'm getting judged or rated, so if I mess up it's not like anything is going to happen. But when there's a judge involved, I do get a bit nervous because I'm literally getting ranked / scored by a professional, and if I mess up that could affect the results, so I feel more pressured. My symptoms aren't that bad (I'm glad I'm not one of those people who barfs when they get nervous), I just feel a bit shaky. But it does affect my playing.

That's what happened to me that day. I could tell I was shaky and tense, and though it didn't affect my playing that badly, it probably made me mess up on intonation or something on a few spots. I did try to make up for it by smiling throughout the performance.

The judge didn't say anything besides, "Thank you for playing" when I was done. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I didn't expect my critique sheet to be read aloud to me when I finished, but usually judges give me a little comment or two after I'm done.

I anxiously waited around for my score, which I hoped would be a 1. If I got a 1, that means I would be able to move on to the state level of the competition, like I have been able to for both piano and violin the past two years.

But this time, my score was a 2. A 2 really isn't a bad score, but the reason why I was upset about it was because it meant I couldn't go on to state. I realized my shakiness might have affected my playing, and also when I got my critique sheet back I saw that the judge was kind of nitpicky.

I knew I had the piano solo and ensemble coming up (which I hoped would save me so I could still go to state for piano), but I wanted another chance at violin. That's when on 1/28/19 (two days after the competition), I came up with this grand plan to participate in my school district's solo and ensemble competition. How did I not think of that before? I found out that the date of the competition was on 4/27/19 (that's today), and found out everything else I needed to know.

A month later, on 2/23/19, I had the piano competition. I played the first movement of Beethoven's Sonata No. 1. Long story short, I got the same score of 2.

So now, here I am. A matter of hours before having a second chance at getting a 1 for violin. This competition is not associated with state, meaning that even if I get a 1, I won't be able to go on, but I want to use this opportunity to see how much I've improved in 3 months.

Now I'm going to talk about what I've been doing to relax my nerves before this competition, and hopefully you can use some of my tips if you get audition anxiety.

One thing that has been really helping me is visualizing myself playing my piece in a more relaxing setting. I like to pretend I'm performing my solo on the beautiful, relaxing beaches of Bora Bora (a place I will hopefully go at least once in my lifetime) instead of in front of a judge. If I focus less on the judge and more on relaxing, it helps me feel less tense and shaky. I was even able to easily play octaves with vibrato when I did this in my lesson yesterday!

To help get in the mindset of visualizing myself in Bora Bora instead of an intimidating audition room, I find that putting on my headphones and watching a YouTube video of relaxing sounds and dights of Bora Bora, and then running through my piece, really helps. It helps to get a clear visual of ehat you're going to visualize so you can have a better idea of it in mind. It is also another way to divert yourself from focusing so much on the performance by giving you domethsom else to focus on.

Another thing that helps me is to allow myself to relax. Of course, it is important to warm up before playing so that your fingers are ready to move around. But it's not good to overdo it. This can cause you to get worn out. If you allow yourself to relax, it gives you a chance to feel relaxed and comfortable when you walk in that audition room.

Those are just a few tips on how to feel more relaxed at auditions. Please keep in mind that I am not a professional person to give advice like this. This is just what I have found from personal experience.

Introduction

Hey there. What's up. My name is Daniela, and I'm a 17 year old aspiring classical music performer. I'm a pialinist, and if you don't know what that is, it's a combination of pianist and violinist. Currently, I have been playing piano for 9 years (later this year it will officially be a decade!!!) and violin for 6.5 years. Music is my #1 passion and I want to have a career in performing.

In less than 2 years, I will hopefully be in music school studying either piano or violin performance (haven't decided which instrument). So it is about time that I start preparing for auditions. That's why I started this blog, to document my progress in enhancing my music skills and my life as a musician in general. On this blog, you'll see anything and everything music, from practice tips to my accomplishments, and everything in between.

I'm really looking forward to posting more on this blog!!! See you soon!!! :)