This year in Band!!!

Already, I have seen the huge difference between this year in high school wind ensemble than last year in eighth grade concert band. I am truly amazed at what this band can do and I only wish to make it better. Therefore, I have much to work on. Just being able to play the music is one of my first goals, and to play it confidently is another. Because the music is significantly harder than I have ever played, this means hours of practice, which in the end will be worth it to be able to share the emotion and heart as everyone else playing the same part. As a section, I wish that we master our tuning, or try to, with our weekly flute parties. Tuning has become very important this year and I am starting to recognize when I am out of tune and I am starting to be able to adjust any problems. Just by training my ear and learning my instrument, these problems will be easier to control, so by the end of the year I plan to improve this. Personally, I also wish to improve my tone by adding vibrato. Also by the end of the year, I would like to be able to play fast notes and rhythms easily. In terms of competitions, I hope to make districts and SEMSBA because I have my best chance as a freshman and I believe that it is a great experience to work with other kids from other towns who love music. Just auditioning is still a difficult process for me, and hopefully by auditioning more will help me become more comfortable doing so. I hope that this year will be very successful as I struggle to achieve these goals to make our band even better!

This year was another year of improvement for me. Learning the music proved to be very difficult but improved my ability in so many areas. Practicing became a huge part of the success and it certainly payed off! I am so glad we started flute parties this year as well. It motivated me to practice more and from them I benefitted by learning how our parts fit together, what to listen for and we could work more specifically in certain areas. Tuning became a large part of the success of the band and I am proud to say that I now know when I am in or out of tune for the most part, its just a matter of adjusting. Overall I think my tone improved as well and I learned how to add vibrato! I am so glad I was able to participate in both the junior district and junior semsba festivals. I learned so much from them and especially from being part of the orchestra, it was a whole different experience from being in the band. Just auditioning made me more comfortable with the process and less nervous. There is always room for improvement, however. I still desperately need to work on fast runs and rhythms, no matter how many times I play them they are still difficult. Also, learning to adjust to tuning is always something to work on and my tone quality still has a long way to go. Overall I think I accomplished many of my goals this year and I am looking forward to the next three!