Still practicing with Audacity

Once again I tried practicing without the accompaniment to increase my speed, and check my fingering closely. Also i practiced without the accompaniment so i was able to clearly hear my tone. Then I played with the accompaniment and was able to increase my speed once again, so it is now only slightly under the original tempo. I found difficulty especially with moving my fingers on the high notes fast enough. So i stopped and worked on bars 13 to 18 slowly, just using fingers. It helped a lot and now i am able to play that part at normal speed. My dynamics still could be even more. I'm trying hard to really show a contrast, but it's difficult to play p when i am playing high notes. I tried to work on this problem by seeing how quietly i could play the notes at a slower pace and pick up speed, so now i can play it. The sfz is still a bit of an issue for me, although it is getting better. I just need to practice those specific notes to really make the accent as strong as possible. Well, i will be recording my final copy tomorrow and i hope it goes well because I've practiced as much as i could have and i have heard my progress so i think it will sound great :)

Recording with Audacity

I sped up the tempo of the accompaniment and i was able to still maintain the piece. I recorded with audacity, so i could hear myself play with the accompaniment and i discovered that my tone is very breathy and to improve this, i practiced long tones to help my length of breath. I was having difficulty with the articulation because i couldn't hold my breath for more than 4 beats. I worked hard on the sfz and it is coming along. I still could accent it even more. I am paying closer attention to my dynamics now that i have the rhythm and notes in place. The dynamics are marked exactly, so i am trying to follow them carefully. The high f and e are also coming better and i am able to play them up to speed now. My difficulty was changing my fingers fast enough and also keeping my mouth in place to play the high notes. My tempo is finally getting faster (closer to Allegro), but it could still use some more work, so practice, practice, practice!

Solo with Audacity

After practicing my flute solo for several days with out the piano accompaniment, i downloaded audacity and realized the tempo was too fast, so i slowed it down. I need to practice the piece slowly and then build up speed each time, to reach near the original tempo. I still had some difficulties. I usually can play okay until bar 17, with the high f and e. I am getting better at joining the notes together, but it could still be faster and smoother. At bars 27 and 31, with the sfz it is coming better. My dynamics are coming nicely and i am beginning to show more contrast between sections with dynamics. I understand the rhythm now and i count 1+2+ throughout the piece to help me stay on beat. Overall, today was a successful day and i think i am really improving by practicing as much as possible.

Difficulty with the study

After practicing the study in class for a few days, today i tried to play it at home, with accompaniment, so i could get all the details first. i was starting to have difficulty at bar 17 and 18, because the notes are higher and they are 16th notes, meant to be played at a faster speed. I was especially having trouble going from the f to the e, because it was difficult to move my fingers quickly and adjust my mouth. At bars 27 and 31 with the sfz i had trouble trying to play a strong accented note due to the pitch of the note. Dynamics i need to still add in because right now i am focusing more on notes and rhythms. I know speed will come with practice. I also listened to the accompaniment, and found it was much faster then i had expected. I think i should spend more time on practicing the piece without the accompaniment for now and then add it later, so i can focus on the details of the piece.

Rondo by Haydn- first blog!

Franz Joseph Haydn, the composer of the Flute solo Rondo, was born 1732 and died in 1809. He is still well known for his amazing symphonies and especially the string quartet. Haydn was a very public composer and was always surrounded with admirers. He is a classical composer, which means he used classical traits in his music, such as detached eighth notes, such as in the rondo. Within the Rondo there is classical style , in which the performer should pay close attention to.
The Rondo (flute solo) includes many different articulations, such as staccatos and slurs, as well as sfz which is an abbreviation for sforzando. Sforzando is a sudden very strong accent within a piece, commonly used by classical composers, such as Haydn. The flute solo begins in p meaning softly and the by bar 19 is into mf meaning moderately loud. By bar 23, it is not f meaning loud. Also at bars 27 and 31 there is sfz. The final bar (40) has a decrescendo sign to gradually get softer in that bar. The tempo for the piece is marked Allegro with a quarter note equaling 96. The piece has a D.S al Fine at the end meaning Dal Segno, which allows the player to got back to the sign, which looks like a fancy S and play until you see the word Fine, meaning the end. There is also a repeat at bar 13, to go back to the begining and repeat once, but the player is not supposed to play the repea, when they go back to the sign due to D.S al Fine. Since the time signature is 2/4 time, indicating that there are 2 quarter notes per measure. There are many different rhythms within the pice, such as eighth notes, sixteenth notes, dotted quarter notes with an eighth note and also half notes. The notes in the Rondo are mainly moving step wise, not skipping notes, or if there is there is only an interval of a 3rd or 4th.There is no key signatre for the Rondo, but throughout the piece there are Bb and eventually g #, f# and d#. I think the key goes from C+ to Bb + to a- (due to the g# because it the raised seventh) and then to e- ( due to the f# being in its key and the d# being it's raised seventh).
I think this piece will be challenging to play on the flute, but with some practice, I think i can do it.