A Different Body of Water.

I started real classes Monday, it hasn't been long but here are some first impressions:
    
     UTSO rehearsed Monday evening. It was such a relief to learn that it isn't just a rumor they tell you in high school orchestras that a group of musicians can take less than a million years stop playing when the conductor stops. It did take an unsettling amount of time for the orchestra to get tuned up, but I'm hoping that will speed up as time goes.
     Monday morning, my very first class at UofT EVER was cancelled! I showed up for a teacher to walk out and inform us that we need not be there and they sent out an e-mail to that effect but she wouldn't be surprised if none of us got it. Oh well. I bummed around campus and checked out my practise room key and visited the book store.
     Today was better. I had my first trumpet class! My goodness, I will always have a great deal of respect for people who can play brass instruments. I spent an hour buzzing on the mouthpiece for 45 minutes and tried to wrap my head around quick transposition to Bb and that was enough for one day. If I make any incredible or impressive progress, I'll post it here, but right now I sort of doubt I'll get further than twinkle-twinkle. I'm sure I was quite a scene biking home with my violin, trumpet, backpack and a UofT Bookstore bag.
     I had my first private lesson today too! It was great. As someone moving from a very small pond to a very large sea of musicians, this is the first time since I was a little kid that I am in the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to skill level. My lesson was productive and went by fast, my teacher was friendly and could very well articulate what she wanted me to change and how to go about it. Most importantly, I didn't feel as though I was being compared to other violinists or that I ought to be learning and playing the way they do.
     One more first this week worth mentioning, I bought my first textbooks! Wow, I just remembered I need to write a couple good cover letters so I can hand out resumes tomorrow, textbook shopping reminded me of my employment needs....
     

Bleary Eyed for Coffee Change.

Why am I up at 6:30 on the last Saturday before classes start?

     I'm going busking in a few minutes at the St. Lawrence Market. I used to do this pretty frequently as a middle school-er and I would make a killing if I got there early enough to claim a good spot. There was a long period where I didn't busk at all, then a while ago I decided to give it another go.
     When I started again I realized that a large portion of the money I made in the seventh grade was less due to my skill, and more due the fact that I was a particularly small kid and everyone probably thought it was adorable that a 9 year old was out playing for money (when I was closer to 12).
So what? My mum still thinks I'm adorable.
Besides, I go more often than not with my string trio now (Rosedale trio - hire us), so we're in it more for the pleasure of each others' company and the joy of waking up at 6:30am on a Saturday than the cash. That's the real fun part.

Me, "busking" for the first time as a pretty little kid. This was actually a Pape street festival and I was simply acting as an ad for Lippert Music School (the place I took lessons) by being small and playing outside the shop. That's my dad's hat. It's a style Statement.
The first time I actually went busking on my own was at Taste of the Danforth when I was 11.

"That CAN'T be the way Mahler wrote it?!"

     The other day I went to play my placement audition for the school year's orchestra position and major ensemble(s). The audition requires you to prepare four excerpts (chosen by the performance faculty staff) that should give them a good idea of your ability to cope with tough rhythms, up-in-the-stratosphere-notes, and in the case of this Mahler excerpt, wacky accidentals:

Hold on, WHAT?
     Are you even allowed to do that?! It's clear this number was picked to test our reading ability when confronted with over the top notation, but couldn't they have picked something full of legal accidentals at least? My dad took one look at the page and said with horror, "Mahler could not have written it that way!" I agreed wholeheartedly. Mahler was a smart fellar' right? He knew theory, he knew the rules of accidentals, and he most certainly understood that it's cumbersome and unnecessary to put flat accidentals in a sharp key. But why would the university choose such a horrible messy arrangement? If this is to prepare us for the UofT orchestra, I want out! I certainly wouldn't expect them to pick such awful pieces to read to play as repertoire throughout the year right?
     Well, feeling pretty confident about my hypothesis that they picked this mess simply to screw with us and watch us squirm I decided not to worry too much if I butchered it - everyone must be butchering it! After I completed my audition, they asked if I had any questions, so I asked them where they got that arrangement with all those crazy flats and double-accidentals. They happily told me that was the way it was originally written. Pardon??!!
Eff this shit Mahler. We are not cool.