Mandolin Reflection #11

My second mandolin lesson was even better than the first, and I am really confident that taking these lessons will make me improve vastly as a musician. Demitrius had me play scales up the neck, and said that he was impressed with the improvement (which I take as good encouragement). I still have to work on them, but now that I can actually get up the scale I can start focusing on more technical aspects: such as where on the fret I place my fingers, how to get the best sound out of the strings, and where on the strings to pick. Demitrius told me that the best place to pick over was the very top of the neck where the frets run over the body of the mandolin, and I really hear a difference when I play there. I think I am doing well at keeping all of that together. To continue improving my dexterity, Demitrius taught me a scale where you have to switch the positions of two fingers at a time. This is to get you in the habit of moving your fingers independently, and it's quite difficult. However, I've been practicing and I should be able to do it well by next lesson. Demitrius told me that by next lesson I should be able to do that scale without pause between the switching of fingers. I am pretty much able to do that by now, and so I am going to try and improve the sound quality of my playing as I do that. Scales aren;t the most interesting thing, but I don't mind doing them because it is obvious that they are a huge help: I am better able to play my bluegrass songs now, and with better quality. Next class Demitrius is going to teach me a bluegrass song that will put my scale knowledge to work.

Mandolin Reflection #10

I have finally begun to take lessons with a new instructor, from the West Bend Music School. My teacher, Demitrius, has already taught me so many things that have improved me as a musician in only one class. I am already able to strum and play chords, so he focused on my ability to move my fingers rapidly on the neck. This is more technical mandolin playing: I am learning all the positions of the notes and how to change rapidly between strings and individual notes. It's difficult at first, especially after being accustomed to playing with chords and in a non-technical way. So far, I have learned how to better hold to mandolin to get a better sound out of it, where best to pick to get the best sound, the best way to pick properly, how to hold the pick, and how to do scales. Demitrius thought it was best to start me off with doing scales so that I can become accustomed to rapid note changes, and I've been practicing a lot. At first I was only able to get through the scale slowly, but within a day I was able to get through the scale rapidly and move all the way up the neck. I also kept in mind what he taught me about how to hold the pick, while playing guitar as well. It's hard to break old habits, but I've been really conscientious about it and I am seeing improvement already.

Ballet Reflection #14

At my last ballet class, we were doing fittings for our tutus for the final performance. I had missed a few classes, so I wasn't really aware of how our dance went. After doing our barre stretches, which came back to me pretty easily, we went over the dance. It was a simple dance for the most part, but it goes very quickly and so it was difficult to keep up at first. There were a number of sotees (leaping arabesques), degegees, glisees and grand jetees -- all basic moves that I had learned and felt comfortable with. It was hard to put them all together to music and also be able to focus on keeping in time with the other girls. However, by the time we had gone over it a few times I was on the same level as the other girls, pretty much -- I plan to practice at home as well. I was exhausted by the end, proof that although I have built up a lot of strength and muscle, ballet continues to push me. I never would have been able to do all that leaping around back in September without fainting on the floor. I also take it as evidence that I have improved because my instructor asked me if I wanted to take a pointe-shoe week long course over the summer. Most people move to pointe shoe after taking ballet for years, so the fact that she thinks I have done well enough in ballet three to move on to ballet 4.

Lithuanian Spaghetti Supper #2

I think that the Lithuanian Spaghetti supper was really a success, as far as my performance and the intent of the event. I was really happy to help by bringing in a desert (I made frosted cremes, a kind of ginger-bar cookie), contributing to the income by going and by bringing several people, and to perform. When I arrived, there wasn't anybody playing, which made me quite nervous. I'm not sure why nobody was playing, but Liz asked me to go up and play so I tuned my guitar and went straight up. I played a set of about 15 minutes, I think -- I played all the songs on my setlist, and added a few such as "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga and "Ghosts" by Laura Marling. Playing Bad Romance wasn't part of my original plan, because acoustic Lady Gaga covers are inherently kind of silly - but I decided that it wouldn't be unethical for me to play something that the audience would enjoy (and not be depressed by) since they were clearly interested in the cause by being there in the first place. After my set I had some spaghetti (contributing to the money raised!), and then I sang "Postcards From Italy" by Beirut with Christian, who played the banjo. After I was done performing I was able to get some tea and think about the whole event, and I was really glad I participated. It's always a bit surreal to think that these people who live such deprived lives are real when I have such an ideal life in America -- it's almost as if it's not real because their struggles are so far removed from my own life. I do hope and think that I have grown as a result of this fundraiser.

Lithuanian Spaghetti Supper #1

So for the Lithuanian Spaghetti supper, I performed for entertainment and I am contributed a desert to the cause. Because it was a brief space of time between when I volunteered and when I had to perform, I had to think up a setlist quite quickly, and as I indicated in my proposal, I wanted to sing songs that wouldn't detract from the seriousness of what Liz was trying to do. Not that people shouldn't have fun at these events, but I think it would be kind of unethical for me to do something that would draw all attention away from the importance of the cause, raising money for Lithuanian orphans. My tentative setlist was:

"He Wrote" by Laura Marling

"Don't Be Angry" by The Organ

"In This Hole" by Cat Power

"Blackberry Stone" by Laura Marling

"A Tramway Lullaby" by myself

"My Manic and I" by Laura Marling

Altogether, I think that these are songs that the audience would enjoy, but aren't so cheery and peppy that the audience will forget while they're there. All of these songs are introspective and thoughtful -- hopefully in listening to them, the audience might think a bit as well.

DI Reflection #9

The competition itself went well. Altogether, I am very proud of how my team performed. We practiced our scripts all day before we went on, and I think that our skit was highly original and the actors worked well together. I really enjoyed acting with Heather, and we matched our roles perfectly; the audience and judges really liked that Steph and Missy painted themselves on stage for the live creation of art aspect of the challenge. We won third place, which considering how little time we were able to work on this, was quite impressive. We also got a Renaissance award, a goal I had hoped to meet through our set and puppet. So although we didn't move on, we won a prize for the concept and craftsmanship of our puppet and set -- much better than I would have hoped for, honestly, considering that we were up against 6 teams with far more time than us. I think it was a very good note to end the D.I. year on.

DI Reflection #8

This last week of DI, I have been to 3 meetings in which we put the finishing touches on the set. Until Friday, we didn't really have a script. I was supposed to create two heads for the puppet, carved out of styrofoam. By Wednesday I realized that this wasn't practical and that I wouldn't be able to carve a realistic head out of styrofoam, so I suggested we take a different approach. On Thursday we used plaster strips from the theatre room to make two molds of Brian Paul's face, which meant that I had to make them presentable by Saturday. That was my main project for the night before the competition, and although it was late I was really proud of how the faces turned out. They each had a hinging jaw operated by a nutcracker-esque mechanism, and looking at the challenge I realized that points were awarded for how realistic the puppet was. With this in mind, I gave each puppet a base coat of a basic flesh tone paint that I mixed, and then I did exaggerated shadows. I have highlighting to the nose and cheekbones and shadowed the eyes and jawline, which both close and up and from far away lends the puppet a very realistic look. Then, I differentiated between the puppets by giving the jock-puppet football-player stripes of black paint on his cheeks, and the nerd one a bit of acne. Altogether they looked very realistic, and the puppet flipped well. In the meantime, Heather had come up with a tentative script which we memorized the base of and decided to improvise the specifics.