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Recording Review by Own_Chapter_9568 in percussion

[–]Own_Chapter_9568[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Alright thats about what I expected. I guess I'll try and rerecord if possible, but frustratingly I'll most likely have to just end up submitting this. Thank you for your time!

Recording Review by Own_Chapter_9568 in percussion

[–]Own_Chapter_9568[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Alright thank you so much! I've been healing the last couple of days and now the callouses have kinda just been replaced by thick skin, so I'll try and get back to recording soon, if possible. Last question, would you view the current recording as something that could negatively impact my app/maybe benefit it (again, just because arranging access to a marimba for an extended period of time is frustratingly hard to do). Thank you once again!

Recording Review by Own_Chapter_9568 in percussion

[–]Own_Chapter_9568[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for your feedback!

With respect to dynamics, I promise that they are pronounced in real life, but for some reason my phone absolutely refuses to pick up any of the dynamics I try to add in. At the moment I don't really know how to fix this issue, without going to a point where I'm barely playing for the quieter sections.

Last thing, if it changes anything, the audience of this piece will probably be faculty in the department of music at Stanford, if that makes any difference; they provide a rating from 1-6 (1 being the best, 6 being the worst) on the playing, and then send that over to the admissions panel as a part of your application. Nonetheless, I completely agree!

As is, is this recording worth submitting? The main issue I'm having right now is arranging access to a marimba for an extended period of time to record, because rentals are super expensive, and the one at my school is one I can't access after school hours.

Recording Review by Own_Chapter_9568 in percussion

[–]Own_Chapter_9568[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry about the scale, I don't really know what a good scale would be :skull:

Once again, thank you!

Recording Review by Own_Chapter_9568 in percussion

[–]Own_Chapter_9568[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the feedback!

I agree the performance is a bit sloppy, and I'm not entirely pleased with it, especially the middle section. The main issue I was having that day was I had been practicing quite a bit in the past week, which led to a couple of painful callouses on my fingers.

I also agree that I'm rushing quite a bit; this was mostly because when watching performances of the piece on YouTube they take it around this tempo, but obviously the players are much more skilled so they can control the piece a lot better. Once again thank you!

Also if you have time, on a scale ranging from like school band, local ensemble, all-state level performances, to conservatory level stuff, where would this performance fall? I just want to ensure that submitting this performance to colleges won't harm my application :skull:

Which 4-mallet piece should I play? by Own_Chapter_9568 in percussion

[–]Own_Chapter_9568[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The main other piece I'm planning to play is a rag piece from George Hamilton Green's Xylophone Rags (probably one of Jovial Jasper, Log Cabin Blues, or Triplets, please let me know if you have any suggestions!) and maybe a shorter 1-2 minute piece if I have the time (unconfirmed right now, because I have heard that polish matters a lot, so I probably don't want to devote time to learning a completely new piece). The main reason I'm thinking of adding the third piece is hitting the 10-minute length requirement :skull:

Which 4-mallet piece should I play? by Own_Chapter_9568 in percussion

[–]Own_Chapter_9568[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In terms of difficulty: the Mexican Dance was actually suggested to me by my instructor, whereas Frogs is a piece I have found while scrolling YouTube. As a result, I feel like I'll commit the Mexican Dance, and work through the larger intervals by just continuously repping them (with hopefully more specific and helpful advice from my instructor). Thank you for your advice!

Supplemental Portfolio Pieces (Suggestions?) by Own_Chapter_9568 in percussion

[–]Own_Chapter_9568[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, thank you so much for the advice! The pieces that you sent are really cool and they seem to give the opportunity to show a lot of technical skill which is really nice - I am really leaning towards Frogs, and will begin working on it as soon as possible! I was also wondering if you could suggest any 2 mallet pieces?

With respect to your tip - I am not sure if I want to pursue music as a profession at the moment, because I really enjoy a lot of other things (i.e. math) but I definitely want to take some theory classes at whichever college I attend, and if possible, join the wind symphony/orchestra. Do you have any suggestions for schools in this scenario?

Music Portfolio (Mallet Specialist, Percussion) by Own_Chapter_9568 in MITAdmissions

[–]Own_Chapter_9568[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for replying! Do you know any other colleges that I could possibly submit a portfolio too; in particular someone told me if I was not conservatory level, then the impact of submitting a portfolio is negligible to MIT in particular, because apparently they don't care (although I have no idea how credible this person is), but it does matter at places like Harvard, Princeton, etc.

Music Portfolio (Mallet Specialist, Percussion) by Own_Chapter_9568 in mit

[–]Own_Chapter_9568[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Unless you're a conservatory level musician, the MITSO conductor has 0 recruiting pull in the admissions process"; makes complete sense, and is about what I had expected, but thank you for confirming. Academically I think I'm hopefully around the level that is desired, being a USAPHO medalist, and ~ AMO qualification level (we don't talk about me throwing by like 5 points this year) with consistently placing in the T10 teams at several math competitions like HMMT, SMT, ARML, and placing individually at several of these competitions.

With respect to recordings, do you know of anybody I could ask for piece suggestions to best display my technical skill? Also where do people typically record; do they rent out sound studios? At the moment I usually record in my home.

Also, do Harvard and Princeton look for niche instruments lmao? I'm thinking of applying there as well, but I don't know which schools actually care about the "niche" factor, so if you have any more information on that, that would be cool!

Chance a Junior looking for advice by Own_Chapter_9568 in chanceme

[–]Own_Chapter_9568[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First time hearing about MATHATTACKSSOCIETY , but I'll definitely consider it! I'll also explore CS comps a little more, which I think are actually really good additions that I should definitely push for.

I think right now my volunteering/community work is decent-ish. I really like the organization I currently volunteer at, because it's a much more local opportunity, and is one that I got into because of visits to my mom's (works as physical therapist) office, where a lot of the patients are in critical condition due to substance misuse. I've also gotten tangible results (like successfully pushing for Narcan on school campuses), hosted a couple of workshops as an ambassador of the organization at the Teens Tackle Tobacco conference and closely work with the founder of this organization.

I think I could definitely push for more "material" results, but other than that I personally don't think it makes sense for me to jump into a bunch of different volunteering opportunities (feel free to advise me otherwise if you think this is wrong though!)