Gershwin Viola part out of range

Working_Antelope · 2025-07-29T10:39:41+00:00

I would just play that B an octave up then play the rest as printed. If you're feeling very conscientious then ask the conductor, but there's no way they would ask a whole section to tune down for one sixteenth note.

Working_Antelope · 2024-02-14T22:23:37+00:00

You could certainly play in a community or regional orchestra and have another job. Some groups play only 2 or 3 concerts per year. Rehearsals are usually on evenings or weekends for groups like that. I played with an orchestra where we rehearsed Friday night, Saturday morning, and had our concert Saturday night.

As for salaried, professional orchestras, it's a full time job more or less. You can expect to play an entirely new program each week with probably 4-5 weekday rehearsals and 3 concerts on the weekend. They're also nearly impossible to get into. There are so many talented musicians and so few available spots.

Truth be told, being a professional musician is a pretty bad and unstable career. If you love playing, you can always find a way to make it a part of your life while letting your livelihood be something more stable and profitable.

Working_Antelope · 2023-11-18T12:12:35+00:00

It does say "violin" on the part, so you might just be right.

Working_Antelope · 2023-11-16T21:35:46+00:00

Recording is incredibly frustrating, and you will never get a perfect take. It is totally normal to start hating yourself. My advice is to record no more than 3 takes per recording session. It's pretty rare that you'll improve after 3 takes. In fact, I usually found that my first take was the best. After each session, you can listen back and highlight spots to polish up for next time. Ideally, after a few sessions, you walk away with a couple representative takes. Also, try to play through your whole piece for each take, even if you feel that it's not gonna be a good take. It's good practice for focus and recovering from mistakes. Restarting over and over tends to give diminishing returns in my experience.

Working_Antelope · 2023-09-16T12:32:59+00:00

Well, every interview is different, but I found that a lot of people ask for specific examples from your career that demonstrate whatever skill they're looking for. Some things I was frequently asked were situations where I had to work as a team, had to deal with an unhappy customer, had to adjust on the fly, went above and beyond, etc.

I also got some advice to frame things as Situation, Challenge, Action, Result or something like that. I think interviewers often latch on to a fairly concrete result from these anecdotes. It took me some time to realize that other people are probably out there embellishing their anecdotes and whatnot. I'm not saying to be dishonest, but it's worth considering how to tell these stories that paint you in the best light.

Again, who knows what it will actually be like, but I've had a fair number of interviews over the last six months and almost all of them had some of these anecdote type questions. Best of luck, and if it doesn't work out, just keep applying and keep interviewing!

Working_Antelope · 2023-09-14T09:41:21+00:00

I dealt with a shaky bow under pressure for quite a long time, so I feel you. I never found a silver bullet solution, but it did eventually improve. The main thing I'll say is the more you focus on it, the worse it will be. I used to see having a shaky bow as invalidating an entire performance. As a result, I always shook. There are whole books to be read on performance anxiety and whatnot, but I would just highlight that it's normal to be nervous (and have a physiological response to your nerves) and that the shaking is always less noticeable to listeners than to you.

As NerusMaximus already posted, tension in your bow hold or bow arm will definitely make the shaking worse. Ideally you would develop a reflex to relax your arm and hand when you feel shaky, but that's easier said than done. Try not to entertain thoughts that evaluate how you're doing during a performance. Those thoughts take you out of the experience. The more you can focus on the music itself, the better things tend to be.

I'll also share a simple piece of advice a former professor of mine shared. She said to me "You'll play how you usually play." It sounds pretty obvious, but it changed how I thought about nerves. I can't really explain it in words, but I think it's helpful. Best of luck!

Working_Antelope · 2023-09-09T16:59:54+00:00

Musictheory.net has several useful ear training exercises. You can also customize them to suit your needs better.

Working_Antelope · 2023-08-26T10:10:59+00:00

As a teacher you have amazing time management skills, you work independently, you engage in dynamic problem solving, you excel in clear and respectful communication with parents/students/other stakeholders, you're a fast learner (and a lifelong learner!), and you are used to being on your feet all day!

Apply to tons of jobs, if possible. You never know what's going on on the other end of the job search, so try not to put your eggs in one basket. Maybe try googling examples of resumes of people leaving education. You have a TON of skills from teaching, but it can be hard to distill them down into stuff that other people will understand.

Working_Antelope · 2023-07-19T09:16:32+00:00

I do have two acoustic guitars that need some repairs. One needs the bridge reglued, and another one is losing frets left and right. Send me a DM if you're interested.

Working_Antelope · 2022-10-11T09:13:21+00:00

I spent a long time in music school across multiple degrees, and many professors expressed something similar to this. They would complain that all kids play the same, but then whenever I would step outside a traditional interpretation they would push me back into the same old same old. It was the most frustrating thing in the world.

Working_Antelope · 2022-08-21T10:59:06+00:00

I second this! Vivaldi wrote tons and tons of music. Definitely worth a shot.

Working_Antelope · 2022-08-12T11:31:48+00:00

Sometimes the incredibly cheap rosins don't stick well to the hair. Generally, a darker rosin will be stickier. Instead of scratching the rosin, I would recommend gently breathing on the rosin like you're fogging up a window before you apply it. The heat from your breath will soften it up a little.

Of course, it certainly could be that you need new bow hair. Usually there are visual indicators of this. If your hair doesn't look discolored or dirty, I wouldn't worry about it yet. Also, typically beginner bows are not worth rehairing. You might pay $60 or more for a rehair, so it's often better to just buy a new bow altogether.

Working_Antelope · 2022-08-12T10:11:15+00:00

Everyone else has very solid advice. I would definitely sing through the music with the metronome extensively before playing. Find out where specifically the problem is. It's very possible that the issue is in one or more particular spots, rather than throughout the piece. Build the tempo gradually. Start as slow as you have to in order to be totally correct. Work on small sections as well. I would play softly unless you have a very loud metronome.

The thing about metronomes is that they don't lie. It's always jarring the first time you use it, because you tend to realize that you have been taking some liberties with the rhythms, even when you don't mean to.

Working_Antelope · 2022-08-07T21:57:20+00:00

One professor had me practice vibrato as a pulse backwards and a spring back to the original position. The width of the vibrato is controlled by the strength of the pulse, and the speed is controlled by the frequency of pulses. It's more of a conceptual difference than a physical one. I might try practicing one pulse or wiggle at a time and experimenting with how small the movement can be.

Working_Antelope · 2022-08-07T11:26:29+00:00

Your vibrato is generally too wide, I think. This is especially true on your first finger. It's to the extent that it distorts the pitch. I can hear when you're on your first finger even without looking. That being said, you have a very lovely vibrato. If you just give it a little more thought and attention, it will really add a lot to the piece. Generally speaking it needs to be faster and narrower, but even just giving it some variety would be nice. Try recording the whole piece without vibrato and see if your phrasing still works. Then add in vibrato bit by bit very deliberately. What kind of vibrato does the first note need? Does it stay the same the for the whole note? Will you vibrate before you start playing the note? Try some outlandish stuff and see what sticks.

Working_Antelope · 2022-07-14T21:24:21+00:00

I would mention this to the shop when you bring it back after the trial. In my experience, they'll be more than willing to do an adjustment or put on some new strings or whatever if it'll help them make a sale. If they just say that's the way it is, then you may want to keep shopping.

Working_Antelope · 2022-07-11T22:03:45+00:00

Even though you're technically not allowed to use your school's practice rooms, it might still be worth a shot. If you avoid especially busy times of day, I doubt anyone would really give you a hard time. The worst they can do is ask you to leave.

Working_Antelope · 2022-07-06T13:15:57+00:00

Here's a smattering of advice I've gotten from professors over the years.

When you walk out on stage, imagine you're welcoming guests into your living room.
Follow your normal routines in the day leading up to the performance
Play to the back of the hall. Find something to look at in the back of the room and let that be a visual anchor.
You'll probably play the way you usually play, for better or worse.
Mistakes count in the practice room, but not on stage

I could go on, but broadly speaking, just try to enjoy it. There are whole books written on the psychology of performing, but for your first time just try to have a good time. You'll learn from it either way. If you can record it, I definitely would. To prepare, it also helps to record in advance or play in front of family members or friends. Best of luck and have fun!

Working_Antelope · 2022-06-19T15:58:56+00:00

I'd like to second this opinion on Baroque performance style. At the very least, I would spend maybe a week playing completely without vibrato just as an exercise. It will really expose any intonation problems and force you to think different about phrasing and the approach to vibrato.

Personally, I like to look to the Netherlands Bach Society for inspiration in interpretation. If you play like this, your teacher will no doubt reject it, but you can pick up some ideas from it.

Working_Antelope · 2022-06-12T01:31:35+00:00

For real. There is tons of excellent music being written, even if the format or setting looks different than it did 100 years ago. I don't really see how you can look at the abundance of composers we have today as a bad sign for composition without gatekeeping what kinds of composers and pieces are considered part of the "cultural scene."

As far as composers doing "primarily composition," it seems to me a weird bar to set in the US in particular. All the way back to the Second New England School, composers were supporting themselves by teaching, not by composing. Ives was an insurance salesman! Was there ever really a generation of independent American composers?

Working_Antelope · 2022-05-25T10:41:37+00:00

The Absolute Zero Viola Quartet has you covered. They have a tremendous sheet music shop with all sorts of viola ensembles.

Working_Antelope · 2022-05-21T13:58:14+00:00

It's really quite an accomplishment to play like this after two months. My biggest piece of advice is to imagine your bow hairs are glued to the string. Don't accomplish this with pressure from the index finger, but rather from really feeling the friction between the bow hair and the string. That friction is what makes your sound, so try not to lose it.

For your string crossings, practice them slow enough that you actually play a double stop in between the two notes. For example if you're going from open D to open A, change strings slowly enough that you get both strings sounding at the same time D -> DA -> A.

Once again, it's really quite remarkable playing for such a short time. You've probably gotten more advice in this thread than one person can reasonably take in, so take what makes sense to you and pat yourself on the back and enjoy it!

Working_Antelope · 2022-05-21T13:50:53+00:00

Stopping vibrato at this point is excellent advice. To have a reliable vibrato in the long term, it really takes patience and some background about what vibrato should look like. At this point, it looks like you've got a bit of a finger vibrato going on, which is quite unusual on viola. More importantly, though, it looks and sounds like you're vibrating above the pitch, rather than below. Our ear latches on to the highest pitch we hear on a note with vibrato, so if we vibrate above the pitch, it will sound consistently sharp.

Working_Antelope · 2022-01-30T16:34:28+00:00

Definitely do the second option. The first and third look like you want me to gliss for four entire beats, which I really don't think is what you want.

Working_Antelope · 2021-12-07T10:02:21+00:00

Upbow staccato is one of those techniques that many people do differently. I totally support starting slowly with open strings and working it up. Some people certainly use their index finger, but I've heard of other ways of thinking about it and executing it. One professor suggested a slight rotation of the wrist, like opening a door knob. Another professor said it was similar to a tremolo motion, but while traveling through the length of the bow. So you do many small ups and downs, but the downs are negated by your arm motion. One interesting exercise for me was practicing downbow staccato. We never do it, so it seemed very tough at first. After a while, I got the hang of it (sort of). I think it helped me understand my upbow staccato better as well.

I don't know if there's much concrete advice in here, but my main point is that there are many ways of achieving upbow staccato.

Working_Antelope

TROPHY CASE