Maius Intra Qua Extra

I've finally buckled down and started to practice my DWFO part in earnest. I've been poking at it for the last couple of months, but now I'm actually devoting some time to it.

It might sound like I'm not taking it seriously by not practicing until now (it's due the middle of next month), but honestly, this is a clarinet part and it is just not that difficult (a good middle-schooler could play it). Clarinets are not all that important in an orchestra, and most of the time, they just provide background. Now, if I played violin, I'd have been practicing every day for the past two months, because their parts are complex.

The clarinet part does have a couple of difficult bits. The first is a passage in C#, which has seven sharps. I know that doesn't mean much to most people, so all you need to understand is that band music rarely has music in which clarinets have even four sharps. Orchestral music is written differently and often has many sharps. The bottom line is that I am not used to reading music with that many sharps, so it's difficult to remember them, and thus I'm sometimes hitting wrong notes. So, I've marked up my music to remind myself which notes should be sharp, and that's solved the problem.

The second is a passage where the clarinet switches back and forth between notes on the beat and afterbeats. Again, that doesn't mean much to most people, and I really can't think of an analogy outside of music. Anyway, it's only a short passage (eight measures, maybe?) but it really messes up my timing, so I've been concentrating on that, out of the entire piece.

We were given a click track, which is an MP3 of the music with the beat laid over it, so that we can hear the beat (which is what the conductor would be doing if we had one) as well as what the rest of the orchestra is doing, and it really is almost as good as playing with the group in person (except I'm playing it off my phone and it's not loud enough -- I can't find my Bluetooth speaker). When I make my recording, I'll be listening to the click track on headphones, so that I stay in time with the rest of the orchestra but the click track won't be heard on the recording.

I did have to buy a studio mic (and the DWFO provided specs on what that mic needed to be able to do). I did buy one of the cheapest I could find, but it should serve. I just hooked it up to my computer yesterday and used it on a Google Meet call and at least it works. I'll be practicing with it later this month to prep for the actual recording.

And slightly related (well, it's about music), I've decided to rejoin the local "marching" band (in quotes because it's less about marching and more about concert music). I used to be a regular there back before the pandemic, but the old conductor (my friend Tim) retired from it and the new conductor, Daniel, extended the season from just the summer to the rest of the year, and I just wasn't interesting in committing to that. It's still that way, but I decided I wanted a second music night and I missed that band. So, this year, I'll be doing clarinet for concert and sax for marching. So far it's been fun, but we'll see if I'm exhausted by it come September. :)

Also another reason, I know Daniel now and have great respect for him as a musician and a teacher, so I wanted the opportunity to play for and learn from him again. And he's changed the direction of the band away from Tim's old-timey music and towards jazz and more modern pop/rock, which is more interesting to me.

I only just realized that it's less than a week before Christmas, and that means it's less than a week before the BBC broadcasts the Doctor Who Prom from back in August. So, I figured I should write up my visit to the Proms before that happens. I've been meaning to write up my Europe trip but just haven't got around to it.

Of course, if you're going to actually watch the broadcast, don't read this. :)

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It's been an eventful week, and I really need to get my thoughts down. In the ongoing saga of work, my former company did another round of layoffs, due to the major client (the big company that keeps reorganizing and cutting departments) cutting even more people.

My husband has survived the latest round, but now it's almost guaranteed that he'll be cut at the beginning of the year. Basically, his project is for the minor client who is funded by the major client... or I should say was funded by the major client, who just cut them as well. They are able to pay for my husband and two other people, but not for very long.

So, my former company, which at one time employed over sixty people, is down to about a dozen, and over half of that is staff, meaning, people who are not paid for by clients. The company is not actively looking for new clients because it's the end of the year, and is planning to start searching in January. Honestly, if they do manage to land a client, I have no idea how they're going to staff the project, with no engineers left.

Anyway, that's been the major downer. The other news is that I quit the trad jazz band I've been playing with for the past year and a half.

(Long rant behind the cut...)

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The tl;dr of the cut is that things have been frustrating and stressful due to interpersonal stuff, not music stuff. I announced to the band that I was leaving after we finished our performance today, and I have to say, I felt really happy from that moment on. Not like a huge burden was lifted, but more like, hey, freedom from responsibility tastes really nice. Maybe I can get back to enjoying playing music again, without having to worry about band politics.

Lots of DW things going on in our house right now, much of it 60th-related but some not. Well, Disgaea 7 also came out recently and that's the latest installment of my husband's favorite video game series, so he's been nose-down in that, but otherwise, the DW excitement is certainly building. (Hm, I wonder, does he really like it more than NieR? He's certainly played that series more than he has the NieR games, but he's definitely more invested in the lore of NieR.)

The new theme
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Magic: the Gathering
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The Legacy of Time audios
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Anticipation

Random blather
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What I'm hoping the story is going to be but obviously won't actually be (do not read this if you don't want to be horrified by my callousness toward Donna :D )
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Writing
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Hey! I'm not dead. I guess that's an accomplishment. I've been well aware that I haven't been active here, or anywhere really, for a very long time, and I've been meaning to write an entry, but I couldn't get myself to actually sit down and do it. One of the benefits of this is that I can do a better summary of the past few months using hindsight, rather than just bitching as things happened.

I will say up front that things have been pretty good in general - just very different from how they were a year ago.

( Work, cos that's the major part of it )

( Not Work )

( Writing )

And that's about it for now. I do want to talk about Doctor Who, but not in this post. I will say, though, that we're going to Gallifrey One in February, and we're really looking forward to it.

I actually really don't know if this summer is any more busy than last summer, but it sure feels that way.

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This has been a difficult, stressful week at work. I'll talk about it some other time, when I'm not under the gun and sneaking off to post to LJ.

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I mentioned in one of the Snowflake Challenge posts that I want to perform Doctor Who music, and that there was a story behind that. Here it is.

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...because I really don't see how I will survive having to refer to music notes as semibreves, minims, crotchets, quavers, semiquavers, demisemiquavers, and hemidemisemiquavers.

No, really. "Hemidemisemiquavers"???

How in the world is this easier than whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second, and sixty-fourth notes? How is a whole note a semi-anything?

When their music makes sense, then I shall reconsider.

Things have been very busy this week. Outside of work, I've had three concerts (two different bands), one rehearsal (because one of the concerts was at the same time as the other band's rehearsal), and a game night, and tomorrow is a Stargate SG-1 fest all day. This is a bit of a strain on this introvert, let me tell you. This evening has been the only day I've had to relax. Monday night will be so nice.

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