Doot-doot-doo, bloggeroo!

So today I just feel like reviewing what I've done so far. I have some ideas for "good" blogs in the future, but hopefully this will become a more regular part of my life and I can save them for later. Some of them I may even work on and edit in advance. Kind of like the videos I'm working on right now... wait, what?

So today I definitely played my clarinet. I played it in church this morning, which is always a mix of emotions. Seeing as I have to be there at 8 in the morning to do the pre-church rehearsal, I'm obviously tired (even though I also got my allotted sleep time) and the music is... well, let's just say "well within my playing abilities." So when I play in church, I get this warm fuzzy feeling that I'm adding to the service with my talents, but I also wish I got to actually use them. Except then I wonder whether doing so would actually detract from the service, kind of like saying "Step aside, Jesus, I got a mean lick to play here!" But in any case, I played then, and I also spent an extra hour whittling away at orchestral excerpts for my fall ensemble audition.

Which, of course, was the exact opposite end of the spectrum. I mean, what kind of a sadistic jerk came up with Cappriccio Espagnol? Oh right... Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, one of the best known orchestrators of all time. I have to say, when it is played well on the clarinet, you can tell why it was written for the clarinet, but it's not exactly a walk in the park. It also doesn't help that it is echoed by the principal violin later, who literally just puts four fingers down on the strings and swings the bow between them. Probably still difficult for them, but it *looks* much easier. Anyway, I spent the full hour playing 8 measures at about 1/4 the tempo it's supposed to be. Yep, that's dedication.

Finally, I laid down a few tracks for my response to Paige's YouTube Boys Get Me Hot Video. It's going to be about 6 minutes long, which is sad, but I have a feeling that it will melt people's hearts. Not to toot my own horn or anything (toot-toot!) What I had the most fun with was making a drum track with zero percussion equipment. I just hit my chest like Tarzan for a bass drum part, snapped to resemble a rim shot, and sizzled the hi hat part with my tongue. Basically, it's going to be a fun song with only acoustic sounds, which is what I like.

Hope you all are well, and I'll try and get one of my "real" blog posts to you tomorrow!

Sleep: X
Clarinet: X
Blogging: X