Day Two

07/15/10

     Today was the first full day.  First there was breakfast, morning rehearsal, break, technique class, sectionals, lunch, minor hour, p.m rehearsal, rec time, and then finally dinner.  Usually after dinner there's some kind of performance.  It rained last night, and rained on and off throughout the day, so during morning rehearsal I saw a huge flash of lightening and the rain dampened the music, as well as the inside of my violin case.  After rehearsal, I had to wait half an hour before I could go anywhere because of the lightening, which was bad news for me because I had planned on showering.

     After waiting another half hours I went to tech class. I enjoy tech class because I believe it is the main problem I need to work on in order to improve my playing.  The technique teacher talked about different exercises that he would teach us in order to improve our technique (mainly our finger flexibility).  Today we started learning a technique to improve our shifting speed.

     In Sectionals we got our re-audition music for next week to determine our seats in the section.  I'm already third chair, but I know I'm rusty, so I'll probably move back a bit.   This year is my last year here, so I hope I'll somehow pull through.  The part hast three flats, which is difficult in general. The rhythm is fairly easy, but the problem is my technique.  Listening to some other people in my section, they all seem to have better technique (vibrato, shifting, tone, etc.) which I think would improve if there were more individualized attention at camp from the faculty.  I'll most likely get help next year if I can afford it.