Week 2

So, on Saturday night we celebrated Judy's birthday by going to a Spanish restaurant on Johnson St. It was like a reunion of the 1J souls. It was amazing. It was so good to catch up with these guys again!
Plus, it was my first Spanish food experience, and I have to say, I enjoyed it! I also have to admit, I'm really not very familiar with it at all, but that was ok! It was heaps of fun! Pictures to come soon (hopefully!)

I bought my textbook on Saturday; seriously, for no queues at the bookshop, go on the weekend, when most people just can't be bothered to travel in for that..! Empty shops, yay :) It meant that I could stand there testing all the rings for openability while almost nobody stood behind me waiting and sighing very loudly!

Had dinner with Erica on Sunday evening, which was very enjoyable :) I also had almost forgetten what it was like to have a meal while sitting out on the pavement down Lygs. :)

So, what a busy week it has been!

Monday: 10am tute! Gave Dave back his pens. He asked what his heading for his notes should be. I suggested the date, to which he agreed. I sat in the tute writing lots of notes and example, he sat there understanding it without writing anything. So, near the end of the tute, I looked over, and motioned the comparison between my very full page and his very empty page. Then he had a great idea, his one line of notes comprised of this sentence:

Gladys has extensive notes if necessary

so maybe I should be expecting him to come asking in about week twelve. Hehe.
Anyway, I daresay that Monday 11am rivals 10am....there are awesome people in that tute, including a whole heap of college bods from JCH, also Newman and Queen's (specific names not mentioned though!)
Went to the lunchtime concert...Bec P played cello (a Chopin sonata, which might as well be a piano sonata hehe!). She played very well! Dan Y also played, some Rachmaninoff and Keiren Harvey. Totally cool.
Piano class was quite jolting but incredibly realising. We were told we should aim for three hours a day of practice; not necessarily in one block. But in an average day, three hours. So, since then, I've been trying to do my three hours. Although it has been quite hard. I have gotten up early every morning since Monday (and except for this morning, I needed the sleep!) to practice. However, before a lesson, I was feeling unmotivated because I didn't really have direction. Report of lesson to come later...

Then I had Apollo Choir, which was great! They have a good sound, it's getting there! They're quite unresponsive in terms of feedback, but hopefully that will change as they get to know me!

Tuesday mornings I have off, so I practiced for a while, did homework and the like. Sam came over to talk about Idea of North tickets (they're coming back for shows on 27th/28th April in Melbourne!). Had a class to go to - Inter Micro tute. Unfortunately there is a guy I quite dislike in it. In trying to explain something, his answer was "it's just illogical!". Stuipd answer. And he kinda does this sigh thing whenever somebody asks a question to clarify something. And sits there looking bored for the rest of the time, except for when he is asked a question. Blergh....I don't really like students like that!

Anyway....so then I met Julie to get music from her (she called that morning to ask whether I could accompany her next week in concert class!), as well as Andrew, to collect music from him (more long term stuff....his repertoire from Geoff!), then ran into Jenny (couldn't go with her to the library to sort out some repertoire for doing gigs), ran into Trev to ask about Thursday, and to briefly talk about choir, then Matt, to ask about rehearsals! Ooh, the people you run into in the Con! Hehe, I love it!

Then came home, played with Sam for a long while; mostly flute repertoire! :) Okay, so we talked for about half of it...anyway.....
Had dinner at Martin's (an easy 'chuck-whatever's-in-the-fridge-in style pasta yum!) then he drove to Camberwell for G&S Mikado auditions, for which I was playing.
I unfortunately played horribly, I thought. Additionally, many of the singers had little sense of rhythm. Hmmm.......
I did get some homework done in-between though! However, came back very late (about 10.45) but did get paid for doing that night's work...! The trade-off....wonder if it is worth my time/effort/money etc! As an economics student....

Had my piano lesson on Wednesday morning. Elise (Caroline's daughter) has grown so much! And she has such beautiful blue eyes....so cute! Anyway, the lesson was great. I was given lots more repertoire to work on (eek...gotta get on top of that, with that about three hours a day!), and lots of things to work on for my current pieces (Mozart and Bach). I'm fully getting excited about working quite hard on piano this year! So as to learn more pieces, and to hopefully increase the speed at which I learn things. I think that's my aim for this year!
So, because I'd been so busy on Monday and Tuesday, I thought I should do some homework and thus, missed the GM. I did have some productive time though!

Thursday was an incredibly packed day at uni, 10am-6.30pm! Unfortunately didn't get to meet up with Loz, nor did I make it to CU, but did have a rehearsal with Julie (for next week) and got some practice done in Berkeley. Unfortunately, my card doesn't quite work yet (technical issues) but hopefully that will be resolved soon.. :S
It was a great concert class, actually. And yesterday was one of those times I wrote long crits. Yes, so much so that Michael said, "You don't have to write a thesis, Gladys...!" Hehe. Tristan did play five pieces, however......one of which I have played..! Thus, the reason and need for a thesis :P

So, had a great trio rehearsal today. Trio as in Jac, Matt and me. We played through Bruch. Gosh, that piece is totally awesome! It's very interesting...8 pieces of clarinet, viola and piano.
Interesting for several reasons:
1) this is an odd combination. But it works!!! I find that Matt's viola blends in very well...adds a beautiful depth of tone to the ensemble.
2) of the eight pieces, only one is in a major key, the 7th in B Major.
3) Number 8 is supposedly the most romantic. It is a very beautiful piece. We all enjoy playing that one :)
4) Half of these might as well be piano sonatas hehe!
5) The sequence of keys of the eight pieces if very odd. It's almost as if there is no logical progression! Even the first and last seem to have no connection, the first being in A minor (ending in A Major, if I'm not mistaken) and the last in E flat minor. That is a tritone. Weird....
6) Bruch uses these triplet figures a lot.
7) As well as this interesting haunting figure present in a few of the pieces. Specific intervals.

Very interseting.....