Looking back...

on 2011 and forward to 2012!!! I copied this blog idea from Bethany's blog and added a few things of my own. :)

The Best Book I read in 2011: would have to be Personality Types by Don Riso with Russ Hudson. I came across it seemingly by chance in the library, and it has proven to be one of the most useful books I've ever read. I know some of you will think it sounds rather weird and nerdy but I can tell you that trying to understand different personalities is something we are all constantly doing whether we realize it or not. This book gives some very good insight to understanding the people around us, their way of thinking, their motivations and fears, and how to relate to them effectively.

The Worst Book I read: I hardly ever read so don't have many books to choose from, but I didn't really like a book I started to read earlier on in the year, The India Rubber Men. I can't even remember much about it except that I found it a bit dry and uncaptivating.

The Best Movie I watched: Although it wasn't actually released in 2011, we watched Tangled a number of times during the year, and I always appreciate what a good movie it is. Apart from being a very well-made film, it's relaxing and easy to watch, and despite outward appearances, a good film for the whole family. (At first I was put off the whole "Disney princess movie" idea, but surprisingly it wasn't what I expected and actually has a lot that we guys can relate to as well).

The Worst Movie I watched: The Inspector General. It's really annoying, corny, and "cringe-ful". Why people make movies like this one is beyond me. What makes things worse is half the family finds it very amusing, which means we have to see it (or at least hear it in the background) occassionally.

My Favourite Holiday: Our October holiday at Culburra Beach was not only my favourite holiday of 2011, but the best holiday of my life so far. It was fantastic to just get away from all the busyness of life and completely relax (although I was also very glad to get back into the usual routine of things in Term 4).

My Favourite Moment: Getting my L's, passing my Grade 8 Flute exam, and playing a concert as Principal Flute in the CCO, and playing bassoon in a professional orchestra all come pretty close. However, probably my favourite experience of the year was performing Handel's Messiah in Cooma. Messiah is an incredible piece of music, and when you're actually "inside" the music playing it, you experience an incredible sensation that can't be adequately described. To finish off an extraordinary day by performing the Hallelujah Chorus with a very enthusiastic 50-piece choir behind you - not to mention amazing timpani (Caitlyn) - is something you have to experience to understand. The libretto is very Biblical and uplifting, too.

My Favourite New Thing: Well if it counts as a "thing", then teaching flute last year would be my favourite. I still consider it a miracle how God has worked things out for me, and I'm SOOO thankful for everything He's done for me in 2011. Two of my students did AMEB exams (2'nd and 3'rd Grade) last year, and both did very well. The enthusiasm some of my students have is so inspiring, and I can tell you, I've learnt a thing or two from them over the past year as well! I look forward to starting next term with 12 students, and founding a Flute Ensemble to give them even more opportunities.

My Favourite Song or Album: It's kind of complicated. I consider "You Know Better Than I" from Joseph King of Dreams to be the best song ever. At the same time, When You Believe (from Prince of Egypt), is probably my favourite song, while the theme from Jurassic Park is the one I most enjoy listening to. However I've never enjoyed music quite so much as when I am playing the Dvorak Cello Concerto or Symphony No 8 or Handel's Messiah. All these pieces of music are favourites of mine, but all in different ways. As I said, it's hard to explain.

What I'm thankful for in 2011: So many things! God has been so good to me. Apart from what I've already mentioned, some of the more notable things include getting a scholarship for cheaper music lessons at the ANU, learning to drive, being in COOMA!, 6-a-side soccer, our church carols night (one of the highlights of my year, actually), and probably the thing that I've come to appreciate most; all the amazing people that have done so much for me in the past year, especially those like my family who know all my faults and see me at my worst, but still put up with me.

Achievements I have in mind for 2012: 2012 will be a BIG year in my life. I hope to get my P's, buy a car, finish school, do my Flute AMusA, audition for the ANU, start a Flute Ensemble, and finish memorizing Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

What about you? What were your highlights of 2011, and what are you looking forward to in 2012?

Happy New Year, everyone!!!

The hills are alive...

... with the sound of music!!! Just when you think you have time to breathe - reality kicks in and it's all back to the busyness of life. Here are a few things I'm involved that are coming up soon:

• ANU Open Day: I am 100% stoked for this!!! I have been asked to play in a flute masterclass with Virginia Taylor, participate in a flute ensemble concert, and perform a solo piece in a pre-tertiary showcase recital. Apart from that I absolutely cannot wait to talk to some people there about the courses ANU has to offer, career advice, and all that sort of stuff. I am really looking forward to a very rewarding, educational day.

• U3A Music Appreciation Concert: This is the 2'nd concert I've ever had (the privilege...?) to organize. Involving the Snowy Mountains Ensemble, it's really encouraging to see how much progress we have made since we did the same concert last year. I'm also accompanying about 10 solo items for this concert, the first 'real' accompanying I've had to do yet. Should be a challengingly nerve-racking but fun afternoon.

• This is the real BIG news for me!! I have very kindly been given the opportunity to play with a professional orchestra in the Cooma Choir Festival 2011!!! The combined choir will be performing a comic opera, 'Trial by Jury,' for which the orchestra will accompany them. The ridiculously crazy thing about it is that I will be getting paid to play! Everyone in the orchestra is getting paid from a grant, and somehow that includes me. I still haven't gotten my head around this concept; normally I would pay a LOT of money to have the opportunity to play with such a good orchestra, but somehow it's the other way around?!?! I don't need to tell you how excited I am, do I?!

• The next weekend is the annual Cooma Music Competition which is a huge highlight for me/us. Last year we didn't get very involved at all, but this year it looks like we'll be quite busy. My students will be quite involved too; I'm looking forward to encouraging them to take the plunge and discover the joys and terrors of playing in public. One thing I love about this competition is that every year we discover some new hidden talent in the community. Plus it's great to be able to catch up with all the rest of the music community and see what progress everyone has made. Watching people learn and improve (at anything, not just music) is so inspiring.

Other exciting but not-so-close things are our holiday to Kioloa (near Bateman's Bay) with Mum's family, the Australian Flute Festival, the Cooma Band Festival, and Cooma's production of Handel's Messiah. We are so privileged and blessed to be given so many fantastic opportunities in a rural area like Cooma.

Sorry this was all about music. One of the advantages of having a blog, though, is that you can talk about whatever you want, and people only have to read it if they want to and enjoy doing so. =)

What are you looking forward to?

A little project

Hope you're all having a great week. I just thought I'd share with you something of what I've been doing: this is an audio track I made using Sibelius and Notion 3. Notion, an audio editing program and virtual instrument library, is still very new to me and I have yet to work around such issues as dynamics and phrasing, but I'm very happy with the result of this, one of the first of my finished works. It only took a few minutes to make this track after I'd finished arranging the score in Sibelius. I love the virtual instruments, and while it is apparent that this is not a 'real' performance, it's surprising how real the instruments can sound at times.

So here we go: this is an arrangement of Pavane by Gabriel Faure. Parts have been cut out from the original version to make it easier to play, but other than that I've tried to keep it as close to the original as possible. I hope you enjoy it!

Pavane by Matthew Ventura

Answers to prayer

God's been doing a lot in my life lately, and I just thought I'd share about a special blessing I've received recently.

As most of you know, I've been very much hoping to be able to participate in another pre-tertiary music course at the ANU this year. I was fully aware that my chances of being able to do the course were very slim, since apparently only a total of 10 positions would be available this year. Apart from that, there was always the underlying problem of transport, as the bus would leave Canberra 15 minutes before I even started classes, so private transport back to Cooma would have been necessary - and very hard to find.

In spite of that, I believed that God can work miracles and that if He wanted me to do the course, He would open the doors. And He did. Long story short, things seemingly fell into place, and I was very surprised to hear that not only was my audition successful, but I was number one on the list of flautists!!

God's plans are not ours, though, and as usual He had different ideas. (Or maybe I should say I had different ideas to Him...) Just when I was starting to become anxious from all the waiting and not hearing anything, within the space of 2 hours I had received my letter of acceptance into the program AND received a telephone call notifying me that the letter was sent in error and I would not be able to participate in the music program because I am not an ACT resident. '

Of ALL the things I knew could possibly go wrong, I was not expecting this. For some reason I hadn't even considered the possibility. But when I would have expected to be extremely disappointed at the cold reality of things, I was amazed at how at the peace of mind I had about the whole situation. I tried to remember that whatever happened would be because God had a better plan. I just couldn't see it for the life of me...

And then I began to see. My flute teacher (well, I stopped having lessons from her in June but I still consider her my teacher) arranged for me to teach some beginner flute students at the Snowy Mountains Christian School which was indeed an answer to prayer. Not only would I be able to further my musical experience and develop some teaching skills, but I have some sort of an income to help me pay for my own lessons. After meeting with the head music teacher at the school who showed me the ropes of how things were done, I went into town to do a couple of errands. In doing so I came across the local music shop owner who was literally about to ring me to ask if I was interested in taking any students! Of course I said yes and made contact with the 2 people interested in having private lessons with me. Both were keen to start that week, and as I compared the money I would be earning with the expense of my own lessons I found out that I would be earning just enough for my own lessons - down to the last cent!! While I marvelled at God's amazing provision, there was still more happening...

About a week later I got a call from the Administrator of the ANU School of Music. Because they were not able to include me in the Type 1 program, several people had gone to considerable efforts to arrange alternative options for me. I was offered places in the ANU's Music After School (instrumental tuition) program as well as their new Fridays @ ANU (chamber music) program. Most notably, I was granted a discretionary fee subsidy of $250 per semester - a scholarship created just to help me!!! Just another reason why the ANU is the most awesome uni in the country...

So with the help of the amazing ANU staff, I now get to have subsidised flute lessons from Teresa Rabe, who I'm told is a phenomenal flautist and teacher. My only regret was that I had to decline the chamber music program due to transportation issues and the limited time factor. Everything else had worked out perfectly, but while nearly all of the little people in the village inside my head were rejoicing and celebrating, there was that 1 pessimistic and ungrateful person who kept going around reminding the other little people in my head about how important gathering with other like-minded musicians was to me last year. In my opinion, progressing as a musician is kind of like growing corn: while it is possible for the corn plant to grow on its own, the real fruit will only come when it is growing alongside other corn plants. I decided to keep this as a prayer point.

I needn't have worried. The very next day when I was speaking to a very accomplished professional musician who lives in Canberra about conducting our local community ensemble (yet another astounding answer to prayer), when she mentioned that I had been given a position as 2'nd flute in the Canberra Concerto Orchestra!!! This time everybody in the little village in my head rejoiced with one accord and... Yes. Don't worry. I'll spare you the agony of my poetic prose. Suffice it to say that there were celebrations of great magnitude going on in my head that night.

And to think I worried about what I would do this year... Things are always clearer in hindsight, but I was really foolish to think that worrying would make any difference when God had it all planned from the beginning. Hopefully I've learned my lesson for good now - I don't have to be able to see God's plans to know that He's got everything worked out and it will all happen in His timing.

I originally had this post titled "An answer to prayer" but by the time I got around to finishing it weeks later(because I'm so slack at blogging and I have a life) so much had happened that I had to change it to the plural form.

Anyway, that's what has been happening in my life lately. What has God been doing for you?

Community Carols Night

This year I've been asked again to help organize the annual Community Carols Night at our church. The Snowy Mountains Ensemble (which our family plays in) will be playing the music for the evening and our church is doing everything else (including the supper... our congregation is very good at making loads of delicious morsels of delight), so if you live within driving distance of Cooma, you should definitely try and come! It would make me happy beyond imaginability to see a good number of people turn up and make the event a success. So - don't miss this opportunity to enjoy quality worship, fellowship, good food, and singing carols with an orchestra!

One of my all-time favourite songs...

... is a new piece of music we have called "Bow The Knee." It's a Christian worship song that we are learning to sing in 4-part harmony. At the moment I love it so much I just thought I'd share it with the world. Hopefully when you hear it you'll understand why. (To gain maximum appreciation of it, try to close your eyes, block out distractions, and just focus on the message of the music. Like a lot of songs, this one won't sound amazing unless you allow it to; e.g. don't just have it playing in the background while you do something else, or it won't sound that good.)

Below is an audio track of a professional choir performing it with an orchestra as well as the lyrics, in case you don't catch all the words the first time.

Bow The Knee


There are moments on our journey following the Lord
Where God illumines every step we take.
There are times when circumstances make perfect sense to us,
As we try to understand each move He makes.
When the path grow dim
And our questions have no answers, turn to Him.

Bow the knee; trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see.
Bow the knee; lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity.
And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan,
In the presence of the King, bow the knee.

There are days when clouds surround us, and the rain begins to fall,
The cold and lonely winds won't cease to blow.
And there seems to be no reason for the suffering we feel;
We are tempted to believe God does not know.
When the storms arise,
Don't forget we live by faith and not by sight.

Bow the knee; trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see.

Bow the knee; lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity.
And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan,
In the presence of the King,

Bow the knee; trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see.
Bow the knee; lift your eyes toward heaven and blieve the One who holds eternity.
And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan,
In the presence of the King,
Bow the knee.

Music

So I thought I'd do a post about the thing that takes up so much of my time these days - music. This is the time of year when everything starts happening in Cooma, and the music-scene is no exception. In 3 weeks is the annual Cooma Music Competition which is the highlight of my year. We're not doing much this year, except a piece in the small vocal ensemble section. Our family (namely Mum, Bradley, Emma, Caitlyn, Sarah, and myself) has been getting into singing in 4-part harmony lately, so we thought it might be fun to do a piece in the competition.

The Snowy Mountains Ensemble is also expected to perform in the final concert as guests, so we have been polishing our best piece in preparation. On top of that, the Ensemble has been asked to put on a concert for some U3A Music Appreciation program thing the day before, which has kept us busy. Being a new ensemble with new music, there are only a couple of pieces we can play well, so our family ensemble will be playing some pieces to supplement. Unfortunately Joshua won't be back from Newcastle then, so Emma will be doing her first performance in this ensemble on viola (her main instrument is the violin, but she has taught herself how to play viola so that she can play the much-needed parts in ensemble pieces).

Speaking of ensembles, at MuST last week we had a masterclass with a touring ensemble from Chicago. It was really great to be able to talk to them about life as an ensemble musician and hear them play. They were doing a concert at the Wesley Music Centre that evening, but they played most of the program for us, so we essentially got a free concert!

Finally - and before you get too bored to read the rest of this post - I will announce the Snowy Mountains Ensemble's Christmas Carols. This coming Thursday and every Thursday from November 11 to the end of this school term we will be rehearsing simple, fun arrangements of Christmas carols - the idea is that we will invite as many people to join us for those rehearsals as possible, giving local musicians the opportunity to experience ensemble playing in a relaxed atmosphere, and hopefully, if they enjoy the experience, some of them will stay on as permanent members. Easy arrangements and an open strings violin part mean that musicians of any skill level are welcome, and we now have clarinet parts. After all the work we've put into organizing all this (and trust me, it has been hours upon hours of hard work), it would be very nice to see some people participating in and benefiting from this opportunity. So if you know of anyone around that plays an orchestral string or woodwind instrument, tell them to come! :-)

Apart from that there is not much to report, except that I am preparing for an audition next month and I've started learning the coolest piece ever written for flute (well... maybe not quite) - The Great Train Race by Ian Clarke, which is subtitled "The Flute as you don't usually hear it." Quite aptly so, too, as it employs several extended techniques such as residual fast tonguing, singing while playing (!!), lip bending, explosive harmonics, use of quarter-tones, multiphonics and optional circular breathing! It's very fascinating, but the bit that interests me most is the multiphonic section. Until last week I never knew that it was possible for a flute to play more than 1 note at a time - it turns out that flutes can play 2, or even 3 notes at once (multiphonics). Obviously I am very excited to learn this fascinating new piece...

 

Wonderfully Orchestrated

What follows this brief introduction is not written by me. It is copied with permission from a blog post by Terry Ferguson from Head-lines. While I prefer to only publish my own work on this blog, I found an exception in this post. The content is something which I can really relate to, and I hope you find you will all enjoy it as much as I did. So here we go; Wonderfully Orchestrated:

Tuesday at work I attended a performance by two of the members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra during lunchtime.  The music was quite beautiful, a duet between a violin and a bassoon. 


What I found most interesting was the demonstration given by the bassoonist.  He took apart his instrument, and showed how each piece was an individual, integral part of the whole.  If one piece were broken or omitted, the instrument would not function properly...or at all. The science behind the creation of that instrument was fascinating.

That started me thinking... Think of a symphony producing the works of Mozart or Beethoven. It all begins with the individual playing his part. This is much like how our body operates with its 11 systems working in concert. Each part carefully "orchestrated" to work with the other, each having its own unique and integral purpose. If just one part is injured or missing, then the body does not function properly, or at all (death). Example: Hypothalamus gland



It is only the size of the tip of your thumb and weights 4 grams, yet it regulates equilibrium as well as thirst, body temperature, water balance, hunger, and blood pressure. It links the endocrine system with the nervous system. One little part, so vital to the body as a whole.

King David also thought about the intricacies of the human body, and how each part of us is precisely created...he wrote about this in Psalm 139:


"13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Another fascinating aspect of our created being are "laminins." They are a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue. Laminins are what hold us together...LITERALLY. They are cell adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the next cell. Without them, we would literally fall apart.

Here is what the structure of laminin looks like...AND THIS IS NOT a 'Christian portrayal' of it....if you look up laminin in any scientific/medical piece of literature, this is what you will see... (or Google images). Now tell me that our God is not the coolest!!!

The glue that holds us together....ALL of us.

'He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things HOLD TOGETHER.'

Colossians 1:15-17

Thousands of years before the world knew anything about laminin, Paul penned those words. And now we see that from a very LITERAL standpoint, we are held together ...one cell to another....by the cross.
And that's my thought for the day!

Now You think about it...

My first attempt...

At creating a piece of music from scratch using only electronic devices. Let me know what you think!

My first page-turning experience...

was, in a word, nerve-racking. As I mentioned briefly at the end of my last post, I had been asked to act as a page-turner for the pianist at a concert today. This wasn't just any concert, it was a concert put on by [apparently] one of Australia's best cellists, an extremely accomplished pianist, and a fantastic clarinettist - meaning that there was a huge amount of pressure on my shoulders to not stuff up anything. Unfortunately I had never done any amount of page-turning before - not even at home - so I was already feeling quite nervous. The rehearsal did absolutely nothing to help my nerves, especially with quite a large audience gathering 1 hour and 15 minutes before the concert! I hadn't felt so nervous since... well actually last time I performed, because I did this enormous stuff-up in which I totally forgot what to play and had to 'fudge it' (aka improvise) for about 15 bars... anyway, I was feeling extremely nervous. Enjoying the beautiful music only helped a little, because I had to pay such rigid attention to following the music so I wouldn't get lost. While it was a good experience and I was delighted to be able to help in some way, it wasn't exactly the sort of thing I would choose to do for fun. It is unbelievably easy to make a mistake that could ruin the performance, or even the whole concert.

On the bright side, I was given the privilege of meeting and getting to know David Pereira, which I'm very pleased about. I was also very happy to be able to do a favour for the pianist, who has done lots of things for me in the past.

The moral of the story is that I now have a proper appreciation for page-turners and what they have to go through. To anyone in the world who's ever done page-turning - thank you for making a difference by offering your services, and I can now empathise with you.

And now I shall go find a CD so I can hear what Beethoven's Clarinet Trio IV actually sounds like without the sound of a heart thumping 180 beats per minute...

My exam is OVER!

Yes, it's almost too good to be true! Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed preparing for it and I'm 100% glad I did it, but it's so good to have it behind me and know that I don't have to do anything now except wait for my results.

For those of you who are wondering what I'm going on about, I had an AMEB Theory of Music exam this morning. It started at 9:30 am, so we had to get up at 5:45 am to get ready and leave on time. We arrived at the Institute of Technology at 8:30, so I had plenty of time to sit around and get nervous. Finding a couple of people I knew quickly made me feel more at ease, though. A very musical homeschooling family we know from Yass had a daughter doing a theory exam, too, so I spent some time chatting with them.

As for the exam, it was significantly different to the practice tests I had done - but not really any harder. I was caught off guard for a couple of questions, but I think I got enough right to at least pass... Thanks to those who helped me out - you know who you are.

Anyway, the main thing is it's over now. No more exam pressure for 10 whole months!! Maybe now I can actually get some practice done. Which reminds me - on Saturday we're attending a concert which is being put on by David Pereira (apparently one of Australia's best cellists), and 2 local musicans (1 is my old music teacher and the other is my accompanist whenever I have to perform somewhere :-P) and I have been asked to be a page turner!! It's only for one piece for the pianist, but I'm 100% excited to be involved in a concert by David Pereira!

Introducing... Vella, Edgar & Alexander!

At last I have names AND photos of all my instruments! Okay, so the piano's not mine - much as I wish it was. But I still feel like I own a part of it... or it owns a part of me. Anyway, this first photo is Vella, my flute. She's got a rather interesting story behind her name. We (Caitlyn and I) were in search of a name - or rather were trying to discover which name belonged to her, because we believe that everything has its own name and you just have to discover it, or so we like to think. Anyway, we providentially ran out of rabbit pellets at the same time as our usual animal feed store, so we had to buy some from a different store. The different brand of rabbit pellets was called "Vella." It didn't take us long to realize it was perfect. It started with 'V' (the 2 flute teachers at the ANU School of Music both have names starting with V), it suited her character, and we later found out that the name meant "beautiful." So she is essentially named after a brand of rabbit pellets. 

This is Edgar. Edgar means "wealthy, magnificent, or royal spear," or something along those linges. Obviously the spear bit doesn't apply, but it was nice to have a name that described the magnificent royalty which is present in all pianos. Taking this photo brought into sharp realization the true difficulty of taking photos of shiny, reflective objects!! If only you could have seen me balancing on the stool trying not to be in the reflection when I was taking this photo...

Last, but not least, is Alexander, who has been introduced previously. Not much of a story behind his name, but we all agree it suits his colour and tonal qualities. Interestingly enough, a cellist who started coming to a local music ensemble about the same time that I started playing bassoon in it also happens to be as crazy as me to name her cello - and coincidentally she named it Alexander too! It feels good to know that Alexander (the bassoon) will have a friend - and one with the same name, for that matter.

I know, the photo emphasises the piano more than the bassoon - I couldn't help it, though, as I didn't have anything else to stand the bassoon against that didn't look worse. I thought the bassoon and piano looked quite elegant together, though.

By the way, if anyone has any tips on how to take good photos of shiny objects, I'd love to hear them!

I'm a bassoonist!!!!

No joke, I really am! It's almost as much of a shock to me as it is to you!! If someone had told me 2 weeks ago that I would be playing the bassoon before the month was over, I would never have believed them. But then God started working again, and opened all these doors that made it amazingly clear. Basically, this is what happened:

1) My piccolo which I had been looking forward to learning to play turned out to still have problems. I still haven't had an opportunity to have it fixed.

2) My passion for Woodwinds was reinforced, and I couldn't stop dreaming about the bassoon. Even when I wasn't dreaming, it seemed like there were bassoon reeds following me all around the School of Music.

3) Mum started talking about how much we will need a bass instrument to replace the cello when Bradley goes off to Uni. This was the first time I started thinking that it might actually be a reality, not just one of my dreams.

4) I told Mum (and Dad) about the bassoon and what it could do, and mentioned that it has been my dream to learn to play it. Amazingly, they were both very positive about it. In fact, the idea met absolutely no opposition at all! This convinced me that God was telling me something, because I had been expecting to spend months convincing the parents to let me learn another instrument!

5) Then I had to face the reality - buying a bassoon would cost me about $5,000 to get a decent instrument. I didn't give up hope, though, and kept praying. Then God opened another door when I found out that the Canberra School of Music had a very good bassoon sitting in storage that I could 'rent' for free as a MuST student!! I became convinced that God creates these 'problems' so that we can watch him at work solving them, rather than just take everything for granted.

6) The worst problem of all then presented itself. Playing pretty much any wind instrument can have very bad effects on one's flute playing. I had to give up playing the trumpet, clarinet & oboe for that very reason. However, it turns out that bassoon is the ONLY wind instrument (besides maybe recorder, which is technically a type of flute) that is compatible with flute playing!! To me this is nothing short of a miracle.

So I decided to take the challenge and learn another instrument - and before I knew it my dreams had become reality! I brought home the bassoon (haven't come up with a name for him yet... suggestions welcome! =P) on Tuesday afternoon, and much to my relief it came with a reed (a reed is the bit of cane that vibrates to make the sound - without the reed, you can't play a bassoon). I think I would have died if I had had the bassoon for a whole week without being able to play it. I'm seeing my new bassoon teacher on Tuesday, which, needless to say, I'm very much looking forward to. He is the Principle Bassoonist of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, a position he's held since 1965. He has also received a Canberran of the Year award, as well as an Order of Australia medal for his work in youth orchestras.

And now I've come to the point where I realize that in all my excitement I forget to tell you what a bassoon actually is. Most of you probably wouldn't know, due to its extreme rarity. Well, the Bassoon is the bass of the Woodwind family. It is made of an 8-foot long pipe which is bent double over itself to allow the player to reach all the keys. It has an extremely complicated fingering system - most of the fingers only have to cover 1 hole each, but the thumbs have to control 13-14 levers between the 2 of them. Crazy, I know. Especially when you're the one playing it. But trust me, it's definitely worth it!

Since bassoons are so expensive, hardly anyone plays them, so they are very in demand in ensembles and orchestras. After only playing for 1 day, I've already been asked to play in a beginner orchestra group and possible another ensemble later in the year. This afternoon will be my first experience playing bassoon in an ensemble, so wish me luck!

Finally, here is a picture of the bassoon I'm using. This photo doesn't show the size very well, but standing up it goes up to about the height of my neck. I might add some photos to this post later on if I can manage to take any that aren't as bad quality as this one.

An answer to prayer

Okay, well most of you may find this post irrevelevant or even boring (as probably most of my posts are), but something so exciting happened that I have to share it with someone - or everyone.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been praying very hard about how God wants me to spend my life, and what career pathway he has planned for me. I have some of my own ideas based on my own feelings, but I really want to know for sure exactly what He wants me to do with my life. So I've been praying really hard about it for quite some time, but not really getting any answers. In fact, it didn't seem like I was getting any response at all.

But then things started happening. Seemingly out of the blue Mum received an email from a student of the Sydney Conservatorium whom she (Mum) had emailed months before, with no response, whom we had all forgotten about long ago. Apparently she was doing research as part of her PhD into the effects that being homeschooled have on one's music education. She was looking for willing families through which to conduct the research, so of course Mum volunteered us. Months later we received an email back saying she would very much like to come and see our family in the July holidays.

So on Tuesday she came and spent several hours interviewing us and listening to us perform. Nothing special had happened up to this point. Then we got to talking with her and found out that she was homeschooled (which we had kind of guessed already) and had studied a Bachelor of Music Education majoring in Flute. You can imagine how excited I was to have somebody to talk to that has experienced and done exactly what I am interested in doing. It was the most amazing help to be able to ask all these questions I've been wanting to ask someone for YEARS, as well as having the assurance that this person understood exactly where I was coming from, having come from there herself. To me it was a heaven-sent opporunity to find the answers I'd been looking for. Long story short, we (or I) ended up interviewing her more than she did us. Fortunately she didn't mind at all, and I was overjoyed at receiving the guidance I'd been praying for. Not only because I now have a clear idea of what God wants me to do, but also because it was such a blessing to see prayer answered so effectively!

P.S. I didn't take that photo, much as I would like to say I did...

Musical terms and their definitions

You have to be a musician to appreciate these.

Accidentals: Wrong notes.
Aria: The product of multiplying the singer's length by his or her width.
Cadence: A device for stopping a piece of music, the musical equivalent of a brick wall. Some cadences are less complete than others, and may be called 'deceptive' or 'unfair' cadences.
Choir: A musical organization thought to have been invented by F. F. Handel to assure the perpetuation of performances of Messiah.
Concerto: A sort of musical boxing match between one musician (the soloist) and all the rest (the orchestra), with the conductor acting as referee, in which nobody wins - especially the audience.
Copyist: A person hired  by composers to transcribe pages of their illegible notation into other pages of the copyist's own notation, equally illegible.
Counterpoint: A musical device similar to needlepoint, although not designed to be hung upon the wall or used as on seatcovers. Said to be a musical conversation, it more often resembles an argument. A favourite device of many Baroque composers, all of whom are now dead, although a direct connection between these two facts has never been conclusively established.
Dischord: 1. Not to be confused with datchord. 2. The emotional state that usually exists amongst a group of musicians, especially with regard to those in authority.
English Horn: A woodwind instrument so named because it is neither English, nor a horn. Not to be confused with the French Horn, which is German.
False Relation: The kind of relative who is supportive of one's musical career only if one is making money.
Flat: An adjective used to describe a tone that is slightly below pitch. This term ought to be used cautiously, so as not to offend anyone, especially when applied to a woman.
Flute: A sophisticated pea-shooter with a range up to five hundred yards and deadly accuracy in close quarters. Blown transversely to confuse the enemy, it can be dismantled into three small pieces for easy concealment.
French Horn: A brass instrument that resembles a snail, but sometimes moves more quickly. The French Horn is actually German, and should not be confused with the English Horn, which is French.
Glissando: The musical equivalent of stepping on a banana peel.
Key: Certain musical terms defy easy definition. This is one of them.
Music Stand: An intricate device for propping up music, except at crucial times - such as during the performance. It has a tendency to fall over, often of its own accord. It comes in two sizes - too high or too low - and it is always broken.
Nut: The narrow ridge across the neck of a stringed instrument such as the violin, situated near the pegbox. By extension, then, the term has come to be applied to any person who plays such an instrument.
Oboe: An ill wind that nobody blows good.
Quartet: All that remains of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra after its North American tour.
Quaver: What many performers do while performing.
Strings: A family of instruments that includes the violin, viola, cello, double-bass, and yo-yo.
Trill: The musical equivalent of an epileptic seizure.

Excerpted from "A Musician's Dictionary" by David W. Barber & Dave Donald. My teacher lent me this book to help relieve stress while preparing for my upcoming flute exam. I hope you found it as amusing as I did!

My oboe

About a year ago I purchased a second-hand oboe from Ebay with intentions of learning to play it. When it arrived I was very surprised to find it had completely different keywork to a modern oboe. My flute teacher (who also teaches the oboe) took it home and studied it, and learned that it was made about 150-200 years ago! I had no idea I would be getting a rare antique oboe when I bought it. Had I known, I probably wouldn't have gone ahead with the purchase. It has a very basic fingering system (which makes tuning difficult and limits the playing range); since it had different keywork to a modern oboe, it meant I had to figure out how to play each note by experimenting with different fingerings until I found the right one. That in itself wouldn't have been too much of a problem (as I do love a good challenge), except that most instruments made several hundred years ago are tuned to a different pitch to instruments today. Of ALL the different instruments, oboe happens to be the one that can't be tuned (well, it can, but only very slightly). That means that I can't play this oboe with any other instruments without it being excruciatingly out of tune.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I haven't got a good use for this oboe, so I've decided to resell it. An experienced oboe player could possibly adjust the reeds to make it play in tune, and I'm hoping that such a person will take an interest and take the instrument off my hands. I spent all afternoon on Wednesday fixing up the oboe, oiling the body, and making sure everything was in working order. This involved taking apart all the keywork, oiling it down, then trying to put the keys back in the right places. I already knew that there was a spring that needed replacing, but other than that everything was in good shape. After a good clean and wipe-down, it looked shiny and new again.

This was my first time taking apart an instrument, and I found it quite fun and interesting, and very educational. Here are some photos I took of before, during, and after the process.

This is the bottom half of the oboe before being dissembled.

Top half before being dissembled:

Top half after having all keys except one removed (the screws were so tight I couldn't budge it - ironically, this was the one key that wasn't working properly and actually needed fixing).

Keys from the top half of the oboe, along with the screwdrivers I used, a small bottle of oil, and the bell from the oboe.

The finished work after being oiled and reassembled.

If anyone knows anyone looking for an antique oboe that plays out of tune, let me know!! =D I'd be most happy to oblige.

My piccolo!!

As most of you probably know already, I have been playing the flute for nearly 3 years. What many of you probably do not know is that I am now learning the piccolo. My piccolo has been "in repairs" for a while, but it finally came back yesterday. I am SO excited about learning it - I think the longer I had to wait for it the more excited I became.

My piccolo (I still haven't come up with a name for it yet - any suggestions are welcome!) is the prettiest looking instrument I've ever had the privilege of owning. The body is made of ebonite, and I'm told that the keywork it is most likely gold plated! Whatever it's plated with, it looks good. It's absolutely tiny, being only a finger's width, and as short as 2 hand's lengths!

The main reason I'm so excited about it, however, is this: since a piccolo is basically just a very small, very high pitched flute, the playing techniques are very much the same. That means that I get to enjoy all the fun of learning a new instrument, but without having to worry about learning any new techniques!!

While the technique is very similar, the sound of the piccolo is very different to that of the flute. It is much more of a light "whistling" sound, and sounds more cheerful & bright. Some of the high notes can be shrill at times, though. I try to avoid playing those notes for the sake of my family, myself, and our windows!

On a different note (no pun intended), I am really loving my flute and piano at the moment. My (well, our) keyboard is leaving us to go live with Joshua tomorrow, because there is no piano where he lives. I'm so glad that he will have a keyboard to play, but at the same time I feel like I've lost a very close friend. I suppose that's very selfish of me, considering that we've got a perfectly lovely Yamaha upright piano here, but all the same I can't help having the feelings. Every piece I've ever composed was on that keyboard, so my emotional attachments to it are justified.

Speaking of compositions, I am uncontrollably excited about a composition workshop that is going to be held right here in Cooma on the 2'nd of May. A group of professional musicians and composers are coming to show high school students how to compose and arrange music for an ensemble, then they will put on a concert featuring all the new compositions. Then on May 6-9 I get to attend a music workshop which is being held at the ANU School of Music as part of my music course, MuST (Music for Students with Talent). I don't know what the workshop is going to be about yet, but it is held by very professional musicians, and goes for 4 days in a row, so I'm sure it will be packed with exciting new things to learn. I can't wait! The only problem is that Mum or Dad is going to have to drive me up there and back every day, since the bus from Cooma to Canberra would arrive too late for the workshop and we don't really know anyone in Canberra, so staying there isn't really an option.

Finally, for those of you who haven't heard a piccolo, to give you some insight into what it sounds like, here is a sample mp3 of a piccolo concerto. It may not sound really impressive to you, but I like it, and I also wanted to see if I could embed an mp3 file into a blog post, which is part of the reason why I did this - please let me know whether it works for you, and if you have any trouble downloading it. Thanks!

Edit: I have been informed that the piece I had here previously was actually performed on a descant recorder, not piccolo - a very embarrassing mistake on my part. Anyway, this time it's a real piccolo (I know for sure, because I actually saw it played), although unfortunately it is a different piece. It is a different movement from the same concerto by Vivaldi.