practicing goals for 3/14 week

Yesterday I set the following goals for this week's practicing:

1. Polish up and record a performance of Sciortino's "Sorcels".  It's time to see where this one is after 3 months of practicing and woodshedding the difficult passages.  When I listen to the recording I should be able to see if the extended techniques (flutter tonguing, multiphonics, timbre trills, extreme high notes, etc.) sound effective and get a sense of how my interpretation comes off.  Is there a sense of the "X Factor" in my performance yet? More about that in a future blog!

2. Get "Sortilege" ready for a read-through with Randy on Monday.  This means getting basic control of all technical passages and crafting a rough-draft of interpretation and control of tempos, primarily.  More about playing with a pianist in a future blog (sorry about all the teasers!).

3. Move on to f# melodic minor in my scale routine and #3 Bertoni.

4. Process 24 pieces of cane (Rigotti and Razzco cane from tubes), making blanks to put on the drying rack.

5. Finish three blanks and reshape 10 blanks.  The 10 blanks have a shape that I was trying out that was too wide at the tip, so I'll sand/file them down to my usual width.

This would normally be way to much to accomplish with the usual teaching load and orchestra week, but I'm relatively free this week from orchestral duties.  I only play the off-stage banda part in Don Giovanni (fully produced opera this week and next), so there will be lots of down time.  I can escape to a practice room in Severance Hall once I'm sure when I'm not needed and work on reeds and practice.