music marathon

yesterday i went to my second all county orchestra audition (last year's audition). before the audition, i was freaking out. not because i was nervous, but because i didn't have a banana that could prevent an anxiety attack. magnesium is magical. my mom comes home and pulls out 5 bananas! sigh, i love her. she knows me so well.

longest practice period ever
i got to the auditions at 6:55 pm, since i was auditioning in the last block from 7:30-9:00. well, i auditioned at 9:44. people cheered when the numbers changed, literally every 20 minutes.

the reason it was so slow was because there was one room with an etude (2 minutes), one room with sight reading (2 minutes), and one room with 2 excerpts plus 2 scales (5 minutes). so the line for the longest one built up fast. last year was much better thought out. wonder why they changed it...

it was obvious that everyone was getting more exhausted as the night dragged on. at first, everyone was practicing frantically. as we were walking towards the practice room, my mom says, "can you spell cacophony?" which, i can't (i had to use spell check to write that). then, as the room emptied out painfully slowly, there were those long patches of silence which i hate. they make it so hard to practice without seeming like a show off. like, once, there was complete silence with no talking, no playing. and one girl just continued playing the slow piece. everyone laughed but she still continued to play. i'm not sure if she knew she was playing a solo, but i'm pretty sure she knew.

honestly, maybe it was better that they were so late. at first i was really worried since i felt so unprepared. but, after more than 2 hours of practicing, i wasn't nervous at all. was it the banana? was it the practicing? maybe a combination...

me and my mom as the night slowly ticked by:


strangely lucky auditions
mr. herman: he conducted the all-county orchestra last year and described our playing with animal analogies... some about elephants... so, i'm outside the first room (with the etude), and the girl waiting next to me looks into the room and says, "hey! that's my teacher." after i auditioned, i asked her who it was, and she told me it was mr. herman. i asked her how she knew, since the judges were behind screens only showing their feet. "the pants." i'm just glad that she told me after i auditioned.

the sightreading wasn't too bad. they only gave us 30 seconds to look at the music before playing it. i thought that was a little weird, since usually they give us as much time as we need. my mom thinks that they shortened the time because they were 44 minutes after the auditions were supposed to end. the time went by fast, so by that time, i had only looked through half of the piece. luckily i was able to wing it ok (i hope). the rhythm was pretty hard, and we had to shift to 4th position once, but other than that, it was all good. :)

when i went to the last, super long room, there was only one person in line, even though they said the line would take forever. they had the music posted outside the room showing what we would play. it turned out that for the hardest piece, brahms 2nd symphony, we only had to play the last half. half of me felt relieved but half of me was really bugged. i mean, the first half was probably my weaker half, but after all that practicing, we didn't have to play it!

me and my mom left and were like "finally!" we only got home at 10:07 pm. i was half asleep. for the all-state auditions on saturday, my mom says that we could get my number, then go get ice cream or something. :)

surf and turf

hey!

i am writing this exactly one week since my last blog! wow, i'm not blogging once a year anymore! *cheers in the background*!! summer's almost over *boos in the background*, but it has been an awesome summer! though there are still 2 and quarter more books that they are forcing me to read...

at the very beginning of the summer, i went on a road trip to ottawa, canada with my dance group! and, since i live in maryland, it took over 12 hours. now, whenever traveling takes less than 12 hours, it feels completely short to me. the hotel room had 2 queen beds and one pull out bed. sounds pretty spacey right? but no... we had to squish 7 people onto the beds. but on the plus side, we got a standing ovation at our performance! not bad, eh?

the first camp i went to was a gymnastics camp with my little sister, ella. we did some balancing poses for the parent show on the last day. ella was so good that they should’ve recruited her to a chinese acrobatic act! really should’ve.

the second camp was an outdoor rock climbing camp, on real mountains, which was awesome! it was an hour drive from my house, but there were buses that picked us up. so the whole time, we would sing bus songs! lalala! before the last day, we stayed over night to go camping... and i got over 10 spider bites. man, they take forever to go away.

then, i did an art camp with ella. we made so many things in one week. but, considering how much of a perfectionist i am... i'm surprised that i finished most of the projects! last year, when i went to the camp, i was still working on the first thing on the second to last day. things i made: color wheel (i had to draw long arcs by hand), paper mache penguin (a really fat penguin in the shape of a ball), fake fossils with leaf and shell imprints and a clay tile that i decorated to look like the beach... since it's summer!

i also did a music camp that i love. it was my 3rd year there. i was in the advanced orchestra, which was actually sort of sad because they sounded worse than the regular orchestra. a really cool part about the camp was the "spirit days." one day was crazy hair day, and so i decided to go full out. i bet you're wondering how i got my hair to be like that. i actually put a bottle in it. yes, it hurt... a lot. i came into orchestra rehearsal a few minutes late, walking behind everyone. right then, the conductor called my name for attendance. everyone turned around and were totally surprised (since mostly no one else did anything at all for spirit day. lame, i know). for lunch, we sit outside in front of a giant window where people walk by. and since the camp was at a music school, there were a bunch of tours. and every time the people would walk by, everyone would gawk at me and point.

i am part of the dance company culture shock dc... and the youth programs are mini shock (for ages 8-11) and future shock (for ages 12-17). for the auditions, they taught us a dance. the music was incredible... (by lloyd). and after we knew the dance, they would play the song over and over again until it was our turn to audition. and, i danced it full out every single time they played the music. i was sore. everywhere. but i made it in! :)

california:

we went to california to visit my uncle michael, aunt rosie, and cousins allie and adam. they live close to the beach, so we went to the beach a lot. it was surprising that one day, my dad actually agreed to let me and ella bury him in the sand. ella found out how hard it is to cover his feet with sand.

my cousin allie and i did a surf camp together in the mornings for one week. i thought i would be an epic fail, but i wasn’t that bad! from the parking lot, there was a super long hike to the beach where we were surfing (the word super is dedicated to uncle michael, allie, and adam). my scariest surfing near death experience: i let the surf board sit on the water, and when a wave came, the board shoots upward vertical to the water. i look up, and the spikes of the surfboard are coming straight at my face!! eeks!! luckily, i have super fast reflexes (not really) and shielded myself... safe!

we went to disneyland, where the churros are delicioso! we got there 15 minutes after opening a.k.a 8:15 am, and left after the fireworks at 9:30. wow, over 12 hours at the happiest place on earth! we went on a lot of rides. as you can see, to the right, we love the classic rides, like dumbo! my cousin allison and my sister ella are sitting in the front dumbo, and me and my cousin adam are sitting in the back dumbo. i also went on a bunch of new rides that i wasn't brave enough to go on before like: haunted mansion, indiana jones, and pirates of the caribbean. i ended up liking all of them! my aunt rosie is awesome to go on rides with, because she can tell you the scary parts before they happen!

i saw lots of family on my mom's mom and dad's side. got to meet, no, not elvis presley's daughter, but my 2 and a half year old second cousin! lisa marie! after i introduced the game of ring around the rosie to her... she was a bit obsessed. after every time we did it she would pop up from the ground and say "i want more!" and we had to do it again, and again, and again. and whenever we tried to play a different game, she would just hold our hands.

while my mom's side of the family was visiting my grandma's house in california, we all decided to take a walk to caltech which was very close. at first we were all walking together, but there were so many fountains... which my cousins, my sister and i liked walking and playing in. we got distracted, and eventually we didn't see them anymore. while we were walking, i saw a really ironic sign, and took a picture of it. "absoulutely NO STAPLES OR TAPE use push pins only." but they taped that sign on. i thought it was hilarious.

we went to the park, and there was this one thing that kept us amused for a long time. it's more fun than it seems! first, one pair would rock side to side, while the other would rock front and back. then we would switch. then we would rotate who got each seat. that was probably the thing we spent the most time on at the park. you should try it sometime.

we also went to adventure plex in california. they had an outdoor climbing wall. you could just climb up, or you could climb up on one color. each color was a different difficulty. and so i was doing fine (as you can see in the picture to the right) until the guy out there asked me to try the hardest trail. it was so hard, there was barely anything to hold on to! and the fact that i'm short doesn't help much either. i stood there just trying to get up just a little bit. there wasn't anyone belaying us, it was a thing that let you down every time that you let go. so i would go up a little bit, then fall. go up a little bit, then fall. over and over again. i kept trying, and he was so nice, he added handholds to make it easier. and eventually he belayed me so i wouldn't have to go down every single time. i made it!!!! (after an hour of trying, but lets not think about that part).

if you read my "curled by cousins" blog 2 years ago, you would know that my first cousin once removed, kevin, who's now in london, could curl ella when she weighed 35 pounds. now, she is 50 pounds and he can still curl her!

school starts in less than 2 weeks *tear*, need to finish the work they gave us... it's bad to be behind on homework before school even starts. i better get to it.

check back later, i'll try to add some pics of me surfing!

beatriz atsavapranee

i don't think the banana really helps

ever wonder what an all-county orchestra audition in montgomery county, maryland is like? well you're in luck. i looked for this information on the web last fall for my violin audition and found nada! zip! zilch! so insider information right here to help my fellow stringers.

what you play for the auditions: they assign you 3 excerpts a few months ahead of time that are posted on the maryland music educators association website. last year the excerpts for violin were, the reformation symphony, which is technically difficult, an exercise from the 2nd wolfhart book, and a largo piece which included a lot of shifting but needed a lot of character. they say you need to buy the books, but nobody checked if we had the books at the auditions. just a money saving tip for you.
you also have to prepare scales. they want you to practice up to 3 sharps and up to 3 flats with arpeggios, but they only choose one for you to play.
then, there's a sight reading portion. there is a few lines of sightreading that you have to play, which isn't technically difficult, but has some tricky rhythms and a simple shift to 3rd position.

the process: the all county auditions are blind, so go ahead and wear your ratty sweats. but with nice shoes (since you are behind a screen which shows your feet). you'll be given a time window to be at the audition, but you should get there 30-45 min earlier so you can be higher up in the queue for audition order. after you sign in, you go into a big room where 40-50 people are practicing. you have to practice at the same time as them. they have a big screen where they project the audition numbers of who is going next. they project the numbers in groups and by instruments. when they project your number on the screen, you go up to the front of the room where someone leads you and the others to the audition rooms. there are 3 different rooms. when you get to the rooms there are people lined up outside each of the rooms waiting to go in and audition. one of the rooms is sight reading and scales. one is the 2 shorter excerpts and one is the long excerpt. posted outside of the excerpt audition rooms are the sheet music marked with brackets showing what they would like you to play. you can choose which room you want to go into first. when you get into the audition room, you don't speak at all and the judge doesn't speak at all. you only whisper with the judge's helper when you get into the room who will give you cues to play etc. in the excerpt rooms, they already have the music there, but you can use your own music since it has your markings on it.

some advice:in the practice room, you might hear people who play better than you, but you should try not to listen to them because it will psych you out. for example, i heard someone playing one song faster than i had practiced it. and i thought, i'm playing it too slow. in my audition, i ended up speeding up, and messing up. while you aren't playing, you might want to listen to music through headphones... it worked for michael phelps!

during the sightreading portion, give yourself 20-30 seconds to look through the music. don't feel rushed, it doesn't affect your score. spending those seconds will pay off.

during the scales, don't play too fast or too slow. play them at a walking pace. the judges have listened to a lot of scales before yours, so playing them painfully slow won't help.

don't be too nervous...have you ever heard that eating a banana makes you less nervous? well, it sort of does, but it doesn't get rid of the nerves at all. don't be too nervous because, while at the auditions, my mom calculated the chances of getting in. there were about 70 people auditioning for violin, and there were about 35-40 people who made it in. the chances of you getting into the orchestra is more than half! just practice and don't be nervous!

all state orchestra auditions
the all state audition process is very similar to all county, and there are the same excerpts and requirements. the only thing is that it is harder to get into (ex: i made it into all county and not all state), and they are not blind! so dress nice!


please post comments if you have any extra helpful tips or questions! good luck with your audition!

almost famous

hello,

p.e. highlight of 2008: we were playing flag football in p.e. for the first time they told me i was runningback. i was sort of freaked out because i barely even knew what runningback was. i knew i should've spent more time watching football with my grandpa. i was running to the other side of the field with no one blocking me cuz no one expected me to do anything. nathan threw the ball to me and luckily i caught it. i was running and everyone kept pulling at my flags. i kept looking back cuz i thought someone had pulled it already, but no they were still there. i kept running and i passed the little white line! i was kind of confused. did i just do that? yes! i did! i made a touchdown!

who's got spirit? i've got spirit, how bout u? not that many people had spirit at our school spirit week. on monday, it was crazy hair day. but of course a lot of people didn't do it cuz they forgot. i didn't forget. after i took my shower i braided all my hair and then slept on it. i woke up early to take out the braids and it was so frizzy. i put it in a sloppy ponytail on the side of my head. when i got to school my friend natalie thought i was having a bad hair day. while sticking my hair up in front of my locker mirror, i told her that i would never leave the house looking like that.

fortunately i didn't have to participate in tuesday's spirit day, mismatch day. that would have been a true test of school spirit. instead of being at school, i was at a pbs kids video shoot. i felt a little bad because i haven't watched pbs kids too much since we got cable. but i used to love watching arthur and dragon tales. my mom liked zoom. an email said that they were going to use some moves from captain huggy. since i haven't been updated on the latest pbs kids shows i didn't really know who captain huggy was. i used the awesome power of you tube to uncover his identity. apparently he's a monkey who acts out a word (like for example, sad or happy) then dances his monkey dance.

to be in this video, i had to audition the week before. in the audition, we didn't exactly do the hardest things. first they asked us to run from each side of the room to see how we followed directions. of course, i was a pro at that. after that they asked us to act like a monkey then a robot. then they asked us to freestyle dance to elevator sounding music. then they gave us 8 counts of a simple dance. the whole audition lasted around 5 minutes.

at the end of the week, i found out that i got picked to be in the video. only 11 out of 110 kids were chosen. i knew about half of the kids that got picked for the video since they were in my dance group, minishock. it was really fun to be there with people i knew. before the shoot, we were given choreography. but the real challenge to the routine was to try to dance looking enthusiastic. this was basically the only challenge because the dance didn't ever require you to move your arms while you were moving your feet. we were supposed to bring our own clothes for them to pick out an outfit for us to wear. we weren't supposed to wear anything with logos or anything green, white or orange. this was hard because almost all the clothes in my closet are green or have the abercrombie logo, a moose, on it. the studio background was green so that they could manipulate the background separately. maybe you'll see us dancing in front of the eiffel tower or maybe the zoo while we're dancing the monkey dance. it was really cool to see all the different cameras and how they videotaped other videos and commercials.

beatriz atsavapranee