No Mission Accomplished in Portland

It's that time of year again, when I get all excited and nervous at the same time, get on a plane, jet to exotic locations around North America, bust the old bassoon out of its case, sit by myself on a stage in front of judges that are hiding behind a screen, and audition for an orchestral job.

And not get called back.

Yup. Just did it again, this time in beautiful Portland, Oregon. No kidding. That's a nice place. Scenic. Clean. Mild climate. Electric trains. The Columbia River. A principal bassoon job with the local orchestra that paid well.

I decided I wanted it. So did 79 other bassoonists. Bet you're amazed that 80 bassoonists existed in the U.S. I'm amazed myself.

And, no, I didn't get called back. I'm beginning to get annoyed with this audition process thing. It seems to me that, for every shiny new bassoon player to pop out of a university, ready to play, that there should be a great job waiting in some orchestra somewhere within a 1000 mile radius. Is that too much to ask?

So, how do you find something good to talk about when you just struck out in your fifth audition in one year? Here's something: I played at a new level at this audition. I went in and played all the music like I know I've been able to this whole time, and yet so far haven't. Every past audition, I can look back and say, "yeah, it was pretty good except for this," or "the notes were all there, but there was a couple tuning things..." This time, I can look back and say, "I played at my absolute best and presented me as a bassoonist exactly like I knew I could." I was very pleased with my audition. I gave the judges no stupid reason to not call me back. They did, nevertheless, find one anyway.

So, now, I'm left to consider other reasons. Did they not like the interpretations of the pieces? Did they not like my sound? Did they not think I would fit into their existing bassoon section? Who knows?

And that's my good thing that happened in a bad situation: Now I know I can go play those excerpts when it counts. No dumb mistakes. No tuning issues. Now I just need to go do that again a few times, and then we'll see what happens.

Bassoon Blogging on Scroggles

I decided to start posting about playing the ol' bassoon over at Scroggles.

For heart stopping stories about reeds, performing and slow practicing, tune it to the bassoon posts right here!

To check out the rest of my other blog, click here.

Digressions Blog Update

To those who are even dimly aware that I keep another blog elsewhere, "Digressions and Other Inconsistencies", I am happy to say that the blogging platform used for it has been switched to WordPress, a very nice blogging platform which brings a lot more power and ease of use than the previous b2evolution platform we were using. This has caused the links to change ever so slightly.

The new link: http://digressions.scroggles.com
The new RSS feed link: http://digressions.scroggles.com/feed

Thank you, and Merry Christmas.

Unflinching Mic

I really don't like recording myself, although I can see I need to do it more often.

I recorded myself playing the first movement of the Mozart Concerto and all of my excerpts yesterday. I hate recording myself, because when I listen to the playback, I am forced out of my little fantasy world where I heard what I wanted to hear, and confronted with the actual sound waves that came out of my bassoon, and pummeled the microphone on my Mac.

Results? First and foremost, I found out the standard rule of expression always applies to my playing: You have to exaggerate whatever you want to be heard by someone else, or they will never hear it. Any time I thought I was playing over the top robust, or with great dynamic range, it always came back as "kinda loud" or "sort of crescendoed". Also, some slight droops in pitch came across right in the middle C to E range. I'm hoping that's the newness of the reed I used talking, but good to realize that problem, regardless. Technique came across pretty darn clean, actually. My ever present rushing seems to be beaten down for now, at least.

Overall, not bad. Not going to win me a gig in, say, Portland with that playing, but it's coming along. The audition for the one year principal spot in Colorado Springs is coming up at the end of this month. I'm hoping to have a decent shot at that. We'll see.

So, lessons learned: Exaggerate! Play in tune! Or, as a friend of mine always use to jokingly put it, "Just play all the right notes and don't choke. That's all there is to it."

Words to live by.

New Blogger Feature

Found a feature of Blogger, called "Blogger Play", that lets you add a gadget which displays a simple slideshow of the photos being uploaded to blogger. I decided to add it to my blog. Check the lower right hand side.

Fascinating just to sit and watch random pictures flip by.

Time Out!

You know, the Fast Food Feed Bag video from the Onion was a funny post. That, however, was posted on July 1, and it's only so funny so many times. So, I guess I'll give you something else to read, in the form of me talking about myself. If you'd rather see more Onion videos, you're invited to go check them out here!

Thanks, those of you who are still here. I would have probably gone to the Onion site, by now.

Anyway, not much happened over the summer. Went to Phoenix, but you already knew that. Then drove up to Ridgway, Colorado to visit my pregnant sister, her husband, and their now given-away-to-other-friendly-homes dogs. (That had something to do with a 1 bedroom apartment, two big dogs, and a baby on the way, I think.) Came home. Went to Durango, Colorado a few weeks later to visit my parents. Came home.

Been practicing the excerpt list for the Oregon Symphony audition, which is coming up at the end of September. It's a principal audition, which means a) I'm practicing a much different set of music than my previous auditions and b) I probably have even less of a chance of getting this gig. The good news is, the excerpts are actually coming right along. Maybe I'll put in a good showing in Portland.

I composed my own cadenza to the Mozart Concerto, first movement. Thought it turned out decent, though I reserve the right to (most likely) modify or ditch it completely some time in the future.

I couldn't talk about bassoon and not talk about reeds. Been making lots more lately. Have a pretty good "starter stock pile" for the next few months. I'm starting to see why Dr. Ishikawa likes the Australian cane that I ordered on his recommendation. They last a really long time. Most of my reeds from my May auditions are still kicking - and not old man shuffling, either. I'm talking high-flying, roundhouse karate kicking. I'm really quite impressed. None of my old reeds ever lasted close to this long. Of course, this cane seems to take at least twice as long to break in properly, but I think it's worth it.

"Say, Kent," you must be saying. "You have a misleading title to your post that has nothing to do with reeds!" Don't rush me! I was just getting to that!

So, what is the title of the post referring to? That would be the name of the program that CU offers that lets students in good standing take up to a year off of school without sacrificing your position when you come back. It is, unfortunately, the direction I'm headed for at least a semester, as I will most likely not be going back to CU at the end of the month.

The reason for this? Money! As in, none! The university was more than happy to take lots of my cash last year. When I have none left for school this year, they seem okay with that, too. Apparently, the bassoon studio has enough good players, so they don't seem all that upset to see me go. I asked for aid. They said they'd see what they could do. That was a couple weeks ago. Haven't heard from them since.

You know why I'm not that upset about this? One reason: Practice time! Do you know how much more time I'll have to work on just playing the bassoon over the next few months since I don't have to take any stinking grad school classes? On more than one occasion, I resented how much time away from the bassoon I spent writing papers and doing research last year. Now, I don't have to worry about that. Make reeds. Practice excerpts. That's all I have to do.

To those who think I'm not making any sense, I'll say this: I've always always wanted to be an orchestral player from the moment I picked up the bassoon. Teaching has never interested me that much - especially teaching at any sort of college. It just seems to me that a master's degree is aimed more at musicians who want to teach in some official academic capacity.

So, if I'm going to try to get a gig playing on the bassoon, I need to focus on playing the bassoon. If, in a couple years or so, I haven't landed a job, yet, or if I'm happily playing in a group but decide a degree would help down the road, I can certainly go back and finish.

Dr. Ishikawa has already said he would continue to teach me privately, and still give me access to the reed machines in the studio. Good news! I also have a pro bassoonist friend in Virginia who has offered to give me a sort of informal lesson, as well as introduce me to other bassoonists who he says are wonderful private teachers with great audition tips. Even better!

Ironically, at CU, even not going to school costs money. The Time Out program has a stupid application fee that I could certainly spend elsewhere. Oh well.

So, there you go. I don't post for more than a month, then I go on and on and on and on.

Now, all those who made it to the end, go watch a video on the Onion.

The Onion and Fast Food Feedbags

New Wearable Feedbags Let Americans Eat More, Move Less

950. 15. 1. 113.

No, I'm not giving you the secret IP Address of the coolest MP3 download site the web has ever seen. I'm actually telling you about yesterday in the simplest way possible. What better way is there to describe yesterday than just laying it out by the numbers? None comes to mind, so here they are:

• 950: The number of miles we drove yesterday to get from Boulder, Colorado to Phoenix, Arizona to visit family.
• 15: The number of hours it took to drive said distance.
• 1: The number of days we decided to take to get there. We may not do that too many more times.
• 113: The predicted temperature in Phoenix on the day of our arrival. It was in the 80's in Boulder.

That's a long drive to do in one day. I was beyond antsy rounding the mountain curves of I-17 during the home stretch from Flagstaff. At least we're stopping off in Ridgway, Colorado for a few days on the way back, just a mere 9 hours from Phoenix.

Here's to spending a few days in the company of family and friends, and experiencing absolutely world class air conditioning.

Sanitas Pics

I warned you that I might post pictures of hiking Mt. Sanitas. Well, here you go. Weird to think about being on the last mountain before the land gets flat. Cool views. Check out the Denver skyline off in the distance in one of the shots.

(Click on any of the pictures to see it larger.)

At Least We're Stuck in Boulder

True, no jobs were won in May, I'm still having to code - in Windows - to make a living, and Mindy has to drive 50 miles round trip to get to her job. Still stuck in Boulder.

The good news is, at least we're stuck in Boulder. Of all the places we've lived, Boulder is the most fascinating and satisfying mix of city and wilderness we've yet lived in. Our apartment is located right next to the Rocky Mountain foothills and the Flatirons range. I mean right next to. If we cross the street and head west, we start walking up hill.

Mindy and I went walking this morning, and saw two deer in the neighborhood. That's not that unusual. Neither is spotting a fox, or - perhaps a little more foreboding - a mountain lion or a black bear.

The Mt. Sanitas trailhead is a 1.7 mile long hike to a peak that provides spectacular views of the Colorado plains to the east, including, way off in the distance, downtown Denver, and snow capped peaks to the west. It's within walking distance of my front door. Next time I hike it (tomorrow, perhaps?), I'll take pictures and post them.

Less than a mile south of our place is downtown and Pearl Street, a pleasant outdoor mall with local stores and at least two great Mexican restaurants. Just a little further south is the Boulder Creek path, which pretty much spans the entire width of Boulder, and is a great place to bike, walk, or tube down. (Just on of those three options involves being in the creek instead of next to it. I'll let you guess which one.)

All sorts of different people live here, including the hippies, and ultra ultra green "we should all kill ourselves and let the deer live in peace" folk, but most people are friendly and get along.

A short drive to the north is Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, with astounding vistas and great hikes. South of here is Denver, with all the culture and sports of any great city. And when you've had enough of the big city, you can come back to the relative quiet of Boulder.

When I get a job, I'll leave in a heartbeat. But I'll miss Boulder. And until then, I'll continue to really enjoy it.

(Other titles cosidered for this post: "Yay, Boulder", "Amazing What a Big Cup of Coffee Does to Your Attitude", or "Well, Yeah, but Will I Still Like Boulder When My Allergies Start")