The Quiet Girl

It has been a very busy month. All I have been doing for the past two weeks is composing for two films. It is hard work, but it is exciting to know that I am creating something original that will enhance a form of entertainment! I am scoring for a film called "Theatre Exulansis" which is about a few guys going into an old movie theatre and discovering the charm of the way things used to be before technology invaded our world. It is interesting, especially when the the internet is older than everyone working on the film! This movie has a lot of big band music in it. I will have to create many variations of the same theme, in different tempos (and record my clarinet squealing into the mic, too). The second movie I am working on is called "A Wreck in Wonderland." It is about a man who wakes up in Wonderland after a car accident. He chases after Alice but can never find her. He asks the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter where she is. He can never find her. He then pic

All right, guys. I told you I would post pictures of Disney and tour. I have been catching up on a lot of homework, so that is why I have waited so long to do this. I was on a double-decker tour bus for nine days with the band. It was quite an adventure. All 60 of us got to know each other pretty well on that ride. I took my travel MIDI keyboard to compose on the bus with. I did not think I would be this productive, but the results were surprisingly good.  On the way to the Gulf of Mexico! This is a restaurant in Disney World called the Cheshire Cafe. I loved it because the Cheshire Cat is my favorite Disney character of all time.  The classic Disney Princess land.  This is the beach in Charleston, South Carolina. I met composer John Mackey! I am very excited, as you can tell. He said women need to compose and be commissioned more often! I went to a composers' forum before the band performed that afternoon.  Last year

It has been almost a month since my last post. I have been very busy. I have been on tour with the Wind Symphony from the 13th through the 21st, and I had recording sessions and a concert all this week. Our show is going to be on an album! I played my Junior Recital on February 9th. It was nerve-wracking. I felt comfortable once I had been on stage for a good amount of time. The first piece I played was "Time Pieces" by Muczynski. Next, I played my original composition "Solitude." The final piece of the evening was "Andante et Allegro" by Ernest Chausson. My dress was very elegant in my opinion, but it was difficult to breathe! It had boning in the bodice as well as the torso. I think that was the main problem. I still loved the looks enough to play in it, particularly because I like bright blue! :) My mom made cake and truffles for my friends and the audience who wanted to stay for the reception. The weekend after that, I went on tour. We left and w

I realize that I have not posted in days. This is due to my being very busy practicing and getting ready for my recital on Tuesday!! I cannot believe it is finally here! Today I wore my dress shoes to play in for the dress rehearsal. I love the look of the shoes, but they hurt my feet after an hour of wearing them. I will save these shoes only for the finest occasions. :) High heels are OK for the right events. I played through the three pieces I will perform. I went over passages I thought were difficult. I need to not be OCD about my fingers playing the right notes and focus on the music entirely. I am too analytical for my own good sometimes. I need to relax more often, particularly when I am playing music, because music is meant to be enjoyed. It is only two weeks until tour! We will be going to Nashville! This is the most exciting part of tour to me! It is the capital of music business. Maybe I can hand out business cards! We will go to Disney World again, and I am excited a

As you all know, my Junior Recital is in 2 weeks, on February 9th! I feel very excited and nervous at the same time. I have had my dress for quite some time now. I just recently bought shoes.  I love the bright blue of the dress! I found this dress at the Goodwill. It looked like it had been worn only once, twice, or never at all. It was only $15, so it was a deal. I especially love the sequin design on the bodice. The shoes were from Shoe Department Encore. I found these in the Roanoke mall. They were only $16 and have cushioning in them, which is a bonus since I need something comfortable to play clarinet in! I love the black sheer ribbon and bows on the back.... Here's a close up picture for the detail! I still have some jewelry to get. I am not sure what I will wear as far as jewelry goes. It needs to be professional and not too gaudy. Just for fun, I drove into a lovely sunset the other day. I was able to get pictures of the sun setting on the road.

 There was a snowstorm in almost all of Virginia. We got about a foot and a half (calling for 2 feet) of snow.  I tried making a snowman, but the snow was powdery rather than stiff. I ended up with 2 and both turned out very small.  My neighborhood could look like a Thomas Kinkade painting.

I am taking a Pro Tools class this semester! I am VERY EXCITED. It has been a dream of mine to learn Pro Tools.I do like PreSonus Studio One, but AVID's software is the world's industry standard. It has many more features that Studio One does not. And it probably has hundreds more MIDI instruments. I hope to use Pro Tools in my career many times. I am actually saving up for it right now (putting extra change into my kitty bank). What I want to do is learn in this class, then purchase the software and use what I have learned.  I am also learning Logic Pro.  Logic has a very good layout, and I look forward to using it as well, but I am used to PC's. Logic only works on Mac. Someday, I may get a Mac just for recording. But a little MacBook Air is $1500+! That is not the budget of a broke college student! My first choice is to buy Pro Tools (It is the #1 industry standard anyway) and put it on my PC.                                         It has been

First of all, I happened to feel well enough to go to band the day after I wrote that "I'm a sicko"..... I called my band director the morning of the first day and he told me to feel better. I came in time for the first rehearsal. Needless to say, I blew too much air to feel if my sinuses were uncomfortable or not. We practiced from Friday afternoon until evening, all day Saturday, and one 90 minute rehearsal on Sunday. The inside of my lip had a dent in it by the time I was done. It literally felt like it was going to cut open at any moment (that is probably an exaggeration)! I play the E-flat piccolo clarinet for most of our pieces, which requires more mouth muscles. I do like the shrill runs I have to play, they are obnoxious and sound like a dog whistle sometimes!                                           (This is the E-flat clarinet, isn't it tiny?!) As the Liberty University Wind Symphony, we play modern, contemporary advanced music for wind band. We p

I have had BALLOON HEAD for the past few days. I took SEVEN PILLS today, vitamins included. It just happens to be the day before I have to go to Wind Symphony practice. These practices are very long, and the director wants to go over a lot of music. I love the music we are going through. But with an infected sinus and headaches by the hour, it makes it painful to circulate air through your head and lungs to play the clarinet, even for a short time. I just hope the steroids do their duty and the kombucha works.

I have been preparing for my upcoming Junior Recital. I am playing a piece by twentieth-century composer Robert Muczynski called "Time Pieces". It sounds very quirky in the first and third movements. The second movement is rather dark. The other piece is a French piece by Ernest Chausson entitled "Andante et Allegro." I am also premiering a solo I wrote entitled "Solitude." You can listen to it in the video above. After a Freshman year of a rude and angry clarinet professor (who was fired for lying after the year was done), I had the privilege of taking lessons under a new professor, Dr. Hibbard. She has added to my playing skills very immensely! She is very goofy and fun, making my learning experience great! Dr. Hibbard took me to an International Clarinet Association conference in Ohio and taught me what professionalism is. She also introduced me to unaccompanied music. Unaccompanied music  is written purely for effect, not for tonality or for mus