Saturday was my Regionals audition. I was on clarinet, of course, but I can only imagine a situation where I had brought another instrument. I would have made such a fool of myself. Maybe I can try that for All-States. (I can see the look on the judges' faces now...)
Anyway, I killed it at Regionals. 255 out of 270! I'm still waiting for the cutoff scores to be released (aka I've been checking the website every other hour since yesterday morning), but I already know they're usually around 170 for Bb clarinets. At this point, I'm not entirely sure what to do with myself since I don't have private lessons until the 11th of December. Should I start practicing for All-State auditions in February (for which you are qualified based on your Regionals score - I can already tell I was) or give myself a break for two weeks?
Well, I also have a trumpet to learn. No rest for the musically adept. Here's my latest: Merrily We Roll Along. (Watch out, Louis Armstrong.)
I'm getting better. Embouchure is still kind of hit-or-miss, but it's getting there. Playing the clarinet beforehand helps it warm up. At least I can get out the G and G# in the staff, even if it means putting more pressure on the mouthpiece. Being able to only play one octave, albeit horribly out of tune, is kind of humbling, considering the clarinet has a range of more than 3 octaves. I guess that's one of the downsides of being a musician for 8 years before picking up another instrument - I know when I'm out of tune and what I should do to fix it but don't have the experience with the instrument to actually do it. It drives me crazy.
After all of these discoveries, I've decided to continue the trumpet into December. I still have to choose a final piece, and I know I'm capable of playing more notes, but doing that means more practicing. Saxophone should be easy enough for me, so I don't have a problem with playing two instruments at once. Hopefully I'll get to take one home on Monday.
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