nnelsonbsn

hey there I accidentally deleted a rather lengthy reply so, sorry if I leave out a few things on this try When I first started reed making I used the Albion GSP cane off of the forrestmusic website (about $3/piece, which is fairly standard for GSP cane). That didn't work out too well for me because then cane was so thick that it took a huge amount of time to get it into playing condition. Charles Double Reed has some fairly cheap cane, but I can't say how good it is as I've never used it. As for "the good schtuff", I would very highly suggest ordering from Craig Vandewater. You won't find him selling on any website but if you e-mail him you can get an order. I've been extremely happy with the cane I've gotten from him and until I get my own profiler/shaper I will continue ordering from him. It's $3/piece. If you want his e-mail just let me know, although you can probably find it on the web (try the IDRS forums or google-ing his name). Also, search on the Miller Marketing website, I think I've seen cane for around $2.75 or so and they carry plenty of merchants. Good luck on your reed making journey! Nick

flute/piccolo must really suck and being a bassoon player I have to tell you that my instrument is better than yours. end of story I'm right you're wrong, sorry, no room for discussion

if anyone here EVER catches me playing on a plastic reed please take it from me and stab me in the eye with it

that's the dumbest thing I have ever seen in my entire life, not gonna lie (marching band related)

No problem, sorry it took me so long to reply. The site admin took two weeks to tell me about this.

BassoonPadwan: -This is Nick Nelson the bassoon from Cedar Park. It's awesome to hear compliments like that from people that I have never met . I speak for Lauren too (the other senior bassoonist from CP) on that. -Mainly what drives me and I think her too is the support that we give each other. We have played together in the same band throughout HS and MS (excluding freshman year) and we will probably be going to the same college with the same major (UT, music performance). We have both grown together and it has always been a generally friendly and supportive relationship, plus we are really great friends outside of music. -I use reeds that my teacher makes, but I will be starting to make my own starting tuesday in preperation for college (hopefully I don't cut up my fingers too much :-X). I think that Lauren uses arundo reeds, black. The different colors of them affect the sound (I think the numbers are wire measurements in mm, I'm not too sure though because I don't use them). -I see that a lot of bassoonists play where their top lip is right at the first wire and their bottom is like half on the reed so it has a large overbite. I used to play like that but at Interlochen I switched to where I try and keep it as natural as possible. I play with my lips about the same place on the reed, and I generally do put very much reed in my mouth unless I am playing very high. Now I'm not telling you to change how you play, that is just my personal preference and it has worked out for me. Talk to your teacher before you do ANYTHING like this. -Oh yes. If you have problems with opening up, I'm sure you have tried things like imagining an egg or an ice cube or something. Try a bubble. Imagine that you have a bubble in your mouth and you are trying not to pop it by closing in. For me an egg would make me force my mouth open and it would end up hurting and not working. Imagining a bubble lets you stay relaxed yet open, but not too open. -The main thing for practicing is sounding good. I try to get in a good warm-up, usually 15-20 minutes. First I just kind of play around on my horn to get my sound, then I will play some slow scales to key in on matching tone quality. Then I start moving my fingers by playing fast scales or scale patterns. Of course I throw in some tounging because that is one of my weaker aspects. Also I choose 1-2 notes per day and do a tuning excersize on them. -met: 60bpm, pick any note. Hold it soft 4 counts, cres. 4 counts to f, decres. 4 counts to p, hold again 4 counts. Focus on keeping the bar exactly still on 0. -I always play through all my music after I warm-up just to see what it sounds like, and again if I'm up to it before I stop. I usually practice 1.5 - 2 hours a day leading up to auditions and such. Lately I have been slacking because well.. I have not much to practice for because everything is over except band. During practice sessions make sure you play accurately. Don't just play lines and leave them sounding poor. Go measure by measure to fix things, often beat by beat or note by note. -I have been taking lessons from Jenny Mann for about 2 years now. She was hired by our school district so she is booked up with tons of school. There are lots of other good teachers around though, you just need to search a little for them. -Who is your current teacher? -My teacher works on tons of stuff with me. Right now I am working on fundamentals, reeds, and practice techniques in preparation for college. -For competitions I honestly don't care how I place, I care how I play. If I play and perform well, I don't care if I miss the cut. This is basically the philosophy of our school. Granted, if I were to lose an audition for a job or something I would be angry, but region band and such don't really bother me. I go into them looking to just play my best and get audition experience so I don't get so nervous. When you record try and get 2-3 recordings that you would consider good for each of the pieces. Then you can talk with your teacher and see which one you want to use as a final recording. -I have gone through slumps too. Just relax, take maybe 2 days off, then you have to hit it hard again. Peace, Nick Nelson aim: nnelsonbsn (as stated) And in response to G'townPIT, I have made area 3 years in a row now (since sophomore year). Region orchestra the same three years, and region band all four years. I never made all-state, but all-state means practically nothing to colleges. You get a patch, just like all the other region events. And in response to euro_euph06: This year area: 1st - from Houston 2nd - Amanda 3rd - from Houston 4th - me 5th - Lauren Orchestra: 2nd - me 3rd - Lauren Band: 2nd - Lauren 5th - me Auditions at these events can go anybodys way. For example last year at area: 1st - Amanda 2nd - Lauren 3rd - Billy 4th - Phillip 5th - me (2nd through 4th was a tie, judges preference based on the people who got the highest amount of 1st votes, then 2nd votes, etc.)

I didnt win Im unregistering because I was entered in 11 times that week

Angela the best part of the entire NCBF was the camera getting up in your face and just moving around and tracing you, its trippy but even that sucks because it gets annoying after the first piece

We were on friday night at 9pm (last friday night) saturday had the most b/c that had honor orchestra/band

601 (its not mine its the school's) me and another girl were wearing jeans and a blue collared (spl) shirts up at the front of the room (planned) yeah, they made it sound all fantastical then it sucked

The only people were OUR other bands. It was complete BS. We were the "premier band" of our night or whatever and only our bands came and saw us. Maybe like... 30 other people. The lack of sleep was quite annoying too (I think we got a total of 10 hours through 3 nights)

I absolutely hated the NCBF last year. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. (not being sarcastic)

Rachmaninoff 2nd symphony. Clip Link. Sibelius 2. Clip Link. But I would suggest this CD. Since we got into orchestra music so quickly.

It generally gets colder in the month of December. Just an observation I have made over my 17 years of life.

Euro_euph06 doesn't know what he is talking about, just ignore him. If his statements were correct, everyone is playing excerpts, because I can tell you that no one plays a piece of music straight. Everyone arranges it somewhat, making it different than the original. Take our show from this year. Did we play Feste Roman mvt. 2 straight through? No. We took a piece of it and played that. So if Euro_euph06's statement holds true, no one should ever give the composer credit.