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Thread: Mvt. 3 of Soliloquies

  1. Mvt. 3 of Soliloquies

    Hello!
    I'm a freshman in high school and my band director decided that I was good enough to play in our annual solo hall, which I was happy about until I saw the piece I had to prepare. The 3rd movement of Soliloquies, a fun piece that also happens to be ridiculously difficult for me. The range isn't a problem, its just getting all of the time signature changes correct and achieving the jumps. I wanted to ask if anyone had any tips on practicing this piece, as I have no clue on where to start. I've been taking it around 60 BPM just to get it under my fingers and have been relatively successful. However the piece is written at 196+, and in certain spots I can't seem to get it right, such as the large jumps or the triplet sixteenth runs. If anyone had any tips it'd be greatly appreciated.

    Regards,
    Chris Harrison

  2. #2
    Hi Chris,

    I don't know the piece specifically, but in general, here's how I'd approach it:

    1. Identify your problems. Sounds like you've got a good handle on this already. That said, look through the piece and see where the same problem is occurring multiple times. You'd be surprised how often the same problem can crop up in multiple spots.
    2. Isolate your problems. For example, with the time changes, practice counting the measures separate from the music (and the horn) until you understand them. For skips and scales, practice them separately from the music.
    3. Find complementary exercises. If you use a book like the Arban method, find exercises that look similar to your trouble spots and work them too.
    4. Put it together, but slowly at first. Once the pieces (time signatures, scales, skips, etc.) are starting to feel comfortable, start taking sections of the music slowly, then increase the tempo gradually as you repeat them. The point is to be accurate on every repetition while picking up speed.

    Also, having listened to the piece a couple of times on YouTube just now, I'd say that you want to make sure you can *hear* the leaps. Listen to the piece, play the intervals slowly, but make sure your ear knows where you're trying to take the horn. In anything modern like this, you absolutely need to be hearing the notes ahead of trying to play them.

    Hope this helps!
    Adrian L. Quince
    Composer, Conductor, Euphoniumist
    www.adrianquince.com

    Kanstul 976 - SM4U

  3. Thanks you for taking the time to answer.
    All of this advice seems very logical, so thank you for helping! I'll definitely attempt to use it all later while practicing.

  4. #4
    If your piece is on YouTube or another video streaming site, you can often go to the settings icon at the lower right and reduce the speed of the playback so you can take time to analyze it more completely. As I'm teaching my daughter in sight reading and practice for her honor band pieces, in the tough spots, you can start as slow as you want. Get the timing of each note down correctly and make them fully articulated, then speed up slowly with each pass until you can play it flawlessly at the correct speed. Best of luck!

  5. Thanks for the tip!
    This songs difficulty is not necessarily the speed of the music; it's mostly difficult because the fingering patterns are just plain awkward, and the partial jumps have no order that is visible to me.

  6. #6
    Regarding difficult fingerings, you might find my "Advanced Fingering Guide" helpful. It's a cross between a tutorial and quick reference, and if you look through it carefully you will understand the logic of alternate fingerings and where/how they can help you:

    http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/...7?aff_id=15680

    If I remember right this piece has a lot of long jumps. When the upper notes are high enough to be in that "vague" range, where you could easily be a step or minor-third too high or low, you could practice them slowly and take the top note down an octave. That will give you ear a more solid target. Then alternate slowly between the version with the top note down an octave and the normal version. Half of the battle is getting your ear to help aim your chops!
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
    Facebook: davewerden
    Twitter: davewerden
    Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium

  7. #7
    I assume you are referring to the John Stevens piece. Demondrae Thurmon does a marvelous performance on his aptly named CD "Soliloquies." I agree with everything said above, and the slow practice with care for slotting the notes seems to be the most effective for me. It has been a while since I played this piece, but I definitely had to slow down for the speed bumps until I developed the muscle memory to then begin taking it faster a little bit at a time.
    Thanks.
    Best Regards,
    Don Brown
    -------------------------
    Besson BE2052S Prestige, SM3X
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    Yamaa YBL613 F/Gb Bass 'bone, DW HT1AL
    Besson 10-10 F Attachment 'bone (1968), SM4AL
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    Blue pBone just for fun!
    Indian bugle
    Shofar

  8. Ok, thanks for the advice. I have been practicing slowly and followed Dave's fingering guide and have noticed a large difference. I now have the piece relatively clean at 145, which is a large improvement for me. Thanks again!

  9. #9
    Hi there Chris,

    Although I have not performed this piece, I spent some time preparing the first two movements during the summer!

    Like most other people, the first thing that I usually do when starting work on a piece is looking up a recording. I actually could not find any quality recordings of the piece on Youtube, but on Spotify I was able to find a recording of Demondrae Thurman performing the piece! The piece was written for him, and he plays it musically and masterfully. I would recommend finding the best recordings possible of whatever music you listen to!

    Best of luck on your studies,

    Jonah Zimmerman

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