Vaughn Williams Tuba Concerto on euph. Logan Willis

[jakewillis]

Hey everyone- we’ve had some wonderful feedback from the posters on this forum. -the reason for posting this is two-fold.

One is to share my Christmas present - I got a Zoom iQ7 microphone which plugs right in to my iPhone. I think it got pretty decent audio (definitely way better than the phone microphone!). It’s got some quirks* and I haven’t tested it on tuba yet due to a lip injury, but I like it. *You have to use it on a tripod, and in airplane mode when taking serious recordings. Otherwise it picks up all sorts of other noise and when it gets notifications, there’s a clicking sound. If you’re only using it on a tripod to record, it works ok.

Second is to share Logan’s audition for the concerto competition for the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony. I recorded it with my iPhone with the Zoom iQ7 attached. The auditions are this weekend, but he is at the final callback camp for The Bluecoats, he was trying to ask about how to send in his video and (to my surprise) he asked if he could just do it right there and then.

He hadn’t looked at it in a few days, but I thought he did a nice job considering he had just finished a two-hour rehearsal and had a little dry mouth. Here are the second and first movements of the VW tuba concerto unaccompanied on Euphonium.

https://youtu.be/QDLd_QOhbsk


I’m a proud dad! Thanks for watching.

[davewerden]

He sounds very good! The low notes don't seem to scare him at all (they would have scared me at that age for sure) and he has the necessary smoothness in his approach.

He needs to look at the music he's playing around 2:36. There was a flub just before this, so maybe that threw him off, but he's nearly twice as fast as he should be on the duple eighth notes that come just after the triplets. But overall he's doing great!

[jakewillis]

Thank you so much for the feedback! I didn’t notice it myself until you pointed it out! That’s very helpful, especially if he gets to perform it.

[MarChant]

First of all, his sound is very good, especially in the more lyrical passages. Also very impressive low notes. Those big intervals at the end of the 1st movement, wow. He seems to hit them spot on without effort...

Something I think he could improve on is phrasing. This is especially noticeable in the 2nd movement, the love song. This should be more flowing musical sentences. Also rythmics seem to be off in some places, but this is hard to get right without the accompaniment.

But all in all great effort so far!

[jakewillis]

First of all, his sound is very good, especially in the more lyrical passages. Also very impressive low notes. Those big intervals at the end of the 1st movement, wow. He seems to hit them spot on without effort...

Something I think he could improve on is phrasing. This is especially noticeable in the 2nd movement, the love song. This should be more flowing musical sentences. Also rythmics seem to be off in some places, but this is hard to get right without the accompaniment.

But all in all great effort so far!

Thank you - I will pass that along to him. Do you think it's a matter of playing more on one breath or just making it seem more connected musically? I'm going to listen to it with that in mind to see if I can say it to him with some clarity.

[MarChant]

Mostly musically connected. This may be a breathing issue as well, but you have to think of the music as logical sentences, with a beginning and an ending, where a rest does not necessarily mean the end of a sentence...

[Msan1313]

but he is at the final callback camp for The Bluecoats...

How'd his Bluecoats audition end up?

[jakewillis]

It’s this weekend. I’ll let you know.

[jakewillis]

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback. Logan won the competition and will be a featured soloist with the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony this spring! Sorry for bragging, but I’m super proud of all his hard work.

[davewerden]

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback. Logan won the competition and will be a featured soloist with the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony this spring! Sorry for bragging, but I’m super proud of all his hard work.

Happy to hear that - congratulations to your Logan!!