Private Concerts

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  My sister Ashley performed in her first 'concert' last Sunday. Her teacher, Teacher Chrissie, asked us if we could drive to Tagum (about an hour from Davao City Proper) for a small gathering organized by a British string instrument instructor living there.

  Other students also came to perform. Four others from the Agdao Violin Institute, also teacher Chrissie's students, and students from the Tagum Junior Symphony Orchestra.

  Here are Teacher Chrissie's students from AVI:

To watch more videos and read the full post click here.

Piano?

  Mom said she found a piano teacher for me. Can't wait to start! My music skills need work. I haven't been practicing either guitar or piano for a loooong time now. I'm attending voice class regularly, though, the schedule needs work... I'm always late. It's right after Ashley's Violin lesson that's why. We only have enough time to drive all the way to the other side of town, and we love to eat, so... yeah.

  Anyway, for voice, we're cleaning up 'Ave Maria' and 'The Prayer'. Also learning 'Bring Him Home' from Les Miserables. It's a guy song so I don't know why teacher chose it for me, but it sounds nice. We always practice it last so my voice gets weak by the time I sing it. Teacher said I have to work on the stamina of my voice.

  According to my current voice teacher the thing about cold water  damaging vocal chords isn't true! She said that as long as I am using the correct vocal organs, I don't have to avoid cold drinks. She said that not drinking cold water only applies to those who are into the Pop genre since they tend to belt out...

  The internet doesn't say anything about the genre part :( Maybe it's best if I just avoid cold water before and after singing, not for my whole life.

  I'm avoiding chocolate, though. Based on experience I think this is logical. I ate chocolate with nuts once before singing practice in church and I literally couldn't sing! It was a little painful, even... I also herd form a friend that Lea Salonga doesn't eat chocs...

  We don't get to blog too often. Missing out on a lot of things... 

'Phantom' in Manila

 The Cultural Center of the Philippines was a full house on the second day of 'The Phantom of the Opera'. Many members of the audience seemed to have taken great care in dressing their best. The booth that sold 'Phantom' souvenirs was so busy and crowded, it was a wonder how the sales people were able to attend to everyone.

  We were seated at the {very scary} edge of the highest balcony. I had to grab on to the chairs on the sides because I was shaking for fear of falling... Our position in the theater made the performers look short though. Good thing CCP still sells... Read More

Antonio Pappano on Verdi's 'Otello'

Interesting lecture.

Will look for more videos of Otello

:)

Voice Lessons

  First voice lesson in Scherzo Music School today. I heard about the school when one of their teachers, Rogerbert Goleng Jr., performed Nessun Dorma in a concert by the Agdao Violin Institute, with Ashley's teacher conducting. 

  I came up with a list of songs I would like to learn but for our first meeting we did 'Think of Me' from The Phantom of the Opera. 

  Am practicing piano more regularly now. Also avoiding cold water successfully.

  Going to Manila for the Hip Hop Shakespeare workshop really opened up my mind about what I really wanna do. Theater, acting, singing, dancing... performing all in all.

  You can read about my trip and the workshop in my blog from Pointe to Pointe:

Shakespeare Workshop :)

Hip Hop Shakespeare Workshop

Last Day of Workshop

Brunch at UP Diliman

  Ashley has improved so much with her violin... She practices a lot these days :)

Epic fail moment...

  This is a blooper of the 'Daydreamer' Cover I did a few weeks ago. Ashley and I were so happy with the location we found until...

Sarah Chang

  Hi Ashley here, I watched this interview of Sarah Chang. She is a professional Korean violinist who performed at Carnage Hall when she was 14 years old. She plays a lot of fast songs. My dad wants me to play like her {which I think is almost impossible!}. The first time I watched her perform, I was so shocked! I didn't know a song that difficult was possible to play...

                                      

This is the first Sarah Chang video I watched which my dad showed me. She was about 15 here.

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Violin Hunting Too!

  Amber here, just wanted to add more about yesterday. So we went to two different music stores and Ashley's teacher tried and tested each violin. I learned a lot about the instrument and even came across this little guy:

  It's the same brand and model as my guitar tuner but it's made for only four strings; a violin and mandolin tuner ^_^ Didn't know there was such thing until then!

  A little into our violin testing, this group of college students form the school close by came into the shop (which was pretty big, BTW), and did this [fun-looking] jam session. They were using all the display instruments and playing pop songs ^_^

Violin Hunting

  I have a new violin!!! according to my violin teacher, my fingers have grown longer, and if I don't get a new violin, I will have very hard time with my fingerings. So Mom went searching for good violin brands. But then, my teacher called saying not to buy any, she wanted to see the violin before we bought it.


  Today, we went "violin hunting". I learned from my teacher that the older the wood they use for the violin the better. She also said that it doesn't matter what the brand is or how much it is, what matters is the sound. You will know that the wood is old if you see some grooves on it. If the wood is young, you'll see it's just plain with no lines or grooves. Beware of 'fake' grooves on the wood. Some manufacturers put groove-like patterns... You can check if this is done if the inside of the instrument has NO groves.

The violin My teacher is holding is older compared to the one I am holding. You can tell by the groves :)

  We bought the violin in Better Components Music store after checking in one other store. I feel that the wood of my violin is PERFECT.



-Ashley

New Project

  Hi :) It's Amber. We didn't get to finish doing Amazing Grace, but were  doing something new again; Blowing in the Wind by Peter, Paul, and Mary. It's an old song but Mom was in love with it...

  I'm using my guitar for this one, I've only figured out as far as the intro, though, and am using this video as reference: YouTube: Peter Paul & Mary - Blowin in the wind. Ashley is also doing a violin version of the same song... curious of the outcome ^_^


  Went to the music shop today. Ashley needs a new violin. According to her teacher her fingers are getting longer. Since we were already there, I brought my good old guitar tuner {who seems to be feeling down lately -_-}. According to the guy in the store, my tuner needs new batteries. So that's what I did next; I bought batteries in the camera shop right across. The batteries were only fifty pesos for two, and I now have an accurate and happy tuner :D

  Videos soon... hopefully :)

Ashley Playing Vivaldi's Summer (Presto) by ear

  Here's a video of Ashley playing Vivaldi's Summer (Presto) which she worked out by ear. She's been working on this for quite sometime now and she based it on the video of Valerie Kim's Audition :)

- Amber :)

Pieces I am working on

Hi it's Ashley. I got to ouido a song from Les Miserables. It is called 'I Dreamed a Dream'. sang by the character Fantine. It is not as easy as I thought. If you listen closely, you can hear I made a mistake in the beginning, at the 7th note to be exact. My mom took a video of me. (look below).

I also did 'As Long As He Needs Me' from Oliver Twist the musical, in piano.( I have the piece).

ADELE 'Daydreamer' Cover 2

 Amber Again :)  Here's a better version of the cover I did this morning. I didn't sing the Third verse because... I forgot :( ... Thinking of opening a You Tube channel :D

  I think my voice is better here, and I used a different guitar this time. The one I used this morning had metal strings (it's actually my Dad's guitar) and the one I used for this cover have nylon strings (My guitar)...

ADELE 'Daydreamer' Cover

  Hi!!! Amber again :) So this is my first ever cover video. I'm doing ADELE's 'Daydreamer' Thanks so much to my friend Alex for teaching me the first part of the song and to @Angelguitaricha for her tutorial :D

  I'm not so happy about how my voice sounds like... I now know what people mean by nasal... I'm really going to fix that now :( 

The Dream Lives

Hi its Ashley here. I am so excited for the coming movie this December. Les Miserables!!!! I watched the 25th anniversary on Youtube. Samantha Barks is still the Eponine even in the movie. am sooooo excited! Here is the trailer.

Hi There :)

Detail from
Wilhelm Hammershoi's Girl at a Clavier   

   Hi there, it's Amber. Welcome to our blog. The idea for this came up when we were practicing piano this afternoon. We got the name; Girl at a Clavier from Wilhelm Hammershoi's oil painting.  Earlier today Mom told us that she's going to start requiring us to do songs once a month or so. Her first assignment is "Amazing Grace".

  Today we started out with the melody of the voices; Ash  the mezzo and me the soprano voice. This is only the second song we've arranged together, the first being "Wandering Child" from The Phantom of the Opera. I try to post a video of us performing that, as soon as we get this whole blog figured out :)

  I'll also do a guitar version of  "Amazing Grace", hopefully with plucking... Video of that too...

  I'm trying to regularly practice piano now. I'm working on Bach's "Minuet in G" which I performed at a recital a long time ago ^_^ I also have to start practicing guitar regularly. There was a time I used to practice everyday, but now...

  I'll work on getting back to that.