practising

My absence in band today, due to a volleyball practise, inspired me to really work on my music fest pieces tonight. I practised for 45-50 ish minutes.
Rhosymedre: This piece has a very comfortable range for the frech horn, however most of the time the french horn has the meleody therefore having the correct timing and a nice full sound is ideal for this piece. In Rhosymedre I play 2nd french horn so I practised the second last bar where I have the moving eighth notes at a pp dynamic level while gradually slowing down (rall.) Throughout this piece there are some dynamic contrasts (i.e. bar 19 cresc. 23 cresc, 24 dim, f at bar 35, 37-38 cresc, 44 dim)

Second Suite: I mainly worked on Song without words (2nd movement) because I know at rehearsal Mr. Stevenson usually works on this piece ( quote: "the second movement is the movement that will set aside the winning band from the others" ... or something like that) I really focused on pitches while practising this piece. The french horn is constantly at a low/quiet dynamic throughout the piece, which can cause the pitch to drop.

The Light Eternal: By using a metronome I gradually increased my tempo at bar 150, where the french horn has the melody with the saxes. By gradually increasing the tempo I knew that I was hitting the pitches, the right accents, and the slurs without speed covering up my mistakes.

After practising I realized that my mouth was very sore, and I drew the conclusion that I have to work on my playing endurance so my ability does not decrease as I play songs in a performance.