Played the Tchaik at the Freo Eisteddfod

It’s all over!!

I was nervous ALL yesterday.  As soon as I woke up, at work, during meetings.   I thought to myself, “Why am I putting myself through this?”

I came home a bit earlier to play through some sections of the Tchaik, had dinner, and before I knew it I was warming up in the cold echoey room at the Fremantle Town Hall with some other musicians.

Initially I was meant to be first after the dinner break, but I ended up being fourth (the order of entrants varies quite a bit in the Open Concerto section I’ve come to realise).

At least this year Miss 9 and Miss 11 came along to see me too  Apparently Miss 9 was clapping very enthusiastically for me and enjoyed seeing her Dad on stage!

So I strolled onto the cold large empty stage with my young accompanist, tuned up, peered out into the sparse dark audience, and started to play.

Boy, I was still stressed, and although I tried really hard, my muscles were all tensed up too.  But I tried to make my violin sing and soar through the long journey of the Tchaikovsky violin concerto.

This year I even worked up a sweat on stage.  From stress, being tense, or just the 20 minutes of mental concentration required?

And then it was all over to what seemed like raptuous applause!

No memory lapse, but one too many intonation errors to make it a performance worthy of the finals. Something that really requires lots of slow practice and scales and arpeggio practice, which I obviously don’t have time to do.

Things that went well – opening, parts of the candenza, ending, interpretation and tone (mostly).

Things that didn’t go so well – intonation in parts, some of the shifts to nowhere I missed the top notes, clarity in the faster double stopped semiquavers and runs.

But I was so glad that it was over.  A personal milestone achieved for my violin this year.  And especially thankful that my young (Year 11 only!!) accompanist learnt his part in less than a week and really held his own too!

So in the last 3 years I’ve slowly worked my way through some of the violin concerto repertoire I had been lamenting not learning before – Wieniawski 2nd done.   Sibelius (although 1st movement only) done.  Tchaikovsky (1st movement) done.

Whatever “done” means.  For me (at my age and time to spend on the violin), setting the goal to perform it in public with an accompanist for my father and wife (and kids) is enough for me.

Getting to the finals or winning would be nicer still, but I’m secretly glad that I don’t have to go through all the stress again on Friday night!

But I’ve already started thinking about what concerto to learn next – Brahms or Beethoven or Barber?

For more posts on the Tchaik journey: http://jasechong.wordpress.com/tag/tchaikovsky/

Unsubscribed from mailing lists

Is your email inbox just cluttered with crap? 

I was getting over 20 emails a day – from mailing lists that I had joined up to years ago but now never read.  No, these aren’t “junk” ones that are usually mass mailed to everyone under the sun – these were from companies that I had signed up for emails to years ago!   Nowadays I spend most of my time just looking for a sender that is a real person.  I just don’t care now about the cheapest CDs or DVDs from some online store I happened to buy something at 5 years ago, or the latest anti-virus from some company I downloaded a trial version from 7 years ago!

So yesterday I did something that made me feel as good and as clean as vacuuming the house.

I went through these emails and hit the unsubscribe link on them.  All of them.

Unsubscribe.

Unsubscribe.

Unsubscribe.

Then cleaned out the rest of my inbox.

It felt good.

And today – not a single subscription email yet

Less than 10 days until the Freo Eisteddfod!

OMG!  Less than 10 days until the Eisteddfod.

Two nights ago I did my first play through for someone else – my Wifey!  Yes she sat down through ~20 minutes of it.  All went OK except I had 1 major stop where I did the wrong run which stuffed me all up, and I was quite nervous and tense through the whole thing that came out through my tone and body posture.   Hmm…  I have to do some major practise with a metronome over the next week – I’m just totally rushing some semis, which just makes life hard for myself. 

The other problem – no accompanist!!!  Over the last week I’ve contacted 20 different accompanists in Perth, but they are all either busy with another performance, too busy during the week accompanying school exams, not doing the Freo Eisteddfod, accompanying too many people at the Eisteddfod, or haven’t played the piano part before and it’s too late to learn it!!  Oh no!!! 

It’s really looking like I’ve left it too late.  One accompanist suggested I should have lined this up at least a month in advance – but they obviously didn’t realise I wasn’t even sure whether I could finish learning the whole piece until last week!

Might be time to face the reality and go with plan B – don’t do it, take a few lessons on it, and possibly aim to play it at a different Eisteddfod or music festival later in the year.

Hmm…   I wonder if there’s a backing track for it

Contributing to Trip Advisor

If you’re planning on travelling and you love to plan your own holiday, two internet sites that you HAVE to visit are Trip Advisor and Virtual Tourist.

These two great sites have a wealth of information and reviews on hotels, things to do, tips and traps.  And the best bit is that it’s all user created content – that is, reviews and articles from people who have travelled to those locations!

It’s no secret that I use these sites for planning our holidays, including our most recent one to Japan. 

However, I’ve been quite slack in “giving back” to the community, so this past month, I’ve decided to get off my lazy “behind” and write a few reviews.  And they’ve now been approved!

The Prince Park Tower in Tokyo – http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g1066451-d579136-r61995634-The_Prince_Park_Tower_Tokyo-Minato_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html

Oyado Koto no Yume in Takayama – http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g298113-d1444349-r61991869-Oyado_Koto_no_yume-Takayama_Gifu_Prefecture_Chubu.html

Hotel Granvia in Kyoto – http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g298564-d1071189-r61987683-Hotel_Granvia_Kyoto-Kyoto_Kyoto_Prefecture_Kinki.html

Pretty boring – I rated them all 5 out of 5 as they were all really great places (that we chose because of other reviews on Trip Advisor!).

The process to enter a review is quite simple.  You can also upload photos that you’ve taken.  I’d recommend uploading photos WITHOUT family members/people in them if possible   After you’ve submitted your review, it can take a while (few days -> couple of weeks) to get approved by someone else, and then it’s on the site for all to refer to.   I don’t think you can edit or remove your review once it’s on there, so make sure it’s all correct before you submit!

Hopefully other travellers around the world can use the information I posted to help them choose their final hotel!  I think I might backtrack and add more reviews…

Choosing a High School

We’re about to make one of the more important decisions for Miss 10′s life so far – the choice of High School for next year. 

How do we know if it’s the right choice?  What IS the right choice?

It’s been an interesting year so far, finding out how the high school thing works.  Like many things in life, there isn’t a manual that tells you clearly what to do, or even what options there are. 

Catholic High School

As a bit of background, Miss 10 currently goes to a Catholic Primary School where most kids feed into a particular Catholic High School.  So this was obviously our first action – make sure she’s enrolled, attend the Open day, go to the interview, etc.   The thing I love about a Catholic High School environment is the general ethos that the school operates on.   Catholic High Schools may offer some scholarships, but some don’t as it doesn’t match the ethos of helping those in need instead those who are talented.

Fees at Catholic High School are substantially less than other Private High Schools.  It may be a sweeping generalisation, but their school resources may not be as top notch and their staff salaries not as high as an elite Private School, but it may force them to use their funding more wisely.

Public High School

As Miss 10 is quite musical, we decided to try to get her into the Education Department’s Gifted and Talented program.  This is like an extension program run at particular Public (Government) High Schools.  For the music extension, this has involved a general musicality test and a music audition.  Next up is an academic test, and then I think there is an interview if she is shortlisted even further. 

We’re also in the catchment area for a pretty good Public High School, so Miss 10 could just automatically go to the “local” public school if we wanted.

Private High School

Getting into a Private High School is a bit different.  I hear that parents nowadays put their kids on the waiting list as soon as they’re born!  We didn’t think about this until quite recently and so Miss 10 was apparently “wwwaayyyyy” down the list.

Another way of getting into a Private High School is to try out for a scholarship.  For Miss 10, going for a music scholarship makes sense.  It seems each Private High School has their own entrance/scholarship methods, but for music it generally means a music audition, and maybe an academic test too (usually run by ACER).  Guess they don’t want to take fantastic musos who are “dumb”, but since aptitude in music usually correlates to academic results, maybe this is redundant???  

So this year, Miss 10 has sat the music audition and the academic test and we’re awaiting the results.  Getting a music scholarship from a Private High School will means getting “free” instrumental music lessons, and potentially a discount off school fees too.

–

So what now?  We just wait and see

Although many parents place a lot of importance on this decision, does it really make that much difference to the person in the end?   I keep on trying to tell myself – it’s not like you can tell whether someone went to this or that school once they’re an adult!

Sharing your media around the house

I have CDs in mp3 format and videos that I have now centralised onto a massive hard drive at home.   And I want to be able to listen and view these around my house at home.   Like on my TV, on my home stereo, on my portable iPod docking speakers.

Simple request?  I think so.

Simple answer?  Not really.

I’m started drawing up this list of solutions as it may help others out there in the same position as me.

—– 

Scenario 1: Video stored on Server, Controlled by iPhone, Viewed on iPhone

Use Air Video.  Best thing about this is that Air Video will transcode media on the fly so that it will “just work” on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Scenario 2:Video stored on Server, Controlled by PS3, Viewed on PS3

Use PS3 Media Server.  Best thing about this is that PS3 Media Server will transcode media on the fly so that it will “just work” on the PS3.  PS3 Media Server is what is referred to as a DLNA Server – which means devices that support the DLNA protocol (like the PS3 and XBOX360) will be able to talk to it.

Scenario 3: Video stored on Server, Controlled by family member’s PC, Viewed on family member’s PC

I’m not sure what’s best here at the moment.  Just use folder sharing?  This seems a bit “backward”!  I’m still looking for a really easy to use, nice looking DLNA client program for the Mac.  Might try XBMC (Xbox Media Center – a piece of software that was originally designed to turn an old XBOX into a Media Center, but now exists on many different platforms).

Scenario 4: Music stored on Server, Controlled by Server, Listen on Home Stereo

Use iTunes on Server, output to Airport Express speaker connected to Home Stereo

Scenario 5: Music stored on Server, Controlled by iPhone, Listen on Home Stereo (practically the same as above)

Use iTunes on Server, output to Airport Express speaker connected to Home Stereo, use Apple Remote on iPhone to control iTunes on server

Scenario 6: Music stored on Server, Controlled by PS3, Listen on PS3

Use PS3 Media Server running on Server, PS3 automatically recognises PS3 Media Server.

Scenario 7: Music stored on Server, Controlled by iPhone, Listen on iPhone (or speakers with iPhone dock)

Not sure.  Airfoil nearly gets there but due to no multi-tasking, you can’t run the Remote application and the Airfoil application at the same time on the iPhone.  Other third party solutions include Dot.tunes and Orb. 

Scenario 8: Music stored on Server, Controlled by family member’s PC, Listen on family member’s PC

Use iTunes on Server, use iTunes on other PC, setup with iTunes Home Sharing

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So it seems you still need a few different bits of software to achieve what really should be simple. 

Running a half Apple setup at home, iTunes is a good fit.  However, additional things to make it all work include Air Video, Airfoil and PS3 Media Server.   However, I’m now running THREE different media server applications – iTunes, Air Video and PS3 Media Server.  This is ridiculous!  It would best if I only had to run one.  Why can’t iTunes do it all?  

There also seems to be much overlap between Air Video and PS3 Media Server too – they both do transcoding and make media libraries easily accessible via other devices – these guys should join forces or something. 

Also, it seems really restricted and limiting that I can access my iTunes libraries on other family member’s PCs, but I can’t on my own iPhone at home.   Apple – are you listening?  You really need to expand Home Sharing to iPhones and iPod Touches.  I would love to have the gigabytes of music on my server natively accessible to my iPhone at home.  It would make my iPod docking speakers a true media extension for my home.

The day when it all just works simply without the user having to figure out which application to use for what purpose – that’ll be the day when technology really starts helping us instead of users being slaves.

Related Links

PS3 Media Server: http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/

Air Video: http://www.inmethod.com/

Airfoil: http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/

XBMC: http://xbmc.org/