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Solo And Ensemble: What Makes A Good Instrumentalist?

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Solo And Ensemble: What Makes A Good Instrumentalist?
When listening to covers of songs on instruments you don’t want to hear a instrumentalist play a song really bad, you rather listen to a good instrumentalist. Which is why being able to pick out the nitty gritty imperfections. Solo and Ensemble is a mere 2 weeks away, and practicing the correct skills to fix and critique songs seems appropriate. I listened to two young men playing the same song, “Carl Stamitz Clarinet Concerto NO. 3 - 1. Mov.”, both are high school students yet both played the song differently. Both boys did well, as I evaluated them using the Solo and Ensemble rubric.

The first version I listened to was performed by Cesar Augusto, he did extraordinarily well with a few exceptions. He had a great tune, it sounded very natural, he has a lot of confidence. As a soloist he had a accompaniment, and his tuning with her was really well, they always blended appropriately. Although at about 6 minutes he had an audible gasp, otherwise throughout the whole he didn’t breath on the bar lines or make any of them audible. When it comes to tempo he sped up when it
…show more content…

Starting with a positive comment, he had great breathing, never on the bar line, and his breathing wasn’t audible. Leo’s sound seemed weak and forced, it was so quiet I had to turn my volume all the way up. Before he even started playing he tried to tune with the pianist but didn’t, he just went ahead and started. During the song every time he played a high note it seemed squeaky, not natural at all. Knowing that the piece was to get louder and softer I looked forward those parts, but they were hardly there. Lastly he didn’t have good posture, he hunched over the whole song, he could have risen the stand but didn’t. Overall, Leo was skilled enough to play a class A solo but not skilled enough to receive a 1, I would give him a 2. He needed a bit more practice and then he would be

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