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Status: Music (2023 - June)

(Text as at 06/07/2023 00:43:12)

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Rationale for this Project


Summary of Progress during April - June 2023
  1. I spent 65.5 hours in 23Q2 on this Project, or related work (167.75 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2022). That's 102.1% of the planned effort (99.6% YTD). Overall, 8.6% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 8.6% YTD) - as against 8.5% planned (8.2% YTD).
  2. As can be seen above, I’ve continued to recover my focus, lost in 20Q3. There are still conflicts from my return to Bridge and from Bertie, the puppy. But now I’ve taken on the organising role for the Enigma Ensemble I need to keep in shape as an oboist. While I’m probably more in shape than the other members of the Ensemble, administration is taking away much of my practise time. Indeed, somewhat less than half of the time recorded against this project is spent actually playing the oboe.
  3. While I’ve been focusing on Grade VII oboe, I have started to look at Grade VIII. Unfortunately, while I practice almost every day when well, it has only been for 15 minutes, which just about keeps things ticking over.
  4. Until mid-March 2020, I had oboe lessons every two weeks during term-time, but these came to a stop in on account of Covid-19. I had the opportunity to continue them via Facebook Messenger in May 2020 but decided against it for two reasons, neither of which came to anything, as it happens:-
    1. I wanted to prepare acceptable recordings for review.
    2. I wanted to try playing by ear, which would take time away from preparing set pieces.
  5. I was making good progress on my own – aided by my friend Dave providing me with piano backing tracks for pieces by Schumann and Saint-Saens. Unfortunately, I seem to have a couple of cloth ears for music and attempts at playing by ear are in abeyance after about a day’s effort, spread over some weeks.
  6. Also, I got “stuck” on the 3rd Movement of the Saint-Saens – it’s supposed to be played at 140 bpm, and I couldn’t manage it at 60 bpm, especially with the piano accompaniment that Dave had prepared for me, as the synchronisation is really awkward. This led me to lose heart a bit and hence practice less, though I’ve subsequently found that the piece has been presented as a graduation piece at the RSM (according to a BBC R3 presenter). I do seem to be making some progress, however, so it’s been retrieved from the “must be joking” bucket.
  7. All things considered – not least the ‘cost of living crisis’ – it doesn’t look as though I’ll be returning to Oboe lessons any time soon.
  8. I signed up for the $4 / month version of "Earmaster - Ear Training & Sight-singing" in September 2020, though have cancelled my subscription as I never even used all the free lessons.
  9. The Enigma Ensemble – while it eventually emerged from Covid hibernation – is now formally defunct as our Director (Michael Aarons) has retired on account of ill health. However, the group is continuing out of St John’s Church, Billericay2. As noted above, I’ve taken on the organising role for this, though Jill leads the sessions.
  10. Over the last few sessions we’ve been practicing Pachelbel’s Canon which – even though we’ve slowed it down to 40 bpm (rather than the specified 52 bpm) is generally difficult to synchronise for the Ensemble, especially as the three mail parts – shared between Flute, Violin and Oboe – are individually difficult when they get to the semi-demi-quavers. We’ve made good progress on something that would have been out of the question in the past. Julie and I have had an extra practice session at Jill’s house
  11. I record and report time spent practicing individual pieces on my oboe: here3.
  12. Further details follow:-
    Music (Total Hours = 65.5)
    1. Music - Administration (Total Hours = 32)
      • 23Q1 Status Reports (0.75 hours)
      • Choir for All Seasons - Music Copying (0.25 hours)
      • Discussions with Hilary & Les (2 hours)
      • Music Copying / Filing (14.5 hours)
      • Oboe - Enigma Ensemble - Admin (14.5 hours)
        → See "Admin - Music - Administration" (32 hours)
    2. Music - Oboe (Total Hours = 33.5)
Plans for the Near Future
Progress to Date

The lists of items performed is cumulative, so I’ve hived off the history to a separate document11, which needs a minor update.


In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 2: Footnote 5: Footnote 6: Footnote 7: Footnote 8: Footnote 9: Footnote 10: Ie. The following:-

Table of the Previous 12 Versions of this Note: (of 72)

Date Length Title
30/04/2023 01:06:14 10535 Status: Music (2023 - March)
10/01/2023 23:35:31 12846 Status: Music (2022 - December)
10/10/2022 22:32:10 11803 Status: Music (2022 - September)
03/07/2022 01:29:17 10307 Status: Music (2022 - June)
11/04/2022 00:01:26 10516 Status: Music (2022 - March)
03/01/2022 23:58:34 10756 Status: Music (2021 - December)
02/07/2021 20:32:38 12443 Status: Music (2021 - June)
03/04/2021 19:58:05 9939 Status: Music (2021 - March)
04/01/2021 19:40:48 12086 Status: Music (2020 - December)
04/10/2020 00:27:22 11297 Status: Music (2020 - September)
03/07/2020 22:09:07 10687 Status: Music (2020 - June)
04/04/2020 00:14:24 9476 Status: Music (2020 - March)


Note last updated Reference for this Topic Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12 812 (Status: Music (2023 - June)) Status: Summary (2023 - June)

Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Status: Oboe Practice (2023 - September) Theo Todman's Music Page      

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.



Summary of Notes Citing This Note

Aeon Papers - Summary Document: 2017-2018 Status: Oboe Practice (2023 - September) Status: Priority Task List (2023 - September) Status: Summary (2023 - June), 2 Status: Summary Task List (2023: July - September)
Status: Summary Task List (YTD: 22Q4 - 23Q3) Theo Todman's Music Page, 2 Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4    

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.



Text Colour Conventions

  1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2023



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