Blogging Post

Here is your first blogging assignment. Go to You Tube and find a video of someone playing your instrument. Tell us a little bit about the person (which may require future research), the piece of music or anything else you feel is important. Then, you are to comment on the playing. What do you like about the performance? You may make commentary on difficulty, range, tone, technique and maybe you have some questions that arise after watching it. I have given you a a example of a video that I like and response for you to use as a guide. Happy Blogging! Here is my post. I have chosen Alison Balsom is a 30 year old female trumpet player from Hertfordshire England. She began playing at an early age and attended the famous Guildhall School of Music in England. She has a very busy schedule as a soloist and plays a great variety of music. Her CD, Caprice released in 2006 features Caprice #24 by Niccolo Paganini. Paganini was a great violinist virtuoso from Genoa, Italy. He is considered to be the father of violin technique. His Caprice No. 24 in A Minor is one of the most difficult pieces written for violin. This is a theme and variation on a very familiar melody and is one of the 24 caprices that Paganini wrote for violin. Alison Balsom has transcribed this Caprice for trumpet. What I like about this performance is the incredible technique that she displays. She has a beautiful warm tone in all registers of the instrument. In this piece she plays with a very lyrical approach through all variations. Each variation has very different challenges for the trumpet player. I love the 2nd variation which features the trumpet playing triplets from the upper register to lower register of the trumpet. Also, I love her flexibility on the final variation of the piece slurring large intervals and scales. I hope you like it! Just copy, paste and enjoy www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W7bGzi9G2k