Rivet Town Parade!

     Holy moly people! I haven't written a review on anything since August?! I am so sorry! Let's see, an update on my life... I am now a music ed major! That's all pretty much.

     Anyways, I felt like only doing one song today, so I chose "Rivet Town Parade" from the movie Robots. It was composed by none other than John Powell. (Love that guy!)  Though it is really short, it is my all time favorite piece in the entire soundtrack. If my school had a marching band, I would figure out some way to get us to play it at some game or convention. If anybody has tried to call me recently, and you happen to be near me, (why are you calling me while you are right next to me?) you will hear that it is my new default ringtone :). Anywho, on with the review.

    Now for any of you have read my previous blogs, you will notice that I'm not very good at writing reviews on music. I more just like to talk about what I like and don't like about stuff and that's pretty much it. Hopefully as time goes on, my reviewing skills will improve. Also, I think it would help if I didn't just grab stuff out of my own music library to review because that's kind of biased. So suggestions from you guys would be awesome!! It can be from anything you want, movies, tv shows, random bands, the like. Seeing as I really have no practice using any other form of reviewing practice methods, I shall continue with what I know how to do if everybody is ok with that.

     

    Ok, so as I mentioned earlier, this is a great marching band piece. Obviously a marching band played it. (No duh) But what's great about it is that it's one of the few pieces that I've heard that actually truly features the bass line so prominently. This can be nice for the bass instrument players because I know many who dislike marches because the bass parts are just so dang boring! (yes, I know bass instrument players, my BF and BFF are bass players, so don't question me). :P Also, it's an awesome brass piece! Do you hear all that awesome brass along with the bari sax??!  It just sounds so fun to play! And  it definitely gets people moving and grooving. :)

    So if I have inspired you with my lame review skills to want to try to get your marching band to play this piece, just first think about how good your trumpet players actually are.... because you know they are going to try screaming with this piece and they will most likely be out of tune for sure, especially if they aren't very good in the first place and that's just obnoxious. Also, I recommend a good strong and large bass line.

   So yeah to finish my review, I give this piece 7 eighth notes! ♫♫♫♪

   Happy Turkey day this week! Don't forget to send your suggestions to be reviewed!! :)

-Trumpetgirly

Forbidden Friendship

So I signed up for some music ed classes, and I'm taking conducting and brass methods now! Now I can add even more instruments to my "know how to play instruments" list! Definitely looking forward to it a ton. I also got fitted for my own baton! That was super exciting! I felt like I was getting fitted for a harry potter wand :D Go nerdy-ness! Gotta get a case for it so it doesn't snap in half when I'm carrying it in my back pack, because then it's useless. The downfall to the brass methods class is it's two hours of pure brass playing, right before 2 hours of playing trumpet in symphonic winds, so that will be deadly for a while. At least it will help me work on my endurance skills.

So today, I wanted to review the "How to Train Your Dragon" soundtrack. I have a very high love for this soundtrack and it's constantly playing on my ipod. Anybody who knows me also knows I'm obsessed with the movie as well. Anyways, the history I have with this album consists of me watching the movie and liking the music, then not having enough money on itunes to purchase it so I would constantly be listening to it on youtube just so I could have it while I'm writing papers and such. FINALLY I got enough itunes money to purchase it and now it's one of my highest listened to albums. Why I didn't review this album the other day is beyond me.

This album was composed by John Powell. Because the movie is about vikings, he decided to incorporate a little Celtic feel through out the album and is very predominate in some pieces.  Right out of the gates, with "This is Berk" you are thrust right into the action of the first scene of the movie, and the music definitely does it justice. With the heavy tone and exciting feel, you are already excited to continue watching the movie.

As the album continues you hear more of the fabulous celtic themes and dramatic areas. The next notable piece I want to discuss, and the piece that I fell in love with as I was watching the movie is "Forbidden Friendship". As you may have noticed, this piece is the title of today's blog. I did that because of the impact it had on me. For awhile this piece was constantly on repeat and I would have nothing else playing but this. Anyways, this piece is all about friendship (if you couldn't tell by the title). It's just so heart felt and lovely.

Lastly, the piece that always gives me the chills is "See You Tomorrow" My absolute favorite part is at 1:25. If you listen closely there are 3 different melodies playing. There is the base line playing continuing to play the base melody heard in the rest of the piece, low brass playing this beautiful melodic melody and the strings playing the original theme, ALL ON TOP OF EACH OTHER'S PARTS! And it's just so amazing, it's just something you have to listen to over and over again.

Despite being one of my favorite soundtracks EVER, I give "How To Train Your Dragon" a full bar of 8th notes! ♫♫♫♫! I believe that John Powell did an amazing job composing the music for this movie, and I believe it completely deserved it's Oscar nomination.  I actually am quite upset that it didn't win the oscar for best original score. I feel that it was 10 times better than the social networks soundtrack. But oh well, it has still won in my heart. :)

-Trumpetgirly

Audition Day

After playing piano for 7 years, trumpet for almost 11 and drums for 2 years, you'd think that being able to sight read would just be a given by now. I guess everybody is different because after all that, I still can't sight read to save my life. After doing my seating audition for my school's Symphonic Wind Ensemble, I wonder if I'm even going to get a good seat. I could just sit here and hope that my professor will give me the benefit of the doubt over the new freshman, knowing how I actually preform, but I don't want to just start assuming. Whatever happens, happens I guess, and all I can do is sit and wait until Tuesday comes around and I get my parts.

So I feel that I really have the urge to talk about the soundtrack for Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2. Oh. My. Gosh. Never before have I ever fallen in love with a soundtrack when it's just in preview stage, then love it still even before I've seen the movie. And guess what, after seeing the movie twice now, I love it even more. All I can pretty much say at the moment, is this is definitely the best Harry Potter soundtrack that is out there. Whenever I hear pieces such as (SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!) "Snapes Demise" or "Snape and Lily" I just naturally start tearing up because of the content of the movie. Also, I don't know about you, but when I was watching the 19 years later scene, and "Leaving Hogwarts" piece from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I almost cried out with joy. I was just so darn happy!! And all the little tid bits of Hedwigs theme thrown through out the soundtrack! I was about to die of joy. If I could meet Alexandre Desplat right now, I would give him a huge hug and thank him for making the last movie the best. (I'd probably ask him to sign something for me as well :P) I don't know what else to say to do this soundtrack justice, because I can't come up with anything else to express my joy of it.

So, "Dragon Flight", this is one of my favorite pieces from the soundtrack just because it's so majestic. It starts out very stressful (if you've seen the movie, you'll know what I'm talking about) and around :45, it just becomes so pretty it makes you melt inside. Here's a great example of Hedwig's Theme! Yay for Hedwig's theme! Highly recommended for any itunes library.

I love this piece, it's so chilling and really starts out the movie in the right tone.

Dramatic war music! love Love LOVE :11 onward. This melody is also in "Statues". Whenever I listen to it, it makes me feel like I'm about to go into battle right on with them.

I can't even think of anything to say to this one. Whenever I hear it I want to cry. :'(

So everybody! Practice your site reading skills, because you never know when you are going to need them! Also, make sure to take a look at the Harry Potter soundtrack mentioned! It's definitely worth a listen, and if you end up not liking it, just blame me. :P But make sure to let me know what you think! Tootles!

-Trumpetgirly

Complete change of direction

So I had an epiphany today while doing homework and realized what I can finally blog about besides abstract things. I can review my music. I am a huge soundtrack music person and I'm sure there are others out there just like me who want to know what good soundtracks are out there and want to talk about them because lots of people don't really understand our love for them. SOOOO alas, I will use this blog for just that. Also, I've discovered that I am fairly good at finding great free songs on itunes so I might dedicate a blog a week to reviewing those. Anyways, I may not be blogging religiously since school is very time consuming but I will try my best.