Just thought it would be nice to have a thread to share our goals/ambitions etc.

So... Mine is:
To pefect the Mozart sinfonia concertante for violin and viola by October when I'm playing it in a concert.

over to you...
x

get into surrey youth orchestra is my main goal.

If that fails I will aim to be accepted in the croydon symphiny.

Also aim to win best solo at school in february time.

Well I've just had a long break where, although I kept playing, I wasn't practising very hard but more noodling about with my fiddle .

So my aim is to get back into a good practice routine (lots of scales etc), take grade 4 in November and contact someone about the local amateur orchestra to see if I can join soon.

Okay that's three goals, not one

Oh and my current playing aim is to perfect Handel's violin sonata number four in Dmajor!!!!

I don't suppose I really have one, to be honest. I suppose it's mostly just to learn to play well, not just to pass exams, and to enjoy it.

I have goals as far as theory exams go - to get distinctions in both Grade 4 (November this year) and Grade 5 (March next year). That will do for musical goals for now, although my teacher and I have discussed doing the Grade 1 practical exam in March too and maybe even being ready for Grade 2 by June. We shall see.... I'm not forcing myself.

My goal is to learn to play some nice tunes like:-

Romeo and Juliet, Greensleeves and The Swan from Carnival of Animals. They may be easy for any of you but unreachable for me till now. Not losing hope though!

Articulate every note in the fiendish scale passages in the bass part of "Till Eulenspiegel einmal anders" (version of the tone poem for quintet: Cl, Bn, Hn, Vn, Cb) as well as our excellent bassoon player will be doing by performance day, 9 September.

I wanna be able to manage to play in the viola section of the local amateur orchestra without disgracing or embarrasing myself more than twice in one bar

Hoping to take grade 4 violin in November/December like Lottie but I'd better get practicing - I have spent the last few months playing for fun with not many scales or exam prep going on.

Lottie - have you decided on your pieces? At the moment I'm looking at Allegro ma non troppo - it's hard but i like it - Allegro from list B and La Cumparsita for list C - haven't made much headway with any of them yet so would appreciate some advice on any alternatives that might be good options!!

Hi there Orla

Yes I've been the same: just playing for fun for the last few months.

I don't really like any of the 'A' pieces The English Dance is too repetitive for me. I quite like the Allegro ma non troppo but I keep playing it like a modern piece and not one from the 1700s I would really like to be able to play the Andante Cantabile but my bowing is just not good enough to make it sound properly controlled. When term and lessons start again my teacher is going to look out something from the alternative list to try.

I love all three 'B' list pieces so am learning them all. At the moment I think my favourite is the Russian Fantasy but I really like the Valse Lente too... especially the harmonics It feels like a 'real' violin piece instead of just beginners music

The 'C' pieces are okay. I can't play La Cumparsita because my fingers are too short to play third position on the G string very well. It might improve with time but just now my intonation is dodgy in that piece. I like Clockwork Doll (I like Shostakovich) but I doubt I'd be able to pull it off in an exam without my E string squeaking. So that leaves Slow Fox which is allright. I might look at the alternatives to this list too.

Scales... well, apart from a couple to warm up I haven't played any really Sometimes I like scales but just now I don't and keep finding excuses to avoid them!

My goals:

1. Play in an amateur string quartet some time within the next five years.
2. Play all of Bach's cello suites and partitas and sonatas for solo violin on my viola some time before i die.

- perfect all of the first Bach cello suite
- (not string based) Get the Mozart piano fantasia up to scratch. (very nearly there)

Longer term:
- grade 5 saxophone and viola.
- grade 8 flute and treble recorder
- Diploma on piano.



Hopefully a manageable list....

- Grade 8 violin in March
- Be able to cope in the county youth orchestra (scary repetoire )
- Study and get to know the repetoire for said orchestra before term starts.

- Work on my technique and stop getting into bad habits
- Take Grade 4 violin (TG) and Grade 3 flute in November/December
- Restart piano and oboe lessons once I've submitted my thesis
- Buy a decent metronome

I'd eventually love to get to grade 8 violin that'd be great.

But for now I want to pass grade 5 and get into a local amateur orchestra

Ah! Does this mean that you're only choosing from the 'Selected Exam Pieces' book? If so, you might find something on the A list that you like better from the others on the syllabus??

I've decided that my immediate goal is to get in at least 15 mins prac 5 or 6 days per week and to be well on with 'Essential String Method' book 3 by the end of this calendar year. Beyond that feels like mere pipe dreams at the mo, but I'll set new goals later on.

Choosing exam pieces annoys me at times. For flute I always love loads of the list A pieces, especially the Baroque ones
I usually dislike all the list B ones

I'm not at this stage with viola though... my aim for that can be to play twinkle twinkle little star or something