circusbird's music adventures

the music journal. main blog: @philipsrainyday

[circusbirdiee]

intro post!

meant to be connected to my youtube channel, which is largely centred around my music:

circusbird

Welcome to my youtube channel! Here I upload videos of my compositions and highlights from my livetreams on twitch (go check my twitch out).

about me:

pronouns: she/they

age: 18

mbti: ENTP-A

ethnicity: filipino

location: UK

languages: english, filipino, french

music experience sofar:

started playing the piano 5 years ago

picked up composition around the same time, and my piano playing and composing have been growing hand in hand ever since

finally finished my grade 8 exam at the end of this school year as my performance component for my music course

trying to pick up the guitar

not taking music as a degree but would love to join a music society (perhaps even a composition society?)

other fun facts:

main blog (all the fandom stuff): @philipsrainyday

ballet blog: @balletadventures

i really want to learn the cello

hope y'all enjoy my blog :)

[circusbirdiee]

btw i just finished my performance component for my music course this year 🥳🥳🥳

[fangirlinginleatherboots]

just so yall know

art block is your brain telling you to do studies.

draw a still life. practice some poses. sketch some naked people. do a color study. try out a different technique on a basic shape.

art block doesnt stop you from drawing, it stops you from making your drawings look the way you want them to. and thats because you need to push your skills to the next level so you can preform at that standard

think of it as level grinding for your next work.

[circusbirdiee]

got my composition compared to brahms todayyy im acc so happy

[circusbirdiee]

so i swore to myself id never listen to a lick of hector berlioz' symphonie fantastique again after having to study just the 1st mvnt for a term and that traumatised me. BUT i listened to it again today and parts were just downright beautiful. maybe i have been too harsh on you berlioz

[circusbirdiee]

i finished writing the 2nd mvnt of the piano trio!! i'm hopefully gonna start working on the 3rd one soon, and hopefully i'll get the trio finished this year

[circusbirdiee]

long postponed update BUT ive gotta finish the 4th movement this school year for my final

[circusbirdiee]

i finished writing the 2nd mvnt of the piano trio!! i'm hopefully gonna start working on the 3rd one soon, and hopefully i'll get the trio finished this year

[circusbirdiee]

it is so difficult to wrangle the pedal on an electric keyboard - sometimes it works, sometimes its inverted and works wrong, sometimes it just refuses to work no matter how hard you press. also it keeps sliding away

[mckenzie-t-canis-lupus]

being a pianist while also having self esteem issues is probably one of the most dangerous combinations out there

[thatone-midgardian]

My toxic trait is thinking I could play La Campanella

[aaronstveit]

Favorite Albums: Hounds of Love Kate Bush • 1985

When I was a child, running in the night Afraid of what might be Hiding in the dark, hiding in the street And of what was following me... Now hounds of love are hunting I've always been a coward And I don't know what's good for me...

[v1n3s-and-w1r3s]

Love how there’s always one (1) random thing wrong with the pianos at the college practice rooms. Usually it’s just your standard Out-Of-Tune But (arguably) Still Playable, but today I walked into one of the rooms to find that one random note in the bass register was just. eternally stuck. on pedal. nothing else just that one. They’re inventing New Problems over here I swear to god.

[vetchtibbles]

dead serious WHAT did they put into claire de lune to make it do all that

[caralarm-bicycles]

his whole debussy

[official-pussy-posts-2]

Official Debussy Post

[slackville-records]

Miles Davis (center on trumpet) and The Miles Davis Orchestra.

This was Davis' video debut. April 2, 1959.

Photo by CBS

[catharsis-in-a-bottle]

being a classical musician is an especially strange kind of artistry because i'm constantly just resurrecting ghosts. hundreds of years after a composer writes this piece i am channeling it through myself and yes, adding layers of my own interpretation and emotion to it, but it's still their ghost. a piece of their soul left behind to mingle with mine. and hundreds of years later these ghosts are saving my life all because they give me a concrete vessel through which to channel my sadness and rage. like an old spell - they wrote the script but it's powered by my emotions and through the centuries they help me cast Catharsis Beam on myself. anyway shoutout to sergei rachmaninoff.

[circusbirdiee]

rant

getting more than a little frustrated as of rn because i dont have access to a proper 88-key piano (electric or otherwise) at home - all i have is a 66-key midi keyboard w/o any dynamics or pedal. and at the level i'm trying to get for my music studies (which is grade 7+) the range is simply not sufficient. i know my parents have said theyre trying to get me a better keyboard and i wholeheartedly believe them but it doesnt seem like im getting this keyboard anytime soon and its just that its making the act of catching up even harder for me. and also the fact that im already insecure abt my performance skills is not helping!! i need to practice even more at home but cant - at least, not the way i used to with my pieces and technical work up to grade 5. grade 6 was a struggle, and grade 7 is impossible. i dont even know if ill ever reach grade 8 standard at this point because everything seems so fucking hopeless

[circusbirdiee]

THE BEAT DROP IN THE 2ND MOVEMENT OF SHOSTAKOVICH'S STRING QUARTET NO. 8 >>>>