On my music stand

I'm an amateur/intermediate/self-taught recorder player (She/Her) and this blog is mainly my practice diary. (2nd blog of Promenades et Digressions)

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A breathtaking artistic project

What esle to say? I'm really amazed every time I watch this video, I really needed to share it 🤩

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Rondeau from Abdelazer (Z570), Henry Purcell

Painting project update - 1st part

I finally did the 2nd part of my painting project (you can check my previous posts about it).

This time I tried to answer the following question:

How could I represent a music with abstract graphic elements like Wassily Kandinsky, especially knowing that music is mostly figurative for me?

For this I listened to a lot of music, looking for a piece which will not evokes to me a strong figurative scene in order to simplify the process. That’s how I found the Rondeau from Abdelazer by Henry Purcell interpreted by America's premiere Classical music ensemble for Voices of Music.

I like its solemn and dark character and tried my best to represent it. I feel this piece as calm, with a simple melody which repeats itself. The music has a dark color, but during the performance it evolves toward something a bit lighter. That's why I chosed mostly round shapes and dark colors (strangely the blue is not as dark in the picture as in reality... if you have any advice to photograph paintings don't hesitate to tell me in the comments).

It was very interesting to do and I loved to see appearing the painting progressively. I choose consciensiousely the colors and type of shapes, but the rest was pretty more instincitve, without thinking about it and only listening to the music. It was less controlled than in the other paintings I could have done and I liked this process. Maybe I will try to do another painting like this in the future 😊🎶

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I calligraphed a medieval musical score

I'm currently immersed in the history of medieval music and discovering how musical notation was done at that time made me want to get out my calligraphy material to try writing my own medieval music score. I'm not sure that it's accurate, but I had a lot of fun anyway.

And you know what? Drawing straight lines with a pen is a nightmare, ink goes constantely under the ruler… I wonder how they managed to get such straight and clean lines back then 🤔

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2025: A year of slow growth

It's time for a bit of retrospection!

2025 started with a bit of stagnation in my progression, which slowly made me lose my motivation for music. Thankfully, I had the good idea to dig a little bit into music history to get out of this discouraging phase. And it worked! :)

Even if my progression wasn't as important as in 2024, 2025 was rich in musical discoveries and I feel that these discoveries are like seeds that will help me to grow musically. I can't wait to see my future improvements!

In first I interested myself to my favorite composers and to music history among Renaissance and Baroque eras, mostly focused on the recorder or the flute.

Researches about composers really helps me to have a better comprehension of their style. I'm now more able to understand what a composer wanted to express, how its work resonates for me and why, thus helping me to choose the best interpretation I can give (and depending on my technical level of course...).

My historical researches also included the discovery of the evolution of the instrument, since the Middle Ages to today and the study of contrepoint and ornamentations for Renaissance music.

This last point led me to music theory. Indeed, the book I am using to learn about ornamentations and contrepoint requires a lot of music theory notions that I wasn't aware of. I knew what in France is called "solfège", in other words reading the music score with notions of rhythm, but other elementary notions were completely unknown to me (intervals, structure of scales, structure of chords, ...).

This is a long work as there are a lot to learn in music theory, but I'm already seeing the first improvements in my understanding of music functionment and vocabulary.

What's coming next?

Considering the recorder, I will continue to look for new things to discover and maybe deepen some of the subjects discovered in 2025. I would love to learn more about J. S. Bach, to continue my work on Renaissance and Baroque ornamentation and to go more further in my discovery of music theory.

For the guitare I discovered in 2025 that a progressive method is not what pleases me the most. However duets with myself on the recorder are a strong source of motivation, so I'm going to work a lot more with these in 2026.

About the piano? Well, finishing the Adult Adventurers Book vol. 1 would be an excellent first objectve! After that? I don't know yet, let see what the future will bring to me!

What about YouTube? Well, I did'nt make as much videos as I would have liked, but considering the enormous amount of work I had in 2025 it's surprising I almost succeed to keep posting 1 music per week. I have still a lot of ideas, so maybe it's for 2026?

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When a solitary musician has to play in front of her family...

I'm at my parents house for the holidays and for Christmas we have invited some other members of my family.

Unexpectedly they discovered during Christmas Eve that I had bring my recorder in my luggage and ask for me to play. My uncle accompanied me with his guitar. I was really stressed, it was intimidating especially that I wasn't prepared at all. I played the piece I had brought to practice during my holidays. I knew it wasn't perfect, so I just focused on the interpretation. I did a lot of mistakes, had a rhythm completely unstable and an important lack of breath and an unsteady sound. Somehow, my family found that I played beautifully and were very happy to have listen to me. It was my second "performance" and my first in front of my family. What a stressful moment it was! Didn't remember that the 1st one was so intense (but I was prepared, so maybe it's for this reason). My aunt told me that she will send me the videos, I'm afraid to listen to the results 🫣

If you have any advice for this type of situations, especially concerning breath control when stressed, please tell me in the comments! 🙏

In any case, I'm happy that the sun is finally back today: going outside for a walk is probably the best way to forget this stressful moment...

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Discovery of the day: Les Indes Galantes reinterpreted by Clément Cogitore.

I discover this explosive mix of genres: the krump, a urban dance born in the years 1990, performed on Les Indes Galantes by J.P. Rameau. The mix turns out to be extremely powerful, with an emotional impact strongly intensified.

Personnaly I was struck by the strength and the intensity of this short film, I can only recommend it.

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Early Christmas

I'm so grateful to had this luck! This year Christmas came a little earlier: one of my relatives gives us her old piano.

We are all three really happy about it, playing with it every day even if we don't know how to play.

So I'm going to learn how to play the piano now! 😁🎶

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My music practice sessions are more and more at my desk these days...

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What's on my music stand?

Hi! It's been a long time since I didn't give an update on my recorder practice and these last months were really rich in discoveries related to music. Thanks to that I'm not feeling stuck anymore and I'm back on the tracks of progression!

I discovered why historical context is important

Interesting myself to the period to which the pieces I play came from, or to their composers, really improves my interpretation skills. I'm really glad that I choose to interest myself on these subjects: I was a bit curious to see the impact on my playing, but honestly I was a little doubtful about their importance. This was clearly a mistake, it's a powerful tool to add to your musical toolbox.

How improvising ornementations is leading me to learn music theory

During the summer I also work a lot with the Baroque ornementation tutor book. I'm not going through it fast because it uses a lots of music theory notions that are a complete mystery for me. And when I try to understand one of them, it often brings a lot of new questions...

So for the moment I pause a little bit with this book, as I feel I really need to go more deeply into music theory first. I know nothing about dominants, thirds, modes,... and improvising or composing on an existing bass line is difficult for me. It's correct, but not really nice and most importantly I don't know what to do to improve it. I hope that a better comprehension of music and how notes interact with each other will help.

Regarding the technique

I'm also working a lot on technique. In particular, I'm adding Did'll to my palette of articulations and I'm improving the way I varied my technical tools in my playing. In fact I use too often the same ones, which sometimes gives a sensation of boringness to my music, at least for myself. So, I'm trying to improve that.

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Nombres I and Nombres II

Painting project update - 1st part

Here's the 1st part of my painting project, born after seeing a short documentary on Wassily Kandinsky (you can check my previous post about him for more precisions).

Here I tried to answer the following question:

How would I represent my own synesthesia, or at least the one concerning numbers?

I'm pretty proud of these paintings, there are still some errors and some elements to improve but they are close to my synesthesia: how I see numbers but also the sensations attached to these visualizations.

What's next?

Now it's time to continue on the 2nd part of this project: How could I represent a music with abstract graphic elements? I still haven't choose the piece for the moment... it seems this part will be challenging!

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About Hans Peter Keuning

I would like to present you Hans Peter Keuning, a Dutch composer and conductor who devoted his entire life to make music accessible. He is considered the founder of youth music in the Netherlands.

Born in 1926, he started piano at 7 years old and already showed a strong passion: as a teenager he performed in several churches and even composed a Christmas cantata at 18 years old.

After his studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory he started a very varied career. He was a pianist, teacher, composer, conductor, and director of music school. Deeply committed to share music and transmit it, he devoted himself especially to young musicians. He composed numerous works for them, which encouraged the creation of many youth orchestras in the Netherlands. Personally, I discovered him through some of his study pieces: the 25 Studies for Treble recorder. I find his studies lovely and full of joy, it makes you want to play them.

Hans Keuning passed away on November 8th of 2016 at the age of 90, but many Dutch youth orchestras continue to share and spread his values.

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Changing the cork on a recorder tenon

This week I had to put a new cork on the tenons of my Moeck soprano and alto recorders as they both broken last week…

Maybe it will interest someone, so here is a small tuto :

You will need:

a piece of cork

neoprene glue

a cutter

a ruler

alcohol

cotton swabs or a clean cloth

the recorder to repair

Steps :

1. Remove the damaged cork of the tenon and the remains of glue. Clean the tenon with alcohol and cotton swabs. 2. Cut the new cork to the dimensions of the tenon.

3. Put a thin layer of glue on the tenon and on the cork. 4. Let them air dry for 10 min (or more, depending on your glue).

5. Roll the cork on the tenon, using a flat surface so that it sticks evenly. 

Warning ! The glue acts instantly, be careful to place the cork correctly because there is no possible correction at this stage.

6. Try to assemble the 2 parts of the recorder together without forcing to check the fit. If necessary, gently sand the cork without damaging the wood of the recorder.

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I had to change the alto cork this week end, after 4 years of good services!

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Wassily Kandinsky

I recently discovered this fascinating video about Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian painter mostly known for his abstract art. I knew some of his famous works, but I didn't know that his art was directly linked to music. In fact he tried to create abstract paintings that evoke emotions by taking inspiration from the works of musicians of his time.

The video is unfortunately in French but I hope that English subtitles are available because it's very interesting and I can only recommend to watch it.

In any case, this video inspired me and it made me want to start painting again. Not to follow the tracks of Kandinsky, but rather to explore the questions that came to my mind while watching the video:

How would I represent my own synesthesia, or at least a part of it? (I find the idea of representing numbers particularly attracting, but I also experience synesthesia with letters and time/dates)

How could I represent a music with abstract graphic elements, especially knowing that music is mostly figurative for me?

I'm a beginner at drawing and painting so don't expect anything amazing, but I will share the results!

Inner Alliance - W. Kandinsky

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La Musique

La musique souvent me prend comme une mer ! Vers ma pâle étoile, Sous un plafond de brume ou dans un vaste éther, Je mets à la voile ;

La poitrine en avant et les poumons gonflés Comme de la toile, J'escalade le dos des flots amoncelés Que la nuit me voile ;

Je sens vibrer en moi toutes les passions D'un vaisseau qui souffre ; Le bon vent, la tempête et ses convulsions

Sur l'immense gouffre Me bercent. D'autre fois, calme plat, grand miroir De mon désespoir !

Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire

Translation: Music often takes me like a sea! Toward my pale star, Under a ceiling of mist or in a vast ether, I set sail; Chest out and lungs swollen Like canvas, I climb the backs of the piled-up waves That night veils me; I feel all the passions vibrating within me Of a suffering vessel; The fair wind, the storm and its convulsions Over the immense abyss Rock me. Other times, dead calm, a great mirror Of my despair!

Dutch Boats in a Gale ('The Bridgewater Sea Piece') - William Turner

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Between an exhausting workload and the heatwave, it's hard to find the energy to practice these days... 🥵🎵

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About Georg Philipp Telemann

Recently I interested myself to the lives of composers, starting with G. P. Telemann. I was curious to know more about them and to see if I would be able to get something interesting out of it to enrich my interpertations. I didn’t really have any particular expectations beyond that.

And finally… it turned out to be a real discovery! Not only did I learn a lot about Telemann and his work, but it also completely changed the way I see some of his pieces, including ones I hadn't really appreciated before.

What struck me the most when I learned about Telemann's life was his personality: a particularly productive and inventive man, passionate and who seemed to never stop. His works are estimated at around 6,000, making him one of the most prolific composers of all time.

Naturally gifted in music, he learned it largely as a self-taught and even composed his first opera at the age of 12. What also struck me was his kindness and his open-mindedness: he was interested in all types of music, and was inspired not only by the great movements of his time, but as well by popular and folk music, a source of inspiration that was rather disdained at that time.

Finally, he also did'nt hesitate to compose numerous pieces for amateur musicians, and the high quality of these works truly conveys the image of a passionate man who wants to share his passion for music with as many people as possible.

"Witchcraft will have to intervene, If the page is filled with many difficult phrases, It is almost always a burden for the musician And often the occasion for many grimaces. I will add further: he who wants to be very useful Does better than he who writes for the few. What is easy to play is useful to practically everyone: That is why it is best to stick to it." G. P. Telemann

So I am positively surprised by the personality of Telemann and now I see his works with fresh eyes and have even started to appreciate some of the pieces I didn't like until then. Not because now they make me vibrate and touches my heart like my favorite pieces, but because I understand them better and see in it the touch of Telemann's personnality: clear, joyful, generous, inventive, playful and full of love for music.