It is the start of a busy week. It may be Sunday, but I have a full work day ahead, with the first meeting starting at 1pm, the next at 3pm, then a full evening ahead when the program that I am working on kicks off at 5pm. I expect to be completely exhausted by the time I get home Thursday night.
But there will be some time for cello! One of the people coming (well, actualy teaching) the program, is a cellist, but she lives in the Boston area. We have talked about playing together for over a year, but the challenge has always been how to get 2 cellos in the Bay Area. This week she has arranged to rent a cello from the same place where I rent the one I have here in the Bay Area...so we are going to play together! Hooray! I picked the cello up yesterday (she arrives today, when the place is closed), and later today will be transporting both cellos from my brother's house (where I stayed last night) to the hotel where we will both be staying for the rest of the week. I am really looking forward to playing with her!
I even brought a bow down with me; I haven't really liked the bow with my rental cello. Last night I played around with both cellos, switching between the 3 bows. It was fascinating to hear the differences between the cellos and the differences in sound with the same cello and the various bows. The bow that is paired with my rental cello is by far the worst bow - I now understand why I've disliked playing the rental cello so much.
The 2 cellos had very different sounds; the one my friend is renting has a much more mellow sound than the one I have, which was set up to be more powerful in the upper range. I'll have to try to mellow out the sound of my rental when we play together, which I was playing around with last night. I think it was a sign of the progress that I've made that I was able to even tell the difference in the sounds and even more to the point, begin to feel like I could control the sound even a tiny bit with my bow. Last week I was waffling about carrying a bow down with me for this trip, but now that I've had the chance to play with all 3 bows and the cellos, I'm glad I did.
I am going to be quite the sight when I arrive at the hotel! Suitcase, 2 cellos, computer, extra bow, and bag of stuff with things I normally leave at my brother's house - definitely not my usual travel light scenario!!!
1 comment:
It is so nice when you can combine music and meetings! Hope to hear more from you on how it went.
[I used to be on the board of my professional association and organized gatherings of musicians at the national meetings. Lots more fun than the meetings. :-)]
Definitely, it is a sign of progress to differentiate among bows. I can only differentiate bows that are completely out of my price range.
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