I'm waiting for my flight to go home - I got spoiled after spending a month at home, the longest period I've spent at home in about 2 years. It was really nice to be at home!
This trip was pretty tiring - and my days at work have been getting longer. At first it was the meetings that started at 8am, which isn't bad. Then most of them crept up to start at 7am. The day I flew down to San Jose, my first meeting started at 6:30am; I left for the airport at 2:30pm, arrived into San Jose (on time!!!) at 7pm, had dinner with my brother, and then jumped online to work again before going to bed. The rest of the week has been similar, and this is a work - life balance that is skewing in the wrong direction.
I returned the cello I had in the Bay Area in June, so I was cello-less (can't wait to get home to try to play a little tonight!) but I'm not sure I would have time to practice much anyway. So there's a little whining going on here; I really love my job but the constant demands on my times during periods like these without the relief of the cello are hard.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
practice and other notes
My teacher recorded me playing Bach Arioso at my lesson on Friday. He had me play it with a recorded accompaniment track, thinking that I'd relax more if I was playing with something else. He was right; it was fun playing with the 'piano' because it helped me keep the beat steady. I was pretty happy with how much I've improved since the last time he recorded me playing it, about 1 year ago. For the first time I asked for the file - I'll probably post it in the cellobloggers space.
For the past few weeks he's had me work on loosening my right wrist and to practice making my fingers very flexible. It's starting to pay off, but I noticed that my stress response is still to tighten up on vibrato (at least for the very first time on the Arioso I actually kept playing vibrato throughout the note even when stressed out!) and to tighten up my wrist. At my previous and at this lesson he's had me starting to work on keeping my fingers flexible while crossing strings. Never a dull moment!
Today for our chamber group we were back to a piano trio. Since it's been quite a few weeks since we had this configuration, it didn't feel too bad. I was glad to be on piano because my right thumb is a little torn up and sore (thank goodness for bandaids!) so playing the piano was pretty nice to give it a rest. We made a cool discovery, playing Saint-Saens Piano Trio No. 1 in F major. What a lovely piece. Then we attempted to play the Beethoven Piano Trio #5, the "Ghost" but the ghost movement eluded us.. we started to play it but ended up giving up...slow movements weren't our friends today. Fortunately we had a rousing finish with Clara Schumann's piano trio. What a nice day!
I think I'm off tomorrow - most of my Sunday group is out of town. That means I'll have time to practice for chamber orchestra...Monday we played a Boccherini symphony and a Stamitz symphony, and got warned that we'd better practice the Dittersdorf symphony that we will be playing on Monday (which I've been diligently practicing at the end of my practice sessions)
and later this week it's travel time again, 3 weeks in a row :-( thougth I was going to get a break but I have these 3 weeks, then a break, and then September I'll start traveling more again....
For the past few weeks he's had me work on loosening my right wrist and to practice making my fingers very flexible. It's starting to pay off, but I noticed that my stress response is still to tighten up on vibrato (at least for the very first time on the Arioso I actually kept playing vibrato throughout the note even when stressed out!) and to tighten up my wrist. At my previous and at this lesson he's had me starting to work on keeping my fingers flexible while crossing strings. Never a dull moment!
Today for our chamber group we were back to a piano trio. Since it's been quite a few weeks since we had this configuration, it didn't feel too bad. I was glad to be on piano because my right thumb is a little torn up and sore (thank goodness for bandaids!) so playing the piano was pretty nice to give it a rest. We made a cool discovery, playing Saint-Saens Piano Trio No. 1 in F major. What a lovely piece. Then we attempted to play the Beethoven Piano Trio #5, the "Ghost" but the ghost movement eluded us.. we started to play it but ended up giving up...slow movements weren't our friends today. Fortunately we had a rousing finish with Clara Schumann's piano trio. What a nice day!
I think I'm off tomorrow - most of my Sunday group is out of town. That means I'll have time to practice for chamber orchestra...Monday we played a Boccherini symphony and a Stamitz symphony, and got warned that we'd better practice the Dittersdorf symphony that we will be playing on Monday (which I've been diligently practicing at the end of my practice sessions)
and later this week it's travel time again, 3 weeks in a row :-( thougth I was going to get a break but I have these 3 weeks, then a break, and then September I'll start traveling more again....
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Great Gig! Fun Weekend!
We played Friday night, the gig was fun. It was a party hosted by one of our members, and we had food, conversation, music, and lots of fun.
We played
--a tango...can't remember what it was
--"Meditation" from Thais, a violin solo with a bunch of us pretending to be the harp accompaniment
--Vivaldi "Summer"
--a Mozart bassoon and cello duet (I got to be the bassoon!)
--Dvorak's "American" quartet
We played really well. Our unison parts in the Vivaldi rocked. I nailed my solo bits in the Dvorak!!! It was very exciting. I like this group because no matter what happens we manage to stay together. There were times when we all saved each other, like the time our first violinst sotto voce told me what measure number we were in when it was clear to him that I was a little lost.
A group of Chinese exchange students came to the party. They literally had just arrived - a friend of our host's son called and asked if he could bring them over. They looked like they enjoyed the music, and took pictures with all of us before they left.
I was very tired on Saturday but was hosting our Saturday group (not the same people who played the night before) but the funny thing was that one of our violists (who attended to listen but not play) said that she had spent time with the Chinese exchange students, who asked if the party was a typical American gathering. Don't we wish that every party had a group playing chamber music!
we had a quintet on Saturday and a lot of fun playing. We started and ended with string trios from Hadyn (people come and go in this group). We played a Bruckner quintet (2 violins, 2 violas, cello) which I had never heard before. It had some really lovely bits and the slow movement was fantastic. Then our violists doubled up and we read the Sibelius "voces intimae" quartet, which I wasn't familiar with but again, just amazing harmonies throughout.
Our Sunday group took the day off after the Friday gig, so I had time to practice! I have a lot to practice; my teacher said that next week he wants to record me playing Bach Arioso and Rachmanioff Vocalise - we haven't recorded me playing that in about a year and I'm playing so much better than a year ago - it will be really cool to hear the difference!
We played
--a tango...can't remember what it was
--"Meditation" from Thais, a violin solo with a bunch of us pretending to be the harp accompaniment
--Vivaldi "Summer"
--a Mozart bassoon and cello duet (I got to be the bassoon!)
--Dvorak's "American" quartet
We played really well. Our unison parts in the Vivaldi rocked. I nailed my solo bits in the Dvorak!!! It was very exciting. I like this group because no matter what happens we manage to stay together. There were times when we all saved each other, like the time our first violinst sotto voce told me what measure number we were in when it was clear to him that I was a little lost.
A group of Chinese exchange students came to the party. They literally had just arrived - a friend of our host's son called and asked if he could bring them over. They looked like they enjoyed the music, and took pictures with all of us before they left.
I was very tired on Saturday but was hosting our Saturday group (not the same people who played the night before) but the funny thing was that one of our violists (who attended to listen but not play) said that she had spent time with the Chinese exchange students, who asked if the party was a typical American gathering. Don't we wish that every party had a group playing chamber music!
we had a quintet on Saturday and a lot of fun playing. We started and ended with string trios from Hadyn (people come and go in this group). We played a Bruckner quintet (2 violins, 2 violas, cello) which I had never heard before. It had some really lovely bits and the slow movement was fantastic. Then our violists doubled up and we read the Sibelius "voces intimae" quartet, which I wasn't familiar with but again, just amazing harmonies throughout.
Our Sunday group took the day off after the Friday gig, so I had time to practice! I have a lot to practice; my teacher said that next week he wants to record me playing Bach Arioso and Rachmanioff Vocalise - we haven't recorded me playing that in about a year and I'm playing so much better than a year ago - it will be really cool to hear the difference!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas!
This headline is a palindrome! Why?
Last night we had the first rehearsal of the chamber orchestra that I was invited to join. We played Haydn's Symphony No. 47 in G major. The Minuet and Trio are written "al Roverso", meaning that the minuet is played through once forwards, and then played backwards. The Trio is played the same way, once through forward and then played in reverse. Hence the name, "the Palindrome". If you think sight reading is hard, try sight reading from right to left (although our conductor might have argued that explaining to us what we were supposed to do was harder)!
The first rehearsal was fun! Our conductor wants to keep the group small. We still need a few more players, but he wants 6 first violins, 6 seconds, 4 violas, 4 cellos, 2 basses, 2 oboes, and 2 french horns - 26 for those of you who are counting.
Last night we had the first rehearsal of the chamber orchestra that I was invited to join. We played Haydn's Symphony No. 47 in G major. The Minuet and Trio are written "al Roverso", meaning that the minuet is played through once forwards, and then played backwards. The Trio is played the same way, once through forward and then played in reverse. Hence the name, "the Palindrome". If you think sight reading is hard, try sight reading from right to left (although our conductor might have argued that explaining to us what we were supposed to do was harder)!
The first rehearsal was fun! Our conductor wants to keep the group small. We still need a few more players, but he wants 6 first violins, 6 seconds, 4 violas, 4 cellos, 2 basses, 2 oboes, and 2 french horns - 26 for those of you who are counting.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Hot Concerts
It was hot this weekend for Seattle - 90+ which for the Pacific Northwest qualifies as a heat wave. When we moved here from California we found it astounding to hear Pacific Northwest natives complain about the heat when the temperature rose above 80 degrees.
We played very well for both of the concerts, hot as it was, with all black (poor guys in their tuxes/suits!) on Saturday inside a church with no air conditioning and thankfully in the shade for the outdoor concert on Sunday (shorts of any color were allowed with our official black orchestra t-shirts!)
There is no rest for the weary! One of my groups is getting ready for a gig on the 11th and yesterday I got an email from our conductor asking if I would join in a chamber orchestra he is going to lead during the summer. Sounds like fun!
We played very well for both of the concerts, hot as it was, with all black (poor guys in their tuxes/suits!) on Saturday inside a church with no air conditioning and thankfully in the shade for the outdoor concert on Sunday (shorts of any color were allowed with our official black orchestra t-shirts!)
There is no rest for the weary! One of my groups is getting ready for a gig on the 11th and yesterday I got an email from our conductor asking if I would join in a chamber orchestra he is going to lead during the summer. Sounds like fun!
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