Thursday, September 24, 2009

Damn I sound good! Oh wait ... that's not me. (Rehearsal #2)

I'm happy to report that my cello seems to have gotten over its fear of tuning.  While we were rehearsing the Chinese Dance from the Nutcracker Suite, I thought the cello was significantly out of tune.  I waited until the end of the piece to retune it only to discover the instrument was perfectly in tune.  I was just reading the music wrong!

I still have a hard time hearing myself, and I often mistake the cello playing going on around me for my own.  Often rehearsal is going so fast that I only have time to slap my finger down on the string and hope for the best.  When this miraculously results in the correct pitch, I am thrilled for a moment at my skill/luck, and then I realize, no, that's Mathew.

I sightread the celesta part in Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy on piano.  I got the music minutes before rehearsal began, so I focused on the ascending arpeggios in the middle of the piece where my part is completely exposed, thinking I'm doubled in the winds for the rest of it.  Well it turns out the entire piece is a solo for the celesta, so I'll be practicing that a lot.  Fortunately, it's not that difficult, and it's on an instrument that I know (well, I know the piano, anyway).

The Brahms Serenade is beautiful, but I'm worried it might be completely unattainable for me right now.  Nonetheless, that's getting some attention from me next time I practice (which will be ... no idea).

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