the joys of Spring

I haven't written about lessons for a couple of weeks but they have still been happening and have been particularly good too.

I don't know why the last couple of lessons have left me with a spring in my step but I think it maybe a combination of things:

1. IT'S SPRING!  More importantly my lesson now starts and ends in the light, last night I even got home before it was dark.  This shouldn't really make a difference but it does.  Just having blossom on the trees lifts me quite a bit and makes everything seem better.

2. No nerves in my lesson - ever since I blogged about being nervous and not being able to play properly in my lessons the problem seems to have gone away!  My lesson is 10 minutes earlier than it used to be, which means I tend to arrive from work and go straight in rather than sitting for 10 minutes in my car waiting to go in - don't know if that has helped or whether it is due to seeing my teacher more "outside lessons" at orchestra....either way it is good.

3. I think I've had a step up in my playing recently.  These are magical things that seem to occur periodically in instrument learning, for me at least.  I seem to spend months practising and grappling with certain aspects without apparently getting anywhere - and then somehow my brain and fingers  suddenly sort it all out and everything sounds a bit better for no apparent reason.  I feel like I've had one of those step forwards recently - my vibrato is starting to come out a bit more naturally and my tone is starting to ring more truly and clearly, dynamic range is coming on and my fingers are becoming more fluent.   Still a long way to go of course - especially on breathing and stamina, but I feel like progress is being made.  This may all be illusory of course and just down to the fact that.....

4. I have a really good reed at the moment!

Yesterday's lesson was spent mainly on the Mozart Quartet first movement, pulling it pieces phrase by phrase trying to get the note endings right, staccato lengths, phrasing in place.  Mozart is all about the details.

Next week we are going to start on reed making.  I'm quite excited.

Glinka and Borodin

It seems to have been a very busy week, and although I have found time to practice, I haven't found time to write about practicing.  It has been ticking along in the background though.

I really enjoyed orchestra practice last night.  I usually enjoy it but it did feel like a particularly good rehearsal to me, mainly becuase my reed was working particularly well which always makes everything a little better.  We also worked on some really nice pieces of music:

Glinka - Ruslan and Ludmilla.  This is quite a fun piece to play, we certainly don't play it at the speed that a professional orchestra would it does roll along quite nicely.  It also has a very recognisable tune that sticks in your head for days afterwards.  There are som very woodwind sections with parts interlinking - but overall it isn't really too complicated.

Borodin - Petit Suite. we've been working on bits of this over the last few weeks but this was the first time we had a full play through all of the movements that we will be doing. There are 7 movements but we will only be doing 5 in the concert.  This was originally written as piano duet but was later orchestrated by someone else.  The piano origins show themselves most in the Mazurka, I think, which isn't terribly interesting as an orchestral piece.  The rest of movements are rather nice though.  There are some tricky corners in this that I need to look at in my practice.  The scherzo at the end has some rather fiendish chromatic sections with sharps and double sharps all over the place.  I probably mentioned them last time. I still need to practice them.

Next week Night on Bare mountain.