After our orchestra concert the first week in April, I focused on non-cello things for a few weeks, maybe a month, and though I continued weekly lessons, there were some weeks when I didn't practice at all between lessons. One of those times. But my cello teacher was understanding, supportive, and encouraging.
I think I am mostly back on track now, or at least edging toward it. I have several performances coming up in June, so really need to buckle down and find time to practice every day. Well, most days.
The first event is a fiddle performance in mid-June. The group I play with (women fiddlers) is performing four waltzes, and I have written harmony (second) parts to three of them, to accompany the fiddles. The music is easy enough, but it has to be played from memory, which tends to take time, and it will be tricky playing the harmony, with everyone else playing melody. I will have to focus! This is in mid-June.
The following weekend, I am playing with three groups during the arts festival: the larger fiddle group, the flute choir, and a flute, string, and keyboard group.
The larger fiddle group plays many tunes that I still do not have memorized, but I can usually play some sort of improvised pizzicato accompaniment.
In the other groups, we can use sheet music, and I am grateful for that!
The flute choir is playing trio 1 and 4 of the Haydn London Trios and Vivaldi's Goldfinch concerto (plus others in which I play flute), and we have not yet determined the program for the string group, but it may be a piece by Marais, Purcell (Golden Sonata), and/or flute sonatas by Marcello, in which I play the continuo. I have also played these on flute and enjoy them, particularly the first one, which I played recently (on flute) at church. In another context a flute-playing friend of mine remarked that she had played them when she was 10 years old. Ah, well.
In addition to that, I am working on a DeFesch sonata with another cellist, and, because it and the Marcello flute sonatas, reminded me of the Marcello piece in Suzuki book 4, I decided to go back and learn/polish that too. (I abandoned Suzuki about a year ago, to work on other things.)
Then, for intonation and related issues, I am working in the Piatti cello method. My teacher mentioned trying another duet with another of her students, and there is always something that looks interesting, so I am sure the list will grow.
But I am trying to focus.
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4 comments:
Good luck with all your events - they sound like fun. That's impressive that you wrote the harmony and can play from memory!
Hi Yarnplayer, I didn't write the harmony parts--just transposed them from violin duo parts. And, we shall see how well I play from memory--I have been memorizing a couple of tunes every day, and then have to memorize them again the next day!
But it is getting a little easier, and, if I can keep this up for a few weeks, I might have them committed to memory. So many people in the fiddle groups have what seem like thousands of tunes memorized. I still only have a handful. (But of course, they only play fiddle tunes.)
and now that we are very much into May, how are you doing with your plans? I hope it is all going as you wished!
Thanks for your interest, CelloGeek. My practicing has been more focused on these specific pieces, and, for a time, my practicing was more frequent, but this has been a busy week....and it will continue to be hectic for the foreseeable future.
I am making progress on memorizing the fiddle tunes and working on the ensemble pieces, and I think trying to work on all the pieces, or at least parts of them, at each practice session is good for me. Otherwise, it is easy to fixate on one and forget about some others.
I have a big whiteboard I use for work projects (so as not to forget any of them). Perhaps I should do the same for music.
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