Still playing....

Periodically, I like to return to this blog, and, yes, indeed, I am still playing the cello! It is just that life is so busy, or, more truthfully, that I am not making enough progress to report it here.

Of course, that is because I am so busy. Still struggling to find time to practice.

My quartet is still meeting weekly for a 2-hour rehearsal. We love this opportunity to play together, and we do occasionally sound good. The mid-June concert did not go well though. No matter, it was at an outdoor art festival, and there were very few people in the audience: a fellow cellist, and the family of one of the flutists. And the people scheduled to perform next. There may have been a couple of others, but attendance was slim.

No matter. I just like playing outside on a beautiful summer day.

We had some problems staying together on a couple of the pieces. Maybe the acoustics affected our ability to hear each other. Maybe we were not quite prepared. But we did stop a couple of times. It was not as humiliating as it might have been, given the sparsity of the audience, but it was disappointing.

We did not record it. :-)

Personally, I am working on some intonation issues and making some progress. I am still trying to find time to practice every day. I managed about every other day last week, and hoping to keep to that, at least.

My teacher suggested practicing first thing in the morning, coffee cup at hand. Oddly, that is what I had done that very day, deadlines hanging over my head and all. A very nice start to the day!