Day 3

Tomorrow is the first rehearsal for the concert on Sunday 22 February. Each group has just an hour rehearsal time so hopefully all players have learnt their parts and it should all join up seamlessly. I know my harp part now and my fingers feel prepared for whatever rehearsal techniques Russell Keable is going to throw at us. More worrying is that I am section leader for clarinets in the Long-winded ensemble so have to be prepared. Having seen very little of my clarinet over the holidays I had a blow today and felt worn out. My lip often gets tired at the end of a long session but the lip was going by bar 104 (near the top of page 2). I managed a little bit more so should last that session but it reminds me I need to be back to full stamina before my next rehearsal which is this Wednesday.

Also on the agenda tomorrow is the full orchestra rehearsal where we all join together to play a piece that combines all three team pieces in one grand finale. They've given us an hour and 15 for this so perhaps they are expecting this to be 25% more difficult. We are also all expected to sing in a choir which has two pieces to learn. I'll be with the altos for this. Although I've been out visiting friends today and have another social event to go to shortly so I might be with the tenors. Tomorrow's schedule also includes a speaker from MSF so we will hopefully find out a little more about how the charity operates and where our sponsorship funds will be going.

Harp practise was good today and I managed another 30 minutes. I am concentrating on two pieces at the moment. The study, which is part of the Trinity syllabus, is particularly enjoyable as it has big lush chords and some very harp like moments. It's written by harpist and Trinity examiner Danielle Perrett and is called 'Showing Off'. With a title like this I'll do my best to capture the essence of this grand piece!

I am also working on a Scarlatti Sonata which is quite sweet although will need to go a lot faster. Over the weeks I will be using the metronome to see how well I am doing.

I'm needed at 10:45 tomorrow morning so I'll try and get a bit of playing done before I go out. In the meantime I'm off out for party no. 4 of the weekend (which started on Friday). Hopefully I'll be home by midnight this time...