I realise I've been a bit quiet over the last month. In fact the world outside the computer has been manic, as it usually is at this time of year. I have been practising and have the date for my grade 3 exam. It is to be on Monday 12 December in Cambridge. I decided on my pieces at the beginning of the month. The clear favourite is Barcoralle by Grandjany, a lovely lilting piece. This took a while to memorise but is now there. The tune is mostly in the right hand but there is one tricky part where the tune moves into the left hand and the right hand plays softer chords over the top. It has taken some work to get one hand to play louder than the other but I think I am there now. Gavotte by Bernard Andres is ok. It is in three clear sections, the first of which repeats several times so that has not been too hard to learn. After I had got the notes learnt I realised it was sounding slow and heavy so I set my metronome to half the speed and played the piece along with the metronome very slowly. Each day I increased the speed, just a few motches at a time, and it is now well up to speed and sounding much lighter. I had to do a similar metronome thing with my third piece, Etude, which is lots of scales in C major. This is porbably the easiest of the three pieces to learn as the patterns are all very similar but for me this has been technically the most challenging. My fingers couldn't quite manage the changes in some of the scales and slipped off or hit the wrong string so I have tried various methods to get this to fit more comfortably. It still has good and bad days and I need to be really well warmed up if I want to perform it. Due to the business of this term I have not given any performances to anyone so at this stage the first proper performance may end up being in the exam itself. I could do with at least a couple of run throughs in front of people just to get used to having an audience.
On November 18 Cambridge Summer Music presented the Halsar Ensemble, a flute and harp duo to give a recital in Haslingfield, a lovely village not too far from Cambridge. As part of the day they gave an afternoon recital to the pupils at the village primary school. I teach woodwind at the school and stayed on to hear them play to the children. They play extremely well and presented a wide range of arrangements and original works from Bach to Debussy with a few others in between.
I was invited to lead two sessions for clarinet choir and sax choir at a playday in Liverpool organised by the Clarinet and Saxophone Society so spent many evenings across several weeks arranging music and sorting out parts for up to 60 clarinets and 60 saxophones. The day itself went really well. The sound of 120 single reeders was amazing and players seemed to enjoy my own arrangements and directing. Around this time next year I will be a participant at a similar playday as I have signed up for the Harp day with Catrin Finch that Rohan is organising with The ACE Foundation. I already know what 4 harps together sounds like and can only just imagine the sounds that 100 harps will create!
In the meantime I need to keep practising and get myself as prepared as possible for my exam, and hopefully book a time with Rohan for some last minute pointers.
