Into the music

Here it is - my lovely cello.

Rehearsal for the choir yesterday. I've nailed the bass part for Vivaldi, Mozart and the Dvorak. They aren't difficult by any means, what is difficult is learning to play in ensemble and get the dynamics of the music happening. My sheet music is covered in marks and little 'notes to self' about how loudly or softly to play, up bows, down bows, attack on the string and little pairs of glasses drawn to indicate that I should look up from the music to look at the conductor.

Getting the bowing right is the most difficult. We have to sit so close together that if you get your bowing out of sync, you could end up with your neighbor's bow up your nose.

I'm one of those annoying people that can pick up most things and do a fairly slap up job of mastering it fairly quicky, but this! Arghh! It is the first time in my life I've come up against something that I can't do. It will take me the rest of the life I have left to master this sucker.

Still, beacause I can't play the bass part by ear I've been forced to finally learn to read music. I am now able to instantaneously recognise C,G,D and A on the bass cleff and match them to the open stings of my instrument! The other notes still are a bit of a mystery though. I still have to write the finger numbers above the notes.

I wish I was 6 yrs old and had a parent to nag me to practice.

Perhaps Flinthart or Nat might consider adopting me.