Another well attended rehearsal evening last night and a strong standard of playing continues!
A couple of housekeeping matters first: the senior citizens insist we use their sign in sheets rather than the printed version we were using but the have requested we clearly print our details so they can be read easily. And we still need to wipe down the chairs after rehearsal, if everyone vacates their seat promptly and then grabs a wipe this is a simple task, please don’t leave it to a couple to do all the work!
Now on to music, it was an interesting event to play through overture to a new age after several months away, it showed that the huge amount of work we put into this piece really stuck in our minds as rhythms, dynamics and balance in the places so often worked on by Harold came through immediately. It shows that dedicated practice pays off!
I noticed last night however a number of times when we were either not together when we started the first note or not releasing together at the end of a phrase, it’s little details like …breath and play together that make a significant difference to the effect of a good start but then the release of the phrase is equally important, if we don’t release properly then the sound is ragged and the tempo suffers as we delay the commencement of the next note….. just because you are playing a long note doesn’t mean you can stop counting, in fact those are the notes we need to count more accurately. It’s also a good idea that whilst holding a long sustained note, look ahead at what the next bit has to offer, so too with rests, rather than just sitting and counting, look at the next entry and prepare for it and you will find your playing becomes far more accurate.
Finally, next week during our 6pm session I am running a sight reading workshop to explore the ins and outs of sight reading, why we should do it, how it works in our mind and a few helpful hints and tips to improve, the session is open to anyone, runs for about 45 minutes and I hope makes sense! If you are interested, there is a gig registration online so I have a rough idea how many copies of the paperwork I need to prepare. A suggestion was made last night that I record the session and we can put it up on our YouTube which I will be doing.
Murray