Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2008-07-25 02:45
Tonight, 33+ years after putting the instrument away, I played my first concert, 19 months after starting practicing again. It's a high, let me tell you. I feel like practicing into the night.
The band I played with is a community band in its 131st consecutive season. They play outdoors in an old fashioned circular band stand. The conductor knew me back in the day, and after fixing my A clarinet for me, he talked me into playing. Lead first to be exact. There were three other clarinetists in the band this evening.
The program was mostly marches, and some of those were pretty hard - Royal Bridesmaids, Boston Commandery, a raft of Sousa marches, etc. A couple ofther things as well. About half the program was sight-reading for me, and the rest I hadn't seen in over 35 years.
And, I hit some clunkers, but not very many. More practice sight-reading in high registers seems indicated. Kept up with the key changes ok, but repeats were wierd - I took the second ending first one time, yikes. Counting worried me, but the longest rest in the whole program was about 4 bars.
Intonation - I seemed flat compared to most of the group. Everything pushed in, so I kept lipping up - but not enough. Tuning got worse as the concert went on, but that seemed global - too bad we didn't retune part way. Maybe I need a shorter barrel? But first some sessions with a tuner seem in order. I'd thought in practice I play reasonably in tune, but tonight raised doubts.
Having to travel for my work on short notice sometimes, I've held off joining any of the local groups for fear of being a chronic no-show. But jumping in like this wasn't bad, nobody seemed to mind. It was a delight to be sourrounded by musicians playing their parts, easing back here, stepping up there. I've really, really missed it. Now my head is full of three different pieces at the same time, and the sensation of having been almost intimate with a couple dozen humans, and I just won't be able to sleep.
So, more work to do, lots more. And part of it will be to play with others, like tonight. In 19 months until now only one other person has heard me play at all, a retiree pal who loves music. It's like getting back in the saddle.
Sorry for blabbing on, but there's noone else to tell.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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