The deed is done. My group played at our friend's wedding, a program which included my hubby and I playing "Gymnopedie No. 1".
In hindsight I most probably jumped the gun on that one and should have just played a recorded version. I hope I didn't give my beloved oboe a bad rep. I didn't figure out how to prepare the piece until the very end and by then it was too late. I don't think we did any major damage to the wedding though. My fellow choir members did not pick up the mistakes that were made and all said that the sound of the piece was nice.
The first section came out a bit sloppy because I got nervous about the things I knew weren't clean. So I'm sure I tensed up and made it worse. My high A was a bit flat the first time. And I didn't pay as much attention to dynamics as I should have been. But the half hole notes (C# and D) came out decently clean. As did all the big slurred intervals going down to the low F# and E. The second section came out a lot better. My phrasing was better. My husband did skip a measure near the end which made for an interesting melodic line from my part. Oh and we played it quite a bit faster than the marked tempo of 66. I wasn't able to keep up with the long notes and long phrases at the slower tempo. So rather than have my notes break or me pass out we sped it up a bit. I know, I know. That was bad. But I knew that no one there had heard the piece. Satie must be rolling in his grave.
It was a good learning experience. And now the trauma of playing in our church for the first time is over and done with. It can only get better from here on.
I really need to work on my breathing. That hurt me more than anything. If I didn't have to worry about whether I'd make it to the next breathing spot I could have paid more attention to making it sound pretty. For now I'll continue working on the Telemann but I am going to spend a lot more time on long tones and intervals/scales again.
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3 comments:
I remember a Ray Still masterclass ... he talked about breathing. He said first you lie to your brain saying "I have tons more air, no problem" or some such thing. Then, when your brain stops believing that nonsense you say "Okay. So now I'm breathing -- even though you're not really breathing! -- so just shut up!" (Well, he didn't say it quite that way.) But you know ... that kind of thing ... that "fooling your own body" can actually work a bit. The other thing to remember is that you are really using very little air. You really do have more air than you know most of the time. We only get fearful, which causes us to get breathless. (You know how, when you get scared, you kind of lose you breath?) So if you keep in mind that you are only blowing a wee bit of air that might help too.
But ... forgive my silly yakking! Congratulations on your wedding debut! May there be many more. (That you play at, not that you get married at, of course! Tee hee.)
... and I hope you read MY little scary story too. Talk about annoying. The combo of 1) bad nutrition 2) nerves and 3) coffee (oh ... and, I suppose 4) stupidity!) ... BAD combo! Geesh!
Congrats on your debut, Hilda!
*takes a bow*
Thank you gals!!
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