May 2008

Playing for Pleasure

May 26, 2008 17:16

ON Sunday, I had the privilege to play one of those gigs that everyone loves playing. It was for a friend's father's 70th birthday, and they asked me to come and play, as he used to be a violinist. I just packed a whole heap of music and went off and played. It was just solo violin, though at points I was joined by a harmonica and piano accordion. But it was great fun, just playing music and not having to worry about what people thought. No matter what I played, they enjoyed it.

There was one guy who was particularly interested in me, and sat in front of me almost the whole time I was playing. I got talking to him and found out he liked Tchaikovsky. Looked in one of my books and found the theme to Tchaikovsky's first Piano concerto. Played that - he loved it. Later found out that his favourite piece was Romeo and Juliet. Later I noticed that I had a melody from that as well, so I was able to play that.

The trick now is to take what I was feeling and experiencing on that day, and recreate it during my classical, more "serious" performances.

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