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My first Concert!

June 15, 2008 at 3:35 PM

In April, I blogged about how I have a burning desire to play in an orchestra, to make music with others. I had a slight problem, I have only played the violin for a grand total of 3 months then. Some of the folks here encouraged me to go sit at the rehearsal and check it out, never hurt to ask, right?

So, the conductor told me to bring my instrument to check it out. Fast forward to yesterday where we finished our concert for this quarter.

This is a very small community college chamber orchestra where we only have about 8 -10 violins, (that's first and 2nd),2 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double bases.

I had a very wonderful time with this group, people are extremely helpful. No one gave me a dirt look when I told them I've only played for 3 months, but they did try to hide their surprise expression.

We played a Haydn Symphony, Carnival of the Animals, a modern piece, and Double Piano Concerto with strings.

Things I learned from this orchestra experience:

1. 2nd violin parts are not necessarily easier than first. I agree that we don't play notes as high, but it's not as easy as I thought it would be! One of the reason being the speed the conductor took!!
2. Counting is very important, i can't rely just on my ears
3. Must listen to others
4. Watch the conductor (my eyes were glued to my music)
5. Make sure music on stand is in the right order before performance (someone accidentally took my music and she panicked and put it on the floor (THANK GOODNESS!!), I was playing page 2 and ready to look at page 3 and it says page 7!!), i'm so glad I looked down on the floor and there it was.
6. Enjoy the experience!!!

Thanks for reading! And thanks for everyone who encouraged me to stick with it. I seriously thought I was not going to make it because of the difficulty of the music (to me at least, maybe it is an easy repertoire), but it does get easier after a while.

From putch panis
Posted on June 17, 2008 at 4:43 AM

Great to hear, PM! Yup, Violin 2 is not easy - especially when the tempo is fast. There are also notes in the arrangement that we may not know how to reach yet, being in the third position or further. But, it's great to never let that get in the way of fulfilling a dream. Keep it up!

From PM Rolf
Posted on June 17, 2008 at 5:35 AM

Putch, thank you for your encouragement!! And thank you for telling me to stick with it! Yeah, you're absolutely right. I was forced to learn 3rd position fast! There was a piece where we had to hold out a long harmonic E that I was so scared to be out of tune!! It was a great experience though, I can't wait to hear about your concert!

From Terez Mertes
Posted on June 18, 2008 at 8:22 PM

You're amazing!

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