This will be fun

March 17, 2007 at 10:28 PM

I finally got a chance to rehearse with the music director, who also happens to be the pianist on the Vierne Legende that I'm playing tomorrow. It was great! It was like having a free lesson. Like me, she had never heard the piece before but she had a number of good ideas for interpretation.

She even understood why I don't have time for lessons right now. And agreed that I shouldn't buy this viola I'm renting unless I'm really in love with it. I'm not. I like it, it's better than my violin. But I'm not ready to marry it. Still dating. Maybe I'll trade it in for an older model.

It made me realize again what a good teacher could do for me. I think I'm doing reasonably well on my own, but there were a couple of new bowings that I decided to put in to help the phrasing based on her comments, and in retrospect I'm sure a teacher would have caught that right away--not the day before the performance.

On the other hand, I think we both enjoyed the rehearsal. I felt like she took me seriously and although she has more experience, we were able to discuss musical interpretation issues as peers. We were both energized and could have gone on playing much longer, except it was time for lunch and time for me to get back to the kiddos.

I love amateur music. I'm so glad I kept up playing and still have this as part of my life.

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