It is Wednesday. Usually on a Wednesday evening, I will be attending orchestra rehearsals. However, not today. It is currently the period of the orchestra's rehearsals break. Some of my fellow orchestra mates are probably now mugging for the examinations.
I am missing rehearsals. It is fascinating to be able to play and make music together as a team. Now that I have to miss it, there is a feeling of emptiness. Something is missing! The best I could do is to tune to the classical radio station and to listen to how others make music together. Otherwise, I could play on my darling double bass and enjoy the fun of playing on a musical instrument.
It brings me to confess that I have been procrastinating on working on scales. I would prefer to play any musical compositions than scales. I suppose I have to find a way to coax myself to start to love scales. It is after my music exams that I realised how important scales can be. Will I find that motivating factor to encourage me to play scales? Whatever, I better find a place to start working on my musicmanship.
Then when my musicmanship improves, I will be able to contribute more substantially towards the rehearsals that are to come. Meantime, I shall just learn to handle the feelings of missing the rehearsals.
7 comments:
I'm not so crazy about scales, either, but I find I get more out of them if I can treat them like meditation ... just focusing on the magic of the sound of one note moving to the next, and getting lost in that "eternal present" or whatever it's called.
I also get "scale practice" from certain pieces, like the Mozart I'm working on (piano). There are several sections with "runs" and practicing them is like practicing scales, only more fun.
Good luck, and enjoy playing/listening!
thanks for writing to me pei yun! i do come in to read your blog when i can. i have been really busy with work and rushing thru some accounts. in between i have been so distracted cos alot of people wont "leave me alone" to do my work. i try to close my door but i need to entertain my customers and it would be rude to ignor them. so here i am, procrastinating a little before i get down to my paper work. it's always a joy coming in to read your week or day before i start! ;)
hehe..one way i deal with scales..i practise only an octave for each! takes away the guilt of not practising at all..grin..
Hi Waterfall, thank you for your nice tips. I like your suggestion about getting scale practice from certain pieces. The idea of treating scales like meditation sounds appealing, I wonder if I could achieve it. Whatever it is, I shall enjoy playing music, and listening to music on the classical radio station.
Hi mistipurple, it's heart-warming to hear from you. I salute you for your enthuasiasm towards your work. Hmmm, it is certainly so much easier to just play an octave for each scale on the double bass. I could try this out to see if it could get me started on playing scales, and then at least two octaves eventually. Thanks for your support. Please take care meantime.
dear pei yun, my teacher used a timetable for scales for the whole week. it works something like this..monday 3 sets tuesday 3 sets,etc. this is also divided into major and minor keys.
So the tedium of practising the whole lot is spread throughout the week.
Since I didnt look forward to practising them, i did them at an octave each time (of cos i didnt tell him that!)
As the week ends, i found that i didnt havee trouble with them any more, and i eventually actually starting liking them! this is indeed shocking, coming from a person like me, who never liked scales!
i also found that i had to "see", particularly the melodic versions, where i keep watch of the few keys ascending and descending, and it made more sense after that.
having gone thru many years of "mad guessing" of the melodic sounds, i eventually "saw" where it was all going, and i didnt make as many mistakes any more, if at all!! of cos the harmonic are "chicken" after that, if you can see thru the melodic! hope this will help you dear pei yun.
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