Week Eight of 2007 on the double bass

18 Feb 2007, Sun: After an evening of visitation at my maternal grandmother's place. I spent at least 40 minutes on the double bass.

The main thing that I worked on for the day was Pachelbel's Canon in D major, scored for a double bass quartet, arranged by David Heyes. Pachelbel's Canon in D major sound cool on the double bass and I could feel a strong motivation to play this work with a few other fellow double bassists soon, once I become more proficient in playing the parts.

I spent about 10 minutes working on just a short passage from the 4th movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6. Beethoven's music is interesting to play,.

19 Feb 2007, Mon: I can't remember how long I have practised for the day, but it should be at least half-an-hour.

The practice for the day began with Marcello's Sonata in G major. I started practising from the third movement, then the fourth. Eventually, without knowing, I had played all movements of the sonata.

Subsequently, I played Keyper's Romance and Rondo. I am growing to like the humourous yet dance-like Rondo movement with its interesting harmonics passages.

20 Feb 2007, Tue: At least 30 minutes on the double bass. As there would be orchestra rehearsal the following day, I worked on selected passages from the 4th and 5th movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6. In addition, I took time to practise a short passage from Pachelbel's Canon in D major, scored for a double bass quartet, arranged by David Heyes.

21 Feb 2007, Wed: I love double bass sectional. I had one solid hour of double bass sectional for the day.

There is a lot to learn from the tutor, GM. I was observing his method of training us to play as an ensemble.

Being the section's principal, I had the pleasure to suggest what we would like to do for the sectional today. I chose to start with the 4th and 5th movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6. The 4th movement has some very difficult parts for the double bass.

I have realised that GM is very good at training us to play in tune. He would do so by playing on the piano so that we can hear the pitch that the notes should sound. And his ears are so sharp, he is able to tell if we were to play out of tune!

In addition, he is very skilled at training us to play as an ensemble. He broke down one big section of the 4th movement of Beethoven and instructed us to play just a small part of the beginning of that section first. Then when we were able to play that small part as an ensemble, he would ask that we start from the beginning of that section again, but we would add four more notes. This procedure would continue until we play the entire section.

Aside from the above, he has always been very mindful to make sure that we observe the performing directions and the dynamics.

I love watching him demonstrating how we could play the various parts. His playing is so inspiring! I can't help but to have my eyes wide open to see and listen to him play.

After the sectional, orchestra rehearsal continued. We rehearsed the 4th and 5th movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 and Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Festival Overture.

And without realising, I have already achieved my target (i.e. to practise at least 4 days per week, at least 15 minutes on each of the days) by the middle of the week!

Cheers! I hope the rest of the week would continue to be a productive one.

To be kind to myself, this Friday shall be a day free from double bass practising. I will be attending dear Emily's 21st birthday party that evening.