Week 12 of year 2007 on the double bass

18 Mar 2007, Sun: I spent close to an hour at night to practise Pachelbel's Canon in D major scored for a double bass quartet, arranged by David Heyes. The focus was to work on the intonation and to find appropriate fingerings to play this work. I look forward to play it with other members of the double bass quartet.

21 Mar 2007, Wed: In the earlier part of the evening, I had double bass sectional. This was followed by orchestra rehearsal, where we played Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The orchestra rehearsal was the last rehearsal for this academic semester. I will miss orchestra rehearsal for quite a while.

22 Mar 2007, Thu: This was the day when I had double bass lesson with MJ. He spent most of the lesson to work on my rendition of the first movement of Marcello's Sonata in G major. In this lesson, he demonstrated to me the differences in sound and colour between the works from Baroque period, the Classical period, and the Romantic period. He gave me a couple of assignments to practise on. I still need to work on my vibrato technique.

23 Mar 2007, Fri: I probably have spent at least an hour 1st, 2nd and 3rd movements of Marcello's Sonata in G major. I was working on keeping time.

This was followed by my practice of Pachelbel's Canon in D major scored for a double bass quartet, arranged by David Heyes. My pitching for this piece is improving, though slightly,

24 Mar 2007, Sat: A short 20 minutes was spent practising the first half of Faure's Sicilienne. I was trying to work memorising this work so that I can one day play this work from memory.

So this is yet another week whereby I have managed to hit my target of practising at least four times per week on the double bass, at least 15 minutes for each practice-session.

Yeah, give me a high-five!

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Yet, to be truthfully, I wished I could have more time to practise. I am quite behind the schedule that I have set for myself. I had wanted to be able to play the entire Berkeley's Introduction and Allegro and three other pieces by end of Feb 2007, but I am now still working on Marcello's Sonata in G major, and I have only managed to play one-third of Berkeley's Introduction and Allegro.

But I think I have found out why my tutor does not want to spend too much time getting me to practise Berkeley's Introduction and Allegro yet. Introduction and Allegro is probably more easier to play musically than Marcello's Sonata in G major