Sunday, August 24, 2008

Week 34 of year 2008 on the double bass

17 Aug 2008, Sun: I practised on Dragonetti's Concerto in A major in the morning. It was rather a challenge to stay focused for I was still feeling very lethargic from having worked very long hours the past week. I need more good practice.

19 Aug 2008, Tue: It was about 10.30 p.m. when I started a half-an-hour practice session. I was trying to figure out the fingerings for the third page of the first movement of Dragonetti's Concerto in A major. I realised I need more help to remember where are the various harmonics on the double bass. I couldn't quite figure out which the the corresponding harmonics when I read the scores, even when fingerings were provided. Maybe I was just too tired to be able to concentrate on playing harmonics?

After a quick run-through of much of the third page, I worked on a few selected passages from Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" Overture just so as to memorise those parts as much as possible. Strangely, playing on the double bass perks me up despite having an awfully busy and tiring day.

20 Aug 2008, Wed: The orchestra rehearsed Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" Overture and Thieving Magpie Overture. There were a lot of Year-One students who joined us. I still need to practise certain passages from these pieces so that I could play them with accuracy and clarity at very fast tempo.

21 Aug 2008, Thu: During double bass lesson, my tutor, MJ, demonstrated for me how to play a particular section from Dragonetti's Concerto in A major. It actually was easy to play than it seems, just that practice would be needed.

Afterwhich, I played the second movement of Dittersdorf's Second Double Bass Concerto. I still need to learn to memorise this piece by heart.

When I told my double bass tutor that I had worked for the past Friday, past two Mondays and past two Tuesdays till at least 9 p.m. without any additional income as remuneration, he urged me to consider changing my job and play music instead. I suppose the question that would help me decide to do so is: Would my rendition move myself and my audience?

5 comments:

mistipurple said...

seems awful to ask if you can be less accountable in your work. i mean, be responsible in the execution but do not work beyond a certain number of personal set limits. which means that the work will just have to wait.
maybe by then, the management will take the hint and will have to hire additional help.

Doreen said...

Headache gone already?

oceanskies79 said...

Yup, Doreen, headache's gone.

Mistipurple: Hopefully there will be more additional help soon.

eastcoastlife said...

You should have a talk with the management. With the soaring expenses, they might be reluctant to hire more help.

You will have to let them know you cannot be taking on too much work. Later they might have to spend more to hire people should you burnout. :)

You have to take care of your health.

oceanskies79 said...

I raised to my boss recently...but it looks like I have to see how to present it again so that my boss sees that there's an issue. I realised my colleagues are also working longer hours just to do paper work and see their clients, after office hours....