7 Oct 2007, Sun: The motivation to practise the first movement of Dittersdorf's Concerto in E major prevails. Time was spent practising selected passages from it. I like the concerto.
10 Oct 2007, Wed: During the double bass sectional, Mr G. rehearsed "Infernal dance of King Kashchei" from Stravinsky's Firebird with the entire section. I am still trying to manage that right-hand technique required for the beginning bars.
For the orchestra rehearsal, we rehearsed the 4th movement from Mahler's First Symphony. I was feeling pretty tired by the rehearsal. Anyway, during the break, I had managed to steal some time to practise the first movement of Dittersdorf's Concerto in E major.
11 Oct 2007, Thu: The day of the double bass lesson. MJ, my tutor, told me that I should start the first movement of Dittersdorf's Concerto in E major using short bow-strokes. For much of the lesson, I was trying to practise the 'pinch' method of using the bow to play short and well-articulated bow-strokes. I realised that although the double bass in the music school where MJ teaches isn't in good shape, it was much easier to stop the notes on the higher positions on that double bass than my own. Yes, I ask for a better double bass.
For the later part of the lesson, time was spent working on getting a legato and musically sound rendition of the first ten or more bars from the first movement of Eccles' Sonata in g minor.
12 Oct 2007, Sat: Although I had initially have the confidence and thought that I had only energy to play the double bass for 15 minutes, once I got onto it, it proved to draw me in. I ended up practising the following pieces for about an hour: first and part of the second movement of Eccles' Sonata in g minor and much of the first movement of Dittersdorf's Concerto in E major. I had attempted to play a few bars from Prelude of J.S. Bach's Suite for Solo Cello No. 1, transcribed for the double bass, yet I felt I was not ready for it now.
**
Reaching target, and hoping to find more time to practise. Asking the question: How to get a better double bass?
No comments:
Post a Comment