Performance today

Its been a busy week for performance this week.  I performed with the folk band  on Monday and today I played Telemann with Strings group.  

It went pretty well.  It felt tighter than at rehearsals.  Tricky changes in tempo.  

We also had rehearsal class.  Its getting close to the time for auditions for Consevatoires and so some people were rehearsing for that.   Interesting points about stage presence and trying to get this right - try not to be too nervous or it can come through in the playing.  Play piano at your normal volume - its easier to control.  For those that aren't nervous don't be too relaxed or it can look as though you don't care. 

I am working hard on the runs and the bowing in the strathspey I am playing.  Not rushing and trying to make every note clear.  The bowing is difficult.  I have also been working on a very tricky reel that I am playing.  G minor is a hard key to play on the violin and its difficult to keep the intonation accurate.  The reel has jumps across two strings and also a lot of string crossing.  My hands are quite small so I have to actually flatten my finger to span both strings.  

Oddly I find that if I slow right down to practice I start to not remember the notes.  Its a bit like typing slowly.  You can lose the thread and overall sense of what you are playing.   However I am trying to keep slow and plrac at 60 bpm.  

I have also been trying to work out the best way to get up into third position in this particular.  The sequence of notes does't allow you to look at where you last played (as is often the case) to get your bearings.  For me, I'd like to slide up to the A and drop back to the G.  But its getting it completely accurate that is difficult.  Its a move that its worth getting used to.  

It's also time to start rerunning the tunes I played a few weeks ago to keep them under the fingers.  They have been on the back burner while working on my own new material and on the ensemble  pieces.  I play form memory at recitals and if I leave them too long they begin to be hard to remember.