OK, so I didn't post last week's notes til a few minutes ago. With the wrong date.
Lessons learned from last week:
Never ever attempt to drive in a hurricane again. Ever.
The roads will be flooded out at some point anyway, and it's too easy to get trapped, especially at night. High water is deadly.
Also got a nice note from Sylvia about rehearsal etiquette. Tonight's rehearsal was much more productive, and we sounded better. It makes all the difference in the world when we keep our ears open and our mouths shut, except for questions about the music. Laughing, yes, quietly sharing your marks from last week with a neighbor, letting off steam between pieces because this is demanding music and a real workout. I want us to blow their socks off. Imagine training for an athletic endeavor, like a marathon. I want to keep those pitches and chords and diminished ninths weaving in and out while I'm NOT singing. Which means I'm still listening to stuff in my head while processing Ryan's comments. Chattering drowns out those pitches. Kinda like driving in a hurricane.
Which leads us to tonight's rehearsal. New while I was on hiatus: folks bringing treats, sometimes home-made. Drop dead gorgeous cake, Amber! The chocolate truffles with dark red velvet icing were insanely divine. And a perfect size for someone watching their sugar intake. I'll save up all week for that!
Other cool stuff from tonight's rehearsal...
- turning the circle--we set up in a circle, which means that Ryan has his back to one of the four sections. By shifting the circle, each section gets a good seat at least 3 out of 4 rehearsals.
- everyone using their ears tonight--the sound and pitch is calibrating to strike those overtones. Yay overtones. Yay being satisfied in my soul.
- Ryan's good conducting--he knows his stuff and how to make us sound great
- go over all markings, be sure they flow
- wood-pile tricky transitions, intervals
- hit the Russian!
- think about something I could bring for break that's healthy, but not too...
- read through every piece at least once
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2 comments:
Enjoyed your description of rehearsals. So easy in a big group to get to laughing. As fatigue sets in so does the laughter, uncontrollably.
Hey, glad to note some folks found you at my place. They hadn't known what they were missing here!
Have been here frequently but found it hard to leave a comment for a while. Really easy now. Great!
Yeah, I've been Depressing Debbie for a while. Things are looking up! Rehearsals have gotten more professional=more bearable. It's simply a matter of a different approach, on my part as well as colleagues.
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