Saturday, April 14, 2007

Slow Practice

So I tried it. T- is right, an hour just slips by working like this. Not only that, but it seems to enhance my mushy memorization skills. After the first hour, in which I covered the first 12 or 13 measures of the Prelude, I was able to play the section from memory, and it sounded much less "square" and better in tune. So I thought I would put it to the test, and shoot a quick video.

OMG! My nerves killed me! This is such a good thing to do. No pressure other than a running camera sitting in front of me, but I felt all the tension of a live performance. Before listening to the clip, I put my observed performance at about 75% of what I had done 5 minutes before. I struggled with the tension in my body and in my face, and I heard all those little intonation errors. I heard them! That's great! And you know what? After watching, I'm still pleased with the outcome, because it is better than it was before. And as documentation of the progress to come, I'm posting the clip here.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bravo! I've got nothing but compliments here. Your playing is really even. That's a beautiful cello and piano. Pretty staircase. Nice walk-on performance by the cat. And I'm so admiring of your bravery for putting up videos. I'm eager to see the whole piece.

Cats~Goats~Quotes said...

Very nice! I didn't even notice the cat until I read pinkfluffyslippers comment :) Then I watched it again, still very nice!

ola del m rio said...

I thought it was wonderful!! And counted 2 cats coming downstaires to see the performance :)

gottagopractice said...

And what you can't see in the clip is Sweetie curled up on the cat tree behind the stairs. I have very cultured cats in this household.

Terry said...

Brava! (Don't forget the feminine ending, PFS). Very fine, indeed. Inspirational. I'm downright jealous.

Marilee Rockley said...

Lovely performance, and wow! the courage to do solo...I'm very impressed.

MMG said...

Very courageous to post a video.
I'm impressed. Thanks for the warm welcome. It was your blog I found on search that alerted me to cellos by night, etc. and the community of cello bloggers. I've always liked cats too.