You Who?

The Hills Are Alive...

So... what's new with me? Well, a few weeks ago, in between hockey games, I started practicing clarinet again after a dozen-or-so year hiatus. I've been saying I was going to do that for a few years. I'd get it out every 9 months or so and noodle, but the instrument needed to be refurbished to really be playable and I never got off my butt to take it to Manchester. What I needed was a goal...

I have a friend (a lapsed music education major like myself) who is an administrator at an area school and happens to musical direct their high school musical every year. This year he convinced me to get my act together and play in the pit orchestra. I've been practicing for a few weeks, and the show is this weekend. It's a nice big 17-piece orchestra (better than most musicals in Boston lately) with a mix of faculty, professional musicians and a few students. We only had two rehearsals with the kids, which were a little dicey. We're still getting emails with last minute notes on cuts, repeats and other changes. So we'll see how opening night goes.

I played clarinet for 12 years, and then took about as many off. That I hadn't been playing as long as I'd ever played kind of shocked me. In my own mind, I never quit I just hadn't played lately -- and then *poof* 12 years go by! Starting again was not hard -- much of it really is like riding a bike. I didn't forget how to read music, nor rhythm, nor how to finger the notes. My biggest challenges are retraining my fingers to move smoothly and evenly when playing fast passages, and endurance. I used to be able to play a mean hemidemisemiquaver chromatic scale -- apparently my brain has replaced that with the ability to type my username and password really quickly. As for endurance, luckily, I get plenty of breaks in the musical -- I'm playing 2nd clarinet so I spend quite a bit of time with my clarinet in my lap counting (hopefully without moving my lips).

It's nice to come home from work to do something other than more work or make dinner and watch TV. It's also nice to have something to do while the wife plays on her new Wii. And it's strangely comforting to have back these little aches that I grew up with... the sore right thumb joint and the raw callous behind my lower lip (Bite your lower lip... see where your bottom teeth dig in? Repeat).

While I wasn't paying attention to the instrumentalists' world, technology marched on... I was surprised to see that several players in the orchestra had these little flat screen LCD monitors instead of sheet music, and they can even write on them with a little stylus. I'd never seen nor heard of the MusicPad. Pretty cool. Why didn't I think of that?

Next up: Kreblog, your turn to break out the French Horn... there's a pent up demand for horn players in this area.