You Who?

And now for something completely different

I could never afford a new clarinet in college -- not that I particularly felt I needed one. I didn't have ambitions to be a performer, so I just kept playing my trusty old intermediate student model. However since starting to play again, I'm been reminded of certain difficulties, and figure why not setup myself up with something easier to play? So I bought a new clarinet. It's a Patricola, made in Italy. The majority of clarinets are made from grenadilla wood (almost black or at least stained black), but this one is rosewood. Pretty cool looking. Rosewood is supposed to sound the best, but be difficult to machine (when making the clarinet) and temperamental about changes in humidity (for the owner) which is why you don't see them often. This one just came from Arizona, so hopefully is adjusts ok to its new climate.

Tonight I also went to my first rehearsal of a local wind ensemble I found. Their audition process sounded rather intimidating (as bad as auditioning to get into college) but after going I'm not so worried, and the rehearsal turned out to be just good fun. I didn't take the new clarinet since I didn't want to be flashing around a weird looking instrument I wasn't familiar with on my first night.