Random Thoughts

This is probably going to be a short post. I just have had a few thoughts that I felt were worth sharing.

Monday was my first rehearsal with the little community band here in Pfaffenweiler.  I had no idea what to expect, but what it was was not it. I'm used to a punctual rehearsal, where basically everyone is ready to go right at the official rehearsal time. Here, that was most definitely not the case. It was nice that it was so relaxed and such, but there comes a point when it is too relaxed. It bothered me. And then comes the moment when we finally played our first note together. There was no tuning note, there was nothing. Just the conductor (who happens to be British, actually!) asked for us all to play an F. And we did. Except I'm pretty sure many of them were playing an F# or an E instead of a unified F. It was literally impossible to even try and match anything. So I basically just played my nearly in tune F (I always do pre-rehearsal tuning. Normally the tuning note at the start of a rehearsal is simply a confirmation and getting adjusted to the ensemble pitch level.)

This whole F exercise thing lasted for like 20 minutes. And it improved slightly, but still not enough for me to even here a single note. But then I'm handed the music of the first piece we are rehearsing, and it's a band arrangement of Jupiter from Holst's "The Planets". Now, even though the ensemble sounded terrible playing it, it was the perfect piece to begin with. It took me right back home to my high school, when Jupiter is always played at graduation. :D

So the rest of the rehearsal continues, and I'm just doing what I'm told to. The conductor would make ensemble suggestions and would work on stuff, and literally everything I agreed with and knew, which was comforting to me, knowing that my instruction to this point has been universal. My only annoyance was the ensemble's ability to play quietly. When the music said piano, they all played mezzo-forte, to forte. They don't pick up quickly which bothered me.

But, despite the obvious not so goodness of the ensemble, it was comforting to be back in a familiar setting, doing something that I know how to do well, in contrast to basically everything else going on in Freiburg, where I feel I know nothing. The good thing about that, is my host mom has been so nice and has been helping me try and find an orchestra of slightly higher caliber in Freiburg that I can play in. I'm not sure I understand anything exactly right, but I think a neighbor of ours is going to try and get me in to play Beethoven's 7th next month, and I literally almost cried tears of joy, cause that's totally my favorite Beethoven symphony. Gah. I'm dying just thinking about the possibility.

Okay, well it's late and I'm tired, so bye! Thanks for reading and stay posted!