Letter from Diane (9/8)

Dear Camerata Con Brio,

What a great first rehearsal! Your musicianship and energy were inspiring and I am so excited to see where this year takes us.

I thought that it might be a bit ambitious for us to sight-read through all four pieces in our folder, but we did it! Your persistence and willingness to dive into some fearless sightreading made it possible.  Way to go!

Speaking of sight reading, remember that we have two rules:

• The First Rule of Sight Reading:  NEVER GIVE UP!
• The Second Rule of Sight Reading:  Prioritize the rhythm.

You can work out the notes later.

That said, practice is a whole different thing. When you practice the rules change:

• The First Rule of Practicing: Don’t let yourself repeat mistakes.

Prioritize accuracy. Slow things down, take things in small chunks, figure out fingerings, rhythms and stickings. Mark up your part.  Stop when you make a mistake and figure it out!

• The Second Rule of Practicing: Skip what you already know and go to the hard stuff. Someone once said to me, “If you sound good when you are practicing, you are probably practicing the wrong thing.”  Prioritize the stuff that is hard for you (and then give yourself a treat for the last few minutes of your practice by playing something that you sound great on!)

Okay, that brings me to our GTCYS 10 for the week.

What is the GTCYS 10?  It’s the thing that you should practice for at least 10 minutes each day.  (More than 10 minutes is great if you have the time!)

YOUR GTCYS 10

Strings:

Spend the bulk of your rehearsal time on the Iliad. Figure out fingerings, shifting and bowings and come with any questions you have at our next rehearsal.

Woodwinds:

Focus your work on the Grieg and the Brahms. The woodwinds do a lot of leading in these two pieces, so coming in with confidence on your parts at our next rehearsal will be super helpful.

Brass:

Work on your part to the Iliad–especially the opening and closing fanfares (beginning to 14 and the return of that section from 136 to the end). You will work on that with your section coaches next week.

Percussion:

Focus your practice on learning your parts to the Iliad.  Please mark in your parts where you need assistance from a second player to cover all of the instruments needed (especially in the percussion 1 and 2 parts). You will work on getting everything covered with your section coach next week.

All: spend a few minutes listening to the cinematic awesomeness of this recording of the Iliad.

I can’t wait to see you again next week!  Until then, always live your life CON BRIO!