Saturday, August 16, 2008

Week 33 of year 2008 on the double bass

10 Aug 2008, Sun: I practised selected passages from Rossini's Thieving Magpie Overture and "The Barber of Seville" Overture. Afterwhich, I practised Dragonetti's Concerto in A major to get my fingers working really hard.

11 Aug 2008, Mon: I decided to set aside time to practise at a slow tempo selected passages from Rossini's Thieving Magpie Overture and "The Barber of Seville" Overture even though I was feeling pretty tired from a long work day.

13 Aug 2008, Wed: It was orchestra rehearsal day. We rehearsed Rossini's Thieving Magpie Overture and "The Barber of Seville" Overture and John Williams'Schindler's List. I could manage the Rossini's overtures a little better compared to last week. Good practice helps.

14 Aug 2008, Thu: During double bass lesson with MJ, I was tasked to do the following practice drills on a regular basis. All the drills involve the playing of scales:
1) Playing long bows
2) Playing short bows, each note played four times (as if like semiquavers rhythm)
3) Playing in the triplet rhythm, short bows.
4) Playing in the Am-ster-dam, dotted quaver rhythm.
5) Playing in the syncopated rhythm
6) Playing in one bow direction, 7 notes of the scale in one bow. Short strokes

After that I worked on Dragonetti's Concerto in A major and Dittersdorf's Second Double Bass Concerto.

***
For the past weeks, I have been thinking which music diploma I should sit for, and when to take it. Frankly speaking, the Dragonetti's Concerto and Dittersdorf's Concerto which are at DipLCM level are more interesting exam pieces to play than the pieces in DipABRSM syllabus. However, I have now only two more years before I can resit for DipABRSM. Hopefully the answers will come.

Anyway, for those who have followed my thoughts on music-exams, I have decided not to sit for music diploma exams this year. I shall use this year to expand my repertoire and to enhance my technical skills in playing.

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