So I had been looking forward to playing through the piece we were playing yesterday. I brought it out today and looked at it more closely.
The key – it’s in B-flat. I don’t know B-flat. Or E-flat. I’d been playing wrong notes the whole rehearsal! Oh god, how embarassing. But I remember playing as a section a few times and it didn’t sound wrong, was everyone else ignoring the key signature as well?
Thankfully I had bought a chromatic tuner yesterday and was able to puzzle out the fingerings for those two, but there are a couple other combinations I’m sure there are easier ways to do it than what I’m doing, but I have no idea. Or any clue on how to find out. I don’t have my next lesson until the Saturday after next (ie after our next rehearsal) so I’m on my own until then.
So it was one of those moments, staring at the music in front of me, feeling like a chasm is opening between me and my music stand. So frustrated and confused. My left index finger is still aching from rehearsal yesterday.
What am I doing? Am I crazy?
On top of all of that – I hit another language issue. No one says ‘half-note’, ‘quarter-note’ and ‘eighth-note’. No, of course not. It’s all ‘minim’, ‘crotchet’ and ‘quaver’. I had ‘crotchet’ and ‘quaver’ backwards for the whole rehearsal as well because I’ve never really used those terms much.
It’s enough to make you want to curl up inside your cello case and have a good cry.
