As I was madly practising for our concert the other night, I noticed that my vibrato is better from imitating our section leader. It's not perfect by any means, but my movement is freer and bigger than it was before. I completely attribute it to sitting behind such a good cellist.
The orchestra term is finished for the next few weeks, and the massive project I've been working on at the office goes to print this week, so soon I should have some head space for some serious practising of my own.
I had been thinking of playing in orchestra as not really playing, in the practising sense, because I can't hear my own playing much, and full rehearsals are not the place you work hard on your own technique (too many other things to think about). But I have to say, it's an excellent place to just keep playing when your energy levels and time doesn't allow for serious work on your own repertoire.
I was pleasantly surprised, coming back to playing a bit of Bach and Vivaldi, that I wasn't useless. The orchestra I play in, too, is at the outer edges of my technical ability sometimes, which pushes me to get over my hang ups quickly. 'Look, an exposed passage in thumb position, better sort that out because there are only five of you in the section. AHHHH!'… for example.
All that playing of hard things breaks down your fear a bit doesn't it? And I think I had gotten myself very fearful about making ugly noises and not getting good enough.
And in baby news – everything is ticking along fine, lots of kicks and I'm getting bigger and bigger. No interference with cello playing quite yet.
