"Dress Rehersal"

 

I am feeling a bit nervous.  Tonight is our "Dress Rehearsal" for the first concert in our Holiday series.  This first concert is the biggest concert of the six times in which we perform this series. It is held at a large Lutheren church in the heart of downtown and is part of festivities across the whole of downtown when all the city's decorations for the holidays are first turned on. This big concert is this Saturday, so today's "Dress Rehearsal" is a pretty big deal.  

Unfortunately, there is one song of the ten in this series, which is especially FUN to play for the bass clarinet but is more CHALLENGING than usual because it is VERY fast.  It consists of several longer passages in the compilation of songs from the film "Polar Express".  Because of the prominence of the train in this film, many of the songs of the film feature a lot of rapidly moving passages where the bass clarinet musically represents the train sound in a variety of keys.   Basically, a large percentage of my part consists of long, RAPID passages of me trying to sound much like a running string bass line.  Unfortunately, the fingerings on the bass clarinet use a large number of accidentals with many of the rather most complex fingerings of these accidentals needing to be used to accomplish them.  Alternate fingerings are not overly commonly necessary in bass clarinet parts…. and usually never RAPIDLY.  

Due to the rapid tempo of this music which is in a fast, cut-time tempo.... which is further enhanced by our conductor who has a penchant for liking tempos to be even faster than written, I am not feeling "up-to-snuff" on this song, and... I am feeling quite nervous.  Through a lot of practice this past week, I am at a point where I can play these passages reasonably well......  at about 80% of the speed he is likely to take this  music.  Who the hell knows how I will be at full speed tonight.... occasionally this weekend I have made it through at full speed without a problem (by the skin of my teeth).... but other times while practicing at full tempo, I careen off course and sound more like a train derailment.

+ + +

• 10 miles (~16 km) of loops on the indoor track this morning. I probably should have ran outside with my headlight since it was a balmy 45 degrees (~7 C) this morning (unexpectedly).  But, I just did not feel like navigating the dark trails this morning.
• I need to order my running shoes.  I was dismayed that my "shoe mileage app" appears to have gone on the fritz and was misrepresenting my number.  I went back and hand calculated the number of hoofed miles on this pair of shoes and it was closer to ~1,250 miles (~2,000 km) and I really should get a new pair.  I can feel their wear on my feet at times.  It is especially noticeable at the pad at the head of the 5th metatarsal.  
• I still have no damn idea how to try to "fix" my pipe challenges.  I do not know if I trust myself to schedule a trip to enjoy a bowlful at my favorite old pipe shop (the remaining one that is ~45 minutes away.... the other, more nearby ones closed or became a headshop).  I know I would relish that trip.  If I could perhaps limit it to once every 6-7 weeks, I think that would be showing abundant caution and prudence.  But, without the long distance travel.... I can imagine in times of weakness, convincing myself of the ability to shorten the interval considerably.  So, I am feeling cautious about adopting this strategy.  

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