Just ordered some new scores for Guitaresque:
1) Barber of Seville Overture (Rossini)
2) Impressions of Habanera (Laurent)
3) Folie d'Espagne/Greensleeves (Koch)
Together with some others which I have ordered in the last round (including the 4 Elements), I believe we have enough to prepare a whole new repertoire for our upcoming performance(s), after the SAM outing. :)
How exciting!!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Rehearsing for the Library@Esplanade performance
Before we know it, the Library@Esplanade performance is just 1 month away.
We are currently busy rehearsing the repertoire for this performance. And one of the key challenge for us, in my opinion, is our "stamina". Let me explain.
There are a couple of songs (for each one of us) in this round of repertoire that we've chosen, that really makes our fingers (both LH and RH) feel the hurt. These songs are probably different for each one of us - ie. some songs which are really demanding on 1-2 players, but simply a breeze for the other 2.
Take a song like Lotus Eaters. This reggae-styled song from Andrew York's collection of brilliant compositional pieces makes OG and myself feel so much strain that towards the end of the song, we'd normally breath a sigh of relief (that it's finally over). It's like running the 2.4km run (in Singapore, this is the de facto distance for our Fitness test) and finally reaching the last 400m.
The chords and rhythm are fast changing (and all chords require the barring technique), and we really have to just hang in there and sustain it till the end.
On the other hand, Alex & Divo's guitar parts for this song are relatively simpler - well, with the exception of the improvisation runs of course :P
Another song in our repertoire this time is a collection of American Folk songs- which includes songs like Sweet Betsy from Pike, Drunken Sailor, John Henry, etc..
This time round, it's Alex's turn to "suffer" (hahaha..). For some of these songs, his part consist of some RH-finger gymnastics, and you can almost see smoke coming out of his head during our rehearsals of these songs (haha. kidding lah!)
Then, for Haruyo Koi, OG and Alex will sweat it out during all the duet segments.
Of course, there's always the terrifying A Furiosa which (when played at crochet = 110 <= indicated tempo, aka LAGQ's speed) will cause all our fingers to twirl up in a futile attempt to hit all the notes in the proper time. :)
Fortunately, there're always the R&R pieces for us to 'recuperate' in-between our ordeals. Thank goodness we included Strauss's Waltz medley, Cavatina , Moon River and.... Around Mi (ops! Sorry OG, maybe not so for you. hehe!)
We are currently busy rehearsing the repertoire for this performance. And one of the key challenge for us, in my opinion, is our "stamina". Let me explain.
There are a couple of songs (for each one of us) in this round of repertoire that we've chosen, that really makes our fingers (both LH and RH) feel the hurt. These songs are probably different for each one of us - ie. some songs which are really demanding on 1-2 players, but simply a breeze for the other 2.
Take a song like Lotus Eaters. This reggae-styled song from Andrew York's collection of brilliant compositional pieces makes OG and myself feel so much strain that towards the end of the song, we'd normally breath a sigh of relief (that it's finally over). It's like running the 2.4km run (in Singapore, this is the de facto distance for our Fitness test) and finally reaching the last 400m.
The chords and rhythm are fast changing (and all chords require the barring technique), and we really have to just hang in there and sustain it till the end.
On the other hand, Alex & Divo's guitar parts for this song are relatively simpler - well, with the exception of the improvisation runs of course :P
Another song in our repertoire this time is a collection of American Folk songs- which includes songs like Sweet Betsy from Pike, Drunken Sailor, John Henry, etc..
This time round, it's Alex's turn to "suffer" (hahaha..). For some of these songs, his part consist of some RH-finger gymnastics, and you can almost see smoke coming out of his head during our rehearsals of these songs (haha. kidding lah!)
Then, for Haruyo Koi, OG and Alex will sweat it out during all the duet segments.
Of course, there's always the terrifying A Furiosa which (when played at crochet = 110 <= indicated tempo, aka LAGQ's speed) will cause all our fingers to twirl up in a futile attempt to hit all the notes in the proper time. :)
Fortunately, there're always the R&R pieces for us to 'recuperate' in-between our ordeals. Thank goodness we included Strauss's Waltz medley, Cavatina , Moon River and.... Around Mi (ops! Sorry OG, maybe not so for you. hehe!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)