Looking ahead

I've done it.  I'm committed.  Summertrios, look out, 'cause here I come.  I'm coming back in June!  Some of my earliest posts were about going to Summertrios, summer music camp for adults.  That was 2010, and I'm so excited to be able to go back this summer.

I like to give myself these challenges every now and again.  I like to convince myself that yes, I can, like the Little Engine that Could, and I like to put myself in my students' shoes, being the performer, to remember those nerves so I can still relate.  Nice thing about being a private teacher, I don't have to perform, and I went through a phase when I couldn't.  I just didn't have the wherewithal to git 'er done.  The clincher was subbing at a church  one Sunday morning a few years ago.  The choir director insisted I play the hymns at her tempo, which was much faster than I had imagined.  And during the offertory, my music blew off the music stand and no one came to my rescue!  I had to fake it.  I was a wreck.  I think I'm on the other side of that phase now, I've had more opportunities to play for others and succeeded, and I am thoroughly enjoying the process of learning this new music.

I've been working on Beethoven's Piano Trio No. 1 in c minor.  I've been working for a few months already.  And I've got most of it.  A few tricky spots still have my fingers a bit tangled, but I am working through them.  These next few months, I need to learn another trio (! that was a surprise to me, as if one trio wasn't enough) and work on the subtle nuances of the Beethoven.  I've listened to it a few times on YouTube, different performing artists, different settings.  My biggest struggle will be the tempo -- it flies by!  But I sit down just about every day, and review, and dissect, and play, and it's coming together.