Fiddle Jam in Minegoziibe
I'm back from chaperoning our school trip to Pine Creek. There were over 420 student participants at the event from all over Northern Manitoba. The event was hosted between 3 schools in neighbouring communities and on the whole was well run.
We had our brief 20 minute flight and a 5 and a half hour bus ride, thankfully in a coach rather than a school bus. All the instructors were good, we had fabulous tunes, the concert the second night came off quite well, the orchestra of advance students who had never played classical music before played Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 vert well... the guitars actually sounded very harpsichordesque and the fireworks display the last night was great. On the whole I think the kids had a good time.
The expression playing till your fingers bleed is not actually that inaccurate. I came awfully close. I used to play 6 hours a day, but I just don't anymore. One tune had some left hand pizz and I nearly died doing it near the end. My body still hurts in so many ways. It's a satisfying pain for the most part, like how you feel after exercizing too much, but still quite uncomfortable. I don't suppose sleeping on a classroom floor and a bus helped all that much either. I also have succumbed to the cold I've held off for about a week. *sigh* If I hadn't already missed Thursday and Friday I would take a sick day, but that just doesn't seem to be in the cards. At least May long is next weekend. A week earlier than usual, but I'll take it!
I renewed some friendships with instructors I had met previously and I have loads more tunes to work on. If only I could get caught up on my sleep and stop hearing fiddling in my head everytime I close my eyes or have a spare second to think.
We had our brief 20 minute flight and a 5 and a half hour bus ride, thankfully in a coach rather than a school bus. All the instructors were good, we had fabulous tunes, the concert the second night came off quite well, the orchestra of advance students who had never played classical music before played Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 vert well... the guitars actually sounded very harpsichordesque and the fireworks display the last night was great. On the whole I think the kids had a good time.
The expression playing till your fingers bleed is not actually that inaccurate. I came awfully close. I used to play 6 hours a day, but I just don't anymore. One tune had some left hand pizz and I nearly died doing it near the end. My body still hurts in so many ways. It's a satisfying pain for the most part, like how you feel after exercizing too much, but still quite uncomfortable. I don't suppose sleeping on a classroom floor and a bus helped all that much either. I also have succumbed to the cold I've held off for about a week. *sigh* If I hadn't already missed Thursday and Friday I would take a sick day, but that just doesn't seem to be in the cards. At least May long is next weekend. A week earlier than usual, but I'll take it!
I renewed some friendships with instructors I had met previously and I have loads more tunes to work on. If only I could get caught up on my sleep and stop hearing fiddling in my head everytime I close my eyes or have a spare second to think.