Musical Adventures of KatHat

I've had 2 months off viola playing while recuperating from a shoulder injury - which has sucked. Totally sucked. I mean, I love my bassoon but the viola is the very core of my being and not being able to play (while watching other people play) is beyond upsetting.  Musicians. Divas, right? Yes, we are. Now GIVE ME MORE SYMPATHY. I'm sad and I feel like I'm missing a limb.  Having half term off with the kids seems like a good opportunity to slowly, slooooooowly start the recovery process. I set myself a timer for 15 minutes, and hit this book which was recommended on the Facebook Violists group (I will talk about that a lot, as it's a great resource): Link here: https://www.simonfischeronline.com/store/p11/WARMING_UP_viola_edition.html (not affiliated, just provided because it's useful) And - oh my goodness, it was hard but useful! In that 15 minutes I got through the first section on left hand warm ups, which works on stretching out your hand and increa...

A recent post of the Facebook Violists page provided an excellent list of violin and viola duets: I'm capturing them here, as a to-do list for 2020. Where possible, I'm linking to either IMSLP or a (preferably UK-based) source to buy them from (not as an affiliate thing, more for my own reference as I can't afford to buy them all!). In some cases, I've only been given a composer name so may need to do more exploration. This is still a work in progress, and not currently pretty. One day!  Alphabetical-ish order: Johann Andreas Amon: Zwei Duos für Violone und Viola, Op. 2 Nr. 1-2 https://imslp.org/wiki/6_Duos_for_Violin_and_Viola%2C_Op.2_(Amon%2C_Johann_Andreas) I can't find this in video or audio form Milton Babbit https://erikcarlson.bandcamp.com/track/soli-e-duettini-for-violin-and-viola https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/soli-e-duettini-sheet-music/1055588 Bach 2 part inventions https://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/score/TwoPartVlVla.html https://ww...

Yes, I know. It's February now, so I'm willing to think about plans for the year. I could put them all in one place but that would be a muddy and confused place which no-one would read. So I'm going to separate out music and sewing as the two important things, and let the rest look after itself. 2019's aim is to do something musical every day. That might be practice (it OUGHT to be practice), but it might also be listening or reading music, it might be testing out a load of reeds or taking a viola to get its soundpost fixed, it might be helping Small (5) with his violin practice or it might be singing endless songs with Tiny (2). Brief intro to me: I'm a viola player with a couple of orchestras and a quartet in Berkshire. I've recently gone back to the bassoon and I've also borrowed an oboe from a friend to muck around with. I'm not a pro, I don't think I'm particularly good but I'd like to be better, but I LOVE playing and it makes the wo...