Musical Adventures of KatHat

(I wrote this entire post on Wednesday, and then lost it. Aaargh!) At the ripe old age of 42, I have joined the local youth orchestra.  I'm exaggerating slightly for effect, obviously. I spent many years in Gloucestershire Youth Orchestra when I was an appropriate age, along with the feeder orchestras GYS and MGSO. We were blessed with a pretty awesome setup back in the 90s.  However we all know the state of youth music these days, and so while the Berkshire Maestros orchestras are apparently thriving and full of bassoons (I'll find out soon, as Small will be starting lessons after Easter!), Reading Youth Orchestra operates under a separate banner and currently doesn't have any appropriately-aged bassoonists. Sucks for the future of British music, but awesome for me as it's given me a semi-regular opportunity to play orchestrally and get my chops back. With a concert in 4 weeks, I've knuckled down to some serious practice. This is the one big difference I'm find...

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...