Short Break

Today was another step on the road back to real life, sanity, and, ultimately, having enough confidence to earn myself a living doing something for which I am qualified and which will give me not only enough money to prevent starvation etc. setting in, but also some real job satisfaction and self-esteem!

A couple of weeks ago I was called by a friend from College days (you can see his feet in the very shiny shoes to my right here) and booked to play a string quartet gig at a wedding. I accepted and have been practising as hard as possible recently to get my stamina up for 3 hours of playing.

It was great fun. Apparently I've not forgotten how to play the viola, which is great, and the intensive Kreutzer studies have worked because I didn't get fatigued at all. We did some early Mozart and Haydn (including "The Bird" Op.33, No.3, which is good fun) and a few arrangements of bits of Handel, Purcell etc. The cellist also brought along an arrangement of a Schubert song - in which the viola has the melody throughout - nice, I like that sort of arrangement.

Here are my knees and the back of my viola during a short break. Despite a bit of a clothes panic (I'm not very good at clothes) I managed to locate a large purple skirt which fitted. I got around not having any tights by wearing boots! Sorted!

Oh, and JUST IN CASE anyone thought this was how you play the viola, it isn't! You put it on your shoulder like a violin! This is just a convenient way to hold it safely during a short break, and it has the advantages of leaving arms free to sort music, stretch shoulders, have a drink etc.

And no, I didn't have a "drink". I've learnt from a particularly drunken experience that alcohol and the last movement of "The Bird" don't mix very well!