One moment, I am thinking, "Wow, I should have recorded that. No worries, if I can play it that well, I can play it even better with the Red Dot* blinking at me."
Next moment, I am thinking, "Oh mercy, I am never going to have this section at an acceptable level of polish."
* - The Red Dot, for those of you outside the know, is that little light that shines (or in the case of my Ap200, blinks) when recording. It has a powerful, sometimes paralyzing effect on the performer. I like to think of the Red Dot as a heckler, who turns up the volume and intensity of his attacks as the performance (recording) proceeds towards success. Near the end, I sometimes imagine it saying, "Ha, this is going pretty well, isn't it?" At which point, I usually relax, let my concentration lapse, and make an error in a section I know really well. Totally annoying.
MJ clearly had no troubles with the Red Dot. Then again, he never played I Giorni. Insofar as I know.
What is holding me back at the moment is the final section, which is supposed to be played at the same tempo as the rest of the piece. Which is, to my ear, just shy of 120 beats per minute. I can play most of I Giorni just fine at about 108, which will just have to do. But at the end, I slow down to, oh, I dunno, 90 or so. At this point, I may just keep it as is, and attribute the diminuendo to artistic license. "Yes, I meant to do that. Sure I did. Stop snickering."
One week to go. You'll hear a recording before then, I promise.
- Aw2pp, who wants you to know that no trees were killed in the composition and posting of this message. However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
2 comments:
Be like Mike! (Unless he can't play I Giorni, of course.)
I've kept playing my recital piece even after getting my recording with video done on July 22nd. I can usually play it now without mistakes and the piece is now my favorite to play. I also love I Giorni but have not attempted to learn it yet. I have a feeling that would easily take over my #1 spot if I did. However, I tried to hold off on my absolute favorite pieces when I started just to get practice learning others first. I've yet to pick out what I'll be learning next.
Good luck in the battle against the blinking red dot! (I get three blinking red lights on mine, the solid red dot a green dot and a blinking metronome light which blinks green and red!) I feel like I'm in some sort of server room with racks full of cards while recording!
Yikes. Sounds like my car, with all those diodes and lights flashing at you.
I'm thinking Nefeli next for me.
Post a Comment