Tuesday’s lesson was a blast – Teacher brought some music so we could play duets.  First we did the Seitz 5, the first movement – the movement I’ve been working on as my newest piece for a good while now.  The accompaniment part she played is based on the piano accompaniment included on the Suzuki CD.  We played through twice.

Apparently that was a bit of a graduation recital because after that we went on to the next piece in Book Four – the third movement of the same concerto.  We’re starting in the middle of the movement, where there’s a daunting parade of double stops that goes on for many measures.  As with other tunes in Book Four, as I’ve listened to the Suzuki CD I’ve wondered how on earth I could possibly play such things.  I guess I know by now that the answer is to dig in and start practicing!  This section promises to be the most difficult collection of notes I’ve worked on to date.

After we muscled through those double stops, we went back to play the duet for the first piece in Book Four, Seitz 2, the third movement.  I’ve been playing that one for far longer; it went quite well and we had a lot of fun with it.  There’s nothing like playing with others to help me better feel and understand a piece of music – doing so makes it comes together in a way that music just can’t when playing solo, or even with an accompaniment track.  I wish I had the time to consider a community symphony or some other way to engage regularly in playing with other people.  Someday I’ll make it happen.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan