2-8-11
I've got a screw loose.
No, literally. Not metaphorically, all you people out there who automatically thought, "Well, finally she's admitting it."
I have a screw loose on my bass clarinet. It must have come undone due to the massive amounts of practicing I've been doing because we have an upcoming concert. (And by "upcoming," I mean a week from Saturday night.)
I practiced my scales and the first couple places--everything was working fine. Then I went to practice a tricky part that isn't a solo but yet I want to play well--and no high C. Well, for me it's a high C. If it was a regular clarinet, I think it would be the equivalent of middle C. Anyway, the C that's on the treble staff. Wouldn't play. At all. And neither would the C-sharp or the B-natural.
So I immediately think, "Hey, Mr. Penner could help me with this!" And so I go upstairs and--no Mr. Penner. I check the music office; no Mr. Penner, and they don't have a screwdriver either. Both Mrs. Minner and Mr. Parsons are involved with lessons, and so I wait outside Mr. Penner's door for fifteen minutes, attempting to screw it back in with a fingernail, but it's in an awkward place so my fingers don't fit. No one comes in that fifteen minutes, either.
I go back out into the hall; Mrs. Minner's door is open. So I asked her if she had a screwdriver. Nope, but she let me into Mr. Penner's office, where he does have a screwdriver sitting with pens in a coffee cup. Rejoicing! Mrs. Minner leaves and I sit down to tighten my loose screw.
The screwdriver's the wrong type.
I spend fifteen minutes trying to use a tiny pair of scissors to screw the blasted thing back in, but nothing doing. Still no Mr. Penner, either. So I go back out and realize that I have to go to recitation.
Basically, I'm taking a tiny screwdriver to school tomorrow so I can fix my own bass clarinet. *sigh* And I missed out on a good forty minutes of practice which are sort of necessary since there's a concert a week from Saturday night and I have SOLOS that I need to keep practicing. (Since Parsons said that familiarity bred comfort; I always thought it bred contempt, but this is band, after all.)
I'm sure I'll fix it and I'm sure it'll sound fine, but I sure was frustrated that I didn't get to practice today because I couldn't find the proper screwdriver. *sigh*
More later.
BLARGH
ReplyDeleteThis is just the sort of annoying thing that I always try to rationalize by saying that God was probably saving you from something. Like, who knows? Perhaps if you HAD played, you would have fallen and your clarinet would have shattered into a brazillion tiny pieces?
I like to fancy such things.
Perhaps. Fancying such things does put a nicer spin on it.
ReplyDeleteBut it's fixed now and sounds pretty good.
Well that's better I suppose.
ReplyDelete