'Old Molly Hare' Revisited

Well, that minor tune will have to wait another week. I bombed my lesson. lol. I wowed my teacher with my total inability to remember 'Old Molly Hare' after practicing it all week (and I truly did - practice, I mean). It was really laughable. Make that pitiful. I'm blaming my long day at work (government will do that to you), but it was just like my brain had a short circuit. Once my teacher played a few bars, I thought all was good and started playing along. Pieces of the tune would come out beautifully, but then just as suddenly it would be all gone. I would draw a blank! It was totally weird.

I think that maybe part of the issue was that my teacher was playing at a speed slower than I had practiced the piece. This left me hesitating a bit as I anticipated the next note (almost like a hiccup). That threw off my bowing pattern that I had become accustomed to and I would frequently end up on an 'up bow' when I was expecting a 'down bow'. Add that to my standard level of nervousness at lessons and well, that spells 'F'. It was pretty funny though.

Maybe I should be less concerned with 'up bows' and 'down bows' and just let it ride, but my classical training is extremely resistant to that train of thought. Either way, I'm lookin' at another week of 'Molly'.