My Out--What's Yours?

Thanks Mom, for not letting me quit the cello! You'd think she would have given up after all the complaining and threatening I did. It worked for the piano. And yes, she was right I regret not having taken more lessons. In High School I kind of had to choose between soccer and the cello--but after I learned that soccer season started with summer training at 6 a.m. everyday it wasn't such a hard decision. I loved playing in orchestra with all my cool friends. Brandon says orchestra people are nerds...I try to correct him..."No that's BAND." But, whatever. Anyway, playing the cello was great. Then I found out you could earn money playing the cello. That was the best high school job ever to play in a string quartet for weddings, parties, etc. One time we didn't get paid, so we went to the gate of Temple Square, set out our cases, and began playing Pachelbel's Canon in D. The cello has the easy part so I was able to look up and see our music have an effect on people: couples nuzzling in close, holding hands, children with eyes a-sparkle--okay I made up that one. But, for sure it made people feel generous. We earned 20 bucks in that 20 minutes-- our best gig ever!At this stage of life, playing the cello is my out--girls night out. A group of us get together every Thursday evening (during the school year) and play. Sometimes we play for church functions, or community events, sometimes we play at the schools. And once in a while we even get PAID to play--like yesterday. We played for a wedding: bridal chorus , wedding march and all! Fun Fun! We love it. We do have our differences though:

Violin I might say for example, "Let's play Pachelbel super fast."

and I might say, "No way, that would be sacreligious."

and violin II might say, "Forget Pachelbel let's play Pirates."

and I might say, "not at MY wedding you wouldn't."

and then pretty soon our bows are clashing. "Pirates" is what we call the medley of music from the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean." It is super fun and swashbuckling and Halloween-y all at the same time--but not the best song for a wedding. We played it anyway. After an hour of classical hits we figured no one was listening to our background music anyway. Then we played Mozart's "Eine Kleine" and got a standing ovation--apparently they WERE listening!

Just as a bonus, I'm going to include some of our favorites besides the aforementioned--in case you want to add some class to your iPod.

Vivaldi--Four Seasons

Handel--Water Music, Royal Fireworks, Messiah, Largo, Entrance of the Queen of Sheba

Bach--Air, 2 Gavottes from the D Major Suite, Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring

Boccherini--Minuet

Mozart--Marriage of Figaro, all of his string quartet stuff.

Schubert--Ave Maria, Moment Musicale, March Militaire

Mouret--Rondeau

There are of course many other great classical hits. These are just a few that are arranged for string quartet and these are pretty much what we would play if you hired us for a wedding --**Pirates upon special request.