[Journal] Brahms g minor piano quartet performance readiness
I'm very much enjoying following along with your journey as well. This is not something I will ever experience so it's really interesting to hear about!
A crazy thing: the violinist in my group (who lives in the Portland area) offered me a harpsichord when I met her 5-6 years ago. I didn't have room for one then. Now we have a finished basement and we were talking during break today and I ended up asking if she still has a harpsichord looking for a new home. Turns out that she has two harpsichords and a hurdy gurdy that she picked up at estate sales! I asked her how big the harpsichords are and she said both are 9 feet long!! Really long but narrow. I was just talking to my husband about it because part of me is a little tempted (apparently one of them is a very nice one) but I thought it was going to be 5 feet long or something like that. I don't think I actually have space to put a 9 foot instrument unless we got rid of the dining table and made the dining room a harpsichord room instead 
I care about having airy spaces and nice aesthetics so I don't think a 9 foot harpsichord is in my future! I'll go to her house at some point and play some Bach though.
twocats
Wow! Do you know how much I love harpsichords?
When I was shopping for a house 6 years ago there was one with a harpsichord. I made an offer, with the condition that the harpsichord stays! They didn't accept! I wish I were in Portland. I would buy a harpsi to play one Rameau prelude over and over. But 9 foot is big.
Rubens I've only played one briefly in an antique shop! I can't really play by ear but somehow some Bach came out of my fingers! I can't imagine that they're both really 9 feet but I'll go check them out. I only play Romantic pieces these days (plus the occasional Beethoven) but I think I could enjoy Bach if I had a harpsichord. Maybe if it's a really pretty one I could justify fitting it somewhere?? 
This was on the board today (I whited out the piano coach's name)
- Edited
That's the thing with harpsi's. They are sensuous, luscious instruments. Even an average harpsi will give you the experience. Whereas with pianos you have to go high-end to have a fulfilling experience. @twocats 's bosie (or my Baldwin) will do, sure. But I'd take a mediocre harpsi over an average piano any day. Now let me go measure the free space in my living room.
I’m not encouraging you one way or another, but I took a semester of harpsichord in college, and despite having an egotistical jerk for a teacher, I very much enjoyed that class. It’s a lovely instrument to play. 9’ is big though!
Yamaha C5X
Rubens well, when the time comes and you can convince your wife, apparently there are kits you can buy where you assemble it yourself! One of the estate sale ones the violinist got was in an attic, unassembled. I'll have to ask who did the work, because from what I saw online it takes 300 hours to do it. Maybe she did it herself!! I saw one in an antique shop for about $1K.
Practice this morning working on tips from the coach! I'm about to have to rehearsal. Thankfully this piano is easy to play. Oh no, my hands started sweating for the first time on this trip and now my hands and feet are going to be swampy for the rest of the day. I really hope we can play a really exciting Molto Presto at the end! The cellist said I like to play fast. I just like to play at performance speed...
Workshop: Day 3
Just one rehearsal session today instead of two (usually two 75 minute sessions split by a coffee break), because we're on a bus headed to another country for a concert given by the coaches! (It's only an hour away 
)
I kept being off at the end of the fourth movement and couldn't figure out why even though I played it slowly by myself looking at the score (I memorized that section because I had to). The coach followed it and turns out the pattern changed and I missed a few notes!
And then when I was doing slow practice on a section where I kept being off from everyone I realized that the pattern also changed and I added a rest at a page turn! Haha it would have evened out in the end but they were several pages apart
I'm doing a lot of metronome practice these days!
Harpsichord update: she has two 9 foot ones (one built from a kit by someone else, and one built by a music professor; that's the nice one). And she also has a fretted clavichord kit, still unassembled! She said she feels like she is the temporary caretaker for these instruments
Looking up what a fretted clavichord is now.
