Ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch

It's all about internal rhythm. Especially when it comes to Saint-Saens Organ Symphony No. 3 in C minor, or as my stand partner has re-labeled it, Saint-Saens Organ Symphony No. 8 in O minor. Yep, that's the kinda fun I have in orchestra :P

But speaking seriously, if you've ever heard/played the organ symphony, you know the challenge of bringing all the parts to the same downbeat without hardly any of them actually playing the downbeat. All of the off-beats and strange rhythms can so easily throw any of us off, and if only one person is thrown off the entire orchestra will most likely slowly (or not so slowly) adjust to that one person. Therefore, it's all about the internal beat. Today during orchestra rehearsal, our conductor had us playing all sorts of "games," such as playing our notes on beats 1, 2, 4, and 5 and saying "3" and "6" when we have rests on these beats, all going at a fairly upbeat tempo. He also had the entire orchestra create this "ch ch ch ch ch ch" sound together. At the same time he asked those who have birthdays in certain months to raise there hands, and other similar questions. This caused us to be thinking about something else as we continued the beat. In the end, it's a kind of rub your belly/pat your head exercise. If you think about it, we need to be doing the exact same thing while we're playing. Keep an beat going steadily internally while playing your instrument...it sounds easy but is so, so hard.

Still it's an interesting exercise, and afterwards we did sound better (although far from perfect). Perhaps there are even more ways to expand on this exercise. It's definitely something to ponder...

-Phil