The First Duet

As I previously mentioned in my last blog posts, I am a former member of the Roswell High School Orchestra. That being said, I have had experience in the “duet” area. For example, for final exams, I was required to perform a chosen piece with my assigned group in front of the class. However, there is a major difference between my previous duet experience and my current situation. I only have experience with performing a piece with other individuals while playing the viola. This will be the first time I play the violin in a duet.

Since most of my orchestra friends are busy, I decided to call my cousin to ask her if she was interested in playing a duet with me. Luckily, she was free during the weekend and had sheet music that she wanted to try out. My cousin also plays the violin, so we decided that I would play the second violin part and that she would play the first violin part because she had more experience and could handle the more challenging first violin part. The piece she wanted to play was Johann Pachelbel’s “Canon in D”.

Image by arissira04 via musescore

“Canon in D” is played in the key of D major, which means that it contains 2 sharps: F sharp and C sharp. It was much easier for me to play the notes in tune because the D major scale is the most basic scale for beginner orchestra students. The biggest challenge was being able to harmonize with my cousin because I would speed up at times or she would play slower. We could definitely play the piece by ourselves, but when together, it was difficult to tell when we were playing at different tempos because we were so focused on ourselves and paid little attention to each other.

While working on the duet, I learned that it was extremely difficult to harmonize when the notes were slurred because one person would play the slur too quickly and get slightly ahead. Additionally, the rhythm differed for the parts throughout the piece, making it tough to catch up to the beat. For myself, I learned that I tend to tune out the other instruments when playing in a group, which is detrimental to my playing because I tend to play over the tempo without realizing it. Additionally, it was difficult for me to pay attention to my cousin’s part because I was too busy focusing on playing the rhythm correctly.

Although my cousin and I spent a significant amount of time working on the piece, we were unable to do a complete run through of the piece. As a result, we will continue to work on the piece during this upcoming weekend. I plan on marking each of my entrances with a slightly dramatic bow lift to inform my cousin of where I am in the piece to make sure that we are playing at the exact tempo. Hopefully, we will be ready to play in front of our family during the week after next week.