Monday
Everyone dragged themselves out of bed on Monday morning and made their way
over to the gym, although I must say… not very enthusiastically. After
a very exhausting PT session we made our way over to work all wishing we had
done more PT over Christmas leave.
The day began getting back into the swing of things. We didn't have any recitals
but instead I got to play in wind quintet for the first time. The day ended
with the weekly clean up of the accommodation ready for rounds on Tuesday.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning saw my first clarinet lesson since before leave. During my lesson
Professor Kennard went through the next assessment with me choosing pieces and
studies to perform for it. For this next assessment I am working on the 3rd
movement of Mozart's clarinet concerto.
During the evening we had an orchestral rehearsal with Major Watson. Musn Thompson
and myself found the pieces quite challenging as we have both only been playing
the viola for a year.
Wednesday
Parade band was slightly different today. The term 1s (Troop 1/01) had a band
drill lesson on the parade square in the cold, whilst the rest of Training Company
had a musical rehearsal in the concert hall in the warm!
The afternoon was spent playing a friendly handball competition in the gym although
I'm not too sure the teams were fair!
Thursday
Thursday began with another PT session but this time it was down on the running
track. After running around it a good few times I, and I'm sure a few others,
thought that there couldn't possibly be enough time left to run the BFT (1 1/2
miles), but guess what? Yes you guessed, we were wrong.
Over at work I had a viola lesson with Mrs Cressci. My main aim this term is
to learn how to vibrato. It takes a long time to learn and part of the process
involves resting your viola against the wall to take away the weight. However
I don't think the Bandmaster was sure what we were up to when he walked into
the room and both Mrs Cressci and myself stood facing a stone wall!
Friday
On Friday myself, and eleven other students from the Royal Marines School of
Music went to London for the day to help the London College of Music in some
rehearsals. The only problem I had with going to London for the day was having
to get up at 5am! We rehearsed four pieces with the college all of which Major
Watson is conducting. We are rehearsing with them again next month before performing
in their concert with them.
The weekend!
On Saturday myself and Musns Singleton, Carter and Allen travelled to Gatwick
airport with Sgt Griffen and Sgt Storrie ready to catch our plane to Geneva
in order to participate in a week's adventure training… skiing! And oh
boy it certainly was entertaining!
Musn Parkin