Well, let’s take a look at the orchestra part at the bassoon solo. You probably recall that recall that Bolero is comprised of two melodies. You have the melody that first enters with the flute in the beginning of the piece. Then you have a counter melody, or a second melody that is in the bassoon part for the very first time. This B flat, the first note of the bassoon solo is quite significant because in some ways because it is the first time that jarring dissonance or harmony has been brought into the composition. So it is a very special note for us. It is marked mezzo-piano in the score so you should never play this solo too loud. After all the composition has many minutes yet to go. The bassoon part should be expressive and particularly with that B flat you don’t want to play it too quietly. So come in with confidence.

This is something that would be very good for you to practice with a metronome and with a drone. The issue is that you enter on time, in tune, with a good tone right from the beginning.

Rest, rest, B flat. Enter on that note each time.

Let’s take a look at the accompaniment here because it helps us determine which drone we would use for working on our intonation in this melody. There are two instruments that enter for the first time here. One is the first flute and the other is the harp. In addition, we have some other notes given to the violas. The flute enters on a G and continues with the Bolero rhythm that we have heard previously in the piece. The harp enters with some dissonances, some major seconds. These are harmonics here. They add a little bit of spice here to what we have in the harmony. You can see in the strings here—violas and cellos—we have Gs (Sol) and Cs (Do) emphasized. Particularly in the piece you hear:

<singing “C-G-G, C-G-G”>

Those notes are emphasized each time. You can see that the common pitch throughout all three beats is a G (Sol). That would be a very good pitch to set as your drone.

If you have been watching many of my videos you understand that I am not a strong advocate of using a tuner. I don’t think you should use your eye to tell your ear what to do. Instead I advocate using a drone or sounding pitch that is constant so that your ear is the instrument used to make the adjustment in the music. So keep the G droning through the music. On the screen now is a place where you can get the drones. Use this to tune your notes and for listening to intonation. Using the metronome and using the drone as a practice method for this solo will be very, very helpful.

The next thing to pay close attention to are all of the accents. Now, the accents in this composition should not be played harshly. They instead should be played with weight on them. Not:

<music>
abruptly hit, but rather with some weight on them.

<music>

I think that is more in line with the flavor of this composition.

For fingerings the high D flat you may want to experiment with several fingerings there.

<music>

I tend to use my standard fingering there, which is 1-3 1-3. But you may want to add the F key or you may want to add the A flat key. Those fingerings can all help with the resonance of that note. The F key will, I find, make the fingering—the pitch—a little bit sharper. But it does add increased resonance. However, on the down side, it doesn’t articulate as well. So I chose the security of a fingering that I know will articulate well each time.

Well, this is a difficult passage. Just as Bolero has a rhythmic background--something you are measured against—I also find in our lives we are measured against things as well. If you would like to hear some more about spiritual matters, ways in which we are spiritually measured, go to the next video, www.2reed.net/measure. Thank you, bye.

<music: Bolero>