Today our bell choir played during the offering at church. The piece that we played is a level higher than we usually play, and has several chord changes. It was difficult in practice, but this morning at our early rehearsal before church, we played it perfectly and it was beautiful. The director said it was the best we had every played. Quite a compliment. Or a curse.
You know what happened. During church, we played it like amateurs. I had one measure where I play four bells with key changes, and somehow, I picked up the wrong bell and played a flat, (boink) and then quickly changed bells, but that chord had changed too, and I played ANOTHER wrong bell. As mistakes go, I guess this is not a large one, but I was sorely disappointed in myself. Those few tricky measures with several chord changes and playing four bells at a time was fun! I love feeling like I know what I am doing. I practiced and got it right during rehearsal until I hardly ever made a mistake. Until we played today. Some of the other bell ringers got lost, and the melody line got lost at one point, and I just kept counting and ringing until the others found their place. I didn't get lost, but it a long way from our best performance. I guess it wasn't awful...and people said they liked it, but none of us wanted to talk about it afterward. It was such a pretty and challenging piece and we tried so HARD! We didn't have to stop and start all over at least.
But we wished we could have.
Have a great and peaceful Sunday.
