As I have for several years now, I played in the pit for the Nutcracker. Most of the music (the bass parts, at least) is pretty easy and (especially after 100 or so performances) are under my fingers. I have to practice the B section of the Trepak every year--it's one of my favorite bits in the show.
But there's one part in the battle scene that gets me every time. It looks a little something like this:
I don't know about you, but I never spent a whole lot of time practicing my D-sharp almost-minor (that pesky F double-sharp!) scales, especially with grace notes. And the fact that it's not clearly major or minor bothers the theorist in me. And then there are all of those grace notes, many of which have double sharps. And it's fast (about quarter note = 120-130). And it comes after seven measures of rest where the downbeat is shifted to beat three, which makes counting the rests a little tricky.
Every year this comes up, like a visit to your crazy uncle's house. You know you have to do it, and you know it's coming and you prepare yourself for it. I've never played it to my satisfaction, but this year, by gum, I'm going to get it!
So I practice. And practice. I rewrite it into E-flat major(ish). I play it without grace notes; I play it with grace notes. I play it slowly; I gradually speed it up. I play it in the pit before the show. I practice during intermission. This is the year that I nail it.
So the little mice and toy soldiers are chasing one another around the stage (or so I suspect--I can't see anything from the pit) and I'm counting "4-2-3-4, 5-2-3-4..." knowing it's right around the corner. All that practice is bound to pay off.
And I blow it right around the high D-sharp at the beginning of the second measure (above). (Mind you, I think I played a C double-sharp grace note instead of a C-sharp--the mistake was a fairly minor one, but it was a mistake none the less.)
That's OK, though. We still have the Saturday matinee, the Saturday evening, and the Sunday matinee performances. I'll practice some more and I'm sure to get it at one of those performances.
I didn't. There's always next year. Next year I will get it for sure.
That's why I play.