Last week’s concerts were, for me, all about one note.

Honest.

Yes, I had a lot more than one note to play. Yes, others could be heard (although not well, really, since much of what I played was during tutti passages). But that one note … after sitting for 20 some odd measures of the second movement of the Beethoven fifth Piano Concerto … well … it mattered most. I come in, along with the principal oboist, pianissimo. I’m on a low F#. If it doesn’t speak, if it isn’t just right, my night is ruined.

Yes, that’s pathetic. But that’s how it feels.

So they were “One Note” concerts as far as I was concerned.

I tried numerous reeds. I thought I had decided which made me the most comfortable. I played the note over and over, making sure I would get that right feel, getting the muscle memory, learning to trust myself and the reed.

Then I switched reeds on the first concert night.

Yep, that happens. Reeds are so darn fickle and the one that I thought was the Chosen One just didn’t feel right to me Saturday night. So a different reed came out.

And it worked.

Sometimes it’s all about one note. Concerts like that aren’t fun until that one note has sounded. Go figure.

Now I can say, “Gee, what a fun concert!”