I am so excited that I don't have to travel next week!!! I just looked through my calendar for the year, and there have been only 3 weeks this year when I haven't been on a plane, and 2 of those weeks were on vacation trips, where I wasn't home. And I think that the 3rd week at home was supposed to be a travel week, but I stayed home because I was sick.
I will need to take a picture from our deck.
And what joy, I will have more time to practice since I'll be home! Unfortunately I'm doing the 2 steps back, 1 step forward thing and am on the 2 steps back. At my last lesson we started tackling something that I've been doing - when changing bow direction at the frog I do a little downward hook that throws the bow off of its straight line. I think part of the problem is caused by too much wrist rotation up and down rather than side to side.
I think it was Guanaco who wrote about unlearning things and relearning - this is where I am right now. I'm having a real hard time figuring out if what I'm trying to do to fix the problem is really doing anything, because it's hard to see where my bow goes out of the straight line. I am looking forward to today's lesson so that my teacher can look at what I've been trying this week to see if it's made any difference.
And I wish it weren't so hard to unlearn and relearn - the "if only" always kicks in: "If only I could have not started doing what was wrong in the first place!" I have to keep reminding myself that practicing the same wrong thing over and over again doesn't make me a better cellist, it is being willing to change what I'm doing to make a better sound...
4 comments:
Our Maestro always quotes the phrase "Practice makes permanent," thereby cautioning us to practice carefully.
I suspect that much of what I thought I'd already "learned" are just technique issues that we (my teacher and I) haven't yet been able to fix.
There are way too many detailed techniques to be able to learn them all exactly right at the beginning.
It seems that we just have to tolerate these "incorrect" techniques until we're ready and able to unlearn/relearn them correctly.
Wow, I don't know how you manage to make that "one step forward" with all that traveling. A scientist friend of mine who was out to sea a lot used to have a folding cello, but I don't think it was all that satisfactory. Maybe one of the collapsible electric cellos might work, but you'd probably still have to buy it a seat. Have a great week of practicing.
cellodonna, that is very true! My friend who sings with a local group tells me that their director makes sure that they learn the rhythm of their pieces first, because if they don't learn it correctly at first it is really hard to change.
Guanaco, you're right - there are way too many things to learn and can't all be learned at once. I think that is why our teachers have told us that all we need is Suzuki Book 1!
Maricello, thanks for the good wishes. hope you have a great time at fiddle camp. I am looking forward to my week at home - time for both cello and piano, I hope!
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