It's been a busy week with a trip to the Bay Area and working on a large project with a tight timeline. I haven't had a lot of time to practice, but will be able to practice some of the exercises I got from my lesson without a cello.
This week's lesson was about bow holds. I've been trying to modify my bow hold yet again, to get a different position for my thumb. I'm trying to make sure it stays flexible and supple - much easier said than done. When I'm not careful it tends to slip back to a more straight, rigid hold, which makes it hard to produce a full tone.
My teacher gave me a lot of hand exercises - I tried some of them while on my walk this morning. I definitely do not have a supple, loose hand. When I practiced today I tried some of the exercises - moving the bow up and down with just my fingers, rocking the bow back and forth over my (curved and relaxed - ha!) thumb, lifting the bow with just my index finger and letting the bow drop on the string. I really feel like I've started at the beginning again. Well...maybe not. For kicks I shifted everything to the other side --- bowing with my left hand and fingering with my right hand (and moved the cello over to my right shoulder) -- now if you really want to feel like a beginner again you should try that! I don't know why I did it but after I attempted to play that way I felt better about my attempts to play normally - definitely it was much easier!
My teacher also asked me to practice relaxing and putting more dead weight into my arm - asking me to ratchet up my volume even more. That was easier to do than relaxing my right hand! It was nice to hear my volume come up even more than before - need to get better control over it - sometimes I would press to hard and the sound would get scratchy.
Chamber music this morning was ok - I was on piano again for piano trios. I'm only playing the piano about once a week so it's always a little painful to play. We started out with some Haydn trios to warm up (they are nice for warmup - if my fingers are in the right location on the piano everything is just under my fingers). Then we played Mendelssohn's C minor trio (we had a laugh when we started when for some reason my brain spazzed and I thought it was in C# minor and I had to stop and reset my brain to the right key). We played a trio by Rheinberger, and then Schubert's Nocturno (for piano trio - gorgeous)! before calling it a day.
3 comments:
I, too, have had a problem with maintaining a flexible thumb. Lately, I have been moving back to a rigid thumb which makes my hand really sore after 30 mins. of playing. When I first started with my current teacher, he had me do a very simple string crossing exercise using "finger pushups" Basically, you achieve the string crossing by pulling your fingers up and pushing them back down. (think doing the string crossings in the prelude of Bach Suite One ). This helped me a lot and I have been going back to it to get my hand loose before playing.
I envy the good cello bow hold. It looks so effortless.
Yes, it's amazing how much effort is required to make cello playing seem effortless!
Two years ago I remember being in tears over a "finger action" thing that my teacher was trying to get me to master, but it just wasn't happening. It actually took me several months to get the hang of it. Fortunately my teacher was patient with me and didn't dwell on it exclusively. Eventually the technique became more and more natural for me and I was able to incorporate it into my playing.
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