Last night I told my teacher about the 2nd rehearsal we had playing the Popper Requiem with the orchestra. We were all louder, and hopefully can get even louder. I felt like my volume compromised my tone, and my vibrato pretty much disappeared. For a long time I've had a problem with vibrato that I've known about - that I'll start a long note with vibrato, but then I'll stop doing vibrato before the note ends. Plus I haven't been happy with my vibrato anyway--it's always sounded a little tight and felt very uncomfortable. It's that pat your head and rub your tummy thing, I think. Now seemed like the perfect time to start fixing my vibrato problems!
So, we went back to something he had told me a while ago but finally clicked. Funny how many times this has happened during my cello journey (like we joke...everything we need to know about playing the cello is in Suzuki Book 1). He told me to concentrate on doing the vibrato from my arm, not my fingers, and to remember to keep my bow arm relaxed (as I've been working on for the last few weeks to get my volume up). Shake shake shake from the arm! And it worked...I could hear my tone warming up, and for the first time my vibrato looked, sounded, and felt pretty good.
I played the Popper during my lesson concentrating on vibrato...my vibrato got better but my bowing and timing went haywire...so I'm going to spend time this week trying to pull things back together and concentrate on shaking....from the arm.
meaning... practicing my F# minor scale with lots of vibrato. Today I started doing a shortened version of my shifting exercise but practicing doing a lot of vibrato as soon as I land the shifts...and everything I'm playing this week gets a lot of vibrato whether it requires it or not. I need to burn that shaking feeling in all sorts of positions on the fingerboard into my brain....the next thing that I want to become automatic!
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Random Collection of Happy Things from this Week
--My mother has found a new place to live. She has been in her apartment for about 2 years, after selling the house she and my dad bought not long after they were married and where she lived for 50 years. When we were visiting over Christmas, we had the conversation with her about moving to a place with independent and assisted living...it was much easier than I thought it would be. I'm thankful that she's in good health, but cleaning, cooking, and climbing stairs is getting to be quite difficult for her. She started looking a few weeks ago, and found a place that looks like it will work out very well for her. What a relief. Once she gets dates, etc. we will have to figure out how to get down there to help her pack and move. I'm sure it won't be as traumatic as cleaning through 50 years of things, but I know it will be stressful for her nonetheless.
--A good Popper rehearsal today! I was playing much louder than before and the others liked it and wanted me to play even louder. I also got some tips on how to play my solo parts; need to practice what I learned today. Cello1 told us some stories of her cello journey; including having to overcome her grandfather's objection to girls putting a cello between their legs to some of the national-level competitions she won.
--A really fun end of Saturday chamber group. Piano trios again, with one cellist who doesn't come very frequently. She stayed afterwards so that we could play Scottish and Irish tunes from Renata Bratt's Celtic Grooves for 2 cellos. What fun!!! We alternated playing rhythm and melody on each tune. She started telling me about some of the groups in the area and promised to send links so I could figure out if I could actually make it to a session. She also told me about a week she spent in Canada, on a train, that was a musician's week - Alastair Fraser was on it and she said there were jam sessions in every car every night. Now that sounded like an amazing week...
--A good Popper rehearsal today! I was playing much louder than before and the others liked it and wanted me to play even louder. I also got some tips on how to play my solo parts; need to practice what I learned today. Cello1 told us some stories of her cello journey; including having to overcome her grandfather's objection to girls putting a cello between their legs to some of the national-level competitions she won.
--A really fun end of Saturday chamber group. Piano trios again, with one cellist who doesn't come very frequently. She stayed afterwards so that we could play Scottish and Irish tunes from Renata Bratt's Celtic Grooves for 2 cellos. What fun!!! We alternated playing rhythm and melody on each tune. She started telling me about some of the groups in the area and promised to send links so I could figure out if I could actually make it to a session. She also told me about a week she spent in Canada, on a train, that was a musician's week - Alastair Fraser was on it and she said there were jam sessions in every car every night. Now that sounded like an amazing week...
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Louder, part 2
I've been spending this week's practice concentrating on playing louder. At my lesson last night I told my teacher that while I was playing louder, I didn't feel very relaxed. So we spent the lesson working on loud, fast, and relaxed. I'm just playing the F# minor scale these days because of the Popper, so he had my play the scale progressively faster, but using a lot of bow. One point of this was to get me using lots of bow, be loud, but not worry about intonation. The other task was to use more bow at a higher volume and faster than my current comfort level. Also, he wanted me to disassociate my bowing from my right hand. It was actually harder at some of the middle speeds because I was still trying to hit the intonation. Oh, and I was supposed to be relaxed too. Oh, yes, use lots of bow on a consistent basis. Once it got too fast for me to hit the notes and I concentrated on my bowing, my tone actually seemed to get better. We also noticed that on the up bows I don't bite into the string enough when I switch directions so the bow has a tendency to slide across the string - something to work on fixing. Maybe one of these years I'll actually get notes, speed, and tone all at once!
The next exercise was even more useful. We pulled out the Popper and he had me play a passage. Then he said, ok, now we're going to have a conversation. Talk to me while you're playing; don't worry too much about rhythm and notes. What was amazing was that my right arm immediately relaxed, and my tone sounded much better. The parts that I know very well sounded fine, and if there was a part I didn't know very well, our conversation suffered (now it wasn't a deep philosophical discussion, just talking about my day) while my mind tried to think about what I was playing. After that I played through the whole Popper piece with that same relaxed feeling, and while I muffed up some sections, from a tonal standpoint it sounded the best that I've ever played it!
Now if I can only be that relaxed all of the time! I played this morning with our violinist, just the 2 of us, and we played through 3 B. Romberg violin/cello duets. It was really fun. Then she switched to the piano and we played through the Schubert Arpeggione sonata. I am planning to work on it next...it's one of my favorite pieces. My loud exercises are at least working...I can now easily play at a volume level over the piano (a year ago I couldn't play over the piano) but I know I wasn't relaxed enough since my right hand was sore after playing today. Loud AND relaxed....Loud AND relaxed....Loud AND relaxed!
The next exercise was even more useful. We pulled out the Popper and he had me play a passage. Then he said, ok, now we're going to have a conversation. Talk to me while you're playing; don't worry too much about rhythm and notes. What was amazing was that my right arm immediately relaxed, and my tone sounded much better. The parts that I know very well sounded fine, and if there was a part I didn't know very well, our conversation suffered (now it wasn't a deep philosophical discussion, just talking about my day) while my mind tried to think about what I was playing. After that I played through the whole Popper piece with that same relaxed feeling, and while I muffed up some sections, from a tonal standpoint it sounded the best that I've ever played it!
Now if I can only be that relaxed all of the time! I played this morning with our violinist, just the 2 of us, and we played through 3 B. Romberg violin/cello duets. It was really fun. Then she switched to the piano and we played through the Schubert Arpeggione sonata. I am planning to work on it next...it's one of my favorite pieces. My loud exercises are at least working...I can now easily play at a volume level over the piano (a year ago I couldn't play over the piano) but I know I wasn't relaxed enough since my right hand was sore after playing today. Loud AND relaxed....Loud AND relaxed....Loud AND relaxed!
Monday, January 28, 2008
The First Playing of the Brahms Piano Quintet!
No orchestra rehearsal tonight! We got 3 inches of snow at our house, which doesn't sound like much, but my husband could not get his car up the hill today. He ended up taking my car, effectively keeping me at home all day. It is icy and snowy outside and our conductor emailed us all saying that he was stuck at home because of the ice on the hill by his house. So now I don't feel guilty about having to miss orchestra.
Yesterday I got to play with my Sunday chamber group - Cello2 has a bad cold and cancelled our Popper practice. Everyone in the Sunday group was really happy to see me! The cellos show up early so we can play cello-only music before the rest of the group arrives. We started off with a 3-cello piece by Beethoven. It was an arrangement of a 2-oboe + english horn piece. Now I don't remember what it was but we didn't get through all of it and will finish reading it the next time I'm there. My part was completely in tenor clef and it was challenging reading the thumb position parts in tenor way up there...
When the others showed up I switched to the piano and we (finally!) played through the Brahms Piano Quintet. Wow! It is very challenging for everyone. I finally got to find out which sections of it I don't know well enough to fake. The rest of the group did an awesome first reading. We had to stop and restart and figure out who was playing with whom (or not). The rhythms were challenging too - lots of 2 against 3 or 3 against 4, and lots of triplets where the first note of the triplet was a tied note from the previous beat or a rest. When we finished the scherzo, actually all together, we all laughed with sheer joy and relief. If you hear a recording you can hear the straight 16th notes, but in reality the strings alternate who's playing so counting and being dead on the rhythm is crucial for playing that particular section (the piano is playing all the time but is all over the keyboard - and most of the time at the extreme ends of the keyboard). When we finished the last movement, again, there was lots of laughter of sheer relief. That did us in for the day - it's an exhausting piece. But everyone wants to work on it and play it again!
Yesterday I got to play with my Sunday chamber group - Cello2 has a bad cold and cancelled our Popper practice. Everyone in the Sunday group was really happy to see me! The cellos show up early so we can play cello-only music before the rest of the group arrives. We started off with a 3-cello piece by Beethoven. It was an arrangement of a 2-oboe + english horn piece. Now I don't remember what it was but we didn't get through all of it and will finish reading it the next time I'm there. My part was completely in tenor clef and it was challenging reading the thumb position parts in tenor way up there...
When the others showed up I switched to the piano and we (finally!) played through the Brahms Piano Quintet. Wow! It is very challenging for everyone. I finally got to find out which sections of it I don't know well enough to fake. The rest of the group did an awesome first reading. We had to stop and restart and figure out who was playing with whom (or not). The rhythms were challenging too - lots of 2 against 3 or 3 against 4, and lots of triplets where the first note of the triplet was a tied note from the previous beat or a rest. When we finished the scherzo, actually all together, we all laughed with sheer joy and relief. If you hear a recording you can hear the straight 16th notes, but in reality the strings alternate who's playing so counting and being dead on the rhythm is crucial for playing that particular section (the piano is playing all the time but is all over the keyboard - and most of the time at the extreme ends of the keyboard). When we finished the last movement, again, there was lots of laughter of sheer relief. That did us in for the day - it's an exhausting piece. But everyone wants to work on it and play it again!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Louder
I told my teacher last night about our first rehearsal with the orchestra. He asked me how it went. I told him that we all needed to get louder. So my lesson was mostly about how to play louder while staying relaxed. Easier said than done.
I have a bunch of new exercises to work on, to try to learn how to crank up my volume, stay relaxed, and not lose tone quality. There's no such thing as playing softly with an entire orchestra backing you up. My husband said that he can finally hear my cello all through the house now, over the TV and over a whole bunch of other things on. I told him that I need to be even LOUDER.
We had another false start with my Saturday chamber group. We thought we would have a string quartet. And I thought, hooray, finally I will get to play the cello! But, our violist couldn't make it again, and our second violinist comes late. So for quite a while it was just our first violinist and me. She brought Beethoven violin/piano sonatas so we read through #3 and #4. #4 is really nice - worth doing again. I love playing the sonatas because the piano is an equal partner with the violin. #3 and #4 had early opus numbers but were very clearly not Hadyn influenced--very much Beethoven's own voice. Lovely pieces. We started #5 (the "spring" sonata) when our second violinst showed up. I stayed on the piano while they played a Bach double violin concerto. Then our first violinst did an awesome job of being the viola while we played some string trios - one by Schubert, a few movements of a Mozart Divertmento, and a few movements of a Beethoven string trio. She had to sit out when the viola part got too low for the violin, and there were a few times when we had to stop while she figured out alto clef but it was sure nice to have a little time on the cello. My tone has improved a lot as well as my reading ability and it was fun to hear how much I've improved.
As they were leaving I asked how loud we were during the Popper. They both said that all of us needed to be louder....I think only the strings could hear us and that the brass couldn't hear us at all. I've got to figure out how to make my cello project more sound...
I have a bunch of new exercises to work on, to try to learn how to crank up my volume, stay relaxed, and not lose tone quality. There's no such thing as playing softly with an entire orchestra backing you up. My husband said that he can finally hear my cello all through the house now, over the TV and over a whole bunch of other things on. I told him that I need to be even LOUDER.
We had another false start with my Saturday chamber group. We thought we would have a string quartet. And I thought, hooray, finally I will get to play the cello! But, our violist couldn't make it again, and our second violinist comes late. So for quite a while it was just our first violinist and me. She brought Beethoven violin/piano sonatas so we read through #3 and #4. #4 is really nice - worth doing again. I love playing the sonatas because the piano is an equal partner with the violin. #3 and #4 had early opus numbers but were very clearly not Hadyn influenced--very much Beethoven's own voice. Lovely pieces. We started #5 (the "spring" sonata) when our second violinst showed up. I stayed on the piano while they played a Bach double violin concerto. Then our first violinst did an awesome job of being the viola while we played some string trios - one by Schubert, a few movements of a Mozart Divertmento, and a few movements of a Beethoven string trio. She had to sit out when the viola part got too low for the violin, and there were a few times when we had to stop while she figured out alto clef but it was sure nice to have a little time on the cello. My tone has improved a lot as well as my reading ability and it was fun to hear how much I've improved.
As they were leaving I asked how loud we were during the Popper. They both said that all of us needed to be louder....I think only the strings could hear us and that the brass couldn't hear us at all. I've got to figure out how to make my cello project more sound...
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
First Popper Rehearsal with Orchestra!
I wasn't expecting it, but last night we played the Popper Requiem with the full orchestra for the first time! The pre-rehearsal blog only had one entry, the Kallinikov Symphony #1 so I wasn't expecting to play the Popper and didn't bring my stand. My stand partner always brings his stand, so I've been lazy and never bother to bring mine. Since he's playing Cello 2, I had to borrow a stand for the Popper (at least I had my music!).
We faced the orchestra for this rehearsal so that the orchestra could hear what we were playing. Next time we'll face out as if we had an audience. Some of my observations:
1. I have to play louder! We did a bunch of runs through my solo part (more so that the orchestra could hear/practice their parts) and I was wondering how well my volume projected
2. We all have to play louder - but need someone to do a balance check on our volume together and with the orchestra
3. We cellists played together pretty much most of the time - no major gaffes - there are some bowing changes and volume changes we will need to make and of course we still need a lot of practice, but I think in general we sounded good. A lot of people came up after rehearsal to say that they liked hearing us and that they liked the piece.
4. I had fun! I wished I had played some parts better, but I know that my playing get better with more time/practice. Cello1 and Cello2 both said that they had performance nerves. I had some nervousness but midway through the first run I started thinking, This is so cool! Playing with an orchestra backing me up!!!!
I got used to playing for an audience during the 3 years that I spent playing the organ for my church..way back in high school...since then I've really enjoyed playing for an audience.
5. I really need to work on my solo bits and getting relaxed! Under stress I fall back to what I can do automatically and I don't have as many skills on "automatic" as I would like (many of those skills are what I wrote about in my previous post!) My playing quality rapidly deteriorates when I'm stressed out, nervous, or thinking too hard about some little detail..so I need to be loud and relaxed (and Sing! Sing!) I hope I'm not deluding myself into thinking my playing sounded better than what it really sounded like...
We faced the orchestra for this rehearsal so that the orchestra could hear what we were playing. Next time we'll face out as if we had an audience. Some of my observations:
1. I have to play louder! We did a bunch of runs through my solo part (more so that the orchestra could hear/practice their parts) and I was wondering how well my volume projected
2. We all have to play louder - but need someone to do a balance check on our volume together and with the orchestra
3. We cellists played together pretty much most of the time - no major gaffes - there are some bowing changes and volume changes we will need to make and of course we still need a lot of practice, but I think in general we sounded good. A lot of people came up after rehearsal to say that they liked hearing us and that they liked the piece.
4. I had fun! I wished I had played some parts better, but I know that my playing get better with more time/practice. Cello1 and Cello2 both said that they had performance nerves. I had some nervousness but midway through the first run I started thinking, This is so cool! Playing with an orchestra backing me up!!!!
I got used to playing for an audience during the 3 years that I spent playing the organ for my church..way back in high school...since then I've really enjoyed playing for an audience.
5. I really need to work on my solo bits and getting relaxed! Under stress I fall back to what I can do automatically and I don't have as many skills on "automatic" as I would like (many of those skills are what I wrote about in my previous post!) My playing quality rapidly deteriorates when I'm stressed out, nervous, or thinking too hard about some little detail..so I need to be loud and relaxed (and Sing! Sing!) I hope I'm not deluding myself into thinking my playing sounded better than what it really sounded like...
Monday, January 21, 2008
Random Practice Notes
These past few weeks I've heard some random (or maybe not so random) comments about my playing that have given me new things to think about and work on during my practice time...
...my bow hold
I'm continuing to work on thinking about my hand following my arm, and on the equal and opposite reaction (to counteract the problem I have with my hand sliding towards the tip of the bow)
...my bow speed
At my last lesson, I told my teacher that I wasn't happy with the way I was playing part of one of my solo bits on the Popper Requiem. This has a dotted eighth note followed by a sixteenth note, followed by a quarter note where I have to shift up to hit the quarter note. He watched me and said that I was speeding up my bowing when I was shifting. That darn right hand/left hand independence thing again! I've modified my shifting exercise this week to change the rhythm of the shifting but keeping the bow speed steady. Another skill to burn into my brain...
...controlling the rate of my vibrato
That was the other thing I told my teacher I wasn't happy about. It's the right hand/left hand independence thing again...and the overall coordination thing (you know, the pat your head and rub your stomach thing). Plus I can't seem to hold my bow speed steady and increase or decrease the rate of my vibrato. My right hand wants to speed up or slow down with my left hand. Sigh. Another set of exercises...
...starting a note
During our Popper rehearsal yesterday, Cello1 gave me a little lesson on starting a note...putting some pressure on the string and then getting it to vibrate immediately, but without the horrible scratching sounds that I sometimes make. My teacher has been saying the same thing...I think it's a skill that I can't do automatically yet...what happens when I start a note doesn't always feel like I have it under control, even though I am trying.
...and the previous week's Cello1 tip on bowing
She's been telling me, "Sing, Sing!!!" and finally told me to bow with a "Round bow, round bow! not straight...it's not natural!!" She showed me what she meant, and I've been practicing...and it's helped my overall tone. This week she told me that my solo parts sounded a lot better. I told her that I've been practicing round bows and she was really happy.
I finally figured out why she doesn't want to get coaching from my teacher...she believes that teachers are not useful to learning how to play well. I don't agree, but it did explain why she doesn't want to have my teacher listen to the 3 of us play the Popper.
Popper rehearsal notes
I think we have decided where we are bowing together and where we are not...we made some major bowing changes yesterday that improved the overall sound. Cello1 suggested fingering changes to both Cello2 and me on our parts; they were good suggestions but then she kept reminding us about the changes when we'd forget. Cello2 finally said, I need this coming week to practice the new fingerings and bowings...I'll have it changed by next week.
...And the Saturday Chamber Group
We were foiled again...Our second violinist is out with an injured finger. We thought our violist would make it but she wasn't able to and we were back to...piano trios. I love piano trios but am really looking forward to another configuration..plus we thought we would be able to play piano quartets or string trios and I have a piano quartet by Arthur Foote that I really wanted to play...maybe next week. I was looking forward to playing the cello but ended up on the piano. We played a Frederick Gernsheim piano trio (can't remember the opus...it just was loaded to the Eastman School of Music site) and it had a really hard first movement (rhythmically hard) but was really nice overall. Then we switched to Beethoven and played Trios #5 and #8. #8 was fun because it was a set of 10 variations.
...and the Brahms Piano quintet
I'm still working on it...playing bits and pieces of it when I can find time to practice the piano. I've been using a method that I read about from a link on Gottagopractice's blog - a flexible tempo - to learn the music - it really works. I've found that the sections that I've played through very slowly but concentrating on learning the music really well, that I'm able to speed it up much more quickly and accurately. I still only have small sections that I can play at speed, but more and more of each movement is starting to come together.
...and orchestra rehearsal tonight!
I missed last week's rehearsal; the first of this cycle...it was snowing so hard last week that I decided to drive home rather than stay at rehearsal. I even postponed my trip to the Bay Area for a day from Tuesday to Wednesday because I figured that it would be really icy...and for once I got lucky with the travel gods because the San Jose airport was closed Tuesday morning and I didn't have to deal with it!
...my bow hold
I'm continuing to work on thinking about my hand following my arm, and on the equal and opposite reaction (to counteract the problem I have with my hand sliding towards the tip of the bow)
...my bow speed
At my last lesson, I told my teacher that I wasn't happy with the way I was playing part of one of my solo bits on the Popper Requiem. This has a dotted eighth note followed by a sixteenth note, followed by a quarter note where I have to shift up to hit the quarter note. He watched me and said that I was speeding up my bowing when I was shifting. That darn right hand/left hand independence thing again! I've modified my shifting exercise this week to change the rhythm of the shifting but keeping the bow speed steady. Another skill to burn into my brain...
...controlling the rate of my vibrato
That was the other thing I told my teacher I wasn't happy about. It's the right hand/left hand independence thing again...and the overall coordination thing (you know, the pat your head and rub your stomach thing). Plus I can't seem to hold my bow speed steady and increase or decrease the rate of my vibrato. My right hand wants to speed up or slow down with my left hand. Sigh. Another set of exercises...
...starting a note
During our Popper rehearsal yesterday, Cello1 gave me a little lesson on starting a note...putting some pressure on the string and then getting it to vibrate immediately, but without the horrible scratching sounds that I sometimes make. My teacher has been saying the same thing...I think it's a skill that I can't do automatically yet...what happens when I start a note doesn't always feel like I have it under control, even though I am trying.
...and the previous week's Cello1 tip on bowing
She's been telling me, "Sing, Sing!!!" and finally told me to bow with a "Round bow, round bow! not straight...it's not natural!!" She showed me what she meant, and I've been practicing...and it's helped my overall tone. This week she told me that my solo parts sounded a lot better
I finally figured out why she doesn't want to get coaching from my teacher...she believes that teachers are not useful to learning how to play well. I don't agree, but it did explain why she doesn't want to have my teacher listen to the 3 of us play the Popper.
Popper rehearsal notes
I think we have decided where we are bowing together and where we are not...we made some major bowing changes yesterday that improved the overall sound. Cello1 suggested fingering changes to both Cello2 and me on our parts; they were good suggestions but then she kept reminding us about the changes when we'd forget. Cello2 finally said, I need this coming week to practice the new fingerings and bowings...I'll have it changed by next week.
...And the Saturday Chamber Group
We were foiled again...Our second violinist is out with an injured finger. We thought our violist would make it but she wasn't able to and we were back to...piano trios. I love piano trios but am really looking forward to another configuration..plus we thought we would be able to play piano quartets or string trios and I have a piano quartet by Arthur Foote that I really wanted to play...maybe next week. I was looking forward to playing the cello but ended up on the piano. We played a Frederick Gernsheim piano trio (can't remember the opus...it just was loaded to the Eastman School of Music site) and it had a really hard first movement (rhythmically hard) but was really nice overall. Then we switched to Beethoven and played Trios #5 and #8. #8 was fun because it was a set of 10 variations.
...and the Brahms Piano quintet
I'm still working on it...playing bits and pieces of it when I can find time to practice the piano. I've been using a method that I read about from a link on Gottagopractice's blog - a flexible tempo - to learn the music - it really works. I've found that the sections that I've played through very slowly but concentrating on learning the music really well, that I'm able to speed it up much more quickly and accurately. I still only have small sections that I can play at speed, but more and more of each movement is starting to come together.
...and orchestra rehearsal tonight!
I missed last week's rehearsal; the first of this cycle...it was snowing so hard last week that I decided to drive home rather than stay at rehearsal. I even postponed my trip to the Bay Area for a day from Tuesday to Wednesday because I figured that it would be really icy...and for once I got lucky with the travel gods because the San Jose airport was closed Tuesday morning and I didn't have to deal with it!
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