Recently I read a book by Glenn Kurtz, Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music. It is about his return to playing classical guitar after a long hiatus.
One thing he wrote struck me,
"I have to hear the sounds before I make them, and I have to let the sounds be as they are. Then I have to hear the difference between what I have in mind and what comes from the strings."
That really rang true to me. At my last lesson, my teacher and I talked about thoughtful and purposeful practicing, that is, changing what I am doing in order to improve my playing. Listening and hearing the gap between what I hear in my head and what I play, figuring out what is causing the gap, and changing something to bridge the gap is the essence of playing.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Great fun at the gig!
It was a lot of fun on Sunday, playing for our friends in our fearless leader's lab. The acoustics were wonderful; everyone sounded great, and we had a lot of fun.
we played the Mendelssohn octet - the best we've every played it. The funny thing about performances was that I had trouble where I've never messed up before, and I nailed some of the really hard passages. That was true of everyone else too. There were parts that sounded really amazing.
The program was
Handel - Entrance to the Queen of Sheba
Mendelssohn - Octet
Vivaldi - flute concerto
a Telemann violin duet
Rabinowitz - 4 pieces for string quartet
Vanhall - flute + string quartet
Vivaldi - Summer/Winter
I played the keyboard to accompany our fearless leader playing the violin for the last Vivaldi piece. He sounded really great. I couldn't figure out why I would lose him, but yesterday he told me that he had dropped beats here and there and messed with the tempo and wasn't sure how I managed to stay with him. It helped that I could read his part while I was playing. I had fun playing and improvising around what he was playing, but for a while I couldn't figure out why I wasn't staying with him. We did start and end together (that's always a victory!) and I certainly had fun playing (liked the challenge of figuring out what to improvise).
we played the Mendelssohn octet - the best we've every played it. The funny thing about performances was that I had trouble where I've never messed up before, and I nailed some of the really hard passages. That was true of everyone else too. There were parts that sounded really amazing.
The program was
Handel - Entrance to the Queen of Sheba
Mendelssohn - Octet
Vivaldi - flute concerto
a Telemann violin duet
Rabinowitz - 4 pieces for string quartet
Vanhall - flute + string quartet
Vivaldi - Summer/Winter
I played the keyboard to accompany our fearless leader playing the violin for the last Vivaldi piece. He sounded really great. I couldn't figure out why I would lose him, but yesterday he told me that he had dropped beats here and there and messed with the tempo and wasn't sure how I managed to stay with him. It helped that I could read his part while I was playing. I had fun playing and improvising around what he was playing, but for a while I couldn't figure out why I wasn't staying with him. We did start and end together (that's always a victory!) and I certainly had fun playing (liked the challenge of figuring out what to improvise).
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Exhausted
It has been a really busy week, and not good for cello playing.
Our group is getting ready to perform on May 17th, and we had dress rehearsal scheduled for Friday night. One of the pieces we're performing is the Mendelssohn Octet. Given everyone's schedules, we've rarely had all 8 of us together at the same time. We've practiced with parts of the group, but every person plays am important part.
I was really tired after traveling this week. I left Sunday and came home on Friday. It was for work, and was pretty stressful, with long hours every day. My playing last night suffered from lack of practice and exhaustion. At least I have a week to practice the parts that have been giving me trouble all along.
I was also bummed yesterday to find out that I have to start commuting to headquarters again. It's been so nice this year to be home for longer periods of time. The silver lining to budget cuts was that my work travel had been severely curtailed. Yesterday I found out that I have to start commuting again; we negotiated every other week, 3 or 4 days a week. Previously I was commuting every week, 2 to 3 days a week. Now I know I shouldn't be whining so much about this; I love my job and am thankful that I have one. But still, traveling for work is not at all like traveling for fun, and the frequency was exhausting. Plus it impacts cello practice time.
When I was commuting regularly I had rented a cello ( I am fortunate to be able to stay with my brother when I'm in the Bay Area). One of the reasons why I accelerated getting my new cello was so that I could have a decent cello in the Bay Area. Then I stopped traveling as much and the urgency to have 2 cellos disappeared. But I still only have one cello. My other cello is in Pocatello with Chris..he is doing some work on it. The plan is take my new one to him in September for a check up and another coat of varnish. He will return my former cello to me then, so I have a cello while he works on the new one. Now I'll have to decide whether to rent a cello in the Bay Area again or just not practice while I'm there.
Our group is getting ready to perform on May 17th, and we had dress rehearsal scheduled for Friday night. One of the pieces we're performing is the Mendelssohn Octet. Given everyone's schedules, we've rarely had all 8 of us together at the same time. We've practiced with parts of the group, but every person plays am important part.
I was really tired after traveling this week. I left Sunday and came home on Friday. It was for work, and was pretty stressful, with long hours every day. My playing last night suffered from lack of practice and exhaustion. At least I have a week to practice the parts that have been giving me trouble all along.
I was also bummed yesterday to find out that I have to start commuting to headquarters again. It's been so nice this year to be home for longer periods of time. The silver lining to budget cuts was that my work travel had been severely curtailed. Yesterday I found out that I have to start commuting again; we negotiated every other week, 3 or 4 days a week. Previously I was commuting every week, 2 to 3 days a week. Now I know I shouldn't be whining so much about this; I love my job and am thankful that I have one. But still, traveling for work is not at all like traveling for fun, and the frequency was exhausting. Plus it impacts cello practice time.
When I was commuting regularly I had rented a cello ( I am fortunate to be able to stay with my brother when I'm in the Bay Area). One of the reasons why I accelerated getting my new cello was so that I could have a decent cello in the Bay Area. Then I stopped traveling as much and the urgency to have 2 cellos disappeared. But I still only have one cello. My other cello is in Pocatello with Chris..he is doing some work on it. The plan is take my new one to him in September for a check up and another coat of varnish. He will return my former cello to me then, so I have a cello while he works on the new one. Now I'll have to decide whether to rent a cello in the Bay Area again or just not practice while I'm there.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Exhaling
For the past few weeks during my swim workout I have been concentrating on exhaling completely. It sounds rather silly to think about breathing, but it is amazing how much it has helped me feel strong during some hard swims. Yesterday one of our sets was 6 100 IM's. In the past I would have cheated on the butterfly, maybe swimming half of the length fly and finish with freestyle, but with my new mantra of breathing out (if I exhale loudly when my face is in the water no one can hear it!) I was able to do all 6 IM's with the 25 fly and even felt reasonably good going into the backstroke. wow.
So that got me thinking about what simple-sounding thing I could do during cello practice. How could I change a practice approach? The 'aha!' moment I had was thinking about feeling the bow against the string. I've been worrying about the flexibility of my bow hand, drawing the bow straight, and a whole host of other things. During the past couple of days I've been concentrating on feeling the bow - feeling my bow catch and move the string when I change bow direction, feeling and controlling string pressure against the bow during long slow bows, feeling the string when I change bow speed. The other issues are probably still there, but I've already noticed that my tone is much steadier and consistent. another wow! why didn't I think of that before?
Today we had piano trios and I got to be on the cello instead of the piano. Yay! We played the Mendelssohn D minor trio, the Schubert Eb major trio (love the cello solo in the slow movement!), Beethoven Piano Trio #5 (the 'Ghost'), and Fanny Mendelssohn's Piano trio. I am really happy with my cello. It is beginning to open up in sound. It was really fun to crank it up! after we were all done, I even got to try to play the Arpeggione sonata. There are sections that I can play now that I've never been able to play, and it is so nice to have a cello that can handle the high notes...really easy to play over the piano. it was so much fun today!
So that got me thinking about what simple-sounding thing I could do during cello practice. How could I change a practice approach? The 'aha!' moment I had was thinking about feeling the bow against the string. I've been worrying about the flexibility of my bow hand, drawing the bow straight, and a whole host of other things. During the past couple of days I've been concentrating on feeling the bow - feeling my bow catch and move the string when I change bow direction, feeling and controlling string pressure against the bow during long slow bows, feeling the string when I change bow speed. The other issues are probably still there, but I've already noticed that my tone is much steadier and consistent. another wow! why didn't I think of that before?
Today we had piano trios and I got to be on the cello instead of the piano. Yay! We played the Mendelssohn D minor trio, the Schubert Eb major trio (love the cello solo in the slow movement!), Beethoven Piano Trio #5 (the 'Ghost'), and Fanny Mendelssohn's Piano trio. I am really happy with my cello. It is beginning to open up in sound. It was really fun to crank it up! after we were all done, I even got to try to play the Arpeggione sonata. There are sections that I can play now that I've never been able to play, and it is so nice to have a cello that can handle the high notes...really easy to play over the piano. it was so much fun today!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
the cello is not a violin
but I had fun today anyway...we started practice in my Sunday group and had 4 people - violin, viola, and 2 cellos, and a quartet that we're planning to play at our next gig. I volunteered to try playing the violin II part since my teacher has wanted me to practice playing up high on the cello. It was a blast pretending to be a violin! My cello sounds wonderful - clear and full even really really high up (got up to the f 2 octaves above middle c - high for violins too!) and it blended well with the others.
then I got back to being a cello - we're rehearsing the Mendelssohn Octet - really fun to play and very challenging - we have just over a month left to get it ready for our next gig...
then I got back to being a cello - we're rehearsing the Mendelssohn Octet - really fun to play and very challenging - we have just over a month left to get it ready for our next gig...
Concert report
This week we had our spring concerts. The first was on Monday, and the second was yesterday (Saturday)
I was happy on Monday that I didn't make any major gaffes. I missed the 2 rehearsals prior to the concert because I was traveling, so I was very nervous before Monday's concert.
We played
Butterworth - Shropshire Lad
Holst - Suite No. 2
Vaughn Williams - Pastoral Symphony
The music was beautiful. Our conductor gave a short talk about the Vaughn Williams piece and we played short excerpts from it prior to playing the entire symphony. He wanted the audience to listen for some of the sections, such as the horses and mules in the 3rd movement (love the donkey sounds!), the heroic theme from the winds, and the sound of the bugle...
I thought we played better on Monday, but our conductor thought that Saturday was better, with the exception of the last movement of the Vaughn Williams. The 2nd concert was in a different place than where we rehearse, so the sound balance was very different. I couldn't hear myself very well; couldn't hear my stand partner at all; could hear things I'd never heard before; and couldn't hear sections I was used to hearing in rehearsal. It really threw me off. There was one place where the cellos had a exposed note and I saw our conductor wince when I hit the wrong note (but quickly fixed it). Ouch. Still, it was fun!
I was happy on Monday that I didn't make any major gaffes. I missed the 2 rehearsals prior to the concert because I was traveling, so I was very nervous before Monday's concert.
We played
Butterworth - Shropshire Lad
Holst - Suite No. 2
Vaughn Williams - Pastoral Symphony
The music was beautiful. Our conductor gave a short talk about the Vaughn Williams piece and we played short excerpts from it prior to playing the entire symphony. He wanted the audience to listen for some of the sections, such as the horses and mules in the 3rd movement (love the donkey sounds!), the heroic theme from the winds, and the sound of the bugle...
I thought we played better on Monday, but our conductor thought that Saturday was better, with the exception of the last movement of the Vaughn Williams. The 2nd concert was in a different place than where we rehearse, so the sound balance was very different. I couldn't hear myself very well; couldn't hear my stand partner at all; could hear things I'd never heard before; and couldn't hear sections I was used to hearing in rehearsal. It really threw me off. There was one place where the cellos had a exposed note and I saw our conductor wince when I hit the wrong note (but quickly fixed it). Ouch. Still, it was fun!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Lynn Harrell playing his Dungey cello
Below are videos showing Lynn Harrell playing his Dungey cello - the Mendelssohn D minor piano trio, with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Andre Previn
movement 1
movement 2
movement 3
movement 4
movement 1
movement 2
movement 3
movement 4
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