I took this week off from work, and am being trendy by spending it as a 'staycation'
This week's activities:
--Seal the kitchen counters
--Polish all of the wood furniture and cabinets (days later, still have a few rooms to go...ugh, at least I am clearing off junk and cleaning up as I go)
--Buy solar-powered walkway lights (still have to install)
--General house cleaning...trying to get rid of the clutter...
--Organize all of the stray music (bought file storage bins today)
Practicing is in there, too, not as much as I would like! There are more things on my list, but I think that I'm going to be stretched to finish what I've started.
It's amazing how busy I've been and how little I feel that I've accomplished (but the cabinets sure look good!). I could happily retire and keep extremely busy.
On the practice front: still working on landing my fingers in the right spot, and this week my teacher asked me to make sure that I'm doing that AND keeping my bow hand loose...sigh, something goes when I work on one thing. My Sunday group is getting ready for our next gig, so I need to practice my part of the Vivaldi Double Cello concerto (yea!) and the piano part of the Bach A minor Violin Concerto. I don't need to work as hard for the other pieces. And, need to spend time on chamber orchestra stuff. If only my hands weren't so tired...
Chamber group on Saturday was fun; we played piano quartets. I found the score and parts of the Faure Piano Quartet No 1 (C minor) online, and printed it for us to play. The string parts weren't too bad, but our pianist said that the piano part was really hard and would take a long time to prepare The slow movement was absolutely gorgeous. We finished with the Brahms G minor Piano Quartet, always a favorite!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
random notes - chamber groups...
Just so it's clear that not all of my time has been spent practicing tedious exercises, my groups have been going strong and we've had some excellent sessions.
Last week...we had a sextet! We played the Brahms sextets. I am more familiar with no. 1, the B flat Major sextet. I was glad I was playing second cello on that one - the other cellist sounded incredibly awesome during her solo parts - we had to repeat it so that we could listen to her play it again! It was a level of playing I am aspiring to! we traded and I played Cello 1 on the G maj sextet, but quickly was wishing that I was on Cello 2. One of our violists came a little late, so we had started with a string quintet by Carl Goldmark, 2 violins, 1 viola, 2 cellos, and got through the first movement and defintely want to play the first movement again and explore the rest of it.
Today - we had a piano quintet! Yeah! We played the Schumann and the Brahms piano quintets. It was so much fun. I'm glad I had spent time working on the piano parts, it made playing the cello so much easier today because I had some sense for what was going on in the rest of the parts after staring at the score when playing the piano. Not that the cello parts were easy - the rhythms in the Schumann are tough and the Brahms has some hairy parts for everyone too. They are amazing compositions...
Chamber orchestra rehearsals have been good...I've broken out my metronome to practice my parts. Playing at speed and in an early classical style has been challenging, especially when we are doing the fast movements. And then, sounding good during the slow movements...also challenging. With only 3 cellists (still waiting to get cello #4) we all need to sound good. Instead of playing a concert we are going to record the pieces and produce a CD. It will be fun to get into a studio to play!
Last week...we had a sextet! We played the Brahms sextets. I am more familiar with no. 1, the B flat Major sextet. I was glad I was playing second cello on that one - the other cellist sounded incredibly awesome during her solo parts - we had to repeat it so that we could listen to her play it again! It was a level of playing I am aspiring to! we traded and I played Cello 1 on the G maj sextet, but quickly was wishing that I was on Cello 2. One of our violists came a little late, so we had started with a string quintet by Carl Goldmark, 2 violins, 1 viola, 2 cellos, and got through the first movement and defintely want to play the first movement again and explore the rest of it.
Today - we had a piano quintet! Yeah! We played the Schumann and the Brahms piano quintets. It was so much fun. I'm glad I had spent time working on the piano parts, it made playing the cello so much easier today because I had some sense for what was going on in the rest of the parts after staring at the score when playing the piano. Not that the cello parts were easy - the rhythms in the Schumann are tough and the Brahms has some hairy parts for everyone too. They are amazing compositions...
Chamber orchestra rehearsals have been good...I've broken out my metronome to practice my parts. Playing at speed and in an early classical style has been challenging, especially when we are doing the fast movements. And then, sounding good during the slow movements...also challenging. With only 3 cellists (still waiting to get cello #4) we all need to sound good. Instead of playing a concert we are going to record the pieces and produce a CD. It will be fun to get into a studio to play!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Hope is Not a Strategy
This is the title of a book by Rick Page, one of so many about sales strategy. It also describes what I was doing about intonation.
My teacher pointed out that I was opening and closing my hands, and that I was sliding my fingers to get the correct intonation. What I have been doing is just putting my fingers down and hoping that they landed in the right spot, and if not, then trying to correct it later. I also have a problem with my second finger not staying put; I have a weakness with how much my second and third fingers stretch so a lot of times my second finger slides down towards my third finger. So, this week I've been thinking about that title while I work on some of the exercises I'm doing to fix the problem.
My left hand is tired. The exercises are tedious. What I am doing is placing all of my fingers down, then checking the notes (plucking or bowing) then I move 2 fingers (or 1 or 3) to a new string while holding the other fingers down. I check the intonation, and then move my fingers back. I've been doing this with every finger combo (1-2 move, 3-4 stay, 1-3 move, 2-4 stay, etc.), putting my fingers down on every string and practicing putting my fingers down on the correct spot on the other 3 strings. My teacher also is having me keep my fingers down where they land and only moving them when necessary. This latest thing is about placing my fingers down accurately, and 'hovering' over the strings to improve the speed in which I get my fingers down into the right spot. Oh, and keep my thumb relaxed too...
Yesterday at my lesson, when I looked in the mirror, my hand position actually looked pretty good, in fact, it looked the best that it ever has! I can't say the I've completely fixed the problem, but in a short amount of time those tedious exercises are paying off. So, onwards!
My teacher pointed out that I was opening and closing my hands, and that I was sliding my fingers to get the correct intonation. What I have been doing is just putting my fingers down and hoping that they landed in the right spot, and if not, then trying to correct it later. I also have a problem with my second finger not staying put; I have a weakness with how much my second and third fingers stretch so a lot of times my second finger slides down towards my third finger. So, this week I've been thinking about that title while I work on some of the exercises I'm doing to fix the problem.
My left hand is tired. The exercises are tedious. What I am doing is placing all of my fingers down, then checking the notes (plucking or bowing) then I move 2 fingers (or 1 or 3) to a new string while holding the other fingers down. I check the intonation, and then move my fingers back. I've been doing this with every finger combo (1-2 move, 3-4 stay, 1-3 move, 2-4 stay, etc.), putting my fingers down on every string and practicing putting my fingers down on the correct spot on the other 3 strings. My teacher also is having me keep my fingers down where they land and only moving them when necessary. This latest thing is about placing my fingers down accurately, and 'hovering' over the strings to improve the speed in which I get my fingers down into the right spot. Oh, and keep my thumb relaxed too...
Yesterday at my lesson, when I looked in the mirror, my hand position actually looked pretty good, in fact, it looked the best that it ever has! I can't say the I've completely fixed the problem, but in a short amount of time those tedious exercises are paying off. So, onwards!
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