I added up my practice hours in 2010 and it totaled 561 hours. It is almost the same number of hours as last year! I was pretty happy because I traveled so much more this year - nearly 120 days - taking out nearly 4 months of practice time. Each year I've set a goal of averaging an hour a day for the year. Maybe this year I could try to break 600 hours, which would be a worthy stretch goal.
I looked back at the year and am happy with my progress and am looking forward to next year. Some of skills I'd like to improve this year:
--better vibrato. My teacher called the current state of my vibrato "acceptable for ensemble playing" but I'd like to get more of a "solo vibrato" and be able to keep it going.
--a singing line more often. One of the biggest improvements I made this year was that sometimes I can actually hear phrasing and a musical line. I'd like to turn that "sometimes" into "most of the time"
--control the volume. Would love to control those crescendos and decrescendos!
My Dungey cello is starting to develop a wonderful tone as it goes through its terrible twos - in February it will be 2 years old. In early December I was able to see Christopher and have him do some overdue work on the cello. I met him at the house of Ken Finch, a member of the Portland Symphony and owner of an older Dungey cello. I asked for and got a lesson from Ken! It was very exciting to play for him and get his encouragement and tips on what I could do better. I also got to hear him play my cello. He was loathe to give up both my cello and my bow :-) He's agreed to give me additional lessons if I make it down to Portland again!
So here's to 2011 and happy new year to all!
Showing posts with label lesson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lesson. Show all posts
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Breakthrough
I've been taking cello lessons for 6 years now, and it still surprises me that progress is non-linear. I'll notice little to no improvement, then suddenly one day, I'll have a breakthrough.
It was really exciting at my last lesson to have one of those 'aha!' moments when I could finally do something my teacher has been telling me about for years (literally!). I guess I was finally physically ready, and prepared enough for that breakthrough.
I finally could rotate my hand, wrist, and arm to get consistent bow weight on the string all the way to the tip without straining anything (particularly my thumb, which has been sore). I could feel and hear the difference in the richness of tone when I got it right. Like any new breakthough, I couldn't get it right consistently, but when I did I could feel a lot more control over the connection between the bow and the string.
It doesn't seem like much, but it sure has taken a long time to get to this point!
It was really exciting at my last lesson to have one of those 'aha!' moments when I could finally do something my teacher has been telling me about for years (literally!). I guess I was finally physically ready, and prepared enough for that breakthrough.
I finally could rotate my hand, wrist, and arm to get consistent bow weight on the string all the way to the tip without straining anything (particularly my thumb, which has been sore). I could feel and hear the difference in the richness of tone when I got it right. Like any new breakthough, I couldn't get it right consistently, but when I did I could feel a lot more control over the connection between the bow and the string.
It doesn't seem like much, but it sure has taken a long time to get to this point!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Sight Reading day
During our chamber group today, we had an unusual configuration of players. We had 1 violinist, 1 violinist or pianist, 1 cellist, and me (cello or piano). So I volunteered to play the viola part on my cello, so that we could play piano quartets or string quartets. I suppose we could have doubled parts and played piano trios, but I like having my own part for chamber music.
Everyone was gracious enough to play easier pieces than we normally play, at slower speeds than normal. We played through Mendelssohn's first piano quartet (op.1 - wonder how old he was when he wrote it..but it already sounds like Mendelssohn), and 2 early Schubert string quartets, D87 and D74. I still had trouble sight reading the viola clef, managing to play maybe 50% of the notes correctly (repetition was a good thing; gave me time to figure out the notes!). I would get settled in and be able to read (sort of), and then something would flip in my mind and I would start thinking in another clef, tenor or treble and totally screw up. I tried to fake it by matching the harmonies or at least playing something on the downbeat or tried to sing my part. It was a workout! Tomorrow I will be able to play a cello part, and be a cello (thank goodness!)
My lesson yesterday was good; I showed my teacher the exercise I made up to try to learn how to change bow speeds when I change bow direction while keeping the tone consistent. He really liked it and I'm sure he'll use it or something similar with his other students. Inconsistency of tone and poor bow control when switching directions is something that he's pointed out in my playing, so I've been playing scales and making up exercises to try to produce a nice sounding tone and consistent volume when I vary the speed and pressure of the bow. Next up is really learning how to control the volume and tone so I can really do a good job of crescendos and decrescendos.
He's started me working on the Lee op31 exercises, and had me work on a relaxed legato bow and making eighth notes really even. It felt like moments of panic interspersed with calm. It amazes me that producing an even sound requires such uneven effort. Then I played the 3rd piece from the Hindemith Drei Liechte Stucke. I really like them. He has programmed the piano part into his computer, so I've had the challenge of playing well with the accompaniment. On these pieces it is not easy because the rhythms are offset and it's easy to screw up.
Everyone was gracious enough to play easier pieces than we normally play, at slower speeds than normal. We played through Mendelssohn's first piano quartet (op.1 - wonder how old he was when he wrote it..but it already sounds like Mendelssohn), and 2 early Schubert string quartets, D87 and D74. I still had trouble sight reading the viola clef, managing to play maybe 50% of the notes correctly (repetition was a good thing; gave me time to figure out the notes!). I would get settled in and be able to read (sort of), and then something would flip in my mind and I would start thinking in another clef, tenor or treble and totally screw up. I tried to fake it by matching the harmonies or at least playing something on the downbeat or tried to sing my part. It was a workout! Tomorrow I will be able to play a cello part, and be a cello (thank goodness!)
My lesson yesterday was good; I showed my teacher the exercise I made up to try to learn how to change bow speeds when I change bow direction while keeping the tone consistent. He really liked it and I'm sure he'll use it or something similar with his other students. Inconsistency of tone and poor bow control when switching directions is something that he's pointed out in my playing, so I've been playing scales and making up exercises to try to produce a nice sounding tone and consistent volume when I vary the speed and pressure of the bow. Next up is really learning how to control the volume and tone so I can really do a good job of crescendos and decrescendos.
He's started me working on the Lee op31 exercises, and had me work on a relaxed legato bow and making eighth notes really even. It felt like moments of panic interspersed with calm. It amazes me that producing an even sound requires such uneven effort. Then I played the 3rd piece from the Hindemith Drei Liechte Stucke. I really like them. He has programmed the piano part into his computer, so I've had the challenge of playing well with the accompaniment. On these pieces it is not easy because the rhythms are offset and it's easy to screw up.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Busy!
It's been a busy week - got in some extra practice time because I actually had Martin Luther King Jr. day off as a holiday. Trying to fit in everything I want to practice is tough.
We had our first orchestra practice for the new year! The program is very nice - Holst 2nd Suite; Butterworth "A Shropshire Lad", and Vaughan Williams Pastoral Symphony. I was really confused about which part I was playing - the cellos go divisi a lot and sometimes it was by stand and sometimes it was inside/outside...so a lot of the time I wasn't sure if I was playing the correct part.
This Wednesday I'm playing a gig at work with a flautist. We were supposed to play at the office holiday party, but the party got postponed because of all of the snow Seattle got around Christmas. We had to find some new music to play because Christmas carols in January didn't really seem like a good idea. So Friday we played some music together for the first time, to pick what we'll play on Wednesday. We're going to play some dances from Febonio op29 "Rustic Airs and Dances" (I've never heard of Febonio before!), and a Beethoven duet that was originally written for clarinet and bassoon. fortunately, today I was able to run through everything with the violinist in my chamber group...not much time to get it ready for Wednesday.
Today's chamber group was a duet for a while, then a string trio. The string trio we read was a keeper! It was 3 string trios by Hyacinthe Jadin (a male, not a female). We were pretty excited about every movement in every trio!
and last but not least...my lessons continue and we just started playing a Kummer duet op156, duo #4 - we played through all of the movements at my lesson on Friday and hopefully soon will be able to play it at speed. I have my list of things that I'm working on..
--loosening my wrist while bowing, right now really working on dotted rhythms and a quick snap of the wrist and getting the short note to articulate
--detached bowing (on the string and off the string)
--arpeggios: this week need to work on nailing the shift down from the root to the fifth of the chord when descending)
--shifting exercise from Sevecik op8
--trill exercise (based on Cossman)
--vibrato
--scales: work on controlling bow pressure so that sound volume stays consistent (my teacher pointed out the it looked like I was easing up at the tip and at the frog...and hence producing inconsistent volume/tone)
oh..and don't forget to have fun playing...!
We had our first orchestra practice for the new year! The program is very nice - Holst 2nd Suite; Butterworth "A Shropshire Lad", and Vaughan Williams Pastoral Symphony. I was really confused about which part I was playing - the cellos go divisi a lot and sometimes it was by stand and sometimes it was inside/outside...so a lot of the time I wasn't sure if I was playing the correct part.
This Wednesday I'm playing a gig at work with a flautist. We were supposed to play at the office holiday party, but the party got postponed because of all of the snow Seattle got around Christmas. We had to find some new music to play because Christmas carols in January didn't really seem like a good idea. So Friday we played some music together for the first time, to pick what we'll play on Wednesday. We're going to play some dances from Febonio op29 "Rustic Airs and Dances" (I've never heard of Febonio before!), and a Beethoven duet that was originally written for clarinet and bassoon. fortunately, today I was able to run through everything with the violinist in my chamber group...not much time to get it ready for Wednesday.
Today's chamber group was a duet for a while, then a string trio. The string trio we read was a keeper! It was 3 string trios by Hyacinthe Jadin (a male, not a female). We were pretty excited about every movement in every trio!
and last but not least...my lessons continue and we just started playing a Kummer duet op156, duo #4 - we played through all of the movements at my lesson on Friday and hopefully soon will be able to play it at speed. I have my list of things that I'm working on..
--loosening my wrist while bowing, right now really working on dotted rhythms and a quick snap of the wrist and getting the short note to articulate
--detached bowing (on the string and off the string)
--arpeggios: this week need to work on nailing the shift down from the root to the fifth of the chord when descending)
--shifting exercise from Sevecik op8
--trill exercise (based on Cossman)
--vibrato
--scales: work on controlling bow pressure so that sound volume stays consistent (my teacher pointed out the it looked like I was easing up at the tip and at the frog...and hence producing inconsistent volume/tone)
oh..and don't forget to have fun playing...!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Infinite Loops
First, my husband is recovering quickly from surgery. He is able to walk without using a cane for miles without pain in his hip. He said that he had actually forgotten what a 'normal' stride felt like. He still can't bend past 90 degrees, so if he can't pick it up with his grabber device, it stays on the floor until I can get it. So he's in his own loop, learning to walk again.
My infinite loop is going back to the beginning days of playing cello. My teacher told me in one of my lessons that he could still see a scoop in my bowing when I changed directions. So I went back and isolated the problem. It was that I couldn't stop my bow on an upbow. I noticed that I couldn't stop the bow movement at the frog without the bow wiggling around a little. Now doesn't that sound basic? Starting and stopping the bow?
So, I started the very tedious process of fixing the problem. For a while every time my bow went near the frog, I stopped the bow. If it wobbled, I played whatever it was I was playing again and stopped it. I even did Emily's scale challenge stopping the bow at the frog every single dang time the bow went near the frog. And guess what, it got better (not quickly, though!). I can now hear the string still ringing when I stop the bow. I still stop and have a 'do-over' if the bow wobbles at the change of direction. One of these days I'll get past lesson 1!
Also, my teacher had me go back and play grade 1, then grade 2, and now grade 3 repetoire again. This time he demanded that I control the tone, the volume, my bowing, and to play even the 'easy' stuff musically. It's quite hard to do, but my husband has noticed a change in my playing...guess returning to the beginning is useful in its own way...
My infinite loop is going back to the beginning days of playing cello. My teacher told me in one of my lessons that he could still see a scoop in my bowing when I changed directions. So I went back and isolated the problem. It was that I couldn't stop my bow on an upbow. I noticed that I couldn't stop the bow movement at the frog without the bow wiggling around a little. Now doesn't that sound basic? Starting and stopping the bow?
So, I started the very tedious process of fixing the problem. For a while every time my bow went near the frog, I stopped the bow. If it wobbled, I played whatever it was I was playing again and stopped it. I even did Emily's scale challenge stopping the bow at the frog every single dang time the bow went near the frog. And guess what, it got better (not quickly, though!). I can now hear the string still ringing when I stop the bow. I still stop and have a 'do-over' if the bow wobbles at the change of direction. One of these days I'll get past lesson 1!
Also, my teacher had me go back and play grade 1, then grade 2, and now grade 3 repetoire again. This time he demanded that I control the tone, the volume, my bowing, and to play even the 'easy' stuff musically. It's quite hard to do, but my husband has noticed a change in my playing...guess returning to the beginning is useful in its own way...
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!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Random Notes - while I have some time to post!
I had a rescheduled lesson today, because I was traveling on Friday. I'm off again tomorrow for work, back Wednesday, then out again on Thursday for the holiday weekend to attend a family event. It will be nice to be able to spend most of June at home!
Today's lesson was a continuation of the bowing lesson...I worked really hard all week on making my right hand more flexible, and there was a definite improvement between last week and this week! I have to keep working at this! My control isn't what it should be, especially when practicing fast bows!
On Sunday we had a quartet. I tried to think about playing with a flexible bow hand the whole time and could hear some of the difference in tone and control. We played some gig music (gig on June 6th) to tune it up, and then switched to the Dvorak American quartet. The second movement has such lovely cello solos... After the Dvorak we started reading Beethoven string quartet No. 7, but only got through part of the 1st movement before realizing that we had been playing for over 3 hours and were all toast.
It was so lovely that we got to play outside. Hopefully the neighbors liked what they heard. A few houses down there are some pigs and llamas which I always slow down to see. The llamas were sitting in the shade trying to keep cool. The pigs were resting too...
Today's lesson was a continuation of the bowing lesson...I worked really hard all week on making my right hand more flexible, and there was a definite improvement between last week and this week! I have to keep working at this! My control isn't what it should be, especially when practicing fast bows!
On Sunday we had a quartet. I tried to think about playing with a flexible bow hand the whole time and could hear some of the difference in tone and control. We played some gig music (gig on June 6th) to tune it up, and then switched to the Dvorak American quartet. The second movement has such lovely cello solos... After the Dvorak we started reading Beethoven string quartet No. 7, but only got through part of the 1st movement before realizing that we had been playing for over 3 hours and were all toast.
It was so lovely that we got to play outside. Hopefully the neighbors liked what they heard. A few houses down there are some pigs and llamas which I always slow down to see. The llamas were sitting in the shade trying to keep cool. The pigs were resting too...
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Back to Lesson #1: How to Bow
I had my lesson today, to make up for the lesson I missed last Friday while I was traveling. This month is a disaster when it comes to lessons and schedule; I think I only have one lesson this month during its usual time on Fridays. Thank goodness my teacher has been flexible in rescheduling my lessons!
I joked with my teacher that today's lesson was a lot like my very first lesson, when it was the first time I had ever played a cello. Today we spent time working on bowing. At last week's lesson he commented that my eighth notes weren't very even - my up bows were shorter than my down bows, making the baroque piece (Marcello) I'm playing sound more like it was swinging (not a good style for baroque music!). Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but it reminded me that for far too long I've just settled for not playing even notes very evenly.
So, this week I set out to do something about it. I followed Ms. Emily's very timely advice and tried to figure out what was causing the problem. Actually it wasn't hard to figure out; I knew it already but have not spent any time to fix the problem: my hand and fingers aren't flexible enough on the up bow. The diagnosis was easy but fixing it - well, let's just say that all week I have felt like I can't play the cello.
I told my teacher how awful it's felt to play all week, and we started working on my bowing. He had all sorts of fun analogies. The one that worked best for me was thinking about my index finger like a windshield wiper - back and forth, back and forth. We spent a lot of time during today's lesson with me just bowing on an open string. Playing the open G string was the easiest one for me to feel some semblance of bowing with a flexible hand, wrist, and fingers. I have other problems like the twisting of the bow (teacher's advice: try to grip a little harder, but not too much harder...) and keeping my pinky from locking up too much...
Anyway, I feel like I just started playing again.
I joked with my teacher that today's lesson was a lot like my very first lesson, when it was the first time I had ever played a cello. Today we spent time working on bowing. At last week's lesson he commented that my eighth notes weren't very even - my up bows were shorter than my down bows, making the baroque piece (Marcello) I'm playing sound more like it was swinging (not a good style for baroque music!). Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but it reminded me that for far too long I've just settled for not playing even notes very evenly.
So, this week I set out to do something about it. I followed Ms. Emily's very timely advice and tried to figure out what was causing the problem. Actually it wasn't hard to figure out; I knew it already but have not spent any time to fix the problem: my hand and fingers aren't flexible enough on the up bow. The diagnosis was easy but fixing it - well, let's just say that all week I have felt like I can't play the cello.
I told my teacher how awful it's felt to play all week, and we started working on my bowing. He had all sorts of fun analogies. The one that worked best for me was thinking about my index finger like a windshield wiper - back and forth, back and forth. We spent a lot of time during today's lesson with me just bowing on an open string. Playing the open G string was the easiest one for me to feel some semblance of bowing with a flexible hand, wrist, and fingers. I have other problems like the twisting of the bow (teacher's advice: try to grip a little harder, but not too much harder...) and keeping my pinky from locking up too much...
Anyway, I feel like I just started playing again.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
New Strings!
I changed my strings today! I'd forgotten how wonderful new strings sound. It was like I'd suddenly improved a lot - all just from the new strings! I use Larsen soloist for my A & D strings, and Piastro Permanent for the G & C strings. The strings had been sitting there for a few months waiting for me to take the time to change them. Actually, I decided to wait until a few weeks before our concert. I need all the help I can get!
Yesterday at my lesson we continued to work on improving the form of my left arm and worked on using it more, especially for speed work. It's amazing how good form improves tone. We were laughing about why my teacher hadn't gotten me to do this before. I feel like I've been constantly making changes to improve form, and I suppose that I haven't been ready to work on this part of my form prior to building up form and technique with other things.
Chamber group this morning was fun. We had a piano quartet again, although people straggled in during the morning. Cello2 (who I'm playing the Popper with) arrived first, so we spent some time reading through some Offenbach cello duets, Op. 52 Nos. 1 & 2. When our violist showed up I switched to the piano and pretended to be a violin for a Hiller string trio. When our violinist showed up we read through a piano quartet by Novak. It had some good moments; the 2nd movement was nice; the 3rd movement felt like a counting exercise (it kept changing from 6/8 to 3/4 to 6/8 to 2/4 to 6/8 to 4/4....so keeping together was pretty challenging). After that I pretended to be a violin again. Our violinist had found a (or perhaps I should say 'the') Puccini string quartet, so I played violin 2. The quartet was pieced together from a variety of manuscripts. He apparently wrote the quartet as a student composition, and none of it survived together. There was even an alternate version of the trio in it. We really liked the last movement of it. Once we finished that we were done for the day.
Yesterday at my lesson we continued to work on improving the form of my left arm and worked on using it more, especially for speed work. It's amazing how good form improves tone. We were laughing about why my teacher hadn't gotten me to do this before. I feel like I've been constantly making changes to improve form, and I suppose that I haven't been ready to work on this part of my form prior to building up form and technique with other things.
Chamber group this morning was fun. We had a piano quartet again, although people straggled in during the morning. Cello2 (who I'm playing the Popper with) arrived first, so we spent some time reading through some Offenbach cello duets, Op. 52 Nos. 1 & 2. When our violist showed up I switched to the piano and pretended to be a violin for a Hiller string trio. When our violinist showed up we read through a piano quartet by Novak. It had some good moments; the 2nd movement was nice; the 3rd movement felt like a counting exercise (it kept changing from 6/8 to 3/4 to 6/8 to 2/4 to 6/8 to 4/4....so keeping together was pretty challenging). After that I pretended to be a violin again. Our violinist had found a (or perhaps I should say 'the') Puccini string quartet, so I played violin 2. The quartet was pieced together from a variety of manuscripts. He apparently wrote the quartet as a student composition, and none of it survived together. There was even an alternate version of the trio in it. We really liked the last movement of it. Once we finished that we were done for the day.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Random Notes to Start the Month
It's been a while since I've posted - I've been really busy at work and still commuting to the Bay Area nearly every week. Although I heard what I think is good news - tight budgets mean that we have to cut our travel budget - meaning that I hope I get to stay home a bit more!
Today our violist came for the first time in 15 months! She hopefully is cancer-free - she's now in the clear after a year of surgery, etc. It was really good to have her back. We played piano quartets. Mendelssohn Op 1; he had to have been a very young child when he wrote this piano quartet but it already sounds like him. Not a mature (ha! as in 15 years old!) Mendelssohn but most definitely him. We also played the Arthur Foote piano quartet that I've been eager to play for over a year. The slow movement and the last movement of it are spectacular, and the whole piece was a lot of fun to play.
I had a week where I felt like I didn't make much progress, even though I had my usual amount of practice during the week (not enough!). We worked on vibrato again. My teacher had me make some changes to my left hand position, so that when I place my fingers down I am using my arm more to get my hand in position, not hovering over the fingerboard putting fingers down like playing the piano. It was tough trying to figure out how to change my perspective of how my arm/hand/fingers reached for notes, but after a while I finally could do what he asked for a short period before I would lose it. It really helps with speed - I found that I could articulate notes much more cleanly and faster during a fast descent down the A string when I thought about using my arm. It also helps my vibrato.
Tomomrow I will miss my chamber group in order to get together with the other 2 cellists to rehearse the Popper. Hopefully this time my vibrato will be better than the last time we played it!
Today our violist came for the first time in 15 months! She hopefully is cancer-free - she's now in the clear after a year of surgery, etc. It was really good to have her back. We played piano quartets. Mendelssohn Op 1; he had to have been a very young child when he wrote this piano quartet but it already sounds like him. Not a mature (ha! as in 15 years old!) Mendelssohn but most definitely him. We also played the Arthur Foote piano quartet that I've been eager to play for over a year. The slow movement and the last movement of it are spectacular, and the whole piece was a lot of fun to play.
I had a week where I felt like I didn't make much progress, even though I had my usual amount of practice during the week (not enough!). We worked on vibrato again. My teacher had me make some changes to my left hand position, so that when I place my fingers down I am using my arm more to get my hand in position, not hovering over the fingerboard putting fingers down like playing the piano. It was tough trying to figure out how to change my perspective of how my arm/hand/fingers reached for notes, but after a while I finally could do what he asked for a short period before I would lose it. It really helps with speed - I found that I could articulate notes much more cleanly and faster during a fast descent down the A string when I thought about using my arm. It also helps my vibrato.
Tomomrow I will miss my chamber group in order to get together with the other 2 cellists to rehearse the Popper. Hopefully this time my vibrato will be better than the last time we played it!
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Shake Shake Shake!
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!
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 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!
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Heading Home for the Holidays
I'm glad we decided to leave tomorrow morning for, yes, the Bay Area! As if I don't get enough of it for work. Everyone at work laughed at me when I told them that I was coming back down for the holidays. Last week was so hectic for both of us that nothing got done, so this weekend was a frenzy of baking, cleaning, putting together gifts (including the results of the frenzied baking) for our neighbors, and organizing for the trip. What is it about going away for a week that makes me think that I have to clean something that hasn't been cleaned in months?
Our groups didn't meet this weekend. I think everyone is in a similar situation with family and holiday events. I had my last lesson for the year on Friday. The funny thing was that since I was home this week and am on a break from all of my groups, I had about as much time to practice as a normal week, even though my previous lesson was on Monday. This week's lesson was on shifting, so I have added a long set of shifting exercises (same finger, same string; different fingers, same string; different fingers, different strings; same finger, different string) in all sorts of configurations. I have to fight my piano training to keep my fingers in contact with the string.
I brought my cello over to our next-door neighbor's house last night. Her parents are visiting, and I brought my cello over to bring them all some Christmas music. It was so much fun. They started requesting different carols, and it was so much fun to start playing what they wanted to hear. The only one that I had a little trouble with was Silver Bells. Let's see...I played What Child is This?, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Away in a Manger, We Three Kings, Joy to the World, O Holy Night, Oh Come All Ye Faithful, O Tannenbaum, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, ...can't remember what else. I really enjoyed watching them...it is such a pleasure to watch people enjoy listening to music. And it was so much fun to hear them say "can you play ...." and then to just launch into it.
Hmm...should have played Silent Night and O Little Town of Bethlehem! It definitely got us all in a holiday mood!
Our groups didn't meet this weekend. I think everyone is in a similar situation with family and holiday events. I had my last lesson for the year on Friday. The funny thing was that since I was home this week and am on a break from all of my groups, I had about as much time to practice as a normal week, even though my previous lesson was on Monday. This week's lesson was on shifting, so I have added a long set of shifting exercises (same finger, same string; different fingers, same string; different fingers, different strings; same finger, different string) in all sorts of configurations. I have to fight my piano training to keep my fingers in contact with the string.
I brought my cello over to our next-door neighbor's house last night. Her parents are visiting, and I brought my cello over to bring them all some Christmas music. It was so much fun. They started requesting different carols, and it was so much fun to start playing what they wanted to hear. The only one that I had a little trouble with was Silver Bells. Let's see...I played What Child is This?, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Away in a Manger, We Three Kings, Joy to the World, O Holy Night, Oh Come All Ye Faithful, O Tannenbaum, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, ...can't remember what else. I really enjoyed watching them...it is such a pleasure to watch people enjoy listening to music. And it was so much fun to hear them say "can you play ...." and then to just launch into it.
Hmm...should have played Silent Night and O Little Town of Bethlehem! It definitely got us all in a holiday mood!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Good Vibrations
I had my lesson yesterday rather than last week, since I had to be in the Bay Area for most of the week. I came home late Saturday night and am still exhausted from last week - leaving at 5:30am and returning at 10pm after work-related evening events wednesday, thursday, and friday nights. It was pretty tiring and I'm still not quite recovered.
But back to my lesson report. I thought I wouldn't play very well given the nearly non-existent amount of practicing I had done over the week on the rental cello I have in the Bay Area, but I had a good lesson anyway. We worked on getting the strings to start vibrating quickly and with a lot of vibration when I cross strings at different volume levels - this week I'm practicing stopping, getting my bow in the correct position on the next string, then working on grabbing the string, moving it, and getting the vibration going fast (without funny extra sounds like scratching). We did this with my part on the Popper Requiem, and I could hear the difference in sound. Now one of these days the goal is to be able to do this without stopping in between notes! At least I'm working on getting muscle memory in the right places.
For the past few weeks I've also been working on some intonation exercises that my teacher gave me, there are a lot different ones and I've made up some of my own, but the basic goal is to teach me how to get to the same note with different fingers from different places - like from my hand not even on the cello, on a different string, or shifting from one finger to another. It seems like it should be much easier than it is to hit say, the G on the D string that you would play with your 4th finger if you are in 1st position, with any finger (1, 2, 3, or 4) when starting from off the cello or from the harmonic on another string or just shifting. The exercises are quite tedious but it is awfully irritating when I don't hit the note correctly!
Our Sunday group was 3 of us - the rest of the group was playing a concert with their other orchestra (I'm one of the few in the group who plays with just 1 orchestra!). We started with 3 cellos and had a lot of fun playing music for many cellos. This time we rotated who played cello 1, complete with a lot of jokes about "oh, but I have to play the first part!" I was really happy that I was able to actually sightread and play one of the Klengel pieces we played - the cello 1 part was completely in tenor and treble clef! After that we switched to piano trios - our host is very versatile; he plays violin, viola, and cello, so he got out his violin, and I got on the piano. To honor Beethoven's birthday we played the Archduke Trio and part of the Trio #8 op121 (set of variations). We were going to read through the "Ghost" trio until I discovered that I had printed the violin part twice and we were missing the cello part. Oops.
But back to my lesson report. I thought I wouldn't play very well given the nearly non-existent amount of practicing I had done over the week on the rental cello I have in the Bay Area, but I had a good lesson anyway. We worked on getting the strings to start vibrating quickly and with a lot of vibration when I cross strings at different volume levels - this week I'm practicing stopping, getting my bow in the correct position on the next string, then working on grabbing the string, moving it, and getting the vibration going fast (without funny extra sounds like scratching). We did this with my part on the Popper Requiem, and I could hear the difference in sound. Now one of these days the goal is to be able to do this without stopping in between notes! At least I'm working on getting muscle memory in the right places.
For the past few weeks I've also been working on some intonation exercises that my teacher gave me, there are a lot different ones and I've made up some of my own, but the basic goal is to teach me how to get to the same note with different fingers from different places - like from my hand not even on the cello, on a different string, or shifting from one finger to another. It seems like it should be much easier than it is to hit say, the G on the D string that you would play with your 4th finger if you are in 1st position, with any finger (1, 2, 3, or 4) when starting from off the cello or from the harmonic on another string or just shifting. The exercises are quite tedious but it is awfully irritating when I don't hit the note correctly!
Our Sunday group was 3 of us - the rest of the group was playing a concert with their other orchestra (I'm one of the few in the group who plays with just 1 orchestra!). We started with 3 cellos and had a lot of fun playing music for many cellos. This time we rotated who played cello 1, complete with a lot of jokes about "oh, but I have to play the first part!" I was really happy that I was able to actually sightread and play one of the Klengel pieces we played - the cello 1 part was completely in tenor and treble clef! After that we switched to piano trios - our host is very versatile; he plays violin, viola, and cello, so he got out his violin, and I got on the piano. To honor Beethoven's birthday we played the Archduke Trio and part of the Trio #8 op121 (set of variations). We were going to read through the "Ghost" trio until I discovered that I had printed the violin part twice and we were missing the cello part. Oops.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
So Much Effort to Make It Seem Effortless
"Loosen your wrist"
"Try not to accent the down bow - play evenly"
"Play it this time with this pattern...[demo].."
"Pluck the string when you are lifting fingers off, especially before the open string - get that vibration going"
"You're a hair late when you cross a string - you probably are getting there at the right time but you need a little extra time to get the string vibrating - you need to compensate for that"
"Careful, when you shift you are slowing down your bowing just a little bit - disconnect what your right hand is doing from what your left hand is doing"
I'd spent the week working on playing sixteenth notes - prompted by the panic practicing I start doing 2 weeks before a concert. There is a long run of just sixteenth notes in the second movement of the Karelia Suite, and I wasn't happy with the way I was playing it. I hadn't worked on playing fast passages in a while and it was time to circle back to work on playing fast. So many things to think about (see above list for some of the advice from my teacher!) and when I do one thing something else suffers.
At least for this week I got double duty out of the practicing - a little better on the 16th notes and preparation for the concert. Think I'll spend time this week trying to play arpeggios quickly - to tackle some of the shifting and crossing strings challenges...
I'm always so amazed at the uneven effort it takes to play something that sounds even (and hopefully effortless!)
Last concert is this afternoon - will post something about it later!
"Try not to accent the down bow - play evenly"
"Play it this time with this pattern...[demo].."
"Pluck the string when you are lifting fingers off, especially before the open string - get that vibration going"
"You're a hair late when you cross a string - you probably are getting there at the right time but you need a little extra time to get the string vibrating - you need to compensate for that"
"Careful, when you shift you are slowing down your bowing just a little bit - disconnect what your right hand is doing from what your left hand is doing"
I'd spent the week working on playing sixteenth notes - prompted by the panic practicing I start doing 2 weeks before a concert. There is a long run of just sixteenth notes in the second movement of the Karelia Suite, and I wasn't happy with the way I was playing it. I hadn't worked on playing fast passages in a while and it was time to circle back to work on playing fast. So many things to think about (see above list for some of the advice from my teacher!) and when I do one thing something else suffers.
At least for this week I got double duty out of the practicing - a little better on the 16th notes and preparation for the concert. Think I'll spend time this week trying to play arpeggios quickly - to tackle some of the shifting and crossing strings challenges...
I'm always so amazed at the uneven effort it takes to play something that sounds even (and hopefully effortless!)
Last concert is this afternoon - will post something about it later!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
A Heavier Arm
The flight I took home yesterday was actually early. And I managed to work my schedule out to come home on an early afternoon flight, rather than in the evening. The bonus to coming home early was getting to see my husband, the kitties, and actually getting a little piano and cello practice in.
I'm as ready as I'm going to be on the piano for the Bolling suite - this morning I ran through it a few times and my solo parts feel very solid - I'm at the point where I can start thinking about how I want to play with each note or phrase while I'm playing. There are still a few rough spots, but they are going to be what they are. Our gig is tomorrow, and the flutist and I are meeting a little early at the venue to run through it before the gig, so we can get back in sync, and more importantly for me, so that I can try out the piano and find out what its idiosyncracies are. Every piano is different. Pianists have to play the instrument that is provided (unless, of course, you are willing to travel with your own!) and every one has a different feel and tone that can vary note to note, may or may not be in tune note to note, responds differently to things like fast repeated notes, and has pedals that engage differently. At least with the cello you bring your own instrument.
This morning it was just our first violinist and me. She's been nice about helping me get ready for the gig, but I was tired of playing the one piece of the Bolling suite that we're playing, so we played through the rest of the suite. Then we switched - she played the piano and I got to play my cello. It was really fun - we read through Schubert's Arpeggionne Sonata, which I love. We've tried to play it before, and I'm getting better and better each time. I had trouble with the 3rd movement, but then again, we were just reading through it. This was the first time that I've played it where I've felt that I could actually play it if I worked on it....during prior times playing it I've felt that many of the sections were beyond my level of playing. Then we read through a Klengel piece that I found (I think it was on the International Music Music Score Library wiki, which unfortunately as of Oct 13th has been taken down). It was titled "Three Mazurkas" and was a lot of fun to play.
My lesson this afternoon was good; we worked on increasing the weight of my arm and increasing the speed of my vibrato to get even more sound out. My teacher wants me to "kick up my playing another notch by getting another gear." I could relax and make my arm heavy to get more volume, or I could increase the speed of my vibrato. I have trouble doing both at the same time. Most cello skills seem to me to be some variation of patting your head with one hand and rubbing your stomach with the other, and then switching what you're doing very quickly. I guess that's the point of practicing...
I'm as ready as I'm going to be on the piano for the Bolling suite - this morning I ran through it a few times and my solo parts feel very solid - I'm at the point where I can start thinking about how I want to play with each note or phrase while I'm playing. There are still a few rough spots, but they are going to be what they are. Our gig is tomorrow, and the flutist and I are meeting a little early at the venue to run through it before the gig, so we can get back in sync, and more importantly for me, so that I can try out the piano and find out what its idiosyncracies are. Every piano is different. Pianists have to play the instrument that is provided (unless, of course, you are willing to travel with your own!) and every one has a different feel and tone that can vary note to note, may or may not be in tune note to note, responds differently to things like fast repeated notes, and has pedals that engage differently. At least with the cello you bring your own instrument.
This morning it was just our first violinist and me. She's been nice about helping me get ready for the gig, but I was tired of playing the one piece of the Bolling suite that we're playing, so we played through the rest of the suite. Then we switched - she played the piano and I got to play my cello. It was really fun - we read through Schubert's Arpeggionne Sonata, which I love. We've tried to play it before, and I'm getting better and better each time. I had trouble with the 3rd movement, but then again, we were just reading through it. This was the first time that I've played it where I've felt that I could actually play it if I worked on it....during prior times playing it I've felt that many of the sections were beyond my level of playing. Then we read through a Klengel piece that I found (I think it was on the International Music Music Score Library wiki, which unfortunately as of Oct 13th has been taken down). It was titled "Three Mazurkas" and was a lot of fun to play.
My lesson this afternoon was good; we worked on increasing the weight of my arm and increasing the speed of my vibrato to get even more sound out. My teacher wants me to "kick up my playing another notch by getting another gear." I could relax and make my arm heavy to get more volume, or I could increase the speed of my vibrato. I have trouble doing both at the same time. Most cello skills seem to me to be some variation of patting your head with one hand and rubbing your stomach with the other, and then switching what you're doing very quickly. I guess that's the point of practicing...
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Flexibility and Suppleness - My Bow Hold Dream
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.
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.
Friday, September 14, 2007
My Inner Casals
I had a good lesson tonight - first I played scales on a single string with various 7th chords - every single key. My fourths were a little sharp and my fifths were a little flat, but by the end of 12 keys I was really hitting it well. I could hear when I was right with the chords - the reinforcement of tone was really nice.
Then we switched to the same thing we did at my last lesson, listening to Pablo Casals play the Sarabande from Bach's first cello suite. I'd been listening to it at full speed and a slower speed all week. Today we listened at a variety of speeds and would talk about what Casals was doing, then I would try to channel Casals and play what I had just heard. I had been doing this all week (well, at least when I had a cello, traveling makes it tough to play) and it was fun! At the end of one passage, my teacher said, "That was the best Casals I've heard all day!" Grin.
We ended by listening to a Jacqueline du Pre recording of Sarabande and starting to analyze it. Her version is much slower than Casals and she uses silent spaces between some of the notes more than Casals does - it's really effective. This is what I love so much about making music - every musician puts his or her own stamp on what they play.
Off to bed - leaving for Barcelona very early tomorrow morning - will try to post pictures from my phone while I'm there next week.
Then we switched to the same thing we did at my last lesson, listening to Pablo Casals play the Sarabande from Bach's first cello suite. I'd been listening to it at full speed and a slower speed all week. Today we listened at a variety of speeds and would talk about what Casals was doing, then I would try to channel Casals and play what I had just heard. I had been doing this all week (well, at least when I had a cello, traveling makes it tough to play) and it was fun! At the end of one passage, my teacher said, "That was the best Casals I've heard all day!" Grin.
We ended by listening to a Jacqueline du Pre recording of Sarabande and starting to analyze it. Her version is much slower than Casals and she uses silent spaces between some of the notes more than Casals does - it's really effective. This is what I love so much about making music - every musician puts his or her own stamp on what they play.
Off to bed - leaving for Barcelona very early tomorrow morning - will try to post pictures from my phone while I'm there next week.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
The Weekend Report
Our gig on Friday night went pretty well. Our whole group (9 of us!) doesn't rehearse together because of schedules - part of the group practices on Fridays and part of the group plays on Sundays. We also didn't do a good job of figuring out our program until Friday morning. I got some of the music Friday night. Oh well. I think we sounded pretty good in most cases and little rough in some spots. Two of the violinists played the first movement of the Bach double violin concerto and they were on fire! It was lovely listening to them. We played an eclectic mix of things - some Mozart, Copeland, an arrangement of "Hey Jude", a few rags, some Irish tunes - the audience appeared to enjoy it. One gentleman even came back; he listened to us that last time we played (the gig was part of a series of Art Walks that have been going on all summer). We've also had some other people inquire if we could play for them.
My lesson (moved to Friday morning) was interesting. I now have a CD with chords playing about every minute, some form of 7th chord (major, dominant, diminished..) in a variety of positions, in a bunch of different keys. The exercise I have this week is to play a scale or something against the chord, to really fine tune my intonation against the chord. One thing that I noticed when I was playing against a major 7th chord was that the 4th note in the scale had to be tuned down just a hair to sound good against the chord. The purpose of all of this exercise is to give me a chance to practice tuning against something else during practice time. The only time I get to do this is when I'm playing with a group, and I can't very well do this exercise with my groups.
The other exercise we did was taking Pablo Casals recording of the Sarabande from Bach's first cello suite (the G major one) and dissected the first few measures. This is a similar exercise that I wrote about in a previous post, for the Janos Starker recording of Bach's Arioso. Only this time I have homework (I hate homework!) - I'm supposed to listen to the Casals recording and mark up what I think he is doing - bow changes, dynamics, etc. - with the stated purpose of training my ear to listen better.
I think my objection is mostly to having to do the homework, not the actual assignment itself. And I don't mind practicing, either. I'm not sure what the difference is, but in my mind there is a difference.
My lesson (moved to Friday morning) was interesting. I now have a CD with chords playing about every minute, some form of 7th chord (major, dominant, diminished..) in a variety of positions, in a bunch of different keys. The exercise I have this week is to play a scale or something against the chord, to really fine tune my intonation against the chord. One thing that I noticed when I was playing against a major 7th chord was that the 4th note in the scale had to be tuned down just a hair to sound good against the chord. The purpose of all of this exercise is to give me a chance to practice tuning against something else during practice time. The only time I get to do this is when I'm playing with a group, and I can't very well do this exercise with my groups.
The other exercise we did was taking Pablo Casals recording of the Sarabande from Bach's first cello suite (the G major one) and dissected the first few measures. This is a similar exercise that I wrote about in a previous post, for the Janos Starker recording of Bach's Arioso. Only this time I have homework (I hate homework!) - I'm supposed to listen to the Casals recording and mark up what I think he is doing - bow changes, dynamics, etc. - with the stated purpose of training my ear to listen better.
I think my objection is mostly to having to do the homework, not the actual assignment itself. And I don't mind practicing, either. I'm not sure what the difference is, but in my mind there is a difference.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Work Wins, This Week
This was not a good week for work-life balance. Work won this week. Between the late night meeting with a team in India on Tuesday, flight delays on Wednesday, and work on a project this weekend, my cello has suffered from neglect. The balance thing is really pretty hard. I am looking forward to the day when I can balance retirement activities with cello! Although, if my dad and other retired people I know are any model, I know that even that balance won't be easy.
My lesson this week was good, despite the lack of practice time. My bowing has gotten straighter - after the previous week's video session I was able to straighten out my bow even more, based on this week's video. I'm now working on varying my vibrato speed during long notes, plus working on crescendos and decrescrendos during long notes (it's really hard to do a crescendo while getting towards the tip of the bow!). It was pretty fun during my lesson; my teacher played bits of a Janos Starker recording of Bach's Arioso and had me dissect what Starker was doing from an expressive standpoint and had me play the same passage, trying to emulate Starker's playing. It was fun - doesn't mean that I can't do my own thing - and enlightening to think about the range of things I could do with one phrase. It was really interesting to hear how Starker did something slightly different each time he played the first theme.
Saturday chamber group was fun - our other pianist was there so I got to be on cello the whole time. We played 2 Schumann piano trios, #1 (the d minor, for our pianist who was dying to play it - I'm not sure the rest of us were) and #3. He is such a good pianist - wish I could sight read on the piano as well as he does. We played through the Franck Piano Trio Op 1 #1 in F# minor. I really liked it but sightreading 6 sharps in tenor clef was pretty challenging. It's on our list to play again sometime. We finished with 2 movements of Novak's Piano Trio Op.1 and ran out of time. We liked it enough to want to finish playing through it another time.
Unfortunately I had to cancel out of my Sunday chamber group to work. I hate missing opportunities to play. I did get some practice time in this evening after finishing up work.
My lesson this week was good, despite the lack of practice time. My bowing has gotten straighter - after the previous week's video session I was able to straighten out my bow even more, based on this week's video. I'm now working on varying my vibrato speed during long notes, plus working on crescendos and decrescrendos during long notes (it's really hard to do a crescendo while getting towards the tip of the bow!). It was pretty fun during my lesson; my teacher played bits of a Janos Starker recording of Bach's Arioso and had me dissect what Starker was doing from an expressive standpoint and had me play the same passage, trying to emulate Starker's playing. It was fun - doesn't mean that I can't do my own thing - and enlightening to think about the range of things I could do with one phrase. It was really interesting to hear how Starker did something slightly different each time he played the first theme.
Saturday chamber group was fun - our other pianist was there so I got to be on cello the whole time. We played 2 Schumann piano trios, #1 (the d minor, for our pianist who was dying to play it - I'm not sure the rest of us were) and #3. He is such a good pianist - wish I could sight read on the piano as well as he does. We played through the Franck Piano Trio Op 1 #1 in F# minor. I really liked it but sightreading 6 sharps in tenor clef was pretty challenging. It's on our list to play again sometime. We finished with 2 movements of Novak's Piano Trio Op.1 and ran out of time. We liked it enough to want to finish playing through it another time.
Unfortunately I had to cancel out of my Sunday chamber group to work. I hate missing opportunities to play. I did get some practice time in this evening after finishing up work.
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