Goals for 2010

Technical Issues

1. Vibrato: make vibrato a natural part of everything I play and continue to practice separate from any specific piece of music

2. Extensions: work on forward extensions and consistently play them as an extension and not as a shift

3. Use More Bow: pay attention to bow distribution

4. Smoother Bowing: become more fluid especially when changing strings

5. Fingers: Keep separate, don't bunch up; play slower music more on pad, faster music more on tips

6. Dynamics: Be aware and play accordingly

7. Tempo: Aim for consistency and use the metronome when practicing

8. Get rid of all pre-B bad habits: looking at fingerboard, playing on top of the fingerboard, stretching the cello away from body, pinky up in the air, bow not straight,etc. etc. etc.

Practice Issues

1. Aim for a minimum of 1 hour per day of practice.

2. At the beginning of every practice work on 8 scales.

3. Every practice will consist of scales, Schroeder and music.

4. Set up video camera and film snippets of music; critique.

Music Issues

Subject to B's approval, these are some pieces of music I would like to work on in 2010. In addition to these, anything assigned by B. Goal is to be open minded about all music and at least give it a chance.

1. Bach Suite III

2. Bach Suite I

3. Bach Arioso

4. Faure Sicilienne

5. Faure Elegy

6. Mendelssohn Song Without Words

7. Paradis Sicilienne

8. Squire Bouree (revisist)

Overall, play more in the tenor clef.

Get close to the end of Schroeder Book 1. This may be long term.

Miscellaneous Issues

1. cellistjournal.blogspot.com Maintain at least weekly updates to the blog. Make the blog an accurate record of my progress and lack thereof.

2. Become a "follower" on some of the cello blogs I frequently visit and begin interacting with some of the amateur cellists who appear to be close to me in skill.

3. Look into starting an amateur cellist organization in the Orlando area; look into using MeetUp format or other online way of communicating with other area cellists to enhance education opportunities. This may be long term and will probably have to wait until I recover from upcoming surgeries.