Cello Lesson, February 26, 2010

Lesson was an extra 30 minutes as B, B and I played trios. Great fun and we sounded pretty good. Matz trios are easy, but with 3 cellos, the sound was good.

Actual lesson was OK, especially considering I hadn't practiced as much as usual. Played Schroeder #39 and Bach Bouree and first part of Gigue from 3rd Cello Suite.

Schroeder

I was playing too much over the fingerboard; need to pay more attention to that. Also, my bow was too tight; must have tightened it twice or something. Need to also pay attention to thumb on right hand; I'm not bending it correctly at the first knuckle. Look at Potter, page 23 for correct right hand configuration.

Go back to working on bow distribution exercises; Metronome set at 60; count 12, 8, 4 and pay attention to thumb and grip. Throughout the Schroeder, the F# were not high enough. Can use the whole bow in this exercise.

Will continue to fine tune #39 but can also go on to #40 and either #41 or #42.

Bouree

Need to play more gracefully. Need to pay attention to where the bow is and get it off the fingerboard. Thumb must be in the crook when playing in 4th position. B suggested that I only write in fingerings when I am shifting to notes. Don't write in every fingering. I may play better without all the numbers cluttering up the music. I've been doing this with orchestra music; now must do it with lesson music.

On second Bouree, watch intonation; because this is played primarily on the D string the fingers will be closer together than if played in first position. This is especially important toward the top of the fingerboard.

Gigue

Make sure to ring the note in the bootstrap section. Use flycasting. Try singing the melody and then matching the bowing to the melody.

Will not have a lesson next Friday, March 5th as I'll still be in the hospital finishing up the first go round of chemotherapy.

Bach Suite III Gigue

Love the first page of the gigue; jury is still out on page two. B indicated it is supposed to be more cerebral, but I'm just not sure I like it.

Have all the correct bowings from B.

Page 1

Make sure to slur the string crossings and be smooth; I was too jerky. In the "boot strap" section, lift the bow back to the frog for maximum effect. Use 1/2/4 in top line chord, not 1/3/4.

Pull the slurs in "boot strap"

Use flycasting techniques. Move the bow a lot, but don't spend much time on the strings.

Page 2

Hopefully as I play better this will begin to appeal to me. Fixed the bowings to match what B has in her music. In top line, E, CG chord, E, play C as a "heroic C" and make sure to use lots of bow and skip the bow. Can start the string crossing section (both pages) slowly and then build up speed.

Cello Lesson, February 12, 2010

Lesson wasn't quite as horrible as I assumed it would be, but definitely not one of my better ones. Someday I will feel good again, and get back to regular practice, etc. Also, rainy, ugly day never helps!

Played Schroeder #39 very slow. Had problems, as expected. B indicated the staccato notes don't really need to be all that staccato as I am playing in the upper half of the bow. On second page, 2nd line from bottom of page, play almost like a 1-4-3 chord and move the thumb back in order to get better intonation. This repeats three times.

Suggested trying to play in front of a mirror; maybe I can get Emily to hold one in front of my left hand; don't watch bowing in the mirror though as it will be distorted.

OK to use more bow in the longer runs. Pull the bow. Will keep working on this the next two weeks. Hopefully my eyesight will improve soon; last hbot is Monday the 15th.

Will keep working on the gigue; second page was a bit more likable today as B played it, but still like the first page better. Top line, E, CG chord, E, make sure the low C is very heroic! Skip back up and use lots of bow. Changed the bowing slightly in my version to match B's version and will work on that. I'm thinking of trying to find a large print version of the Bach Cello Suites; would probably be expensive, but would definitely be easier for me to read and mark up.

No lesson next week due to surgery. Will continue to work on Schroeder #39, gigue, and possibly go to Courette of the third suite.

Finished off with some duets; lots of fun; really like playing duets!

Cello Technical Key

Have been toying with the idea of working on a cello technical key. This would be sort of like what we use in the Master Gardener program for plants/taxonomy. Ask a question, or pose a situation, and then depending on what the answer is, go to a specific numbered response where you either get the answer, or you are asked more questions until you eventually get to the right response. I actually think I could use this type of aid and the actual preparation of the key would be the best education experience possible! Not sure what format would work best; possibly a table?? Online on the blog or just in in word program?? I've seen similar type tables online, but mine would be more specific to my needs.

Thought about this a couple of years ago, but I don't think I was proficient enough (not that I am now) at the time to really pose the questions/issues. Something B said in yesterday's lesson reminded me of the technical key though. It was in Schroeder #39 where she indicated I needed to treat the D, G, F# runs (which repeat three times, hence three times to either screw them up or get them right) more as a chord and to move the thumb back closer to the left hand. I'm thinking that type of technique would be what I could include in the key; maybe not that specific, but a bit more generic.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Friday, February 12, 2010

DSO (my former hometown orchestra) came to Orlando (Northland Distributed Church) last night as part of their Florida tour. Too bad we couldn't give them better weather.

They were EXQUISITE!!! I was so proud of them.

Wasn't sure going in how I would feel about the relatively modern music they played, but found that I loved the Concertato for "Moby Dick" by Peter Mennin. You could hear/feel the ocean waves and sense the whale.

Cellist, Sol Gabetta was absolutely wonderful. Beautiful young women (I think she is 27 or 28) but played beyond her years. Reminded me of Jacqueline Du Pre, not that I have any basis to make the comparison other than the movie "Jackie and Hillary", but her mannerisms seemed similar. She played Barber's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 22. I would have preferred Dvorak or Haydn, but was OK. I think Phil slept through the Andante movement.

I had binoculars with me, fortunately, as my eyesight is horrible from hbot and was able to watch, up-close and personal the entire cello concerto. Loved her dress (darkish aqua and a beautiful copper color that matched her cello perfectly). She seemed to have a nice connection with the first violinist.

In spite of loving the cellist, highlight was the Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27. Will buy this on iTunes or CD. It was such a pleasure to hear this orchestra. They were flawless, expressive. Leonard Slatkin was very easy to follow and doesn't seem to suffer any affects from his heart attach last year.

Northland Distributed Church is a beautiful facility/venue. Tons of room, very friendly feel. Not real sure about the acoustics for this type of concert; sure it is great for church services, etc. but the sound seemed slightly muffled. Seating was really strange. Our tickets were not numbered to correspond to the actual seat numbers, so it took Phil and I awhile to find our seats as we were not seated next to our friends. Next year, all the Festival of Orchestra venues will be here; still haven't decided if I want to get a season subscription (not after horrible Moscow State Radio Orchestra experience)!

Only negative was the bleeding episode I had at the beginning of the intermission; think I got too excited about Sol Gabetta and was talking too much to my friends. Fortunately I was able to get into a "family style" bathroom and get the bleeding under control. Got some strange looks from fellow attendees as I kept a wash cloth to my mouth (hopefully fairly discreetly) during the second half. OK now; will take it easy this weekend; not too much talking and keep the dial setting lower on my water pic as I'm sure that didn't help. Really glad the surgery is coming up next week.

Vibrato

YouTube Vibrato rec. by B

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_w6Z0d3u64

Alan Harris Cello Vibrato Tips

(note the typewriter)

Helpful video; will revisit

Large Print Sheet Music

Will attempt to enlarge, probably triple, the first and third Bach Cello Suites today at Office Depot. Hopefully it won't cost a fortune. This should help me "read" the music for the next few months.

Will also triple the size of certain runs in Schroeder #39 and that should also help.

Success!!! Went to Office Depot and enlarged the 1st and 3rd Cello Suites as well as Schroeder #39 to a 14 x 17 size. What a difference!! I can actually read the notes. This should make the next couple of weeks a lot easier to deal with. After the surgery, I'll go back and enlarge the next 10 or so Schroeder pieces; hopefully that will get me through the temporary eyesight problems.

Will hold off on bowing in the 1st Suite until I look at B's version; will use her bowing. Will be able to transfer all of my bowing from the 3rd Suite.

I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. I am probably looking at 4 or 5 months of diminished eyesight due to hbot. And, it only cost $3.00 to do those pages today.

Cello Lesson, February 5, 2010

This was a rough week for practice as I had some medical problems and lost 2 days. Also, my eyesight has been affected by the HBOT and it is beginning to affect mid range vision. Noticed it while attempting to play the middle 8 scales and couldn't read the fingerings. Schroeder #38 was also hard to read. No problems with the Bach gigue as the music was larger.

Lesson: just played the first page of the gigue to get B's input. Didn't play too horribly. Slurred areas need to be smoother. Second note in my copy is solo C; B said to make a chord: C G E C as it is written in her copy. Will write that in.

The boot strap section (my favorite) needs to be more smoothly slurred. Use the flycasting technique, move the bow a lot but it is not on the string much (this is in the 3 downbeat notes).

Very embarrassing to find out that I was not slurring the string crossing, mid page. Will work on that.

Rest of the lesson was spent in sight reading (which I really like to do); was a fun lesson and I left feeling a little better about my playing than the last couple of lessons.

For next lesson, February 12th, will go on to Schroeder #39. The musical type is small but it appears to be very repetitious so maybe I won't have too many vision problems with it. Watched YouTube of this; I will play about 10 times slower. Had problems seeing the music this evening, so I will hopefully do better playing during the day with more light.

Will also start on second page of the gigue. I've been listening to Yo Yo Ma's recordings of the Third Cello Suite to get a sense of how it should sound. I used the same type of bowings B drew in for the first page of the gigue; hopefully these are accurate.

Bach Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals and the Search for a Masterpiece

Great book and fun to read while beginning work on the 3rd suite. I'm on the 6th chapter/suite. Will keep this book on my Kindle and not move it to the archive section as I can see myself referring back to the book. Especially love the parts on Casals. Wonder if they could make this into a movie??? Might be very interesting to juxtapose the Bach/Casals/author narratives. I think it would work!