December 4, 2009 Cello Lesson

Vivaldi, Sonata in E Minor, from Lesson on Friday, December 11, 2009

I still have to keep working on this.

2: Bar the E and B; Vibrato the B and C

3 +: Vibrato the lower notes in the 8th note section; use a fast vibrato; play the 8th notes more on the pad of the finger and not so much on the tips; overall, work on a faster vibrato

14+: Watch the staccato notes and use a quick vibrato, especially with the F#

29+: Bar the fingers; treat more like a chord and try for smoother string crossings

24+: Carrots; no flat fingers (did this really bad; almost used my entire finger; accident)

23+: Play the run more on the tips of my fingers.

Sunday, December 6th

Wasn't able to practice much yesterday; today's practice is still not going well.

Horrible lesson Friday; Don't understand how I can play something decent at home and then an hour later play it like I'm sight reading. (Probably didn't help that cable repair people were right outside during the lesson; I'm sure they had a laugh at my expense.)

Vivaldi, Sonata in E Minor

Going measure by measure; hopefully I'll remember everything I did wrong and since pretty much everything was wrong, it will be like starting from scratch.

Overall: Make sure to play the low notes on C string well and get a good sound. Also, use vibrato. And longer bow strokes except for the carrots in the second section. Repeat the first section; do not repeat the second section; can ritard at end.

1 Play first note in this measure (and others) solidly; also use vibrato

2 16th notes; make first note in each section slightly longer; vibrato the B 8th note

3 play the 8th notes deliberately; make sure I stay in tempo and don't rush them; don't look at the fingerboard; don't have to play the inner two notes in each phrase as loudly as the outer two notes? Attempt to exaggerate bouncing the bow off the string and maybe that will help me play these notes?

7 B changed the bowing based on her copy of the sonata; will really need to work on this!

8 and 39 Make sure the low E sounds good and vibrato

9 And opening to 9, watch the dynamics, this run is p; all other comments from 2 above apply

11 Watch dynanics; slightly longer bow stroke; 11 and 12, make sure to hit the F# cleanly on pad of finger; was not a true sound at lesson. Use first position fingerings.

14 Watch staccato; bowings--work on getting this consistent; make sure crescendo is there; there are two crescendos in this section.

18 Need to move quickly from the G to the C (did do this today during practice)

Second section of the allegro

Overall vibrato 8th notes and longer; make sure pay attention to dynamics; B changed the bowings on various measures throughout this section

23 First note, E, is SF; 8th notes in downward run are slightly longer; watch the G# and F on the C string

24 8th notes have a carrot on them; play deliberately; use only 2 to 3 inches of bow with each stroke

25 Back to original theme; all same rules apply as mentioned above

29 + Only part of either section I played remoted OK was the "hard" part, but B changed the bowing on the intro to the section.

32 Changed the fingerings and bowings in this measure; can keep first finger down

34 and intro Same as previous in the previous movement; play deliberately; don't look at the fingerboard; try thinking of bouncing the bow off the strings; exaggerate; deliberate

37 and 38 Changed bowings; can ritard the last measure; would normally not repeat this section.

39 Make sure final E sounds good

Would normally repeat the first section and play second section one time.

Next lesson is Friday, December 11th at 11:30. Will not have a lesson the next week as will be in hospital and then home recovering.