Cello Practice Log

	Fr 29	Sa 1	Su 2	Mo 3	Tu 4	We 5	Th 6
Scale/arp/thirds
Etude: Lee #11
Chords: Dotz 36 and Dup 7
Bach Suite 2
Saint Saens Concerto
Martinu Trio
Brahms Symph 1
Tchaik R&J
Trio:Marais, Stradella	S,M 30
Arioso
Time	30

I’m starting off well – 30 easy minutes today, after another marathon Thursday. This week, although the list is the same, I have bolded my priorities for the week. I have an orchestra concert at the end of the week, but no trio rehearsal so I will be focusing on the basic core plus those I’ll be performing or presenting.

Core elements:

• hiding the shift

Total practice time: 0.5 hrs

Notes 3/7

Yup, that was it. The easy half hour on Friday after my killer Thursday schedule worked great, but then I succumbed to respiratory illness #5 and didn’t practice at all for the rest of the week. You know that was a bad one.

This week I’m planning an easy warm-up today for the concert tonight. I have lots of rehearsals scheduled this week, so will probably not do more than an hour of practice in a day, with my goal again being 0.5 hours on 6/7 days. No orchestra music to practice, so I’ll have some spots to buff for the church program next weekend, a little chamber music, and most of the time spent on Bach, I expect.

Cello Practice Log

	Fr 22	Sa 23	Su 24	Mo 25	Tu 26	We 27	Th 28
Scale/arp/thirds						C,a,F	a
Etude: Lee #11							x
Chords: Dotz 36 and Dup 7
Bach Suite 2				M1-30	M,G-30	M30	x
Saint Saens Concerto
Martinu Trio
Brahms Symph 1
Tchaik R&J
Trio:Marais, Stradella
Arioso
Time				30	30	60	30

Bad me. It’s already Wednesday and I’m just making up my weekly practice log. Not a biggie, because I added notes to an old log in my practice room and am transcribing it now, and also because my list is pretty much the same this week. You can see already, though, that I didn’t practice for three days at the beginning of the week. I suspect that what is happening is that I am really tired after practicing and rehearsing for five hours on Thursdays, and it’s taking me a little more recovery time than I am allowing for in my over-optimistic goals. I’m thinking that for next week I’ll just plan on an easy 30 minutes of fun stuff on Friday, and see if that gets me back in the groove for the rest of the week.

Core elements:

• explore the finger tip sensations and involvement in sound quality

Scale: thirds and arpeggios in F. When other scales are listed, they are for review of scale finger patterns in that key.

Notes 2/29

Total practice time: 2.5 hours on 4 days/7

Not much else to say. At least the time I did spend was productive. I think I need to stick with my minimum goal for awhile: 30 minutes on 6/7 days, on the theory that the first habit I need to establish is frequency rather than duration.

Vocal Ensemble

We are continuing to work on the same songs, with the exception of Bach (not sure why not) while awaiting the arrival of a shipment of new music.

• Song of Spring. We spent a fair amount of time working on the parts and the balance (less sopranos, more alto). Technical tip for the soprano leap from Bb to F: use the “s” in “summer” to assist.
• J’entends le Moulin. We again worked the rhythm using the syllable “doot.” Very short notes. Then we made a first pass at the French. I think I need to find some internet assistance with the pronunciation. I really need to get around to taking a French class.
• Welcome Sweet Pleasure. This is going to be challenge, because there are really no good places to breath. Some comments: the notes should be percussive and bell-like. Half-notes should have a marked crescendo-decrescendo shape. Accent the half note on 2 whenever you have a quarter-half note pattern in a bar.
• Dona, Dona. I wasn’t the only one who had a Dona, Dona ear worm after last week. Today we mostly worked parts, but also discussed choral cutoffs.
  • Evidently, in American-printed music the intent is to cut of (with the consonant) on the next beat after the end of the note. For instance, a whole note cuts off on “1″ at the beginning of the next bar. Occasionally, a breath will be marked for the ensemble as a whole (as at the end of a phrase/sentence), and then the note would cut off on the last beat (“4″, for a whole note). British-printed music makes this explicit by tying an eighth note over the barline or onto the beat where the note is to end. (I think that would be confusing to read, speaking as an instrumentalist.)
  • For parts work, A- mixed up the seating so that each of us was sitting with someone singing the same part on one side and someone singing the other part on the other side of us. I think in general we sopranos are singing more loudly than necessary, so this helped us hear the balance. Nice to know that I can relax, and really don’t need to force it.
• Chiquita Banana. Just a few minutes of work on the divisi parts at B.

Piano Lesson

Coming along. Everything was a little better, but still not good.

Assignments for next week:

• Chords:I-IV-I-V-I progressions in three inversions, C,G,D,A,E,F. Write out progressions on Grand Staff. There is an alternate fingering when beginning from I64:
  • I64: 1-2-4
  • IV6: 1-2-5
  • V: 1-2-4

  And just so I have them here, the actual progressions will be:

  • I-IV64-I-V6-I
  • I6-IV-I6-V64-I6
  • I64-IV6-I64-V-I64
• Hokey Pokey: dynamics, transitions, LH always stacatto, RH legato slurs
• Clemente Andante: we reviewed fingerings. Start LH practice with last three measures, with fastest harmonic motion. Start RH practice with sixths
• Clemente Allegro: we reviewed sonata allegro form again today, and also discussed the modulations: C to G in A section, G and c in B section (development), finally returning to C in recapitulation and staying there. Practice transitions, with metronome. Practice in small sections. I may have to memorize this in order for things to go smoothly.

Orchestra Rehearsal

Started off without Maestro, who was delayed by My Fair Lady. Our oboist is our pinch hitter, and he started us off on Brahms 1st mvmt. When Maestro arrived he finished that, then the fourth mvmt to take advantage of all the horns being present, then moved on to the second and third mvmts. Wow. It’s been awhile since we played the middle movements. I need to put those on my practice schedule this week.

Good news on the fourth mvmt: I played that dotted half note (see last week) properly. Unfortunately, I am still faking the deedle deedles. Bad news on the fourth mvmt: neither I nor the principal has figured out why we can’t get the timing on the stringendo. We were closer this week, though. Maybe another week will do it.

The last half hour or so we spent on Katherine…, again with the composer. He had made a number of changes, and Maestro was obviously not happy. Passing out the parts was taking too long, he didn’t like the idea of changing string parts this close to the performance, and he was also time pressured because he needed to leave for another gig. So we reverted to the old version for tonight.

I have to say, the first run-through before Maestro had to leave went pretty well. Changes are on hold until next week, and if Composer gets organized so that the parts can be distributed before rehearsal I think we will be fine.

The most amusing part of the rehearsal came at the end, when Maestro handed the stick to the composer and dashed off. Composer made a valiant effort, but couldn’t figure out how to conduct downbeats. Big laugh. So oboist took over, with coaching on tempos from composer, and we had a few more productive minutes until the end of rehearsal.

Two weeks to go.

Cello Lesson

Started with F major. We had a little discussion in the fourth octave about staying “in the groove,” as usual, but today T- demonstrate on my cello and I noticed that where he felt “the groove” on my cello was a little farther from the bridge than he had been suggesting to me. That helped some, and the other thing that I noticed that seemed to help was a very slight difference in my bow hold. I’m not sure how to describe it, but I did something so that I felt like my fingertips were more sensitive and more involved in making micro-adjustments as I was “driving” across the string. Definitely something I want to explore more.

After F major, T- asked for d minor in quarter notes, and was very impressed when I just switched gears and played it. I told him “no sweat – after all, the fingerings are all the same.” That amused him, and after a short discussion of exceptions to the fingering, he asked for f minor. OK. Then eb minor. OK. I think I made some points.

There were a few spots where my face tensed up, usually on the downward shifts. We spent some time with the mirror and using distraction techniques. One thing he asked me to do was sing a note while playing the scale. I think he meant any random tone, but I sang tonic (I do that often while I am practicing) and I think I got a few more points. It did keep the grimaces at bay, too.

On to arpeggios. I can play all three fingerings, but am not so smooth at finding the notes. I’m playing by intervals rather than knowing exactly where I’m going. He suggested in fingering #2 I practice old finger shifts coming down (3-1 3-1, etc) so that I actually ghost the next lower note before playing the upper finger note. That should help keep my hand in the frame. Move the frame, don’t seek with the finger. I do need to spend some time staying oriented, though.

Finally, he asked whether I am practicing thirds (of course) and we went back to F major. Those are coming along, but I’m still awkward on the downward shifts across strings and the first shift into thumb position. We practiced those as gestures today, quickly moving from one position to the next with the metronome to get the feel for the movement as a whole.

Next we applied that approach to the Bach Menuet 1 that we had worked on by simplifying then adding elements last week. Sorry, not quite ready for that, but I can work on it at home. To be truthful, I had hoped to work on something else this week, because I had had no productive practice on that since last lesson. He said something about second Menuet and Gigue for next week, and performing that sometime in the next month, either at an adult recital or (horrors) at a studio class. I guess I have my marching orders.

Vocal Ensemble

Twelve women for at least part of tonight’s rehearsal. I think A- has issued an open invitation to drop-ins, so one faculty member stayed for awhile then had to leave. This is going to be a good group, and a very comfortable size.

Tonight we worked on four of the pieces we did last week:

• Welcome Sweet Pleasure
• Chiquita Banana
• Song of Spring
• Dona, Dona

A- said she has more music on order, something about some jazz, Renaissance pieces, and Mendelssohn. The veterans kind of groaned at Mendelssohn; sounds like they had had a time of it with a previous piece, though the end result was positive. Personally, I’m mostly looking forward to the Renaissance music.

Technically of interest were the enunciation instructions, also reiterated from last week:

• Start words with a quick consonant sound
• Shape the vowels throughout the note, and maintain until the last moment
• Then stop the word with a quick consonant
• The letter “r” does not exist in singing. Warm is pronounced wom. Higher is pronounced highah. Think Bostonian. (She didn’t say that, but it helped me to remember the concept.)

The other interesting teaching point happened when the altos were unexpectedly faced with a high eb, an octave above and almost three measures after their last note. A- had them do a little natural voice, downward sighing exercise we do as part of warm-ups, starting quite high, then pointed out that they had very comfortably produced a much higher note than eb so they should not get all stressed out over it. I tried it while driving home. It was very effective for keeping the throat relaxed while approaching the higher note – a better “not doing,” in Alexander Technique parlance.

My voice definitely needs to build stamina. After an hour of singing soprano I can barely talk in my usual register – but I can still sing loudly at you a fifth or so higher! I’m still wondering whether it might not be useful to have a few more private voice lessons.

Piano Lesson

I-V chords in C, G, D, A, and F. The pattern I noticed today is that, knowing it’s the fifth that’s shared between these two chords, this is what happens:

• I (root position) – two lower fingers move down
• I6 – outside fingers move down, pivoting around the middle
• I64 – upper two fingers move down

So, when moving from I to V, all movement is in a downwards direction. Wonder what I am going to notice next time?

We discussed the figured bass exercise from Handel. I had no problem naming the chords and inversions. When the chord is closed, the tonic is the note with at least a fourth open below it. The first inversion looks stable, with the thirds on the bottom, and the second inversion looks unstable with the “heavier looking” thirds on top. (I still have to name the notes and figure out the chord when it’s open, but that wasn’t the point of this exercise.) We discussed the fact that some of the chords in the recommended solution did not move to the closest next position, and G- said that was because it’s generally better to move in contrary motion. Also that it was desirable to end on a perfect tonic chord, meaning that the tonic is in both the bass and the soprano (I think), and if I had chosen closest chords all along it wouldn’t have. SO many complications.

Sidetracked by a discussion of seeing keys as patterns, we noted that Mach stops doing transposition after leaving 5 finger patterns. G- suggested I get the MMTA theory workbooks if I wanted to continue graded exercises with more details on transposition and chord progressions.

For next week, I should add E to the list of scales, and also do a I-IV-I-V-I chord progression in each of our keys, starting with each inversion of I. Hmm. so that will be I-IV64-I-V6-I, then I6-IV-I6-V64-I6, and I64-IV6-I64-V-I64. (I need to double check those – just figured them out here at the computer – and realized saying “keyboard” would not have been specific!)

Hokey Pokey went OK, but I still can’t play it smoothly. We worked on the transitions, basically every time I need to move one hand or the other. G- suggested a warm-up where I go up and down one octave of the scale in first inversion chords in the RH while playing the four-note downward motif from G and/or C in the LH. I should spend my practice time working slowly over each transition, simplifying where necessary before playing as written.

Clementi is in similar shape. I can play through the A section slowly (Q=72) but stumble over the transitions for anything faster. My work with blocking the chords for the Alberti bass measures paid off; now I need to repeat that in the B section. Blocking the RH chords in the descending broken thirds passages will probably also be useful. We also reviewed sonata form, and identified the sections and patterns in this sonata.

For next week:

• I-V-I and I-IV-I-V-I patterns in all inversions in C, G, D, A, E, F
• Hokey Pokey (target H=100)
• Clementi Allegro

The best news is that, since S- wasn’t here this week, I get to review this all again next week. I told G- I was grateful for the remedial lesson!

Cello Practice Log

	Fr 15	Sa 16	Su 17	Mo 18	Tu 19	We 20	Th 21
Scale/arp/thirds		M-30
Etude: Lee #11							x
Chords: Dotz 36 and Dup 7
Bach Suite 2		M1-5		M-25			M, G
Saint Saens Concerto							x
Martinu Trio
Brahms Symph 1
Tchaik R&J
Trio:Marais, Stradella, Fine				M-15
Arioso							x
Time		35		45			60

Core elements:

• fast alternating string crossing, independent arm and wrist
• loure bowing
• double stop building and voicing

Total practice time: 2.3 hrs

Notes 2/22: Horrible, horrible (horrible!) practice week. As soon as I typed that “10 hours” goal last week, Resistance swept over me, a palpable lack of desire to do anything that even resembled practicing. I’m so predictable, thinks I, but if so, why do I keep doing this?, I ask myself, disgustedly.

This is one good reason to keep on taking lessons. At least my hour warm-up on lesson day was useful. On the other hand, if I didn’t have lessons to prepare for I might have less to Resist.

All right, this week. I have only two more rehearsals between now and the next concert, and some spots in the Brahms that still need lots of work. T- said something offhand about performing the Menuets and the Gigue, so I had better buckle down to bring them closer to performability. I need to spend a little time on Martinu, as we’ll probably rehearse that next week. Actually, I have several things that I need to be prepared to present in some way next week. I think I will try the approach of setting setting goals and planning ahead what to practice when, but allow it to take the time it takes on each practice day and see how it goes next week.

Orchestra Rehearsal

This evening’s rehearsal was split evenly between Tchaikovsky and Brahms 4th movement. The room was like a sauna, but I think even under optimal conditions this concert is going to require considerable stamina. Lots and lots of errors this week, after not rehearsing these pieces for at least two. Maestro was snapping a little. My major faux pas was shorting a dotted half note before some deedle-deedles in the slow section of the Brahms 4th mvmt. Must remember not to do that! He visually checked our part to make sure we had marked four slashes (for the beats) over that measure. How embarrassing.

One thing I find remarkable is that both of these difficult pieces bear a strong resemblance to the music, even though most of us are faking the fast notes. I am bringing these up to speed in practice, but still feel like I’m mostly flailing during rehearsal. I’ll see what more I can do in the next three weeks.

The two major parts I need to practice this week in the parts we rehearsed:

• Those deedle-deedle runs in the Brahms 4th mvmt (32nd notes following half and dotted half notes)
• The stringendo near the end of the Brahms

BTW, the string crossing section I worked on last week went very well.