Cello Practice Log

	Fr 28	Sa 29	Su 30	Mo 31	Tu 1	We 2	Th 3
Scale/arp/thirds
Etude: Lee #11
Chords: Dotz 36 & Dup 7
E Maj: Dup 12 & Grutz 9
Bach Suite 2
Saint Saens Concerto
Vocalise (Rachmananoff)
Martinu Trio
Trio:Marais, Stradella
Orchestra
Cello Gym
Time

Core Elements

• Lifting LH fingers, not pressing

Cello Gym

• Bunting finger flicks on C/G
• Cossmann trill exercise on A/D
• de Swert etude – fast

Total practice time:

Notes 3/28

Orchestra Rehearsal

New music in the folders tonight.

• Selections from Les Miserables
• Berlioz Le Carnival Romain (Overture)
• Mozart The Marriage of Figaro (Overture)
• J.S.Bach Cembalo-Konzerte No. 1 c-moll (BWV 1060)
• Vivaldi Spring from The Four Seasons
• Bartok Rumanian Folk Dances

Utter disappointment. There’s nothing new here at all. OK, that’s not true. I don’t know the Bach concerto for 2 cembalos, but that is going to be a continuo part, fun but not too challenging. And I don’t think we played Les Miserable last year, but that’s show tunes – not my cuppa tea, at all.

On the other hand, Maestro is not here and we have a sub, my favorite amongst all the conductors I know here (admittedly not many – but he ranks high with all those I know, ever). Imagine my surprise and delight when he sat down next to me while we were tuning (the principal was a little late) and asked me why I’m not playing for him. In shock, I stammered out that I would love to play for him, but the orchestras he conducts are too far away from where I live to be practical. Can he not know that I have fantasized about doing just that for months, ever since he first subbed with us?

Anyway, the moment passed, and we got down to work. I really wished we had not been sight-reading, if you can call the first look at the music after several months away from it sight-reading. I was at a disadvantage, not having been at rehearsal two weeks ago when the folders were passed out, so I was pretty cold. But rehearsal was every bit as delightful as I expected it to be, with Maestro-sub at the helm.

We started off with Les Mis. A couple of tricky rhythms that should polish up with a brief look at. Great moment in Do You Hear the People Sing. The rhythm is dotted eighth-sixteenth twice, quarter note, triplet. We were all dutifully playing our sharp dotted eighth-sixteenth motifs, when Maestro-sub stopped us and asked us to play that like singing – more legato, less dancey. Huge difference.

The Marriage of Figaro was truly an aha event. He took the tempo 30% faster than we ever played it before, and in 1, not 2. You could see the shocked looks, but amazingly we rose to the occasion. Even though the notes went flying by, it was much more musical. I seriously faked my way through this the last time we played it, but tonight, thanks to my fast-playing breakthroughs in lessons, I was ready. Surprise! Happiness! Delight! My fingers flew, I got all of the rhythms and at least 70% of the notes. It feels like it’s worth practicing now, because I am capable of making it better – I hadn’t quite reached that point before.

Karma also payed me a visit in the Roman Carnival overture. Classical pulsing eighth notes underlying the harmony are usually no problem for me, but I never did get that little syncopation last time – da DAH da da DAH da instead of DAH da da DAH da da, with actual note changes on the DAH. This go ’round I think I can do it with a little practice in the usual spots.

This was also the first time as a group that we made progress on heeding the dynamics in both of those pieces. Maestro is usually satisfied with a fairly uniform mf. I think this is why I like playing for Maestro-sub so much. His expectations are higher, and he also has the ability to help us reach them.

We finished with the first five Rumanian dances. Learning point here was to be flexible in the accompaniment, and go with the solo lines. As far as practice goes, a couple of run-throughs with focus on V should do it.

Maybe I’m not so disappointed to see these old pieces reappear, after all. Maybe I’ll actually be able to play them this time!

Cello Practice Log

	Fr 21	Sa 22	Su 23	Mo 24	Tu 25	We 26	Th 27
Scale/arp/thirds
Etude: Lee #11
Chords: Dotz 36 & Dup 7
E Maj: Dup 12 & Grutz 9							9-15
Bach Suite 2
Saint Saens Concerto
Vocalise (Rachmananoff)
Martinu Trio				3-30
Trio:Marais, Stradella							15
Cello Gym							15
Time	15			30			45

Core Elements

• Lifting LH fingers, not pressing

Cello Gym

• Bunting finger flicks on C/G
• Cossmann trill exercise on A/D
• de Swert etude – fast

Total practice time: 1.5 hours

Notes 3/22

Yeah, yeah, I know. I didn’t practice on Friday again. Sigh.

Notes 3/27

…which set the tone for the rest of the week. General ennui? I think it was at least partly because I don’t have a cello lesson for three week. Plus, I didn’t get the orchestra music for the next cycle until tonight, so I didn’t have anything to work on. Nothing pressing meant nothing done.

OTOH, I had such a good lesson last week that the little work I have done has been highly effective. Playing fast might actually turn out to be fun, now that I am working less hard to get there!

Cello Lesson

The theme of today’s lesson was playing fast. This is a continuation of what we ended with on the last lesson. So no scale today – after discussion of extraneous matters (which I’ll mention at the end) we jumped right into assessing my progress on my “Cello Gym” exercises.

First exercise. One finger flicks on the C string while resting unused fingers on G. We backed up and went through several preliminary exercises.

• swing-plops. Bring hand up from side, around, and hand down onto fingerboard with approximately even weight across the fingers.
• keep thumb behind neck. Use wrist hinge to lift hand and plop onto fingerboard. Begin by using finger plop to drive thumb away from the neck. Similar to child’s toy where you use a hammer to drive dowel through a board.
• same exercise, but work through a slight motion and return of the thumb to the neck, to keeping the thumb quietly on the neck with the finger plop.
• Next, change the axis of movement from the wrist to the MCPs. IOW, raise just the fingers and plop. Velocity drives the string down, but the weight of the arm keeps it there.
• Use this action to work each finger independently. Incorporate a small roll with the 4th finger. Come down from a big height. Third finger is the hardest. Concentrate on high, fast, flicking motion.
• Finally play the exercise. Do NOT pay attention to intonation initially – avoid all sources of extra tension (like thinking you are wrong!).
• Make sure I am taking time to relax in between. To play more slowly, keep the finger moving quickly, but take extra time between strikes to make sure muscle tension has been released.

Second exercise is Cossmann trill exercises. T- expressed concern that I can hurt myself if I do them incorrectly, so I demonstrated one and how I am doing it. These are all performed on the A and D strings, so are a nice break from C and G – a little lighter tension. I chose the one where 1 and 2 alternate slowly on the D string while 3 and 4 alternate quickly (trill) on the A string. Comments:

• Think of 2 loden coats on 2 hangers, representing the arm weighted equally on fingers 1 and 3. This sets the frame. The trick is the independence of the other fingers.
• Instead of focusing on putting the 4th finger down, think of taking the 4th finger *off* the string. Lifting instead of pressing. If necessary, change the beaming so that the trill is starting on the upper note and therefore the first change that happens is that 4 comes off the string.
• Think first of accenting 1 and 3, then change to think of accenting the 4th finger coming off.
• Watch the thumb – no squeezing. T-’s comment – you’ll know you are doing it right when the endpin comes off the floor. There is a fair amount of force generated from the hand through the fingerboard and shoulders of the cello into the chest of the player, pushing the endpin forward on the floor.

Cello gym exercise #3: an etude by de Swert that T2- gave me ever so long ago, and which is great for working on speed. T-’s comment on first glance (this one was new to him) was that I need to be careful because this kind of exercise can lead to buildup of excess tension. Exactly! Precisely! I pulled it out again because I want to learn how to play it *without* building up tension.

• Look for places to relax, like downward scale fragments – peeling the banana.
• 4th finger trill sections – like in Cossman, think of taking the 4th finger away. Instead of down-down-down, think off-off-off
• Antonelli’s trill (?) – using the hand roll to facilitate the trill on the 4th finger
• tackle one part at a time, don’t play on and on. Stop before tension builds.
• Eventually, try it with the bowing variations. Viotti bowing, changing on weak beats, is especially a challenge.
• Put the notes in the right hand. Stare at the right hand while playing. May want to start initially with some pulsing in the right hand, like a fish swimming. Then just focus on the right hand instead of the left. (I have to say, that was the most amazing experience. Everything else totally relaxed while I was focusing on my bow hand. Even all that excess tension that creeps into my face. Another benefit to memorizing, I guess.)
• Give a little pulse to the first of the moving notes, and move the bow faster on the last set of four.

I started Duport #12 and Grutzmacher #9 to forcefeed a little E Major. It turns out that the latter etude, played considerably faster than I tried it this week, is really a continuation of these principles. Good job picking out things to work on this week (pats self on back). We talked about the Grutzmacher a bit:

• flicking finger
• move from position to position, not note-t0-note. Work gestures, add-a-note.
• Shifts: watch arm position. I had a lotta lotta excess movement with each extension, which appeared to be because I didn’t move my whole arm back enough into position before I extended. This needs some mirror work. Use moving with thumb up on fingerboard to assess optimal arm movement. (Next student helped with this by pulling my arm back during the shift. Pretty cool.)
• Think butterfly, easy hand motion, get the motion first and the notes second.
• This is another etude that benefited from memorizing a short section and concentrating on the right hand instead of the left.

T- also recommended I pull out my Starker and work on on of the arpeggio exercises that incorporates rolling hand motions. I didn’t have it with me, so will need to dig it out and post the details on my practice log.

We also briefly discussed the Rachmaninoff Vocalise that I was able to locate in the desired key of c# minor. Rose’s International version is in e minor. Nothing specific, so I now have three weeks until my next lesson to learn that.

First aside. I love these little demonstrations of difficult technical things that are beyond me and have nothing to do with what I am currently studying, and everything to do with what T- or another student is working on. Today’s demonstration was “chromatic arpeggios.” The impetus was the quick, scrubby bowstroke needed for playing a fast, downward chromatic scale, played on one finger, often found in concerti. The “arpeggio” has to do with the hand movement. If you divide the 12 notes in a chromatic scale into four note groupings, you find that your hand moves down a major third each group of four. Therefore, a good way to begin practicing is to target those notes as an arpeggio with the first finger. Then, get your bow moving in that fast detache as you wiggle your finger down the scale, aiming to hit those target arpeggio notes every fourth note. Eventually, the spacing sorts itself out (i.e. you adjust your velocity) to improve the intonation. Very cool.

Second detour. The liberties one of his other students takes with the opening of the Elgar concerto. One of his pet peeves. You must be able to play what the composer wrote in exactly the rhythm notated before you can then bend it.

Third diversion. Navarra. We were talking about playing relaxed, in response to my recent bout of severe muscle cramps while needing to play. T- commented specifically on Navarra, and pulled up a clip on YouTube to demonstrate how quiet his body was when playing, specifically Paganini Moses variations (or something). Yup, quiet. But with a frenetic wrist vibrato and always sharp. (T- can be a little snarky at times.) Observe how his hand is always in the frame. The arm moves as a unit even for half steps.

Flute Trio

First rehearsal in over a month. We are all finally over our colds, and today we are off to a fresh start. D- has redecorated, moving his music room upstairs in order to accommodate his new (baby) grand piano. That means a much better-sounding piano, plus lots of natural light – much easier for these old eyes to see in.

I was also playing a new cello today, the first time out for my English replacement cello in a chamber music setting. I was playing with the “whippy” bow I have out on trial. Cello was warm, bow was comfortable (though underpowered), strings are definitely too high, but most problems could be attributed to operator error. I haven’t practiced this music in too long.

C- did not have a new flute, being quite satisfied with the one she has. I learned that the parts of the flute are called the head joint, body, and foot joint. She has a “Japanese hybrid” flute, with a Yamaha body and a different Japanese brand (I can’t remember) head joint that she bought later. How discouraging to discover that a decent flute can be had for a quarter of the price of a good cello bow.

Today we played:

• Haydn Trio in D – all three movements. This was the piece we played together in the Fall chamber music weekend. A little rusty, but the 3d movement went better than it ever has.
• Martinu Trio – 3d movement. Lots of timing issues in the A section and recap. B section is a little slower, lower, and more manageable. I need to finger my part and practice the timing with the score and a recording (IOW – practice!)
• Beethoven Op 11 – 1st movement. I’m pretty sure this was the first time I have read through this. I kept moving through it, but a very little work on the fast runs would make this so much better. And well worth the effort, as I know I will have many opportunities to play it.

Next rehearsal: 3/26

Piano Lesson

This week I only practiced on Sunday and today, so today’s lesson went surprisingly well. Though, as I think about it, not very well. At least it wasn’t the disaster it might have been.

Chord progressions: we were supposed to have added A, and that is all I practiced, so when we did D instead I again found myself completely disoriented. I find that the chord patterns have become second nature when beginning I in root position, as we have been doing that one the longest. For the others, I will write out some dot motion patterns this week and practice moving from shape to shape instead of trying to figure out the chords. It’s worth a try.

The Entertainer: no problems with the syncopation, so 17 to the end was fine. My biggest problem is moving around from chord to chord, as always. Doing the chord analysis last week helped. For next week, focus on the transitions at the end of the 2nd phrase. Try playing the accompaniment in quarter notes instead of half notes, first blocking the chords.

Etude #12: Quarter notes shorter, but not staccato. Shape the phrases. Lift at the end of each phrase, even when moving from hand-to-hand. Tempo at least qu=100. What should Allegro Moderato be?

Clementi: didn’t get to it. Whew. S- is working on the second mvmt. I am making progress on the first, and can almost play through at 1/8=80 without breaking.

For next week: same pieces.

Cello Practice Log

	Fr 14	Sa 15	Su 16	Mo 17	Tu 18	We 19	Th 20
Scale/arp/thirds					C-Eb 10	Eb-F# 10
Etude: Lee #11						10
Chords: Dotz 36 & Dup 7
E Maj: Duport 12 & Grutz 9					10/10	10/10
Bach Suite 2							M,G 20
Saint Saens Concerto
Vocalise (Rachmananoff)							20
Martinu Trio
Trio:Marais, Stradella							30
Cello Gym (10 minutes)					10	10	10
Time					40	50	80

Core Elements

• Hiding the shift
• LH flexibility across MCPs

Total practice time: 2 hrs 50 min

Notes 3/18

Off to a slow start this week; in fact, I haven’t looked at lesson material yet. On Friday and Saturday I had about a 30 minute warm-up before Easter performances, but didn’t count that as practice time. Sunday and Monday I took as recovery days, after two long weeks of illness, performances, and extra rehearsals. Finally back to work today. I am going to try for an hour each of the next three days, which would actually equal my usual total time for my minimum 30 minutes/6 of 7 days.

Notes 3/22

I made my minimum, but not the 1 hr/day. I think I’m in a slump. A very prolonged slump.

String Quartet

I had a first meeting with a new quartet today. That’s an awful lot like a first date, and in this case, a blind one. I was invited by the violist, who plays in my orchestra, but knew nothing about the violinists.

Fortunately, we read sight-readable stuff, though I had some initial qualms when we started off with a Puccini Romance (Puccini wrote quartet’s?) with which I was totally unfamiliar, and in the cello-unfriendly key of E major. It continues to mystify me that I have spent a year and a half concentrating on the E major scale, and it does not translate in the least bit into being able to play music written in that key.

It all worked out in the end, I had a great time, and I’ve been invited back next month. This is a group of friends who gets together monthly to read. Minimal practicing required, but good sight-reading a must. Anyone can bring music, and whatever strikes the fancy of the majority gets played. Perfect.

So, because we are likely to read through lots of stuff (and I don’t have much quartet experience), I’m going to list what we play here.

Puccini – one Romance and three Minuets. I didn’t see an opus no., and wonder if these were arrangements from something else. Very pleasant, evocative of sunny days and green grass, a lovely image in contrast to the black snow outside. Excellent wedding gig music.

Mozart – k157 and k168. The former I’ve played with our “string orchestra.” The latter was completely unfamiliar, but lots of minor, more complex rhythms and interplay than I would have expected. Quite fun, especially the fugue.

Grieg – op 27, a new purchase by V2, so unfamiliar to all of us. Very, very dramatic, even thrilling, even when no one knows what they are playing yet. We kept stopping to say “Wow! This is really familiar!”, but it wasn’t, exactly. We read about 2/3 of the first mvmt. when we had to stop for time, and realized that the motif on our lips was actually Brahms. It would be interesting to sort this out some day.

Cello Practice Log

	Fr 7	Sa 8	Su 9	Mo 10	Tu 11	We 12	Th 13
Scale/arp/thirds	F-6
Etude: Lee #11	11,12-9					11-15
Chords: Dotz 36 and Dup 7
Bach Suite 2	S-15	60		M,G-30	M.G-25	M-20	M,G-30
Saint Saens Concerto
Martinu Trio
SGSM				30
Trio:Marais, Stradella
Arioso
Time	30	60		60	25	35	30

Core Elements

• Hiding the shift
• RH finger sensitivity

Total practice time: 4 hours

Notes 3/10

On Saturday I played all of Bach with a bow I have home on trial, and on Monday I practiced with my new cello. Nothing like new equipment to up the fun quotient!

Sunday I didn’t practice because I had a 3-hour SGSM rehearsal. I also have 3-hour rehearsals on WED and THU evening, a performance on FRI night and two performances on Sunday. Plus I still have lingering malaise from this URI. I expect practice to be pretty limited this week, but am still aiming for my 30 minute minimum – focusing on warming up and maybe a few technical points.

Notes 3/18

For the first time in awhile I achieved my practice goal. Too bad I had to cut it back so far to do it! I found that Bach is an excellent way to spend a half-hour. Will try to get back on track now that March performances are over.

Orchestra Dress Rehearsal

As dress rehearsals go, this one was pretty good. We got through the entire program and ran only a half hour over our usual rehearsal time, and though we still have a few hairy moments, most stops were for just a bit of polishing. We were also joined by a tympanist and a contrabassoonist – Maestro commented that it was like adding a super woofer to the orchestra. Brahms is so much easier when you can hear the heartbeat! Tomorrow we’ll also have a harpist. It’s always a bit nerve wracking to have new parts added at the concert.

Rehearsal began with 45 minutes or so on Katherine…. We had new parts last week, but no surprises this week. The composer asked for a few details to be brought out more, but seemed generally pleased. One of the more interesting moments came towards the end. There are a number of entries marked “n”, for niente, meaning that we are to enter with barely any sound and then usually swell up to piano over a measure or two. One of the later entries is managed by most of the woodwind section and I think a few brass. The composer asked how we could make that entry more quietly. Maestro replied that he should give it to the strings. I think there might have been a tiny, tiny bit of derision in his voice, but I’ll chalk that up to stress from the concert being so soon and no more time to make changes.

I wasn’t sure what to make of this piece at first, but the more we play it, the more I like it. I’ve finally had a chance to hear a recording of the piano version, and I do prefer the orchestration, with all of its “maybe this could be a little better” moments. Maybe that is just familiarity, but I’m looking forward to the premier tomorrow night. A couple more things to make things interesting: there was a big article in today’s paper about the composer and the impetus for writing this piece. I’ve written before that this was a response to the experience of his daughter’s murder by her mother. I won’t rehash the details, but this was a case where mother and child were overseas while Dad was in the US, struggling to have his concerns taken seriously, and we will be fundraising for Childhealth Advocacy International. On a practical level, that means we may have a larger audience than usual. And also, there’s a college hockey game that starts at nearly the same time as the concert, right across the street. I expect traffic to be… interesting. I will leave very early and hope to have lots of time to warm up.

For the last 1.5 hours or so we ran the Brahms, followed by Tchaikovsky. Not much more to say there. I love both of these pieces, and they’re just fun to play, even when I feel like I’m playing maybe 30% of the right notes. We have a useful division of labor at my desk. The principal has great tone and intonation, and I have great rhythm and concentration during rests. We have one last try at getting that stringendo at the end of the Brahms – no, we were still a half measure ahead tonight.