Practice

Yes, I’m back. Coming back. Slowly.

Fri – 32 min
Sat – 40 min
Sun – off
Mon – 40 min
Tue – 45 min

I plan to stick at 45 min with 1 or 2 days off this week, then add a second daily session next week, beginning with 10 minutes and building up to 45 in 5 minute increments. Right now I’m not practicing music so much as practicing playing, checking in with my body nearly continuously, keeping all excess tension at bay. I have to say, that part of things is going exceptionally well; the long break seemed to give me time to incorporate those physical habits I worked so hard to develop last year.

I must be channeling Emily’s muse, because I found I am already following her prescription for coming back after a break. My scale of choice is E Major, and I am alternating playing pieces I worked on 2 or 3 years ago with things I might like to play this year. I’m working on the old pieces in short bits as she describes, but just hopscotching around the new ones, testing out the complications without actually doing any work.

The most important things at this stage of “recovery” are to maintain my excitement at playing again, build up my finger and thumb calluses, and not aggravate any of my old overuse injuries. There’s plenty of time for “work” later this year.

Some things I’ve done this week:

• Lee #1 and 2 (old) and #13 (new)
• Bach 2nd suite Prelude and Courante (old) and 3d suite Prelude (new)
• Piatti book 1 D and A etudes and book 2 E and c etudes (new)
• Cello 1 part in Bach, Klengel, and Goltermann cello quartets (new)

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Cello Practice Log

	Fr 8	Sa 9	Su 10	Mo 11	Tu 12	We 13	Th 14
Scale: E Major		F-15		F-30		F-30	M-15
Etude: Lee #10 and 11	B-30	11-15			B-30	11-15	B-15
Chords: Dotz 36 and Dup 7					36-15
Bach Suite 2	M1-30	M1b-15			M-30		M1-15
Saint Saens Concerto	I-30	I-30			I-45		I-15
Martinu Trio		3-15
Brahms Sym 1	4B-10	4B-15
Tchaik R&J	20	QR-15
Trio: Marais, Bezalaire

Core elements:

• fast, alternating string crossings, independent arm and wrist
• bow distribution
• diminuendo by slowing speed instead of decreasing pressure
• “just enough” left hand finger pressure

Total practice time: 8.25 hours

Practice Notes 2/15: I can’t think of much to say. I reached the two hour mark on 3 of 7 days, and took one day completely off. I did not play in church this Sunday, so really did take the day completely off. Maybe I was tired from several long practice days in a row? On Monday I needed to spend more time on piano (cramming <g>) and Wednesday I had a medical procedure that took up a chunk of time. And finally, on Thursday I limited myself to an hour because I had 4 scheduled hours of playing, between lesson and rehearsals.

Overall, I felt like the week was productive. I think 10 hours in a week is a reasonable goal, but that does mean at least 4 two-hour days, with one day off and one hour on each of two others. We’ll see how I do this week.

Cello Practice Log

	Fr 1	Sa 2	Su 3	Mo 4	Tu 5	We 6	Th 7
Scale: E Major		16			30	30	30
Etude: Lee #9 and 10		10-30					10-17
Chords: Dotz 36 and Dup 7
Bach Suite 2	C-30				Cb-30	C-30	C-13
Saint Saens Concerto
Martinu Trio					I-39
Brahms Sym 1					IK-10	I-30
Tchaik R&J	14				11	30

Note: This is the same practice grid I used last week. (Cello lesson this week was canceled due to my illness.)

Scale: 4 octave with arpeggios in 3 fingerings and thirds in double stops. Focus on shifts in upper two octaves, and bowing “in the groove” (using mirror).

Core elements:

• vibrato motor is back of hand in upper positions
• to maintain arm weight on up bow, think of elbow seeking side of cello
• keep left elbow high(er) to facilitate shift over the shoulders

Practice Notes 2/8

Total practice time: 6.5 hours

I was again unsuccessful in achieving my goal of 20 minutes/day due to illness. But after taking two whole days off, I decided to try the approach of blocking off total practice time for the day in the morning, before doing anything else if possible.  I have developed the bad habit of spreading practice time throughout the day, which by itself is not a bad thing, but because I had no structure otherwise more often than not I didn’t actually do the practice later that I thought I might do earlier.

That worked very well for the two days I did it. It took three hours the first day and 2.5 the second to practice for 2 hours and allow for sufficient break time. Pretty stupid to just jump into that, though, just regaining strength after being sick for nearly two weeks and skipping two days of practice. But though my fingertips were quite sore, the rest of me did fine. Those Alexander Technique lessons are paying off.

Today I again practiced 2 hours over 3, needing a little more rest time, and coddling my raw fingertips. Nothing like pain to remind me that usually I press the strings down too hard, and to experiment with how little pressure I actually need to make the sound that I want. It was a surprisingly good practice: balanced, relaxed, and productive. I think I’ll try to do more of that this coming week.