I learned this morning that my audition was successful. The good news is I’m in an orchestra now. The bad news is, I’m in an orchestra now. (Grin)

The city were I live has no amateur orchestra which means there is very little opportunity for an adult beginner to play with other musicians on a regular basis. My teacher founded a youth orchestra over 20 years ago and at his suggestion I auditioned for that organization this week. With just two and a half years of playing experience and having just completed book three of Suzuki, I have roughly the same musical experience level as a 7th or 8th grader might. However I bring an adult’s life experience and knowledge as well – something that has advantages and disadvantages. Obviously I can think critically and I am not afraid of asking questions. However I am used to being successful and accomplished so struggling with seemingly simple pieces is at times very frustrating. Learning to play the cello is not easy even as an adult. I can only imagine how difficult it must be at times for younger musicians.

The youth orchestra here is actually two orchestras. The Silver orchestra and the Gold orchestra. Here are the audition requirements for each:

Gold Orchestra

• Can play in 1st through 4th positions
• Acceptable playing postures for both arms/hands
• Play pieces equivalent to the beginning of Suzuki Cello Book 4
• Demonstrate good intonation, tone, and rhythm; Developing vibrato
• Your choice of two three-­octave major scales with 0-­3 sharps or flats in key signature
• Three‐octave C melodic minor scale
• Sight­‐reading at the audition
• Representative Literature: Bréval Sonata, either movement; Bach: Suite No. 1 in G, Minuets 1&2 or Gigue; or pieces technically equivalent to these

Silver Orchestra

• Can play in 1st and 4th positions
• Developing good playing postures for both arms/hands
• Demonstrate good intonation, tone, and rhythm
• Two‐octave C and F major scales
• Two‐octave D melodic minor scale
• Sight-­‐reading at the audition
• Representative Literature: Play pieces equivalent to the middle of Suzuki Cello Book 2

I’ve just completed book 3 in the Suzuki series, and I am working on the first movement of the Bréval Sonata in C Major. Regarding scales I’ve learned to play two-octaves for all the major scales and have started learning two-octave versions of the minor scales. Going into the audition I was expecting to be placed in the Silver orchestra for two reasons. First, I’ve never played in an orchestra before, and two, the literature the Gold Orchestra plays is challenging, including standard string literature that professionals play. My private concern regarding this opportunity (beyond being able to keep up musically) has been the appearance of an adult playing with young people. I do not want my participation to in any way detract from the experience these young musicians have worked so hard to achieve.

In an email David sent me this morning he explained that he and the conductor of the Silver orchestra feel an adult should play with the Gold orchestra. They want to avoid any uncomfortableness parents or children might feel with an adult in the midst of younger musicians. Therefore I’ll be in the back of the Gold Orchestra cello section starting in August. This summer, in addition to my normal lesson goals, David and I will be adding some orchestra preparation work - tuning to a 440Hz tone for example, playing and watching the conductor, et cetera.

I am excited at the prospect of playing in an ensemble. And I am very grateful to my teacher for affording me this opportunity.

This afternoon at 5:10 pm I had my first audition. I survived and my cello didn’t explode.

The weeks of preparation paid off. Even though I was nervous and felt a bit out of control I was able to play my scales in tune and then play my piece with only one and a half mistakes. I even remembered to give all the dotted half notes their full three beats. The last part of the audition was sight reading. I wish I could remember the name of the piece I had to play the first two lines from. I know that I played the accidentals correctly but I fear I butchered the rhythm.

My wife, Sibylle, who has taught piano for more than two decades has her students perform jumping jacks and then sit down to play to introduce them to what it might feel like performing. During my scales and piece I was reasonably self aware and was able to calm myself. The inner dialog that I have developed while practicing the piece was there and helped me play. However, when I got to the sight reading I felt out of breath and rushed. Only to be expected as I’ve never had to do sight reading on command before.

It’ll be a couple of days before I learn the results of the audition. I have a strong belief that I was successful, but either way I am glad for the experience. In much of the rest of my life I am accomplished at the things I do and therefore rarely experience anxiousness about a presentation or situation. Since I am still a rank beginner in the music world I am experiencing situations and emotions I haven’t had for a long time.

Best of all I am finding that everyone I meet through music is supportive and interested in what I am doing. Every one likes that I started as an adult and that I am taking advantage of all the opportunities available to me. Being included and accepted feels absolutely wonderful.

Later today I’ll be auditioning for a spot in a local amateur orchestra. The requirements are that I play 2 two-octave scales, a piece of music, and to perform some sight reading. All in a five minute audition. The two scales I’m performing are F: and d: Melodic, and my audition piece is Allegro Moderato by J. S. Bach. It’s the last piece in book three of the Suzuki Cello books.

The two videos below were made at the start of my practice session last night. I had only played one C: scale as warm up before making these videos. The two were made back-to-back with only a few seconds rest in between takes.

Wish me luck.

My lesson was on Saturday this week as David had a conflict on Monday. It was a very good lesson which left me feeling wonderful the rest of the day.

Audition

We started with audition prep. My audition time is tomorrow, May 15th at 5:10 pm. I played d: Melodic and then F:. As the last note of the F: scale was fading away David said, “I have no complaints about those. Your intonation was very good.” I thanked him and then played Allegro Moderato. It sounded a little scratchy to me in places but again, as the last note was ringing David said, “That’s the best you’ve every played that for me.” He went on to say that there was no need for “mock audition” that morning, that I was ready for Tuesday.

Bréval Sonata in C: Major

We spent most of the rest of the lesson working on the Bréval Sonata. The exposition section of the first movement is coming along nicely. The various chunks of it are all good, and I’m starting to tie those chunks together now. We worked on the development section, playing together slowly. Lots of pause button work to prepare for the next note. Several times he stressed that I should not “perform” this section yet, rather I should practice small windows, sometimes just a few notes in length, to get the basic structure down. I know that I am a completionist and I want to play the whole thing. I’m learning to be content with completing a couple of measures instead.

Schröder 32

I have been ignoring this piece to spend time on the Allegro. After Tuesday’s audition is over I’ll devote more time to this étude.

Lee Étude review

In the brochure for the Cedar Vista Cello camp David is again hosting this summer it mentioned the Lee Études. On my own I have gotten out my Lee book and started reviewing the pieces from the beginning. Some come back almost immediately while others are once again mysteries. I’ve been spending a few minutes each practice session playing or working on the first dozen or so of these pieces. It gives me a nice ego boost to be able to return to something I haven’t played in more than a year and rapidly relearn it. It helps me to see that my technique and ability have grown and are continuing to grow.

With my audition slated for next week my lesson yesterday was focused largely on Allegro Moderato. We also spent a little time on my current Schröder étude, and worked on the Bréval Sonata.

Allegro Moderato

We ran a mock audition yesterday, with David timing how long it took for me to play both scales, my audition piece, and perform a line of sigh reading. As is always the case when the performance “counts” I made some mistakes in my presentation of Allegro Moderato, and in two cases had to back up a measure to regain my footing. There is something about performing that is different mentally from practicing or playing in a lesson.

My mock audition time was 4 minutes and 40 seconds. David said that with nearly 80 people auditioning he is going to limit each audition to something like 4 minutes, with an extra minute passing time while one player exits and the next enters. It is likely that I’ll be asked to stop playing before reaching the end of my piece. I hugely appreciate knowing this going into the audition. Being stopped isn’t a critical comment on my playing, it’s just a necessity of the limited time.

My intonation while playing scales continues to get better and better. I can reliably start a scale like F: without having to hunt for the initial scale degree. My tone is nice and even across all the notes through both octaves. I like that the audition will start with scales. Scales are how I warm up, how I re-center myself tonally with the cello.

My goal this week is to play my scales and piece as a unit as many times as possible. I plan on using the video camera to record myself as that adds an element of stress. Also, I’m going to “borrow” some of Sibylle’s piano student’s as impromptu audiences. Sibylle also suggests doing jumping jacks or running in place to elevate the respiration and heart rates just before playing.

I’m giving myself plenty of time the day of the audition to warm up and play prior to the audition. For my last recital I decided not to play through my entire piece the day of the performance prior to performing. The thought was you don’t want to have your best performance of the day be in the practice room. However my nervousness when it came time to perform did impact my playing. For the audition I plan on playing everything several times just prior to my time slot. Hopefully I can shed some performance anxiety that way.

And I do have one more lesson prior to the audition to fine tune things with David.

Schröder 32

Schröder 32 is all about bow control and slurs. The piece isn’t terribly exciting, but it is good for working on tone quality over the length of the bow stroke. Last week David asked me to just work on the first 4 lines, this week he decided that I should go ahead and practice the entire étude.

Bréval Sonata in C Major

I’ve managed to play through the exposition portion of the sonata. David explained a little bit about ”sonata allegro form yesterday. The first movement opens with an exposition that introduces the themes for the piece. This is followed by a development section where the themes are explored a bit. And the movement ends with a recapitulation that ties it all together.

The exposition is usually repeated meaning that you get more musical bang for your practice buck. David is pleased with my progress on this section of the piece. I told him that I can hear it in my head which makes it considerable easier to play. Many of my pieces I can’t hear in my head as easily which makes them harder to play. We worked on the next few lines together, and he wants me to continue working on the development portion of the piece this week.

My personal goal is to have the 1st movement of this piece ready for recital by mid-June. This may be a very ambitious goal. Only time and practice will tell.

Another week, another good lesson. Even though I had a horrible week of practice my lesson this week was a good one.

I know that some times we have a slump, a period where nothing seems to work and everything seems far harder than it should. The week leading up to my lesson was just such a week, at least cello-wise. Every time I sat down to practice my audition piece it seemed I found a new way to make a mistake. Parts of the piece that I had down cold were suddenly unplayable. It was extremely frustrating. Several days I cut my normal 45-60 minute practice down to just a few minutes as I was so unhappy with my playing.

In spite of a week of poor practice I had a good lesson. I’m fortunate that I have a good relationship with my teacher and that he is patient and understanding.

Schröder

I’ve completed #31 and moved on to #32. As he was assigning me “just the first four lines” of #32 David whispered loudly to me, “it’s boring”. And it is. Good bowing exercise but not at all interesting musically.

Suzuki

I continue to work on the Bréval Sonata that starts book 4. The piece is full of little technical challenges. If Allegro Moderato at the end of book 3 was a step up, the Bréval is a huge step up again. Even leaving out the grace notes and trills there are passages in this which are very challenging. In my lesson David listens to what I’ve got and then we identify the problem spots and develop little mini-études to focus on the issue. Some lines of these piece are one window of practice after another. This week’s assignment are the three sets of triplets on the first page. The measure just before each set of triplets is slightly different (and in one case a challenge of its own) and so my mini-études for the week are the 4 notes leading into each set of triplets and the first 4 notes of the triplet series.

My next recital opportunity will be the third week of June and I hope that the first movement of the Bréval Sonata is ready for presentation by then.

Audition

For the audition in two weeks I’ll be playing an F: scale and the d: Melodic scale, both two-octaves. I played them for David at my lesson and both were very good. “Some of the best intonation you’ve ever had playing a scale.” My audition piece will be Allegro Moderato, and I’ll also have to play something via sight reading.

The Allegro is coming along nicely even with a week of horrible practice. David and I played through it together on Monday and it sounded pretty good. There are still some intonation problems on the second page, along with some fumbling of the shifts. Since we are all taught to read from top to bottom and from left to right we tend to practice our music from start to finish. By the time we get to the end of piece we will have played the beginning of the piece many many times. With that in mind, David instructed me to play the second page of the Allegro 10 times for every one time I play the first page this week.

Both Monday evening and last night my practice was back to normal, without the frustration I had last week. I’m still not sure what made things so wonky last week, but I’m glad it has passed.

I just backed my first Kickstarter project. Kickstarter is crowd-sourced funding for projects. Someone has a great idea but needs funding to realize it, so they make a short video about their idea, set a funding goal and create a Kickstarter project. Any one can back the project by pledging money (as little as $1). When the funding period (usually 30 or 60 days) is up, if the project has met their funding goal through the pledges the money is collected and given to the project owner. If the funding level isn’t reached no money exchanges hands.

The project I’ve backed is a series of cello technique videos by Abigail McHugh-Grifa. Ms. McHugh-Grifa is a doctoral student at Eastman School of Music in Rochester NY. She already has a large collection of excellent repertoire videos on YouTube and this project will allow her to create a companion set of technique videos. I have made excellent use of several of her videos covering Suzuki literature (I’m currently learning the Bréval Sonata and preparing Allegro Moderato for an audition next month) and I am looking forward to exploring her technique videos.

Here’s her Cello Technique Videos Kickstarter project page.

I hope this project is quickly and completely funded so that we can all benefit from Ms. McHugh-Grifa’s excellent videos.

Yesterday’s lesson was a good one. I’ve completed La Cinquataine, leaving just Allegro Moderato to complete in book 3. Graduating to book 4 is a big step up – the pieces are longer and more involved. I also made excellent progress on my current Schröder étude, #31. And I am making good progress preparing for my audition in three weeks.

Suzuki

We spent most of my lesson working on Allegro Moderato. I’m able to play it with his accompaniment reliably now - I don’t get lost listening to his cello. Counting is still a minor issue. The 7 3/4 measures of rest to start the piece is tricky. Since the Suzuki books don’t show the accompaniment score, you have no indication when your part starts. David is good about slowing briefly as he plays the lead into my start, but I still miss it some of the time. About three-quarters of the way through the piece there is a sustained set of whole notes, almost four measures worth. David would like me to play these as trills. In my practice at home I alternate between playing them as whole notes and as trills. It is easier to count the pulse playing whole notes than it is playing trills. During our first run through yesterday I played the whole note version and had my timing perfect. On the subsequent run throughs I played trills and had no success ending on time.

The other aspect I need to focus on this week, in addition to speeding up the tempo, is intonation, particularly when there is a shift involved. On the whole my intonation is much better but shifts tend to result is poorer intonation. I’m also working on adding in dynamics. It always surprises me how adding just one more layer to what I am already comfortable doing alters the whole piece. I can play something rhythmically and tonally correct but adding dynamics often reduces the piece to a stumbling mess. I think of it as juggling. Juggling two or three objects is relatively easy, a 5 or 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. Juggling four objects is a 9 on that scale. Juggling five objects is a 32. Dynamics (or whatever you add last to a piece) is that fifth object.

While I was assigned La Cinquataine last week he signed off on it this week without listening to it. I’ve been working on dynamics for that piece too. I like the piece and will try to keep playing it on my own.

Schröder

Schröder étude 31 is coming along very nicely. This piece keeps modulating the key, which means there are lots of accidentals in the score. Paying attention to those is key to playing this correctly. As with the Lee Études before these I am not penciling in finger numbers. My note reading ability has improved considerably, but the addition of unexpected accidentals throws me once in a while.

Also, the last line of the piece has an inaccurate finger number which really threw me. I had penciled in a question mark about it. David said it is a mistake and crossed out the number. Sometimes odd fingering is there for a reason and sometimes it’s a typo.

Audition

In three weeks time I’ll be auditioning for a place in a pre-college orchestra. Even though I’ll be 51 years old I’m a pre-college music student as I’m only 2 1/2 years old on the cello. For my audition I’ll be playing three scales, C:, F:, and d: melodic. All three are in good shape now. When I practice them I alternate the tempo or add slurs or even play them backwards. My goal is to know these scales inside and out before walking into the audition. I am assuming that I’ll start the audition with the scales and having them as perfect as can be will help to settle my nerves a bit.

I’m also hoping to have my piece, Allegro Moderato down cold by then too. The goal is to play it faster. The performance tempo recorded in the book is half note at 88. I’m currently playing quarter note at 90, or about half as fast as needed. I need to work on relaxing so I can play faster. The stress of trying to keep up with the metronome causes me to tense up, which makes me slower, which makes keeping up harder, which makes me tighten even more, and so on.

There is also a sight reading requirement for the audition. This is the part that scares me the most. However, I think I’ve figured out a way to practice sight reading for the audition. I’ve got an entire book of études (Schröder) that I’ve barely started. Each night I’m going to pick one at random and playing it. Turn to a page, take 15 seconds to glance at the piece and then go. I don’t know if it will work, but it seems like a good approach.

Another week, and another good lesson. We played scales, worked on my audition piece, and set next week as the goal to finish La Cinquataine.

Scales

One of the audition requirements is playing scales. I’m to be prepared to play 2-octave versions of C:, F:, and d: Melodic. Yesterday at my lesson, while David was out of the room, I warmed up by playing those scales. I use scales to warm up at home as it helps me to get my intonation centered again. When David returned to the room he questioned my Melodic minor scale and so I played it for him again. Turns out I’ve been playing it wrong. I had it in my head that it was a combination of the natural minor (ascending) and harmonic minor (descending). It’s not. We corrected my errors. Both the C: and F: scales are sounding good.

I actually think my practice is better when I start with a scale. Hearing the notes in order and with (hopefully) proper tone improves all of my playing. I’ve even started playing the scale for the key a piece is in just before practicing that piece. If the key can be thought of as the color palette available for a piece, then playing the scale is testing all the colors on a scrap of paper before starting just to see what they are.

Allegro Moderato

I explained to David that I have been practicing Allegro Moderato with the metronome this week. For the audition I need to be able to play it faster. The piece is in 2/2 time but I’ve been setting the metronome to count 4 beats per measure as it is easier to count the eighth notes that way. I started at 69 and when I could play the entire piece I sped things up to 72.

Yesterday in my lesson I was able to play the entire piece, keeping the correct tempo throughout, without a metronome beeping in the background. Very satisfying. The next goal is to speed things up. I was able in the lesson to play about a 1/3rd of the piece is what we determined was 108! Faster is possible, it just takes slow practice. As we used to say in the dojo, what you want learn fast you practice slow.

We also focused on a couple of the trickier measures - those with shifts in them. David’s practice technique for a shift is to play just the two notes comprising the shift. First the high note, then the low one, then the low one again, and then the high one. And repeat. After 5 repetitions of high-low-low-high, then you play the entire measure. It made a noticeable difference in just a few minutes.

La Cinquataine

This piece has been languishing on my weekly practice sheet for a long time now. I play through it but I don’t really practice it. Consequently my playing it in a lesson is erratic. Sometimes good, often times not so good. I need to set aside time in each practice this week to really focus on this piece. Lots of low-high-high-low or high-low-low-high work as the piece is full of shifts. I also need to work on relaxing my right shoulder and arm as a play through this piece. It’s long enough that I begin to feel a slight lactic acid burn by the end of the last repeat. When I started cello if you had told me that I would find it physically demanding to play for several minutes nonstop I’m not sure I would have believed you. It is demanding and anything you can do to relax and save energy during a performance is important.

Bréval Sonata in C Major

David had asked me to start working on the first 2 or 3 lines of the Bréval Sonata which starts book 4 a couple of weeks ago. We took some time to review what I had done yesterday. At his instruction I am ignoring all trills and grace notes to start. I’m able to play through about the first 3 or 3 1/2 lines of the piece fairly smoothly now. He was pleased that I was able to play the Scottish Snaps midway through the second line correctly. I told him that Sibylle helped me sort out the rhythm there and that her help really paid off. He wants me to continue on with the next few lines of the piece now.

Schröder

We didn’t get to my new Schröder piece (#31) this week. Which is just as well. I’m able to fumble through the whole thing, but it is still very mechanical and rough. Hopefully another week will start to smooth it out some.

My lesson this week was good. We worked on my current nemesis piece, Schröder #27, and spent a lot of time on Allegro Moderato.

Schröder

The goal with this étude has been to play it faster. My technical skill level allows me to play up to a certain tempo and then no faster. At least no faster without the wheels coming off. I spent time this past week working on smaller passages of the piece, adding a note or two when I had the passage working. I also worked on using a shorter bow stroke. The shorter bow stroke really speeds things up. A couple of times I was astonished at how much faster I could play a measure or three. Sustaining faster playing will require more effort on my part. When I first learned to juggle I could keep going only for a few exchanges, as my skill grew I could sustain the juggle longer. Playing fast(er) falls into the same category. I can do it for a while but then I lose my concentration or momentum or something and it all falls apart.

David was satisfied with the improvement I’ve shown on this piece and so we set it aside. It isn’t by any means done, but I have gleaned from it all I can for now. For next week he wants me to start #32, which on the surface is much less imposing than #27.

Suzuki

We spent most of my lesson working on Allegro Moderato. This is the graduation piece from Suzuki book 3, and its the first piece that occurs in performance literature. I like the piece musically and my progress with it has been good. In the middle of May I’ll be auditioning for a local orchestra and he thinks this should be my audition piece. We played through it together and for the first time ever I wasn’t thrown by his cello voice against mine. Usually when he accompanies me I get lost as I listen to what he is playing. This week I was able to concentrate on my own playing while keeping an awareness of his playing. Very cool.

I also need to prepare three scales for the audition: C:, F:, and d: melodic. I know all three, I just need to polish the intonation and presentation of them. The final part of the audition is sight reading. This is scary for me as I haven’t done very much of it at all. I’m thinking about downloading samples of cello pieces from the Internet to use as sight reading practice fodder.