Schröder
The 6/8 time étude number 20 went well. David said he won’t need to hear it again but he suggested that I continue to review it. As it was considerably harder to master (and I’m not convinced I’ve mastered it yet) than the previous Schröder études, I will take his suggestion to heart and continue to practice this piece for the time being.

Suzuki
Both La Cinquantaine and Allegro Moderato were much improved this week. The intonation drills that David had me work on helped. There are two problems I display with intonation. First, when playing in extended position, I tend to curl my 1st finger (forefinger). This has the effect of making the 1st finger note sharp. The second issue comes from shifting. I tend to relax my hand, thus losing the spacing between my fingers, during a shift. This is particularly troublesome when shifting back to first position. I need to focus on my hand shape and on moving my thumb when I shift.

Minuet No. 3
We spent some time on the second page of my competition piece. There were several places where my “curled finger extension” was causing intonation gaffes. By slowing down and really stretching my 1st finger back I hit the right tone. David watched my practice video and was pleased with where I’m at. I need to play it bit faster. The competition is now just a week from Saturday, so I’ll be focusing on this piece a lot in my daily practice session. I’m also doing two scales for the competition so I have been practicing F: and A: daily. I need to play the scales with the tuner on to double check my intonation.

I am pleased with where I am with these piece, given that I have 10 more days to polish it before the competition. Obviously there are lots of intonation mistakes I need to correct, and some rhythmic issues, particularly at the end of the Minuet 2 section of the piece.

Cello Talks

David Finckel, who will leave the Emerson String Quartet at the end of the 2012-2013 season to pursue individual endeavors, recorded 100 short videos covering all manner of cello-y things. Some are very basic – what to carry in your bag – while others explore very advanced techniques and ideas – comparing string vibrato to operatic singing. I’ve returned to some of these multiple times as my own knowledge and ability as increased, each time I glean a little bit more.

Cello Talks

String Videos

Andrei Pricope of Park Ridge Strings, has recorded many of the Suzuki string pieces, both on cello and violin. There’s no instruction per se here, but they are good to watch when you are trying to sort out what your newly assigned piece is supposed to sound like.

String Videos

Abigail McHugh

Abigail McHugh, a doctoral student at the Eastman School of Music, has recorded a number of excellent videos that explore many of the Suzuki pieces in depth. Her energetic approach and infectious enthusiasm make these videos as much fun to watch as to learn from.

Abigail McHugh

The competition requires a scale or two be played for warmup and then a solo piece of not more than 5 minutes duration. On my own I’ve decided to perform the eighth grade scales, F: and A:, both two octaves. And for my competition piece I’m going to play Minuet No 3 from Suzuki volume 3. This was my recital piece from December and it’s one I like. David said the piece should be one I already know completely. For a competition, he said, you don’t want to be learning it up until the last minute. Sibylle, my wife who has taught piano for a quarter century, added that you want it to be something you really like since you’ll be playing it, practicing it, living it, and breathing it until the competition.

In the two weeks since I learned of the competition I’ve regained my memorization of the piece. Now I’m ready to start truly practicing it. My strategy, if you can call it that, is two-fold. First I need to tear the piece apart measure by measure and truly cement my understanding of the piece. Today I can play it by knowing the flow of it. My arms and hands have memorized the sequence of movements necessary to play it, but I don’t truly know the piece. When I stumble I can’t pick up at that note, or even the next downbeat - I have to return to the start of that section to regain my place.

The act of imagining to play for others drastically alters my ability to play. In setting up to play together last night I managed to spook myself enough that it was hard to start the piece – stage fright in the comfort of my own home. Last December I discovered that videoing myself made playing tremendously harder. I need to overcome this fright in order to play with confidence. Tearing the piece down into individual measures and really focusing on them until I know them backwards and forwards will go a long way toward eliminating this nervousness. One idea I have for overcoming my nervousness at the though of others watching me is to set up the video camera for every practice (maybe not even turn it on at first). That way over time the presence of watchers will fade.

The second objective is to learn to play with piano accompaniment. Since Sibylle is a pianist and since we have pianos I can practice with accompaniment on a daily basis. Last night was the first time we tried it together and it was a learning experience. When David accompanies me on his cello it is very hard to hear myself. Both instruments have the same tonal range, and I get lost. With a piano it is far easier to hear myself, I can almost ignore the piano or treat it like a sophisticated metronome. Like most beginning music students I tend to be somewhat fluid about rhythm and tempo and this become very apparent when you play with someone else. I’m learning how to hear the extra notes the accompaniment plays during my long notes, and how to tell when it’s my turn to play something new.

Hopefully the next two weeks will give me enough time to build my confidence so that the 3rd goes smoothly. Only time will tell.

Schröder
Étude number 20 is considerably more difficulty that its predecessors. The piece is written in 6/8 time, and is filled with a three-note rhythmic pattern that is not easy to play: a dotted-eighth note, followed by a sixteenth, followed by an eighth note. Last week I focused on just getting the rhythm down and managed to play the first line reasonably well. It went fairly well in my lesson this afternoon. The assignment for next week is to complete the piece.

Suzuki
La Cinquantaine has improved a lot in the past couple of weeks. Several of the shifts still give me fits and my intonation suffers as a result. David devised a couple of rote exercises for me to practice that will reenforce the shifts. And he wants me to use the drone CD with the rote drills to help train my ear. Allegro Moderato is also progressing nicely. David explained that this piece really is a graduation to the next level in my cello playing. It exists in the “adult” repertoire. We devised a couple of rote drills for difficult passages in this piece as well.

Minuet No 3
I continue to work on my competition piece. It’s completely memorized now, which means I can focus more on intonation and articulation as I’m not busy reading along in the score. This week’s goal is to start playing with accompaniment. There are really two goals hidden in the accompaniment. First I need to get used to playing with another instrument and second I need to learn to come in on the down beat following longer notes. I tend to pause (i.e., add a micro-rest) after longer notes. The competition is two weeks from Saturday.

The cello was probably around $1700 new. The case is a very nicely padded, soft-sided model complete with shoulder straps and wheels. The bow is made from carbon fiber. The whole package has been great for me but ever since playing on a borrowed bow for a week while mine was being re-haired, I have been thinking about getting a second bow. The borrowed bow was a very expensive pernambuco wood model, and it improved the overall sound of my cello tremendously.

I told my teacher a few weeks ago that I was thinking about getting a new bow. His immediate recommendation was to get the middle model of the CodaBow series, the Diamond SX. This model runs about $750. After sending an email to the CodaBow people I learned that the nearest authorized dealer was in Kansas City, so last Friday while I was in town to get my new iPhone I stopped at the CodeBow store and also at my favorite string store, KC Strings. I wasn’t at all impressed with the authorized dealer and since I wasn’t given a chance to actually play a CodaBow I have no real way to judge it. I’ll need to find a different dealer and make another trip to play one.

KC Strings had an entire box of wooden bows that they let me sample. They ranged in price from $650 to $980. I had thought ahead enough to bring my current bow so I could have some comparison. I didn’t have my cello as my errands that day would have left in in the car exposed to potential extremes in heat and cold. I started out by playing several scales and a couple pieces I know by heart on their cello with my bow. Once I had a feeling for the cello and strings I started sampling the new bows. Two stood out from the others although I’m not sure I can entirely put into words what made them stand out.

On my cello with my bow it is very easy to get a rather “blatty” sound on the A string. Both of the wooden bows that I like had less of the blatty sound, and the more expensive one actually made it hard to get the blatty sound. Both of the wooden bows felt springier. I was able to play spiccato notes very easily.

In comparing my bow to the wooden ones I noticed that the curve of the stick, particularly near the tip, is more pronounced. I also noticed that when the hair was tight enough to not touch the stick while playing the C string that the hair was much closer to the stick overall on the wooden bows than on my carbon fiber one. The screw knob used for adjusting the frog was very tight on some of the wooden bows. I assume the screw would gradually loosen over time, but I set aside several bows that seemed far tighter than others.

While KC Strings was ready to send both of my favorites home with me on approval, I wasn’t prepared to make a selection and purchase so quickly. I had set out to play a new composite bow and ended up playing several wooden bows. I’ll have to make another trip with my cello to try the bows again on my instrument to see what I think. And I’ll have to travel to Wichita to the authorized CodaBow dealer there to try one.

One final note, I compared my current carbon fiber bow to the selection of carbon fiber bows on display at KC Strings and found what appeared to be an identical match. The matching bow was priced at $160. Stepping up to a $750 bow will be a large step up.

Bridge adjustment

Recently I started keeping my cello in the corner of the room behind where I practice. I used to keep it in the closet as protection against curious cats and the vagaries of room temperature. I like having it out in the room where it can be seen and where all I need to do to play is sit down and start. Having it out where I can see it from the audience viewpoint (as opposed to my normal player’s viewpoint) I noticed that the bridge was slightly crooked. This is a natural byproduct of tuning. I’ve never adjusted my bridge on my own before so I had David show me how at my lesson. It doesn’t seem difficult to do so I’m looking forward to the next time my bridge is off kilter to try it myself.

Minuet No 3

We started the lesson by working on the “minuet 2” portion of Minuet No 3. My intonation was not very good and consequently we spent a lot of time repeating measures to get the correct notes. I also need to practice against an accompaniment – a lot. Playing solo it’s easy to hear myself and know where I’m at. Playing with another cello is surprisingly hard – mostly since the other instrument is in the same tonal range as mine. At the competition in March I’ll be accompanied by a piano, which should help tonally but I still need to get used to having someone else making music with me. I’ve ordered the piano accompaniment volumes for both Suzuki 3 and Suzuki 4.

Schröder

I finished études 9 and 10 from the Schröder book and David assigned number 20 next. We are skipping over the Lee études as I had all of them in the Lee book I just completed. Number 20 is in 6/8 time and employs what is apparently a common 6/8 time rhythm construction: a dotted eighth note followed by a sixteenth note followed by an eighth note. David suggested the word “wonderful” as a mnemonic the get the rhythm right. Of course you have to stretch the first syllable so that you say “wooon-der-ful” for this trick to work. The piece is full of dotted-eighth-sixteenth-eighth note combinations so I’ll get plenty of practice on this rhythm.

Suzuki

I continue to work on La Cinquantaine and Allegro Moderato. The first page of each is finally starting to come together and we started working on each piece’s second page. As with Minute No 3 I need to really focus on intonation, particularly following shifts. Upward shifts are better, i.e., more accurate, than downward shifts. In this case upward means to a higher pitch (toward the bridge). It seems when I shift toward the scroll my hand collapses.

Lee #40
This is the final étude in the Lee book and easily the most difficult. The piece alternates between scales and double stops, with a couple of triple stops and one quadruple stop thrown in for good measure. I’ve gotten far enough along to be able to play each section of the piece, and can more or less play the sections one after another. David feels I’ve gotten the value of the étude even though it isn’t at all performance ready.

I’m now “done” with the Lee études for now. On my own I’ll cycle back through the entire book just so I don’t completely lose these pieces.

Schröder
I’ve completed the first 8 of these études using the metronome. David listened to numbers 5 and 7 yesterday and after hearing number 5 said he was “shocked” and that “he had nothing to say about it”. The metronome usage has paid off hugely as my rhythm was spot on for once.

This week I’m moving on to numbers 9 and 10, still with the metronome.

Suzuki
The assignment from last week was to work on the first page of both La Cinquantaine and Allegro Moderato. La Cinq is filled with shifts and I am slowly getting better at these. The opening is good, but the repeated section on the first page needs some more work.

We played through the top half of the second page together and he would like me to start that by the end of the week.

The Allegro is easier (at least on the first page) to play that La Cinq. I’ve made good progress with it. Toward the bottom of the first page there are some tricky shifts combined with extensions, what David refers to as his “special measures”. We worked on those together, and I will need to spend a lot of time on those to make the movements of my left hand natural and fluid.

String Festival
The first weekend in March the ASTA students at KSU host a string festival open to junior high students (6th, 7th, and 8th grade). The goal is to expose them to competition, how to present a piece, play with accompaniment, and get an evaluation. This is in preparation for the regional and state competitions later in the spring. David asked me if I would like to participate as an adult beginner and I said yes.

I’ll be reprising my Minuet No 3 recital piece from December. I already know this piece rather well, I had it memorized just a month or so ago, and I like it. My goal this week is to recover the memorization and purchase a copy of the piano accompaniment. I want to apply my new found confidence in using the metronome to my practice on this piece for the next month. Playing with a piano will largely be a new experience and having confidence in my tempo will only help.

One of the motivating things that keeps weekend duffers coming back through all the frustrations is the once-in-a-while perfect shot. You step up to the ball and make the seemingly the same set of motions you always make and instead of the ball going off into the lake or trees it flies straight and long and true and lands perfectly where you wanted it. One good shot keeps you coming back for weeks.

Now, I’m not saying that leaning to play the cello is like playing golf. Yes there are frustrations, especially as an otherwise accomplished adult, but the rewards are greater. Visible and aural progress happens and things that used to be frustrating fade away. Some are replaced by new frustrations, but by and large you progress.

Still it is wonderful to get unexpected praise during your lesson. Two weeks ago I started in the Schröder étude book and I deliberately forced myself to use the metronome with each and every piece right from the start. Today in my lesson I played numbers 5 and 7 for David. After finishing number five, during which he wandered around the studio listening, he turned to me and said, “I’m shocked! I have absolutely nothing to say about that piece.”

Music to my ears.

I prompty bought the new book and started in on my own. For the past two weeks I’ve been playing the first 9 pieces using my metronome. Starting at 60 bpm and gradually working my way up to 120 bpm. Today at my lesson David was pleased with my initiative and he liked the idea of using these pieces as metronome practice too.

Schröder
My assignment is to play in rotaion the first 9 études using the metronome and drones. Since these are relatively simple pieces I have enough focus left over after rhythm and notes to work on intonation and tempo.

Lee
Continue working on #40. I need to even out the double stops so both notes are heard equally. For the triple and quadruple stops I need to be smoother blending across the strings. For the Eb I need to really stretch my forefinger back to get proper intonation. I tend to curl my 1st finger which gets me two-thirds the way there. At my lesson two weeks ago when he assigned me this piece, David said completing the book was an accomplishment and a milestone, worthy of a pizza out or something. I am looking forward to that reward.

Suzuki
I continue to work on La Cinquantaine. The harmonic A is relatively easy to play given that the harmonic area on the string is rather broad. However, getting back to 4th position (or wherever) after the harmonic is tricky. The 3rd position shifts are difficult for me too. 4th position is easy due to the curve of the neck, but 3rd position is out in no-man’s-land. David pointed out that 1st position is also without a physical reference. I countered that I’ve had two years to learn that position. His response was that “3rd position is the new 1st position.”

I’m also working on Allegro Moderato, which is the final piece in volume 3 of the Suzuki method. I’ve been careful to use the metronome quite a bit right from the start, which has helped to avoid some of the rhythmic pitfalls.

For both pieces he wants me to focus only on the first page which, when combined with my other pieces in progress, is more than enough to keep me busy.

• Play slower – let the audience hear all the notes. Be aware of the accompaniment
• Use shoulder weight to increase volume
• Extend phrases across bar / measure
• Rebound off notes – feel the weight moving through the note
• Playing with more expression doesn’t mean more attack - it means more lyrical
• Don’t rush through passages, even if they are at a fast(er) tempo
• Resolve technical problems through expression
• Be aware of conversation between solo and accompaniment, whether it is just a piano or an orchestra
• Orchestra accompaniment is like the Titanic – big and powerful – and unable to react to the soloist. Piano accompaniment can and will react to solo
• Performer’s thoughts/emotion will come through in the music. Change your emotion to color the music differently
• Interplay between solo and orchestra or second piano is key
• When developing phrasing think about how a singer would perform the melody
• Technical passages should be played virtuosically yes, but also musically
• Be relaxed – flexible – no extra weight or tension in body
• Make short notes longer to increase expression
• Body motion – elegant body motion – will make elegant music
• Play with no extra motion, don’t waste energy

On the subject of ringtone and alarms in concert…

What struck me from the moment he walked on stage was his sheer joy at doing this. He was having fun and he wanted everyone else there – the other players, the audience – to have fun as well. Our seats were fantastically close (6 rows from the stage) but over at the right side of the concert hall. This meant that the conductor was between us and Mr. Ma during the concerto performance. While it was a bit disappointing to have my view of his playing impeded I was able to hear every note as the Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is a superb venue.

There was a sustained round of applause and a couple of rounds of returning to the stage. Every time Mr. Ma returned to the stage he greeted different orchestra members and directed his own applause toward them. As this is the inaugural season for the center there were several donor’s, the architects, and the hall’s namesake in attendance. Mr. Ma also directed his applause to them. The third time he returned to the stage he was by himself, and a moment later the conductor stepped out on stage with the cello and bow. Yo-Yo Ma took them and proceeded to center stage.

He spoke briefly about the creating beauty using beautiful instruments and in a beautiful hall. He called the place where we were a “cultural cathedral on the hill”. He then said he wanted to dedicate the Sarabande from the D major Bach Cello Suite to this cultural cathedral on the hill. With an absolutely hushed hall he played the most achingly beautiful rendition of that movement I have ever heard. There were tears running down my cheeks by the time he was finished.

The concert was everything I had hoped for and better than I imagined. His musical gift transcends mere technical skill or ability. It transports him and his audience into the music, and for a few brief moments all that matters, all that exists, all that is, is beauty.

At the time of the original story I, along with most other people I guess, thought evil thoughts about the idiot who didn’t silence his phone before the performance and, even worse, didn’t stop it from sounding during the performance. As it turns out the unlucky patron had been isseud a new iPhone by his employer, replacing a BlackBerry, and was unaware that an alarm had been set, and that it would sound even if the mute swtich was engaged on the phone.

The ensuing online discussion has be fascinating to follow. Should the mute silence all sounds the phone makes or only the ringer? Does the mute perform exactly as intended? Should there be a set of settings that allows you to configure the mute function? Or perhaps, should the phone use its location awareness to know where it is okay to sound alarms and where not?

Sibylle and I are always careful to remind each other to “mute” our phones when we attend performances, however in light of the Mahler interruption I am now planning on turning my phone completely off during performances.

Earlier this evening there was a re-tweet of a Yo-Yo Ma tweet that landed in my stream. Opening his profile I clicked on the link to his site. Once there I explored a bit finally landing on the “events” page where I discovered that he is performing three shows in Kansas City this coming weekend. Just two hours away in a brand-new state-of-the-art performance center. On Yo-Yo Ma’s site there were no links to ticket sales for those three performances, but there were links for other performances, From this I decided that the KC shows were sold out.

Later when telling Sibylle about the missed opportunity we looked up the performance location and just for grins I clicked on the “puchase tickets” link. Imagine my surprise and then glee to discover tickets were available.

Exactly two tickets. The very last two tickets. After I completed the purchase I refreshed the page and the purchase link was gone, and a new message appeared saying that the performance was sold out.

I have always loved the sound of cello music, and I am extremely happy to be a cellist now. To be able to go hear Yo-Yo Ma perform with my new appreciation for what being a musician means will be simply wonderful.

At the first rehearsal Saturday morning our conductor announced that she was only going to use one of the three pieces selected for us, and was substituting two pieces she had brought. The two substitutes were less complicated in some ways and I was very pleased to be able to keep up. I still have difficulty hearing my intonation over the other instruments. I still need my ear to tell me if my intonation is correct; relying on muscle memory seems fraught with peril.

Over the course of three rehearsal sessions my confidence in my ability to play the right notes, more or less in the right time, grew. I was even able to look up at the conductor and not lose my place in the score. It was a very satisfying experience.

Now that I’ve had a good orchestra playing experience I am even more determined to play in a group. One wonders if a cellist with a mere two years of playing experience can found a quartet.