Solfège

About a week ago I purchased The Art of Cello Playing by Louis Potter Jr. It is a fabulous book, filled with exercises, pictures, and well written explanations. One section in particular has already improved my understanding of a technique and consequently my ability to play using that technique.

In chapter 22, The “Link” or “Hooked” Bowing and the Staccato, Mr. Potter describes hooked bowing like this:

Unless the tempo is slow, and a very broad (pesante) style of playing is employed, the best execution of this bowing is usually in the middle of the bow, starting with the down bow at the balance point. The eighth note is played, then stopped abruptly (as in a martelé bow-stroke). The sixteenth note is then played with a much smaller amount of bow (by the hand, from the wrist) in the same bow direction, and goes directly into the following eighth note. Thus the only stopping of the bow is after the eighth note, but not after the sixteenth note, even though it has a staccato dot placed above or below it. The reason for this is to avoid the clumsy effect, at least in any kind of rapid tempo, of trying to stop the bow again after such a quick note as the sixteenth. Moreover, the articulation achieved by stopping the bow only after the eighth note is actually the desired musical effect for practically all such passages. Hence in effect the sixteenth note goes directly into the following eighth note “legato,” though quickly.

After reading, and rereading that passage of the book a light when on for me, and I was able to play hooked bowing fluently and smoothly. I have been practicing the eighth note-pause-sixteenth note-eighth note-pause… pattern each day now, on open strings, crossing open strings, and through various scales and it is starting to feel natural. Stopping my right arm after the eighth note, and then using my wrist to continue the bow movement (after a pause) for the sixteenth note before rebounding in the opposite direction for the next eighth note just makes sense now.

Below is my attempt to make a picture of this circular (to my way of thinking) motion. The image helps me as the pauses are at opposite ends of the bow; the entire pattern is nicely circular (symmetrical) but the pauses are offset by the length (in terms of bow used) of the eighth notes.

That one paragraph in chapter 22 of The Art of Cello Playing alone, was worth the purchase price.

Tags: hooked bowing, how to

When I was in high school in the late 1970s I took a touch typing class. We weren’t allowed to use erasable typing paper and assignments handed in with more than two errors per page were downgraded severely. By the end of the semester I was able to type about 22 words a minute.

In the thirty odd years since then I have spent considerable time in front of keyboards of one flavor or another interacting with automated systems. My words per minute number has greatly increased but I am not a touch typist. I use the first two fingers of my left hand and the thumb and first two fingers of my right hand to reach about 60 words a minute. I get the job done, but in a manner that would make my high school typing teacher cringe.

It occurs to me that playing a string instrument like the cello has some similarity with touch typing. Ideally one is able to train themselves to quickly and accurately intonate notes without having to watch their fingers. As my teacher puts it, “you have to see with your ear.” For the first several months of playing I had two slim pieces of tape across my fingerboard, one for 1st finger and one for 4th finger (notes D-A-E-B and F-C-G-A respectively). At my teachers suggestion I have removed those visual guides now, and I am worried about developing a six-finger typing approach to cello.

No, I can’t play cello with only some of my fingers the way I type. But I can develop muscle memory of the wrong finger position for notes. I can develop my ear to become accustomed to a slightly flat F# or a consistently sharp C on the G-string.  Several weeks ago I had a chance to visit a large string instrument store in the Kansas City area and saw in their display case a vinyl fingerboard sticker that had all the fingerings through 4th position. I had just removed the tape from my fingerboard and didn’t want to buy a crutch that I hoped I no loner needed.

In hindsight I wish I had bought the vinyl sticker as I could use it for scale practice and take it off for the rest of my practice. It seems to me that the most critical foundation cornerstone I can lay right now is perfect intonation of each note. The hundreds of notes played in a practice session times seven days a week times 52 weeks in a year adds up to tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) repetitions of the action of playing each note. The old axiom about “practice makes perfect” is wrong. Practice makes permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

Rather than fret (pun intended) about playing my notes incorrectly, rather than try to watch the tuner as I play a scale to adjust my fingers, I am going to order a fingering sticker for my fingerboard and make good use of it until my ear can truly tell me that my 2nd finger F on the D-string is flat, and hopefully until my 2nd finger just goes to the right place with out adjustment.

As for typing with 5 or 6 fingers, thirty plus years is hard to overcome. I think I’ll stick with my unorthodox but effective approach.

Tags: ear training, fingering

I’ve spent the last week working on Minuet in C, the second to last piece in volume 1 of the Suzuki book. This is the first piece in the book that makes use of slurs and so much of my focus has been on getting those to sound right. I’m happy to say that all of the single-string slurs are sounding pretty good now, and are starting to feel almost natural as I play them. The brief hesitation in my bowing motion, where I originally wanted to reverse directions, is now all but gone.

The string-change slur, from the open A-string to G on the D-string, still requires some attention, but it too is starting to sound better. In my practicing I have been approaching the piece a line at a time, playing each line repeatedly until it feels smooth and fluent. The third line, which contains the string-change slur required more focus than the others, so I’ve been doing that line measure-by-measure, starting with the measure containing the troublesome slur and adding measures to either side as I feel more comfortable.

I’ve also been playing the piece very slowly, perhaps 72 or even 69 on my metronome. Slow enough to have time to think about each note, its fingering and its bowing. I’ve been careful to not alter the rhythm just because I’m playing the piece slowly. On previous pieces I would play the difficult section slowly and then resume a normal tempo for the easier parts. Since practice makes permanent (and only perfect practice makes perfect), allowing myself to play slowly for one section and a tempo for the next, cemented an incorrect rendition of the piece into my memory. It took lots and lots of work to correct my rhythmic errors in Rigadoon as a result.

Minuet in C still needs some polish, but I am pleased to be able to play it through (both repeats!) and have it sound good. This weekend I’ll start Minuet No. 2, which is the last piece in my book.

Tags: minuet in c

I spent the majority of practice both Saturday and Sunday on Minuet in C, the second to last piece in volume one of the Suzuki book. I had originally started this piece several weeks ago but had largely set it aside while I worked on Rigadoon and the Etude that precede it in the book.

Minuet in C was the first piece that I started from a rhythm standpoint rather than from a note or musical standpoint. It is far too easy to memorize the wrong rhythm and, once that “variation” of the piece is learned it is very difficult to play the piece correctly.

Initially I worked on the first two lines, up to the initial repeat by saying the rhythm out loud (“cat cat cat cat kitty cat …”) and then by clapping the rhythm. Next I played the piece pizzicato using the metronome to pace me. Once I was able to play the two lines pizzicato I started using the bow. When I set the piece aside a couple of weeks ago I had the bowing down fairly smoothly and moreover, rhythmically correct.

This weekend I started working on the whole piece in earnest and immediately ran into trouble. The rhythmic pattern changes a bit in the second section of the piece and I wanted to play the same pattern. After not making much progress on Saturday bowing the piece, Sibylle suggested that I try pizzicato again for the second section. Perhaps followed by air bowing to properly involve my right hand. Playing pizzicato allowed me to work through the entire piece in time with the metronome. It was an immediate difference. Eliminating the right hand simplifies the process enough that I can focus on the metronome and the fingerings simultaneously.

After several pizzicato run throughs I started with the bow and playing arco. Initially there were mis-fingerings and lots of poor intonation, but I was playing the piece rhythmically correct. After a few attempts the bowed version started to sound better as well.

The take away from this experience for me is understanding that my skills are still in their infancy. Just because I can play a piece correctly once doesn’t mean I can repeat that performance. I need to repeat again and again phrases or sections of pieces, focusing on the details they contain, in order to play the entire piece correctly. And I need to be willing to retreat to the very basics in order to achieve a performance that is correct musically, rhythmically, and technically.

Now that I have (an admittedly tenuous) grasp of Minuet in C, I can start to tease apart the technical challenges it presents. Slurring from the open A-string to G on the D-string, for example. And making the hooked note pairs each sound the same instead of strangling the first in an effort to reach the second.

Tags: minuet in c, rhythm

My lesson was good. There are a couple of things I haven’t done which where written on my assignment sheet, and naturally those were things my teacher asked about today. Note recognition for example. (Note to self: Use the Flash Cards. A lot!) I also need to working the C Major scale using hooked bowing, and a variation of the Etude using hooked bowing.

He was pleased with Rigadoon. Yay! And he was pleased with my progress on Happy Farmer. He said it is coming along very well. He liked when I described working from the 5th measure backwards: getting that measure working and then adding the 4th measure, and then the 3rd, and so on. He said he often works the orchestra or his other students that way. I can’t claim the idea as original as it is something Sibylle suggested and something I’ve seen her do with her students with great success.

We worked on Minuet in C a bit, particularly one section were the slur crosses strings. During this part of the lesson my teacher admitted that with children he doesn’t emphasis all the bowing variations this early in lessons and that he was experimenting a little with me to see how adults managed it. He said that he thinks it may be a bit much for adults too. I said that it has been overwhelming at times. I am pleased that I am finally bringing together hooked bowing and slurs with my pieces, but it hasn’t been easy to get here.

My teacher is doing a short recital tour of England the first part of April, so no lessons for the next three weeks. While he’s gone he wants me to continue on as much as I can. Minuet #1 (the last piece in volume 1) and then the Long, Long Ago variation which is the first piece in volume 2. It’s in a different key (i.e., different fingerings) and uses (wait for it….) hooked bowing.

Tags: hooked bowing, slurs

As a pianist and piano teacher, Sibylle has a wealth of music knowledge and material, all of which has benefitted me and my studies more than once. Recently when she was practicing I could tell she was playing some kind of scale up and down the keyboard and asked her about it.

The patten she was using comes from a Louis Hanlon method book. In a nutshell you work your way up the scale in five note increments, but the first interval is always a third, whereas all the other intervals are a second. So for C-Major you’d start with C, E, F, G, A, and then return down with G, F, E, D, and then up again: D, F, G, A, B. And so on. I liked the way it sounded and have been using it on my cello. To help out with that I made up a sheet of music using Sibelius.

I like that it forces me to think ahead, to think about the intervals, and that it involves string changes. This could easily be added to with slurs or hooked bowing. And I like that something from the piano world can work in the cello world too.

Tags: technique

Over the past few weeks I have become aware that there is a cycle to my practice sessions. I practice every day, or at least every day that I am not traveling and have access to my cello. (Some day I’d like to own one of these to have a cello I can take with me nearly every where.)

My cycle seems to be about three or four days long. Typically I’ll have two or three good practice sessions and then I’ll have very frustration session where nothing works. Of course the frustration itself adds to the inability to perform and only makes that off night even worse.

This past weekend was the first time I really tried multiple practice session in one day. On both weekend days my first practice attempt was frustrating and unproductive. However, coming back to the cello later, once after just an hour away, improved my attitude and my overall satisfaction with the practice.

Tonight was a good session. I was able to play the four pieces I am focused on right now, Rigadoon, Etude, Happy Farmer, and Minuet in C, without too much stress. Rigadoon is nearly finished I think. I have on occasion played it with the metronome set to 112. The Etude would be easy if it wasn’t so repetitious. I find the double-stroke version easier to play. I get all the way through both variations at 90 and nearly so at 100.

After much struggling I think Happy Farmer is coming along. I can’t play it with the metronome yet, but I am learning the proper rhythm. I think once I am more secure in the rhythm I’ll be able to mate it to a steady pulse. My teacher wants me to aim for 66.

Minuet in C comes in two parts. I am happy with my progress through the first repeat. Even my slurs are starting to sound better. The string-change slur in measure 14 gives me fits yet. At my lesson Friday morning I plan on asking about how to play that.

The way I played tonight is how I would hope to play for my lesson on Friday, or for family if I were to (gulp) perform any of this for them. While it would be nice to play at your best for a lesson, I suspect that playing something less than your best may be better in the long run. It would be more revealing of the trouble spots which would bring them to attention sooner.

I just hope that my cycle bottoms out before Friday so I’m back on an upswing for my lesson.

Earlier today, and yesterday, I played Happy Farmer using three individual notes for the dotted quarter notes. It sounded pretty good, but as Sibylle points out, it isn’t teaching me hooked bowing. This evening I tried playing the three-for-one notes as hooked notes but wasn’t having much success with that either.

After quite a bit of frustration I think I finally got it. Instead of stopping the bow and then hooking the next fill-in note, I just changed the bow pressure for the second and third beats of the dotted quarters. It makes kind of a “wah-wah” sound that way, but I played one continuous, if warbling, note with one direction of the bow. After a couple attempts I was able to more or less play the whole piece using hooked bowing.

It’s slow, and has frequent squeals and squawks, but it is bowed correctly and I think the rhythm is right.

My hope now is that after a couple days practice this way I’ll be able to smooth out the dotted quarter notes so they have the same pitch throughout their duration and then I’ll have the piece correctly. Correctly bowed, and played with the correct rhythm.

That’s the plan anyway.

Earlier today I managed to play all the way through the Minuet in C, which is next. I hope that the rhythm work that I started with that piece will shorten the amount of time it takes me to learn it. After breezing through the earlier pieces in the book (largely by ignoring rhythm and (since the pieces have simpler rhythms) getting away with it), it feels like these later pieces are entirely too hard. They really aren’t too hard, they just require a better rhythmic foundation that I had developed. The remedial work I’ve done the last couple of weeks has started to pay off in this regard.

The thing I need now, now that I more or less have the hang of using the metronome, is to have confidence in what I am hearing when I use the metronome. I get so that I can’t tell if I am on the beat, ahead of the beat or late. I suspect that practice will help that. And experience. I need to remind myself that I have only played the cello since November. Four and a half months.

I have no idea if being at the end of book 1 in the Suzuki series after just 17 weeks is typical or not. Hopefully I am moving off the rhythmic plateau I’ve been on for the past few weeks and will be able to complete the last couple pieces in this volume soon. I’ve got volume 2 at home and I am looking forward to starting those pieces.

Tags: rhythm

Or at least more understanding of it than before.

I utilized my practice time over the last three days to focus on rhythm, specifically on using the metronome. I played quarter note scales to varying tempi, I played eighth note scales to the same tempi. I intermingled quarter and eighth notes in the same scale, again to various tempi.

Then I went back to the beginning of volume 1 and played Twinkle, Twinkle in time with the metronome. I was astonished at how long the half notes were in relation to the quarter notes. I played it at medium setting and then played it slower and then played it faster. Next I repeated this exercise with French Folk Song. Each time I missed the metronome mark I’d stop and replay, sometimes setting the metronome to a slower tempo.

So as not to burn myself out on this remedial work I only practices for 20 or 30 minutes at a stretch, but both Saturday and today I practiced multiple times. This afternoon I was very successful in playing in time for several different tempi on some of the early pieces in the Suzuki book.

I now get what rhythm means. I still have a lot of work to do to make my sense of tempo an innate thing, but knowing that I need to build my understanding of each new piece on the foundation of its rhythm will make a huge difference. Already I’ve been able to progress to the first repeat in Minuet in C rhythmically correct. My intonation needs some work, as do fluid slurs – but the piece has a good foundation for me to build upon.

I owe many thanks to Sibylle for her patient explanations and help over the past week or so as I have struggled to incorporate the metronome and proper rhythm into my playing. On the whole I like  the Suzuki method but I think it would benefit from practice tempo recordings of the pieces in addition to the performance tempo ones already on the CD. Moreover, I think the method should introduce metronome far sooner.

Tomorrow I’ll start Rigadoon, and Happy Farmer over again. This time breaking them down rhythmically first and only playing them at a pace where I can maintain the correct rhythm.

Tags: rhythm

In karate-do, or the way of the open hand, you start with kihon, or basics. These basic techniques are combined into short two or three-move combinations called wazas. Kata is a ritualized form that combines basics and or wazas into longer routines.

The style of karate-do that I learned has 12 basics, things like front-snap kick or reverse punch. There are a nearly infinite number of wazas possible from the combinations and permutations of these kihon. A kick followed by a punch and then a block, for example. Kata were formal in that the moves were prescribed and variation was not allowed. However, interpreting the meaning of a move or combination of moves, or kata bunkai, provided the practitioner with an encyclopedia of self defense techniques.

I see a strong parallel in learning to play the cello. I am learning the basics now, things like fingering, bowing, hooked bowing and slurs. The introductory pieces in the first Suzuki book gradually introduce combinations of these techniques – musical wazas if you will. The pieces themselves could be considered musical katas, not open to technique interpretation (at least as a beginning student), but filled with opportunity to grasp and understand the underlying motivation and thought necessary to perform the piece correctly with the given techniques.

In my recent struggles with rhythm and tempo I have been trying to perform the finished piece (kata) without first understanding and mastering the techniques  (kihon) and the combinations of those techniques (wazas). Realizing the similarity between the layered approach I learned in karate-do and the layered approach necessary to learn cello has helped me realize that I need to constantly step back from difficulties and break things down to the basics first, and only attempt the completed piece after I’ve mastered the combinations it contains.