Solfège

Piece	Started	Metronome	Finished
I Can Read	11/9/2009		11/24/2009
Merrily We Roll Along	11/9/2009		11/24/2009
Seashell	11/9/2009		11/24/2009
Let Us Chase The Squirrel	11/9/2009		11/24/2009
Morning Prayer, Opus 136 No. 1	11/18/2009		12/11/2009
Ode to Joy	11/18/2009
Jolly Old Saint Nicholas	11/26/2009
Silent Night	11/27/2009
Twinkle, Twinkle variation 1	11/24/2009
Twinkle, Twinkle variation 2	11/24/2009
Twinkle, Twinkle variation 3	11/24/2009
Twinkle, Twinkle variation 4	11/24/2009
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star	11/24/2009
Twinkle, Twinkle triplets	12/4/2009
French Folk Song	12/4/2009
Lightly Row	12/4/2009
Song of the Wind	12/11/2009
Go Tell Aunt Rhody	12/11/2009
O Come, Little Children	12/11/2009
May Song	12/15/2009
Allegro	12/16/2009
Perpetual Motion	12/18/2009
Suite No. 1 in G Major, Prélude (BWV 1007)	12/27/2009
Long, Long Ago	12/30/2009
Allegretto	1/7/2010
Andonitino	1/12/2010
Rigadoon	1/12/2010

I Can Read

A simple single string piece that I initially played pizzicato, but now use as a tonalization exercise with the bow.

Merrily We Roll Along

A variation of Mary Had A Little Lamb. Again I originally did this pizzicato and now play it with the bow aiming for improved tone.

Seashell

Similar to I Can Read but involving two strings. More tonalization work here.

Let Us Chase the Squirrel

Again, a simple piece originally played pizzicato and now used for bow tonalization work.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (6 variations)

This piece is heavily used by the Suzuki Cello book my teacher has me working through. There are 5 variations of the piece, each with a different rhythm, and he’s now added a sixth. Since it’s a tune we all know learning the music isn’t an issue. Which allows focus on fingering and bowing and the timing of those two activities to produce a good sound.

Morning Prayer, Op. 136 No. 1

One of the few piano pieces I can play is part of a duet. The student piece has a melody in unison, while the teacher plays an accompaniment. Playing on half of the student piece on the C and G-strings sounds really good, so I’ve “adapted” this piece to cello and enjoy playing it. Sibylle sometime plays the second part with me on the piano, making a nice duet for us.

Ode to Joy

Nearly every early piano method book has some form of this melody included. With Sibylle’s help I created a single page sheet of the orchestral violoncello part to learn for myself. The orchestral version is slightly different than what I new before, so it has been a fun challenge to play.

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

This is half of a duet Sibylle and I are working on together. She plays Canon in D while I play the Christmas carol. The two together are quite beautiful and we are often moved to tears when we play the duet.

Silent Night

Perhaps my all-time favorite piece of music. Silent Night has always moved me deeply and I am thrilled to be teaching it to myself on the cello. It involves three strings and some quick finger changes so it has been a good challenge.

French Folk Song

After Twinkle, Twinkle the next Suzuki method piece is this folk song. The song uses all the notes of a D-major scale.

Lightly Row

After French Folk Song, Lightly Row is another Suzuki piece. I’ve been using it to work on tonalization and also to improve my sense of rests. It is far too easy to cut rests (or even sustained notes) off. It introduces the concept of leaving a string stopped while playing another string, so that you can return to the first sting without having to reset your fingers.

Song of the Wind

Sibylle knows this as a German children’s song and can rattle off the lyrics. For me it is a new tune and one that continues the concept of leavings one string stopped while playing another string.

Go Tell Aunt Rhody

What makes this piece challenging is that it follows the European melody rather than the one I grew up with. There are numerous shifts between quarter and eighth notes in this piece which gave me fits at first but it is coming along nicely now

O Come, Little Children

This is easily one of the prettiest sound pieces in the first part of the book. This piece introduces a couple of new concepts. It starts on an up-bow rather than the usual down-bow, and it has some note pairs that are played up-up, instead of up-down, or down-up. Music, like spoken language, has phrasing and emphasis; using up-bow produces a lighter, less accented sound than using a down-bow. The new concepts in this piece demonstrate how a composer can alter the sound produced through the playing technique used by the musicians.

May Song

Allegro

Perpetual Motion

This is a bit of a torturous piece to learn and play. It is relentless. At first I didn’t think I’d ever be able to memorize it, but now I enjoy playing it as a warm up. Playing the double-stroke variation immediately following the original version is a good workout.

Long, Long Ago

Long, Long Ago introduces the G-string, and a whole new world of sound. Properly stopping the G-Sting is surprisingly harder that either the A-string or D-string.

Allegretto

Andontino

Rigadoon