Moving, moving, MOVING!! Some people think my cello teacher is moving too fast. For example, I'm already starting to learn shifting, but we started, very simply, with the second octave of the G-scale. So it makes sense that I'd begin to learn the rest of the shifts at the same time. Well, since we're working on the scale, let's go ahead and work on bow planning as well. They all work together. The scales require a shift if I'm not using open strings, and since the scales are already in tune, why not use them for bow planning (the art of determining how quickly or slowly you need to move the bow to get the notes you need... and yes, it is an art!).
What some people see as moving too fast, I see as showing how all the different parts of the cello work together. Yes, it's a lot to learn, but this time it will be a month before I see my teacher again. He's out of town, and this will give me plenty of time to work on everything. We cover each aspect of playing for 15 minutes of the lesson, during which time he teaches me the basic skill, makes sure I clearly understand it, and then he expects me to work on it in between my lessons. For a child, yes, this would absolutely be moving too fast. For me, it's a challenge and one I love to face! At each lesson, he incorporates what he expected me to work on beforehand, listens, and corrects it if I'm not doing it properly. Then, we move on to another skill. Yes, it absolutely moves fast, but if you recall in my last blog, he said he was going to start me on some music. Guess what? He didn't... and that's okay. He wants to make sure I'm covering all the bases of basics first. It's a learning style we find that works.
So how is my playing coming? I find that I'm moving MUCH better now than I did early on. My muscles are looser, and the other night, I played holiday music for over two hours without more than a moment of soreness, and that was only because I was playing a little above my level to see if I could do it. That was a mixed result, but I had to try, because I'm stubborn like that... you'll see more of that in my next edition!
So before we started working on shifts, he once again fussed at me for playing too close to the fingerboard, but we finally found out why I'm doing it. To put it simply, I'm not breathing. I tend to hold my breath because I'm concentrating so hard, and it's costing me freedom of movement with my arm. Once we addressed my breathing, my bowing came down to the proper place on the strings and not over the fingerboard. It also allowed me to get more dynamic control. All of this was discovered (and fixed) through Schroeder exercise #7. We used down-bows on low strings to inhale, open up my lungs, and naturally push my elbow out; we used up-bows to draw it back to the body. Now, obviously, there are some pieces you don't want to use bowing to control your breathing or you'd likely hyperventilate, but it's a natural movement of your body, and it made a huge difference in my tone production and bowing movement, allowing me to keep the bow in the right place on the string.
Once we got my playing position right, he added vibrato to the challenge. Without working through the exercise, we picked a note on the fingerboard, he set his metronome to 52 bpm, and my vibrato became quarter-note length. "Now double it to eighth notes... and triplets? Good! Now four vibrations per beat. Good! Now keep working on that and add it to this exercise."
Yes, it's moving fast, and that scares some people. But to me, music is a language. Each note is a syllable on the fingerboard. Each bow-stroke is a word, and vibrato is the expression of the speech. When you take a class in foreign language, you cover large amounts of material; for example, you learn to conjugate and often learn several verbs at the same time.
But despite all that went on, mechanically, during this lesson, do you know what my favorite part about it was? He played WITH ME on his cello! For the duration of the lesson, with very little exception, he would listen to how I played the exercise, or he would see how I did the scale on my own. But if it wasn't exactly what he wanted, he would come in and play the exercise with me after he demonstrated what he wanted. What's the point of that? It helps me learn, through demonstration, where everything should fall, and what I need to be doing. It helps me get my intonation better, learn my shifts, and learn bowing techniques because I can see him do it.
Yes, it's fast. We covered more ground in the hour and a half lesson than I've done alone in two months. But it's also more engaging for me, more productive, and frankly, it's a style I wish more teachers used with adults.
Happy Cello'ing!! #celloislife