Last weekend, I had the exciting privilege to attend camp with my cello! No, there were no cots, marshmallows, or campfires, but there was definitely music going on. From 10:30 on Thursday morning, until 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, I had the glorious joy of being absolutely drowned in my beloved cello and his amazing voice. Everything from orchestral ensemble, to group lessons, to a fantastic private lesson with a cello teacher... I even got the chance to try out a couple of bows! This was a unique experience at Scor! String Camp for Adults*** that I wanted to share with you (yes, you read that right... adults only! No kids, no prodigies, no pressure!).
Thursday morning, I arrived at the church to be greeted by a wonderful cellist friend I'd talked to on Facebook, but never met in person. Once I told her who I was, she gave me the BIGGEST smile and one of the warmest hugs I'd ever gotten from someone I'd never met. She was very happy to finally meet me, and said we needed to get together to play some duets. I smiled and told her I'd love to do that during the camp. I brought my things further in, and everyone noticed my red, sparkly case. It gets lots of attention, but at string camp, it really got noticed. So, after the camp director, Beth, got herself into the right mindset (the one that doesn't suffer from exhaustion), we proceeded to the main auditorium (which really wasn't an auditorium), and got our registration packets and name tags. Once everyone got checked in, we got through orientation and split off into our two tracks, basic (which was mine), and general/performance for the more advanced players.
Both tracks had orchestra rehearsals, with the basic track having simpler music and taking time to learn things like how to properly perform pizzicato, and keeping time and rhythm together. The other two cellists were already pretty competent on these things, but one was not very sure of herself. We encouraged her, and helped her whenever she needed it. She got more comfortable as we went on. After rehearsal, we had lunch, then we had a group lesson for each track, followed by a break, and a group session that split up the cellos and the violins/violas, and we each went with our unique instrument coaches.
Thursday and Friday both had the same rigorous schedule, with each track having their own groups. The two tracks didn't really intermingle much until the session on how to practice properly. This is something I've never been really good at, even on flute, so I was intrigued. This involved breaking the music down into chunks of only a few notes, playing them at different tempos, then reassembling them in different manners. By the time it was over, I'd made a boatload of progress with a very fast-paced little piece, and it gave me renewed hope for being able to get somewhere with my own pieces when I finally get to start playing solo pieces.
Then came the individual cello lesson.... The moment I'd been really excited about, and still dreaded, as I do every lesson. But this lesson was with someone I'd talked to all of four times, so I was even MORE nervous. I dutifully pulled out my Dotzauer book and opened it up to the first page, and she asked how long I'd been playing. I told her five months, and she dropped her jaw. "You've only been playing five months and you're already playing this? I'm impressed!" She asked me what tempo I'd been practicing and then... she pulled it out. That... that thing.... The dreaded METRONOME!!
Click... click... click... click...
Naturally, my brain was a 1/4 beat behind the metronome, no matter what I played. But I plugged on, and she let me suffer about halfway through the piece before she finally, mercifully, stopped me. She nodded, seeming pleased with what I had done up to that point, while I felt like I'd just blatantly blown a major recital or audition piece. She smiled, and said she saw a lot of good things, but that my bowing wasn't very connected and smooth. Oddly, this is something my cello teacher and I have been working on. She also noted that my thumb didn't move with extensions.... another thing I've been working on, and failing miserably at. She laughed when I told her all this.
So we finished working on the Dotzauer and moved on to the Elgar Enigma Variations. Yep... that one. The same one I've been writing about. She gave me some really great advice on my fingerings and using my pinky to basically shove my index finger out of the way when shifting into lower positions, among other advice, which has subsequently gotten shuffled around in my head. We continued to work on more lyrical bowing and using the fingers more. My right hand tends to be very stiff and my thumb has absolutely NO flexibility. We talked about working closer to the bridge as you work up the neck of the cello, then we wrapped up the lesson, and I put my cello away, and reluctantly left him while we went to dinner.
Saturday brought a final group lesson, orchestra rehearsal, and a final music sharing event, which I'll get into those in Part Two of this particular blog. Until then...
Happy Cello'ing! #celloislife
***If you're interested in learning more about Scor! String Camps for Adults, you can find information on that here. Please tell them you found the camp through my blog! I don't get any sort of referral credit, but it's my honor to share it with you!***