To Play or Not to Play.... I'm tired of playing alone!

Ahhh... the dilemma. I'm so tired of playing by myself, but I'm not good enough to join an orchestra or play in any groups. Now what??

I've been playing for only about three months, and in that time I've learned so much about playing, practice, performing, instruments, strings, cases... the list is ENDLESS. But I lose a lot of my enthusiasm after a period of time, because I hate constantly playing alone. Because, despite the fact that we all love the Bach solo cello suites (admit it....that's one of the reasons you started playing, right?), one of the great joys of music is playing WITH someone and hearing those beautiful harmonies coming out from a group and hearing how the cello contributes that soulful tenor voice to a group.

But I suck. Yep. I'll be the first to tell you that I'm just enough off pitch that I can sour the whole group....or do I?

Not necessarily. This weekend, I was afforded a wonderful opportunity. My sister, Aimee, plays fiddle....or violin, depending on what she's playing. You know, the only difference is that a fiddle's had beer spilled on it.... She has only been playing about ten months on hers, and we both got all excited at the prospect of playing with another set of strings. So, she packed her fiddle up and brought it over to my house for the weekend.

At first, we were both a little... hesitant... to really get into playing in front of the other. Okay, I was hesitant. She has a bit more experience than I do, and is better at finding pitches. Plus, her fiddle has fingerboard marks now, where she's been playing for some time and that makes it easier for her to find pitches. So, I got my cello down from her stand, tightened and rosined my bow, and went to tuning, then hashed out a scale. I hate scales (don't we all...), but it's the best way to find pitches as you learn. She tuned her fiddle with my A-string, and we tried to figure out what to play.

Naturally, neither of our music was in the same key, but we both had "Ashokan Farewell" in our repertoire. So, I dug mine out while she played hers. Ugh. Mine is in D and hers was in G. Oh well.... I started playing mine when she finished, and she just joined in, dropping hers over a string since mine couldn't go any higher, already being on my top two strings. Voilá.... (go re-read that. It does not say "viola.") "Ashokan Farewell" begins to drop out of the air... and I find my pitches much more in tune.

Why? Because playing in harmony helps train your ear. Many teachers suggest playing with a drone tone to learn scales. This is why... it helps your ear to find harmonious pitches more easily. Your ear is more trained than you realize, but you need a second player, whether electronic or human, to discover that. Playing solo when you're new is fine, but at a certain point, you need to play with another instrument to hone your skills.

Not only that, but playing with another harmony will help you make quicker progress, and keep things interesting. I'll admit it... I despise canned string instruments, but there are sites like MuseScore that can offer background orchestras to play while you learn even the simplest pieces. Of course, it won't help you on the Bach Cello Suites, but as you advance and conquer pieces like "The Swan," it will give you accompaniment tracks to practice with.

Soon, I put down my cello and switched over to piano on Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, although it's a much-simplified version because I haven't been playing that terribly long either. Well, she gets brave and starts playing the top line of the melody on her violin (see, now it's a violin because it's classical music... 😂), and even though she gets lost a couple times, she's very much in tune and we're both truly starting to enjoy our little jam session.

It's terribly easy to get burned out when you're first starting, because you're on scales, and stuck playing things like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Pardon me while I throw up... Oh, PLEASE don't make me play it again. But guess what? Even Twinkle gets to be a lot more interesting when you add in harmonies. I've even heard of people crying because someone's rendition of Twinkle was so beautifully arranged and well-performed that it touched them to the core. It CAN happen. It's not likely to happen on scales, unless you're playing Joy to the World at Christmas, but if you play with someone else, you're more likely to keep your mind engaged, training, and making your practicing a little less... well, frustrating.

Happy Cello'ing! #celloislife