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JanJan Registered User (9/13/00 12:32:02 pm) Reply	Wassup? Boy, this place sure has been quite lately. So what are you all up to? Everyone must be busy practicing, right?... Anyone working on a new piece? What have you learned recently from your teacher? What scales or etudes are you stuggling with? How much time to you all manage devote to practice in a day or a week? Anyone have any new cello equipment? Just curious, Janet
ruthann Registered User (9/13/00 1:04:14 pm) Reply	Re: Wassup? I have to admit my cello has been pretty quiet lately. My piano trio is being difficult. I thought we had an all Chopin program lined up - until the other two decided they didn't like the Chopin trio. Sigh. I trot out Saint-Saens #2. After all, we enjoyed #1 a couple years ago, we all like Saint-Saens (except the swan, which I would be happy to never hear again), but a reading ellicited some negative responses. Sigh. I did perform a duet with my daughter (on violin) last weekend - All Through the Night from the Applebaum Beatiful Music for Two Stringed Instruments series. I can't recommend those books highly enough. I need something concrete to work on, and a regular time set aside to do it. I confess I can get really lazy without some sort of deadline looming. Sigh. And my favorite pair of cool weather pants feels awfully tight. Sigh. Time to cut out the chocolate. cello_suttonr@hotmail.com
Bobbie Registered User (9/13/00 5:20:03 pm) Reply	Re: Wassup? I'm teaching an overload and auditing an arranging class, and three weeks into the semester I'm already a week behind schedule. It doesn't help my cello practice but I'm doing my best to keep it in. I am delighted that I finally found something my left-brain excels at. My teacher wants me to play four octave scales all separate notes, then slurring 2,3,4,5,6, and 7. I gather many students have trouble with the fives and sevens but it is a piece of cake for me just to count to five or seven while I play even note values and then change the bow. (I should add that I already KNEW the four octave scale that I'm starting with or it wouldn't have been that easy.)
MaryK Registered User (9/14/00 11:53:14 am) Reply	Re: Wassup? Busy practicing is right! A couple weeks back I decided to play w/a different orchestra this year (waaay closer to home, some of its concerts benefit a local cancer research institution, and its programs are very enticing) and am now preparing for an audition tomorrow. Yikes! They want to hear 3 excerpts plus a solo piece. I worked on my music w/my teacher a couple of times, which really really helped in terms of approach and interpretation. Lugged my cello to work Wed. and practiced during lunch, will do so Thurs. as well, then do the audition right after work. Am feeling not very well prepared. Realistically I think I'll get in the group, the question now is, where in the section? Front? Middle? Back?? Last year's orch had 3 of the best cellists I've ever played with so will miss that, but... My teacher and I are going to start working on my sound and approach. It's hard to describe in an e-mail, but even after all these years sometimes I still "attack" the music rather than "play" it. She wants me to mellow out a bit and think about what the notes are trying to convey. As I said, hard to explain, but... Oooh! Wheels on the case! Just had 'em added!! Very cool! New orch, new approach/attitude, new wheels, just in time for next week's ACL reconstruction. sigh Cheers, MaryK Edited by: MaryK Edited by: 9/14/00 11:53:14 am
Ellen G Registered User (9/14/00 6:29:28 am) Reply	Re: Wassup? Same old stuff. I missed the first orchestra rehearsal last night, so I need to pick up the music tomorrow. I wish I had had it for my lesson today, but it's my own fault. On a silly note, I was assigning seats for the youth orchestra rehearsal, and none of the kids have names like Bob and Jane anymore. Half of them I can't pronounce, or even discern gender. Anyway, there is a Horace and Natasha and I can't resist the urge to seat them together because it makes me think of Bullwinkle. Lessons today were more mental remedial work for poor Ellie. When a teacher starts with a brand new cello student, he knows what the student has to learn because they're at ground zero. In my situation, I think the teacher assumed I knew more than I really did because I had studied previously, and she didn't know exactly how far I had gotten. As we all know now, just because you can play a piece and follow the fingerings, doesn't mean you have a good working understanding of the principles of shifting and fingering. This has been true in my case. And even though we've been at this a few years now, we are still finding gaps. I'm not making the connections between notes, hand placement, and how to know where I am and what's available to me. I may DO it, but my thinking through of the process, to enable it to become automatic, is not there. For example, if my first finger is on an F on my D string (not everyone uses names for these "positions", so I am leaving it out here), it is not automatic for me to know what notes my fingers will be able to play on my A string. I know my fifths, obviously, and some of the others, but the music had an E or Eb in it, and I didn't instinctively know it was in my range or not. I had never made the connection in my head in terms of octaves, what I could reach and where I came up short. Go figure. It has been too much following of numbers whenever I got into a passage like that in the past. But now I've been at this long enough, I should be at the next level and today I made another small step. So every time I make a breakthrough like this and the lightbulb goes off over my head, I need to share. Maybe it will illuminate the path for someone else. So my exercise for the week is another Schroeder, and it drives home, hard, moving around the fingerboard on your first finger, and then seeing all the other notes available to you, starting with your 4th finger. It sounds silly, but it is going to make a big difference in sightreading, note recognition, and logical fingerings. I don't even know if that is the thrust of the exercise, but that is what it is helping ME with. Boy, my kids are so lucky to have this knowledge under their belts. Oh, and I ordered a video. I suppose you could say I was the victim of a "post" hypnotic suggestion. The guys on the Big Board can be very persuasive. Edited by: Ellen G Edited by: 9/14/00 6:29:28 am
DWThomas Registered User (9/14/00 7:04:56 am) Reply	Re: Wassup? Alas, less than I had hoped. Got home last night expecting to warm up a bit and head over to the first lesson for the new "semester." Instead, I found a message to call the school. I knew my teacher was going to Belgium the last week of this month and first week of October. But, apparently sometime after my last summer lesson they worked it out that she's delaying starting until the second week in Oct. and were planning to get a substitute (? ha!) -- but didn't succeed. ("Of course you'll be given a refund or credit for any payments for the classes we can't supply.") Nothing like advance notice and planning . There's also supposed to be some ensemble work for us decrepit adults too, yet undefined. It's in an even bigger array of disorganization. Well, I got my MiniDisc thingie, so I'll just keep working on the old stuff, with a few timid excursions into the Scottish stuff in the Abby Newton book! It's remarkable how many challenges new to me have popped out of those relatively simple melodies. There's a new set of strings "in the mail" too. Ciao, Dave
Nico67 Registered User (9/14/00 9:15:54 am) Reply	Re: Wassup? not much. Yesterday I was supposed to have my first lesson in almost a month (my teacher had gone in vacation to Israel), but on my way there from work I got stuck in traffic because of an accident. I always listen to the traffic report on the radio (before turning on opera on the CD player current selection is ROBERTO DEVEREUX by Donizetti) and heard nothing so I went down the usual way. The accident must have happened right before I got there though and the highway was CLOSED to traffic and I was just stuck with nowhere to go I just hope those people were all right. I got to lesson 20 minutes before the end time and I know my teacher couldn't accomodate me (sometimes she is very good about these mishaps) because she had to go play Bach 1 at the music school Fall open house. So I went with her and had another one of those "I am not worthy" experience I also saw a duo guitar/violin playing a tango by Piazzolla and my teacher told me that she and this duo will give a concert on May 13 (in the small Weill Auditorium at Carnegie Hall) all devoted to Piazzolla. I am learning 2nd and 4th position and I have to say that it's going pretty well. After a couple of days in which I lost any sense of fingerboard orientation, now my fingers seem to fall magically at the right spot at the right time. Sound is improving as well. I have major problems with long slurs (play 6 or more notes in one bowstroke) which I hoped to discuss with my teacher during the lesson but ... As for new cello gear: I am considering changing the top 2 strings to Larsen from Jargar to try to get a less strident sound (although I think it has more to do with me than with the string ) Also during Labor Day weekend I broke the G string (it just went flying while I was playing and not while tuning, this never happened to me) and I replaced with what I could find in this little village in Southern MA (Supersensitive). I don't particularly like the sound of this one so I need to replace it as well. A friend of mine asked me if I want to play duets with her (she plays the violin). Any suggestions for music books with violin/cello duets where the cello part is easy are welcome. ---Rosario
JanJan Registered User (9/14/00 9:50:44 am) Reply	Re: Wassup? <<Anyway, there is a Horace and Natasha and I can't resist the urge to seat them together because it makes me think of Bullwinkle.>> Just make sure they're somewhat matched as far as ability...otherwise you may end up with some Rocky intonation. Sorry, couldn't resist. Ellen - please give us a report on that video. If I weren't so tapped right now I'd have ordered it, too. But maybe I'll have to put it on my Christmas wish list (which grows longer every day as each new catalog arrives in the mail)!
Bobbie Registered User (9/14/00 10:59:01 am) Reply	Re: Wassup? What video did you order? I must have missed something.
Bobbie Registered User (9/14/00 11:03:57 am) Reply	Re: Wassup? Never mind. It popped up on the other board.
ruthann Registered User (9/14/00 11:42:07 am) Reply	Re: Wassup? Rosario, Try the Beatiful Music for 2 Stringed Instrument Series by Applebaum. There are 4 or 5 levels, 1 being all in first position. The nicest thing about them is that you buy the cello version and the violin version and they are in the same key! And of course you can play them with any C instrument. Shar has them, but since you're in NYC they should be easy to find locally. cello_suttonr@hotmail.com
Nico67 Registered User (9/14/00 12:25:14 pm) Reply	Re: Wassup? Hey Ruthann (sorry but every time I see your screename I think of Ruth Ann Swenson, a famous coloratura soprano who sings at the MET all the time). I had seen your suggestion for Applebaum (which I should find easily here in NYC). But my friend is far more advanced than me and I don't want to bore her. So I was looking more for something where only the cello part is easy Also suggestions for piano trios (with the same requirement on the cello part) are welcome. We may get a pianist to join us. thanks Rosario
cellofeign Registered User (9/14/00 12:53:09 pm) Reply	easy cello, harder violin & piano Early Haydn trios were recommended to me under the same circumstances. Looked at ones in G, D, F (I believe) and they seemed okay, maybe even too simple (eight eighth notes, all the same, repeat for four bars, that sort of thing). Bit of tenor clef scared me, but on calculation realized that 4th position would cover it. Haven't actually played any as I need to motivate my young violinist... --PR
RemRem Registered User (9/14/00 2:04:40 pm) Reply	Re: Wassup? Sorry, severe Harry Potter fever here. I had to spend almost two weeks in bed, reading and drinking hot chocolate Now I'm sending emails to JK Rowling begging for Harry Potter V... Cello's fine. My teacher decided to finnish with the Breval sonata as I fell asleep while playing a chord today <s>. She wants to continue in technique anyway (says thumb position is next ). Sounds cool. The girl who has her lesson before mine just learned thumb position earlier this year and she plays cello already for 5 years. So I better don't tell her that our teacher is going to teach me thumb position too now. BTW, I got 3 kg of used sheet music (+ some etude books), ebay bargain. Oh, one more...do you know that look on a violinist's face when you tell them about your cute little cello?
KeyWestStrings Registered User (9/17/00 9:10:44 pm) Reply	Re: Wassup? My trio has been learning the opera arias arranged by "Music for Three". (Volume 6). They are really a lot of fun and great for gigs. The cello parts are often just the bass notes, but I think they are fun anyway.... And occasionally I have the melody. Ellen, which Schroeder exercise are you working on to help with fingering positions? Sounds like one I could use. Last spring I felt I had a breakthrough in the positions' department, but I could still use a lot of practice. Judith McKnight
Barb2 Registered User (9/21/00 4:28:35 pm) Reply	Re: Wassup? This is the first time I've checked in here for over a week - a bit scared to look at CC and try to catch up there...maybe tomorrow?! First of all we have started up our home school again which keeps me busy enough by itself, and then I am secretary for our Awana Cubbies club with lots to do for club start up. Last weekend I attended my high school's 20 year reunion and found only one other from our string orchestra in our graduating class still playing, or playing again. Sadly learned our outstanding bassist, who was playing professionally in Alaska, had passed away. It was good to learn that many of our members' children were now playing stringed instruments even though my classmates themselves had given them up. Also, I stopped by the Alma Mater and watched the 9th grade orchestra rehearse. They have grown from one orchestra plus an extra curricular ensemble 20 years ago to three orchestras now. My school cello has either fallen apart as my teacher told me it would or been passed down to another school or ???? With that long weekend I lost 5 days of practice and part of my new thumb callous, not to mention some of my new bow savings account. My borrowed bow has had to be returned and I'm discouraged to be back to struggling with the ol' faithful Glasser, but it is good to see the other bow's owner ready to play the cello again. Back to trying to get 1 hour a day practice in, not much time for internet! I'm thinking I'll not schedule a lesson for this month, but wait a few more weeks. Take care all! Barb
Sorefingers Registered User (9/24/00 3:54:46 pm) Reply	Wassup Moon to the Room - hey yall - I've been so busy the last week - don't know if I'm coming or going. Began last Saturday with a birthday party quartet; Sunday- choir gig; Monday-Community orchestra rehearsal, Tuesday-lesson: finished Saint-Saens "The Swan", onto Goltermann's "Concerto No.4, 3rd Movement, and Schroeder thumb studies; Wednesday & Thursday: last of the summer concerts for community orchestra; Friday-volunteer work w/ local string classes in county. Then to my surprise I came down w/ swollen glands and a fever Saturday - DUH ! Has anyone found a cure for that SuperMom syndrome yet ?
Dorie Straus Registered User (9/24/00 6:19:35 pm) Reply	The answer is: Birth control.
Sorefingers Registered User (9/27/00 2:41:42 pm) Reply	Re: The answer is: TOO LATE
MaryK Registered User (9/27/00 3:35:38 pm) Reply	Re: The answer is: Check out the heading of Dorie's post, and it looks like the answer is Dorie Straus!
Dorie Straus Registered User (9/27/00 4:18:22 pm) Reply	Re: Yeah - it does; I was just making a joke - I do the supermom thing, too. Make that super single mom thing.