Okay so I had my first lesson with my new teacher last Thursday. It went pretty well. She expressed concern about some ingrained habits of mine (one-speed vibrato and my tendency to shift alot, sometimes when unnecessary) and so I think those will be our main focus points for a while. We worked primarily on the first movement of the Beethoven A major Sonata. She was also concerned about my lack of having a pianist, which is something I can't really rectify since I don't know of any piano players who are a) good enough and b) willing to drive to Grosse Pointe every Thursday for my lesson, as well as meeting to practice. So yeah.

After practice I dropped my bow off at Psariano's to get it rehaired. Hopefully it won't be too expensive though it probably will be. I should have it back early next week (I'm hoping for a week from today) and so then I'll have a couple days to practice with it before my next lesson since I don't have one this week. Good thing I own three bows (though one really sucks) so that I can still practice while my main bow is getting rehaired. I should probably rehair my secondary one...but I can't afford that right now, I don't think.

Practiced today for over an hour! And the day is young and I am planning on practicing for at least another hour today since I didn't have time to practice yesterday! I think having a teacher is really motivating me. I hope she is a good fit for me. We'll find out Thursday.

Anyway, this morning's session started out with long tones and some slide/stretching. Didn't do much of the stretching since my hand started to hurt quickly so I decided to move on rather than risk things. I worked further in the Klengel Vol. II book on Am, getting through I-III at fairly slow tempi and then got pretty stuck on IV. I'll work on those later though, my next session will be warmed up with Schroeder since I haven't done those exercises in a while. Then I moved to the CM metric modulation at 70, and that went very well, I'll have to bump up the tempo next time I do it. I had had the scale itself at 16ths at 75, so we'll probably go there next. Lastly I moved to the Beethoven Mvmt. I and worked some more trouble spots. Three of them this time. I only got two to where I wanted them (120) while the third was lagging a little behind (90), so I'll be working on that next time also, and then moving onwards to those dreaded 16ths!

My whole session today my left hand seemed very relaxed and in the zone. Even my thumb was getting into the act as I was focusing on bringing it up in time to get into/out of thumb position and keeping it there while in thumb position and not letting it flail around. Consequently I was more confident with the higher stuff. Who would have thought?

I've found a cello teacher now. Perhaps that is helping motivate me to practice? Makes sense to me. Anyway, I practiced again today, this time I lasted for about an hour. I started out with long tones and the slide/stretch exercise that Erik Friedlander has on his "Make it Count" cello practice series. I have some things to work on that both of those exercises showed me. I think as I do them more I should build up more endurance so my tone during the long tones can be more straight and not as wobbly as it was today, and the stretching helps my left hand out so I can reach those crazy extensions since my hand is small.

After that, I worked on A minor. Got it up to quarters at 75 from memory. A small start, I suppose, but nothing too drastic. Then I took a short break to look and see if I could find Galamian scale materials online, which I couldn't without paying a hefty sum. So I'll place that on my wish list for now and then got back to it with the Klengel Vol. II book, this time staying on A minor. I only got through the first scale variation though before I moved on to the first movement of the Beethoven A major sonata. I resolved that I would start at the beginning and just play, and then the first major mistake I made I would stop and work on. Well I made it 38 measures. Not bad, considering I hadn't played it in a few months. So I worked out those two sets of two measures (38-40 and 42-44) and got them sounding decent at 110. All I have to do is bump up the tempo of the whole thing to around 120-130 and then we'll be going. That, though, is tomorrow's project. As I was finishing I was getting pretty tired (as it is now 10PM) and I decided it'd be best to stop now and get sleep and then resume tomorrow.

Today sucked. Naturally, because I was videotaping myself, my hands decided they weren't going to last long today. I don't like pushing myself too hard, so I stopped after 25 minutes. Sucks. At least I like how I sound on the tape so far. But still.

Guh.

Practiced again today. I think the hardest part about establishing a constant practice schedule is establishing a constant practice schedule. I mean there is not one specific hour or two that I can guarantee will be free every single day of the week.

Anyway. Started with more out of the Schroeder, got through a few exercises before I encountered one that flummoxed me a bit so decided to work on that one for a while over the next few days. This brought me to my review of the Kabalevsky. I think I really am going to have to relearn everything I have been working on this past year.

Lessons this past year were good, as they kept me playing. They were also bad, as my teacher wanted to expose me to as much repertoire as possible (as I was just an education major), which made sense. However, this meant that I never really really learned anything, just played it enough to where it sounded good and then we moved to the next movement/piece. I was overloaded and it shows. I have to take the time to really learn these things if I'm to get anywhere.

Anyway, then I moved on to good ol' Klengel. Volume II, though, something I haven't worked out of before but bought because "it would probably be a good thing to have". Which, naturally, it is. Worked through 5 of the C major exercises before finding one that needs a little work. All this working on sightreading as well as general playing, which is a good thing. Then I rounded out my hour session a little A minor, which was remarkably bad. Like I can't play that anywhere near as fast as I want to. This is going to take time...time I don't have.

Argh!

So I picked up my cello again after a while of not playing it due to band camp and other things. I felt bad at first because I know that I need to play a lot more than I am and as soon as I started playing again I knew I had lost ground. I'm not sure how much, but I know I have lost endurance, at least. I made it through 45 minutes and I have resolved to practice more in the future, and specific things too. I'm restarting the Schroder etude book. Starting at the beginning (well, number 7) and working my way through it again. Refresh the basics. Not just working through it...but really taking my time with it. Making sure each etude is at the correct tempo and sounds the way I want it to sound. Once I do that, I'll move on to more etudes...Popper/Duport, etc, finally working my way up to the Pais that I stupidly tried to tackle on my own before I was ready.

Alongside that, I'll be working on my scales hardcore. Used to have them all memorized, now I think all I've got are the easy ones. (aka white keys minus B). I'll be getting those up to speed and sounding perfect. Again, starting from the beginning.

Once all the scales are learned then (and only then) will it be time to continue work on pieces. I'll probably start "small" there too with things I've "learned" in the past...Lalo, Saint-Saens, and Grieg concerti come to mind. Then perhaps relearning the Haydn C (never did get that 3rd movement) and continuing on to more intense things such as Shostakovich sonata, Elgar/Schumann concerti, etc. I hope to have my scales done before Labor Day though that's probably a lofty goal. After Labor Day I will have a teacher again so that will hopefully help keep me focused while not bleeding my wallet too much.

Will I audition for grad school this year? Not sure. If I establish a rhythm and solid daily (or at least 5-6 days a week) schedule then perhaps I'll keep it going for a year, build some finances, and then go. Grad school doesn't come cheap, and neither does audition fees/travel costs to audition at a bunch of places just to not get in anywhere because I wasn't up to snuff.

Summer

So today is the day before Michelle leaves to go to Japan, which is a bummer. Though I will be spending the night at her house today, so that's not too bad. After that, I'm spending a few more days here in Troy and then heading back to Holland. Hopefully we'll get our contracts for HSRT soon so I can start practicing and whatnot. I'm excited to start this season, I haven't played bass for them before so it will be exciting!

In other news, I'm continually working on my band piece. It's taking longer than I expected, but handwriting everything is necessary, thus the long time it will be taking. I want to get this done within the next couple months or so, though, so if I decide to go to grad school for composition (which is what I'm leaning towards) then I can have a couple contrasting pieces (this band piece, and a marimba/vibe duet) to show them. I also have some small ideas for a cello solo, which I'll probably try to flesh out in the semi-near future and perhaps have a third piece to show off. Hopefully they won't require recordings because that might pose a problem.