Lessons Week of 9/9-9/13

Write a comment by the end of the night of the day of your lesson this week.  Remember that blogging is 10% of your final grade.  Starting this week you must complete this by the end of the day of your lesson to receive credit.

Themes already emerging this week:

• preparing both right and left arm levels for shifts to new string or position
• being fluent in tenor clef.

A note on tenor clef:  middle and high school kids can get away with tricks (like playing up a string) for tenor clef. REAL CELLISTS ARE FLUENT IN TENOR CLEF!

What's a well-prepared lesson?

Those of you who had your second lesson of the semester this week (i.e., W-F lessons) had me ask you some version of "what grade do you give yourself for how prepared you were for this lesson?"  Each of you answered with a very low grade (which was appropriate in each case).  

Especially for first-year students, adjusting to college life and cello lessons as a graded course is a big challenge.  Which you are up to, of course! Hence the golf-ball video and the exhortation to use a written schedule for planning practice and study time yesterday. 

We each need to discern or choose what the "big things" are in our lives. And then we need to decide what it means to handle each of those things well.

When it comes to studying your major instrument, that means you and I need to agree on what it means to be well-prepared for a lesson, among other things. 

Last spring, I hosted a discussion on this topic on the blog on my website. Read it (the word "discussion" in the previous sentence is a link to it) and then work out your own definition.  What, for example, would be an "A" level of preparation, and how would you know you've achieved it?

Write a response as a comment here, and we'll also discuss this in your lesson and studio class.

Lessons Summaries/Reflections Week of Sept. 5

OK, here's a place to write about your lessons this week. And I see that only Peter (L) and Kazuki have done so so far. Good for them, and shame on the rest of you! This is important.  This is a requirement!

Here are a few things that have been coming up in lessons, so you may want to add a comment to discuss how they are working for you.

1. Schedule when you are going to practice. I don't think anyone has been thoroughly prepared this week, and clearly many of you are feeling a bit or more overwhelmed.  When you have lots of things to do, assignments due the next day, etc., it's easy to feel overwhelmed and then let practicing slip until you have time.

You will never "have time" to practice.  Or exercise.  Or sleep.  You have to make time.

We almost always have more time than we realize.  More time in our days, even more time to make that shift!  And the key is to make a written schedule.  Schedule when you are going to practice, when you are going to study, when you are going to exercise, and when you're going to have fun.  With your practicing, schedule when you are going to practice what.  You can make it all work. 

There's a great metaphor for getting our priorities straight, which extends into managing time. It has to do with putting stuff into jars, and it gets told in different versions.  Here's the best short video I could find on it:

Your cello playing is a very big golf ball! And if you wait until you've taken care of all the many pebbles life (and DePauw) is throwing at you, you won't get it fit in.  You need to make sure that practicing (and studying, and exercising, and sleeping, and meditating/praying, etc.) is one of the golf balls that you put in before the pebbles of assignments due tomorrow, or the sand of Facebook, etc. 

The way to do that is by writing down a schedule!

2. Release the tension in your non-playing fingers.  There are a lot of tense fingers sticking out all over the place. Notice when that's happening!  As I wrote in a comment on another post, awareness is the first step to mastery.

3. Make sure you know what notes you are playing.  This is so obvious, but perhaps for some of you it's a golf ball that didn't make it in before the pebbles and sand--especially when it comes to tenor clef.  It all works much better when you know the name of the note you are about to play.  It works even better when you imagine the pitch of that note as well!  That's why you need to be able to say the names of the notes of your piece in rhythm. 

Now it's your turn.  Add a comment, and in it describe at least one thing we worked on in your lesson. 

My first lesson

  In my first lesson yesterday, one main thing that Dr. Edberg pointed out about was my bowing . Lifting my bow before I start new phrases, not just bigger phrases but also between short sentences in fast scales, clarified my vague struggle that I had for a long time. I knew how to phrase notes, but I could not put my phrasing in sounds. My performance tended to get tighter and smothering when it came to the melodic parts, then I killed myself in the fast scale parts after that. But as Dr. Edberg advised me, lifting a bow slightly, not too much, makes phrasing so much more obvious, apparently, that I can breath naturally, and can get settled every time before I start new phrases. Especially in fast passage, if I lift a bow between phrases, my left fingers get time to lift themselves and shift easily in the air, rather than pushing down or up and sliding fingers on finger board, so it is much easier to shift, and fast notes get more clear. Lifting bow is one easy but amazing tip.

And, thank you to all of you for all those advises today. I learned a lot by so many other perspectives on my piece. I was pretty nervous to perform in front of a group of great cellists, but it was such a nice opportunity to have at the beginning of my cello career here.

Introduction....

 Hello!
 I'm Kazuki Hanado from Tokyo, Japan. You all might be going to have inconvenience making conversations with me, so let me excuse about it now ahead of time. I will try as hard as I can to catch you up both in English and musical ability....
 I am not sure about my major yet, but probably performance major, hopefully double majoring in conflict study, or politics.
 What I love about cello is... that, first, cello is not as popular as violin or piano (yet), so it makes my existence rare as a musician and gives me more chances to perform. Another thing is that playing cello is the only thing I can proud of, I think, because it was the first thing in my life that I could be passionate about. I still do not know a clear reason, but when I started playing cello 7 years ago, cello attracted me so much more than piano, which I had played since I was 5, did. Since I started to play cello to join the school orchestra, I totally fell in love with playing cello in orchestra, and that lead me to find the passion to play cello by myself.

 I love this musical environment here, and I am really really excited to work with all of you.

Introductions all around!

Hello there! My name is Sam Kelly and I am both sad and shocked to be a senior this year. I was born in Cleveland, Ohio but was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan and have no feeling for either UofM or Ohio State football. Currently I am finishing my degree in Cello Performance at Depauw and am working towards getting an emphasis in Business. The best part about being a cellist is the variety of colors and beautiful tone that only the cello can muster. The power and emotional connection you can get from both the instrument and audience while playing is truly amazing and well worth the countless hours in the practice room. Also from the wise words of a dear friend here at Depauw (Weiying) "The cello is just so damn sexy, you know?" Well put, Weiying...well put. Should be a great year guys and gals, I look forward to working with all of you very soon!