Tuesday 9 June 2009

A long break! (not from cello though!)

I can't believe the last time i wrote was 14th may. ever since I started my dissertation, things have been crazy busy, and I haven't had time to write. I have however had time to practise, and things are going well. I was inspired to post today after reading @Michael_Tuchman's blog, and decided that I would review what I had been doing recently.

Since lesson 7 I have had 2 more lessons. Both of them were lovely, as usual. My cello teacher and I are getting quite friendly, which has made me slightly less apprehensive before I go into lessons.

I am currently playing a few things:
  • Every now and again I am playing a few pieces in 4th position. They are easy to play, yet they sound so horrible! Going to keep going back to those.
  • I am also playing 2 long pieces (much longer than usual) which I am enjoying, but am finding a struggle to get through the whole thing before my left thumb starts to ache. I also find it difficult to play something wrong and keep going, so have started tackling one line at a time which is helping loads.
  • I am having real trouble with pieces with complicated key signatures. I can (sort of) do extensions, but I have no idea when I should be doing them. I think the problem there is a fundamental lack of any knowledge of music theory, and it is holding me back.
So in my lesson tomorrow I am going to talk to my teacher about what the hell any of those key signatures mean, and ask him to give me a music reading lesson. Until I get that sorted I pretty much can't play anything else in the book, so I really need to figure it out.

I might get a book on music theory too, but not sure what type of thing I need.

Will update after my lesson tomorrow.

1 comment:

  1. I never learned theory, so I've been kind of making it up... er, picking it up as I go along. Sometimes your teacher mentioning a bit of theory that supports why a piece is written the way it is can make your expression of it fall into place. I'd be intereted in knowign what book your teacher recommends, if he does suggest one.

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