Lesson 9? 10?

No idea whether yesterday was my 9th or 10th lesson (I hope 9th or I need to start saving for lessons again)..

I explained my confusion with the whole key signature/when to do extensions/not really understanding music conundrum. My teacher was partly reassuring - he said to not worry about it for now, and just play up the the place in the book that I can do, and make sure I am confident with what I am doing. The book we are working from apparently moves very quickly, and assumes that you have prior music theory knowledge - i think it's basically a book designed for adult leaners playing cello as a second instrument.

Which is all fine and good but I am going to need to learn it at some point, and it is frustrating me that I am (in theory) able to play things, I just don't know how they need to be played.

I think I need to stop being impatient with myself, and remember that learning to read music is all part of the learning experience! I have a bad habit of always wanting to do the next thing, but I need to consolidate what I already know.

So, a week of consolidation lays ahead of me!

lesson 4: for free!

i had my fourth lesson yesterday. My teacher phoned me earlier int he day and warned me tthat he was ing to be busy, but I can't go any other days (essay due friday) so i went along anyway. He was very busy, so i only saw him for a few minutes, and he said he wouldn't charge me which was nice of him.

i had a chance to ask 4 questions, play a small amount and get some new music. it was definitely worth the walk up the hill because there were a few things i had been doing wrong!

my 4 questions (my teacher's answers)

1. if there are no markings telling you which direction the bow should be going in, how do you know if it is an up bow or a down bow? alternate, unless it says otherwise. which makes a lot of sense, but for some reason that didn't occur to me! It seems so obvious now i know!
2. Why would you play an A on the D string, instead of just playing the A string? you wouldn't. it's a totally pointless exercise at this stage, so unless it is easier to do it that way, just play the A string.
3. Should you move your left hand when playing flats? those are extensions, and we will talk about those another time.
4. My bow grip is horrible, what should I do about it? Play open strings and scales and when you do, really think about how you should be holding the bow. if you do that often enough you will start adopting it in your normal playing.

So those were my questions. Bear in mind that i am NOT offering this as advice to anyone, it is just what my teacher told me at the time, and in my case this is what he suggested.

I also got 3 new pieces of music. 2 Bach pieces, and a Handel piece called Gavotte which is the easiest one. It's really fun to play, I am going to try to get it presentable for my lesson next week. We are also going to play Pachelbel's Canon as a duet. I can't wait for my first proper lesson in weeks!

Tuning Issues

Same problem with the strings this morning - they were completely loose again!

Decided to go out and buy an electronic tuner to help me tune it properly. A guitar-playing friend helped me tune it, and although it took a while it sounded really good! I had a long practise session and got up to page 18 in the book, which is where it starts making you read the music properly instead of giving you the names of the notes. I am taking a while to get the hang of it, but I can just about remember all the names of the notes while remembering where my fingers should be!

Something I found really helpful was playing each note into the tuner to get the right positioning for my fingers. I had been playing with them too close together for the last couple of days, and with the cello in tune and playing into the tuner it was much easier to figure out where I should be placing my fingers on the strings.

Hopefully this will sort out some of my tuning issues!