Lesson 109 - Sevcik Exercise 5

We started the class with Sevcik Exercise No.4, whole bow crotchets at first before proceeding to the whole bow staccatos. I'm rather wary of playing the latter, even during the privacy of my own practise time away from prying eyes for fear of annoying (scarring) anyone within ear shot. Of course, the point of the whole exercise is to play it well enough so it doesn't sound like the raspy howling of a vengeful banshee.

But anyway, we did that for a while before going back to the first variation and as always, the bow takes to the string like hot knife to butter. Easing into whole bow staccatos is possibly the most rewarding warm up exercise for the cello.

We then looked at Exercise 5 where Deryn suggests I pay attention to effective fingering and explore the fingerboard to apply the notes away from open strings and the neck positions. Doing so, not only was it clear that there were obvious patterns emerging from the seemingly innocent passages but it also increased the "challenging but fun" level of the piece exponentially.

Later, when we were both fully warmed up, it was Popper's turn. This time, tackling the not so familiar territories of bars 38 to the end. The chromatic progressions of the notes formed, yes, patterns on the fingerboard so allowing the fingers to understand where it should go will all be easier on me if the geography of the fingerboard, particularly in the high registers, was less unknown. Of course, one needs to keep in mind effective fingering and in doing so, remember that a good hand shape over the strings during closed or stretched positions will aid tremendously in this conquest.

Playing scores in treble clef on the piano is unlike playing the same notes on the cello. For some reason, my brain goes mushy, I get all flustered and my fingers tend to slide around until my ear "finds" the right key. It's obvious I need to spend more time in that part of the fingerboard!



Deryn plays the Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata Op. 19 :}

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