Lesson 24 - Clean string crosses

When Deryn inquired about my progress on the cello, I explained to her that the majority of last week's practise was mostly focused on the techniques and about establishing a more solid grasp on the basics and foundation as I felt that I was unable to progress on a satisfactory level without these issues properly tackled and understood. She then asked if there were any specifics and I mentioned that I was particularly concerned about cleaner string crosses but more urgently, better control of bowing techniques; especially when mister wolf note howls disconcertingly even more so than usual whenever I play the affected notes.

Deryn whipped out Sevcik's Bowing Techniques and said that it was time to get down to some serious bowing. Finally, I get to play some Sevcik! The exercises are definitely more advanced than Langin's as it assumes you have the basics covered but more noticeably, the exercises are extremely conscise and covers as much ground as any possibly can to establish proper bow holds and techniques. Even with the few exercises we went through, I could already tell that they were vital to vastly improving my overall cello experience.

I am to learn the little study on No 4. as a duet with Deryn for next week. There is a total of 75(!) variations on this alone so I should be selective lest I spend the entire day playing them all to little or no effect on my progress!

Finally, it was time to play the pieces I've been practicing. Deryn says we've been rather focused on techniques and not enough on the pieces and that to achieve a balanced focus on both technique and musicality is vital to excel in either.

Today, I received a new piece to play ~ Concert by Francois Couperin. There are several movements within it so it will be a page turner, pardon the intended pun! It is a rather challenging piece, probably the most challenging thus far which means it will be an ongoing work in progress which will be revised in class for the next few weeks together.

As usual, Deryn puts my sight reading to the test and we crawled through 2 passages; firstly just playing each note on a whole bow and then with the suggested decorations. Looks like I have a long road ahead filled with challenging celloing :}