Lesson 25 - Practise loops and phrases

Today's lesson started with a few warm up exercises of the B flat major scales and arpeggio followed by the G minor melodic and harmonic scales. From this, Deryn pointed out that my left elbow was lower and further back than it should, along with my entire left side which seemed to cringe at the cello.

Also, my left wrist seemed more disconnected and independant instead of being part of the single unit that makes up the left side; back, shoulder, elbow, arm, wrist, hand, fingers. I'm still adjusting for the most natural cello position so this will click in due time. Hopefully!

From here, we spent the next hour focusing on the Concert piece by Couperin. The issues that needed special tending were bowing (whole bowed slurs followed by short bow staccatos under the same bow direction and then short bow staccato bursts followed by whole bow slurs over string crosses) and keeping the fingers on the strings at all times to maintain intonation. Playing the parts that I struggled with the most on loop and in short phrases certainly reaffirms the muscle memory. It is also in good practise to tackle the notes on open strings first so there introduces no complication to the focus on bowing. It seems the path to a seamless performance depends entirely on the planning of those bow strokes where one is able to play confidently and consistently without second guessing if there will be enough bow for that incoming slurred semibreve. I have a lot to practise and learn :)