Lesson 36 - Recognising positions, New piece Popper

Today we began lessons with the majority of my focus for last week's practise session - the fourth position. My overall hand, arm, fingers are still getting familiarised with the placement and comfort but it is getting there. Slow and steady is the key, especially when it comes to tricky finger coordination. The exercise 30f is a good example of this when coupled with barred fingering.

I should also not forget to practise the rest of the exercises on chapter 30 of Langin book 3. This coming week, I will take a closer look at the first few exercises along with 30f; with the main focus being good, strong tone and overall intonation at the fourth position. This means paying more attention also to the bowing hand during these exercises.

Deryn proceeded to explain pairing positions and stressed the importance of recognising at an instant when they occur. This will improve my familiarity of the fingerboard and not be intimidated when it comes to the other positions and note reading. There is a lot of music theory presenting itself at the moment, which makes the cello lessons even more exciting as I try to cram every piece of information all at once along with the practical side of things. This seems to work for me as I am able to put into practise what is discussed during lessons and makes visualising placements on the fingerboard easier. Of course it also helps that patterns emerge on the fingerboard in relation to key signatures and note reading, you just need to pay very close attention to recognise it constantly for it to become second nature.

I find that the extra length and slightly crooked second finger along with very flexible joints make playing on the fourth position rather challenging than say, on the first position but I gather it will get easier as time goes by. There have been various changes to overcome these challenges but those too will constantly evolve to what suits me and the piece I'm playing at the moment. Deryn suggests I do some finger percussion exercises (via Bunting's Kinetic Touch) to hopefully strengthen my fingers, specifically the fourth one.

Next we went on to forward and backward stretch on the fourth position where Deryn demonstrated how notes now become a major third apart between the first and fourth finger. This opens up the fingerboard to different possibilities when it comes to playing the scales for example when you no longer play on open strings; D flat Major scale starts at the first position on the C string but carries on to the fourth position still on the C string and so forth instead of proceeding on to the G string. This applies to all the strings and more!

We then played through Satie's Chez le Docteur, a piece that I go to when I want a quick refreshment in between practise; it perks up the fingers and bowing hand. I do enjoy playing Satie's pieces as he is rather unpredictable when it comes to his compositions; a myriad of styles under one composer! Deryn says he is probably one of the earliest minimalist and also a satirist and this clearly shows through his music :}



Finally, Deryn says it's time I had a new piece to play. After looking through some pieces, it's decided that I start on some Popper! Exciting (read: challenging) times are a coming and this time, in the form of No. 5 from 15 Etudes Op.76 I (5:35 into the video) which means this week's practise session will be brimming with adventure.