Lesson 48 - Common fingering patterns

We started today's lesson with a couple of scales using common fingerings namely D and G Major 2 Octaves. My main focus for practise being paying close attention to the positions and notes I'm playing rather than the "drifting off" method that I seem to fall back on constantly; with my ears being the guide to intonation.

I find that seems to be a bad habit forming within me due to wanting to listen whilst playing and not really paying close attention to what I am actually playing. This doesn't happen as often as I make it out to be but when it does, it only makes practise so much less effective than it should be. Oops?

Another contribution to this being my greedy sense of playing through all scales like its a chore instead of just focusing on getting one done very well before continuing with another. I suppose because of the common fingerings and patterns in distance between phrases, it makes me less inclined to practise them as diligently; once you've done one, you've done them all!

Deryn then went through the first movement of the Marcello Sonata with me for the rest of the class. I couldn't decide between this or Vivaldi for my first reportoire so instead I'm allowed both. Yippee!

At first, I was certain I preferred the Marcello but after playing through the first couple of movements and listening to both via youtube videos, I liked them both equally as each was challenging in different ways and I could see them both adding to my technical abilities. However, for the moment, I chose to look at Marcello first before Vivaldi.

As I started out practising using the Peter's Edition, I had already established bowings, fingerings and even dynamics for the piece. Instead we were going to look at another edition by Schott which had considerably different well, everything; right down to the overall feel and approach to the piece. For instance, there were no fingering markings, bowing nor dynamics found on the score so it was really up to the discretion of the cellist. I really prefer this approach as I've mentioned previously regarding the vandilism of scores, not to mention limitation in interpretation but mostly, i'm a stickler for clean scores! Probably something I should deal with lest it gets in the way of learning :}

Of course, I had to pencil in key finger markings on places where it is allowed as reminders, ie. position changes at a beginning of a phrase.

So now I see the piece differently again. The Peter's Edition was from the 1950s so the approach to classical music was very much Hollywood style where everything was overly dramatic and saccharinly sweet; lashings of legatos and crescendos were very much the trend those days. A cellist that comes to mind is Leonard Rose :)

Marcello composed the movements of this Sonata in a not so usual style of slower movements sandwiched between faster ones with the last one almost always being the one you show off your technical prowess. In true Baroque style which was also popular with Beethoven, the ending of the first movement is prolonged as is possible; sometimes even as long as the movement itself! The reason behind this was more of a notice for the then audience (despite knowing much more about music than the current general audience) that the ending was coming and you should be ready to stand and applause to your hearts content when it does; akin to the "applause" lightbox in a television studio during live shows.

Finally, the Benedetto Marcello Cello Sonata no.2 in E Minor for your listening pleasure.



For some reason, the cellist has added trills to notes that did not ask for trills. Possibly they have a different arrangement? I should really ask Deryn about this approach.