Lesson 64 - Fifth Position, Three Fingers

There really isn't a fixed schedule or routine per each class as Deryn usually asks me what I want to do before we begin, mostly so she can address issues I've been having since last lesson. Due to this, figuring out which books to bring on a hour half journey for lessons can be more of an educated guess. Especially so when your only mode of transport is public as one will have to be rather reserved unless one wants to lug a suitcase along with the cello. Now if I was driving myself, I'd gladly bring my entire repertoire with me!

It wasn't always like this, of course. There was a modicum of structure when I started out but now it's more about fine tuning and sometimes even progress when the time calls for it.

For the past few weeks or so, I've been carrying with me Langin IV along with the usual affair of Feuillard, Popper and Sevcik; quietly hoping we'd crack open the new book. Today, it seems, is the day :) I asked Deryn if it was ok if we got back to Langin again after such intense and lengthy periods of purely technical fine tuning of what I've learnt so far. She agreed and added that even though learning the cello demands time and practise to progress, it is also good to learn more advance techniques to consolidate all that you've learnt up to that point. It is this constant balance that helps ease stagnation or rather, hopefully breaks up stagnation!

Fifth position and tenor clefs adorn the pages shamelessly; finally the higher registers are becoming available to me!

We started with more familiar positions - upper fourth which is technically also lower fifth where we also observe paired positions (first & fourth, second & fifth, third & sixth etc.) before we went straight into the 3 finger positions that is utilised predominantly at the higher registers. I was relieved as it encouraged a much more comfortable hand shape than when the fourth finger comes into play. Deryn reminded me that I was not to rule out my little pinkie so soon as it will serve a vital role in the higher registers when I needed access to more notes!