Lesson 91 & 92 - 2 Octave Arpeggios

Lesson 91

Writing, or rather, jotting down as fast as I can, a rough draft for a blog post in the train journey home from lessons has been the only method that has worked thus far. Attempts at collating notes from memories hours later were met with futility; I've the worst short/long term memory ever - so much so, I'm great at keeping secrets for I'll never remember them.

This routine, sadly, has a huge flaw. If I were to do anything apart from heading straight home from lessons, the blog post will not be written. When this happens, it will be obvious ~ you'll see it for the posts where two lessons are squished as one ~ and this particular post which you are reading is one of those "squished" post. In fact, I can't even remember what happened last lesson so sadly, I'm not even able to list anything noteworthy from it. I'm sure it was full to the brim of wonderful anecdotes and enlightening tips.

I do remember practising mostly scales and arpeggios from Feuillard's Daily Exercises but no noticeable improvements were met in the department of memorising key signatures or positions. Dexterity of the fingers, however, were much better and this was felt during the playing of, "Tarantella".

Lesson 92

"Felt like forever since the last lesson," I reminisced silently as Deryn handed a rather hefty stack of notes held together by a robust paper clip. There was a large grin plastered on her face.

Large letters greeted, "2 Octave Arpeggios by Deryn Cullen" on the cover of these notes as I began flipping through them. I was both excited and nervous - could these unravel the geography of the cello's fingerboard? The countless attempts to play through the many passages of Feuillard's exercises met with futility mixed with frustration was always lingering; even with my best focused face on. There were far too many of them printed on the page, packed like sardines and each time I turn to these pages, impending claustrophobia lurked closely behind. And afterwards, after all the notes and exercises were played, it felt purposeless. What was I doing wrong?

But this. This new, well spaced out focused exercises that Deryn has so generously shared with me - they seemed different. For one, the positions were clearly laid out, along with the changes in shifts and fingering accompanying each note on which string. The keys were sequenced in the circle of fifths via the relative major and minor scales. This new approach was refreshing and playing through them gave me an overall audible sense of the key signatures in a wholly different experience. Could one get excited about arpeggios? I didn't think it was possible yet here I am.

So Deryn has tasked me to note down my experience during these exercises and if I found them useful or not, if I noticed any changes in my learning key signatures, basically if her notes have changed anything at all about my approaches to cello playing.

The last half hour saw Deryn challenging me to play Tarantella faster; almost without a care in the world. She wanted to boost my confidence as I was teetering on timid ~ something I'm very good at, unfortunately. To do this, we played the piece together and with the proper bow strokes.

It was fantastic. Like playing without anyone watching but caring that someone is; if you get my drift.

That's the bit that's missing when I practise at home, in the privacy of no one else. I'll play like a banshee but I'm not particularly paying attention to what I'm playing. Takes a lot of focusing to that so I usually skip it. It's a really bad habit, if you ask me. I'm trying, of course, but it's not as easy when you're tired after a day of work and no play. Excuses galore.