Lesson 95 - Bow balance, cello posture

The 2 things stood out as the source of discomfort and annoyance recently; the symptoms of which isn't limited to fingers sliding off the fingerboard, horrible intonation, tension, bow without weight from the proper muscles.

The lesson started with Bunting's Bowing Regime on E minor one octave, starting on the D string. During this exercise, Deryn noticed that my cello was very unstable throughout and suggested that I lengthened my spike. I must admit to experiencing this "unstableness" recently but had yet to find a solution even after experimenting with several positions. It was only recently that I've started practising in front of a mirror and apart from being largely distracted, one could observe nuances of positions that may have affected comfort during playing.

With my lengthened spike, the cello was placed closer to the body and I sit closer to the edge of the seat as if I'm about to get up and leave - at first, this new posture was uncomfortable due to unfamiliarity but playing felt more stable and I could feel the "weight" coming down on cello from the fingers as they struck on to the fingerboard. I felt like I could trust the cello.

My current bow felt flighty and couldn't make Gracie sing for some reason so I picked up the bow that came with Nameless, my first cello. It is substantially a heavier bow albeit a little wonky as the construction of the stick veered to the left but this downgrade was a compromise for stability and for what it's worth, it provided what I needed. Noticeably, I had to work harder to make the A string sing. Playing closer to the bridge and in a relaxed manner also helped resonance as well as practising bow retakes in scales and arpeggios to consolidate bow strength.

It is definitely time to get a better bow now that I can feel and hear the difference. I'm not sure when I can commit to this, looking at the choices and price range. Some say a bow is like another instrument, all on its own. I agree with this sentiment which is probably why I'm dreading the process!

Some progress on Supplication - know what notes and where to go; shifts, stretches, semitones and whole tones - slow practise of the tricky, chromatic notes to familiarise myself with the piece is one way to do it. Practise without the note values so that I can focus on the fingering on the higher registers since the notes get much closer to each other as we go up the fingerboard.

Deryn tells me I need to be less timid in playing; bum notes and mistakes can always be repaired and improved upon. First, I need to change my personality - or at least, not be so shy. I'm unsure. This feels like an ongoing thing that is letting me down.

On the plus side, Deryn's arpeggios exercises are getting better. The fingers are more familiar with the hand shape required to tackle each set and there is more confidence in producing the correct sound and intonation.