play the cello more

hmmm i’ve only played my cello twice this summer… i’ll have to get it out more often while my parents are gone vacation.

The trouble right now is that there are too many people living in the house with me and I am not 100% comfortable playing so they can hear. Tonight, enough of them were gone that I pulled out the old thing and sawed away ‘til my bowing arm was sore… which actually wasn’t very long. Wow, I’ve lost my “cello muscles!” How strange is that!

I worked on Irish Wash Woman, fiddling around with a few variations, a couple different octaves…

Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes I wonder why I even bother, but deep down I know that when I play my cello, I’m home.
So I keep at it and hopefully my dreams will come true;)

I am prepared to change my take on this goal to be: perform at an open mike night. I’ve been monkeying around a bit off and on, finding my way again on the strings. While trying to find my “voice” on the cello, I stumbled across a lovely podcast of roots music called the Woodsongs Radio Hour. Their house band has a cello-player.

And to solidify everything, my mom bought me a nifty ELECTRIC cello off eBay for my birthday. It’s the most improbably non-cello-shaped device you can imagine. But it’s SOOO cool. So my goal now is that sometime before my birthday in June of ‘07, I want to perform live in front of strangers. If I can do this, maybe I’ll get a tattoo to mark the event.

The next intermediate step is to pick out a piece. I’ve written a musical setting to John Donne’s “Batter my Heart” sonnet that I kind of like but if I wanted to hide behind a cover song, I’m fond of Stephan Foster’s “Hard Times,” Leadbelly’s “Midnight Special” or Rev. Gary Davis’ “Sampson & Delilah.” Still thinking, still thinking…

For 3 days this week I took the cello out of the case and sawed away at it for a half hour or so. I’m trying to learn the “Irish Wash Woman” which was my Grandmother’s favorite Irish reel.

I’ve got it down pretty much in two different octaves and I’m playing around with doing the whole thing using double stops (bowing two strings simultaneously.) I want to know how to play that in various different keys as well, but I’m getting ahead of myself, I suppose.

What I’d really like to do would be to play my cello at a folk-y open mike night. Maybe that’ll be when i mark this goal really accomplished.

Took it out of the case, tuned it up, did a few scales, and gave “Ev’ry valley shall be exalted” a go. Gonna need to give it a few more goes. And the other 20 segments that we’re playing will need some work too. Nothing like a deadline for motivation—performance is December 11!

An acquaintance approached me tonight about playing for her chorus’s “DIY Messiah”—no formal rehearsal, just show up and do it. I’m willing to give it a whirl, but if she gets me the music tomorrow…I’ll have about a week to practice, then I’m out of the country for two weeks and the performance is the day after I get back. Which might normally work out, but seeing as how I haven’t had the thing out of the case in a few months…it’ll be an adventure.

imreunited with my baby!

doing this it feels great!

im playing a little every day!i love my cello so much-but after a monthoff my technique is a fter getting ridiculous! still im determined to nail that Saint S aens concerto!