Friday, November 17, 2006

Work, work, work?

Oh, I had a wonderful day this morning at practice. I was so happy to see my cello after not playing all yesterday. Of course, I had to go file my papers on why I was gone yesterday and such. But, when I came back to relieve Peter from his case, I caught how much beauty he holds. I've been so bitter and close-minded to the thought of losing my gorgeous red cello and called him ugly and such. He's not, he holds so much beauty in every single thing other than his F sharp; that can possibly be worked around. My good friend, Zach, who plays the viola and sits first chair, (like me, woo!) turned around and started talking about his practice session last night, I love to hear about them.. Anyways, Peter was out of tune and since everyone in first period is immature, loud, obnoxious, and ignorant, (with the exception of about 2-3 people...) I went into the hall to tune. I've always been terrified to tune with the pegs. But, I successfully did today and it was great. I went in after talking to Brian and sat down to play a piece from Shirl Jae Atwell, Rythmn Sticks/Stix, We played a couple new pieces and some from Carol of the Bells. I don't know why, but, today, I opened up my heart and mind to Mrs. Plyler, who is a musical prodigy, but, I think, she would rather be on vacation other than teaching a bunch of gossip-filled, undevoted teenagers. Tyler and me went to her after school and I think she was excited to see my intrest. She gave me a book on vibrato, FINALLY! AH, and she gave us a piece to play at my father's wedding. It's 2 parts. One part Bach, One part Beetoven. She gave me a hard case, because, we have a performance tomorrow. I went upstairs and picked around.

I need to work on:
a) Learning to play higher on the strings (fourth position and up)
b) Vibrato, vibrato, VIBRATO!
c) Longer bowstrokes (They're long, but, I want to master them)
d) My hands tensing up (I need to loosen up, I have bad circulation)
e) Pretty sound (even though F sharp flutters)
f) Longer practice.

1 comment:

gottagopractice said...

Hi Shelby, I'm glad you gave Peter a chance. Being able to tune with the pegs is nothing to sneeze at. Enjoy your journey together.

My story of the hardships and the love of being a cellist.

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