I warned Clayton that I didn't get a chance to practice the past few days, probably something that most teachers don't like to hear... but when I don't pick up the cello for more than a couple days I sound AWFUL!!
Bb Major Scale
Bb scale... well, it's getting there...ish..
I'm fine going up to 4th and 6th position, but going back down from G to F, I keep missing the darn F! I can't feel how its supposed to feel like and its totally driving me nuts!
Intonation & Double Stops
Clayton had me do some double stops to listen to see if I could hear if the notes were in tune. I still can't tell with Bb and Eb though... but we discovered two things:
1) I really need to work on my double stops, so he assigned just bowing on two strings at a time. Yes - its that bad!!! Back to the beginning...
2) My angles were off again, so he assigned the 'Rock and Rolls'
May Time
Since I was also working on May Time with Clayton, he wanted me to work a little bit on phrasing.
He mentioned that typically the crescendos occur 3/4 way through the phrase and even 3/4 during the piece as a whole. So he had me try doing a crescendo on the E on measure 3. It was pretty difficult selecting different places to increase and decrease the volume.
Also, because it's Mozart, he mentioned that this should sound more flowy and smooth, which mine was pretty heavy and "stacatto-ish." Although I think some teachers teach it so its on the "heavier side" because of the hooked bowing. To make the piece sound more smooth he had me work on using more bow and making sure my bow changes were more subtle.
In Measures 11 & 15, he suggested that when I play the slurs that I make them more even and smooth and not so "sing-songy" because it's Mozart after all. I discovered that if I place my fingers down more gently this accomplished this. I had been working on hammer-ons and pluck-offs so I was dropping my fingers down pretty heavily which can change the sound.
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