Lesson 107A (12/17/12): Performance, etude, minuet No 1 & No 3

We went over a lot of information during this lesson and was a lot of fun!

Performance 

It was great having Adam playing at the performance so he could give me some feedback which I'm always interested in hearing. :). So a few things that he noticed: 

• Get settled and ready - Since I was running around like crazy getting everything set up (putting up signage, putting out the programs, setting up my camera, etc) for the performance, I really didn't have time to get settled and was working on stuff until the very last minute. 
• Next year I'll delegate some tasks, but since this was the first time setting up at this venue I wasn't really prepared with what needed to be done until I had a chance to really see how everything was set up - although things went smoothly. :). Anyway, he suggested that I take some time to get settled. He mentioned a lot of times organizers will "compromise themselves" which doesn't help the ensemble in any way and can hinder or throw them off instead, so its best to get myself settled and ready to play rather than getting things setup
• Adjust if needed - if I need to adjust, take the time to adjust! I had told him that my bun kept getting stuck in my G peg! He said when performing, what feels like a really long time - is not! So it's better to fix my hair than to have it keep getting caught during the entire performance, and maybe next time not to put my hair up the way I did! :). Although I did adjust my endpin during the beginning of one of the pieces and am glad I did! 
• Mistakes aren't that obvious - mistakes done on stage seem to be amplified, but they really are not as obvious as they seem. Really great advice! I watched the videos and none of the HUGE mistakes that I thought I did were as obvious on the video. 

Feuillard Daily Exercises 
Adam had assigned this etude book during the last lesson and I was able to practice a few measures, so we went over some specifics. 

• Trill Exercises, page 1
• Start off really slow and increase the tempo. I should start at 60 
• Since I have issues with my thumb and first finger, I should make sure that my thumb is "grounded" and not moving around too much. He also recommended that I keep my first finger down to practice feeling the space that is needed to complete a successful extension 
• Thumb - my thumb kept moving down the neck of the cello
• Reading Tenor Clef - the trill practice uses a Tenor Clef so I asked that teach me how to read this 
• Spread between my 1st & 4th finger - my fingers seem to be too close and I need to keep my fingers more apart 

Minuet No. 1

• This was a little bit better but my first and fourth finger was still a bit off.
• Know where my notes are located 

Minuet No. 2

• I played this a lot easier and better than Minuet No. 1 so we didn't spend as much time on this piece. For my semester test, I'll be playing Minuet No. 1 for Adam. 

[Fall CE Lesson #7]