Practice Sessions 1 and 2

Since I bought the cello on Monday, I have practiced on it twice: Tuesday and Thursday.  Being me, I thought I was going to sit down, put bow to string, and beautiful music was going to glide out of the instrument.  Well, no.  It wasn't quite like that.

I currently am in possession of Klengel's Technical Studies for the Violoncello - Volume 1.  I also have J. S. Bach's Six Suites for Cello Solo and Brahms' Cello Sonata No. 1 in E Minor.  Cellists reading this post will be saying "Andrew, no."  These pieces are well beyond my level, as I can barely make it through the scales in the Klengel.

My first practice session was kind of disastrous, as I couldn't even get the damn thing to stay in tune.  I didn't know whether it was the instrument, me, the climate, or some other factor.  All I knew is once I finally got the instrument in tune, it was immediately out of tune after I finished a single scale.  I muddled through a few two-octave whole note scales before giving into temptation and attempting the Bach.  It was a good exercise in finding the notes, but I certainly couldn't take more than a few measures.

Thursday's results were similar to Tuesday's.  I struggled to get the instrument in tune.  This time, I would tune a string, and then the action of tuning another string knocked the first string out of tune.  That was maddening, and I screamed once (but didn't throw anything) before finally getting all the strings at pitch.  I got bored with the two-octave whole note scales and tried some quarter note scales with different bowings.  I then treated myself to a few measures of the Brahms.

What I need is a beginner's book of cello solo pieces so I can actually begin learning where the notes are.  Having played the violin, I can maneuver myself around the cello.  Of course, the increased distance between the notes is an adjustment I need to make (it's greater than I expected).  On the violin, the next pitch up always meant one additional finger.  On the cello, it sometimes means two fingers.

Since every good blog has links, I will give you my secret to tuning without a pitch pipe/tuner/tuning fork.