Second Lesson

It's been a busy week and I haven't had time to write an update.  Monday night was my second lesson.  My instructor is very encouraging saying I was progressing great and saying "I wish all my students learned as fast as you do".  Which is funny because I don't think I'm progressing fast enough.

We covered more of the basics like bow movement.  He said imagine a fairly small tube that you have to keep your bow in as you play.  I think what he was saying was that I was moving it around too much and not keeping it under control.  He also had me work on using less of my upper right arm and more of my lower by opening at the elbow instead of moving the whole arm.  I found when I concentrated on these things it was much easier not to hit the wrong strings and to keep the bow contact with the strings closer to where it should be.

He also stuck a thumb pad to the back of the arm where my left thumb goes.  I guess that's cheating but makes it much easier to find the right place where my fingers go on the finger board.  That helped tremendously.

He's also a great instructor in that he knows just when, and how much, to push me.  He wanted me to learn the song Frère Jacques. I went over the first few bars with him there and he said this song contained an "advanced" technique called the slur.  On a trumpet it was easy, just don't tongue the notes but on the cello you have to play multiple notes in the same bow stroke.  He demonstrated then I tried it.  He said I wasn't supposed to learn that for a few more weeks.

I've only had two 10 minute sessions to practice since Monday.  Not that I'm neglecting it but my schedule has just been so crazy this week so far.  I have nothing planned for tonight so hopefully I can get a solid hour in and this weekend also practicing more.  It's weird how now I look forward to practicing my cello but hated practicing my trumpet when I was younger.  I guess that's the difference in being an adult student, you do what you want.