Now and then

I had a bit of a rough practice session tonight. Which is not all that surprising because I haven’t been practising enough lately. But I got through to sounding decent, and getting two of the three pieces I’m working on for my teacher to a decent standard, and with a couple more go-overs before my lesson on Sunday I should feel confident enough to really move forward with them.

Both of these pieces jump down into third and fourth position quite a bit, in the middle of slurs, in the middle of quick runs. I’m feeling quite good about it really, I’m finding my way down there quite easily now.

In technique session in orchestra the other week we were discussing how we think about the positions. I’ve heard other cellists describe just knowing where all the notes lie on their cello, others very much think in positions. So far, it works best for me to think of the notes, but mostly I’m navigating by where my first finger goes (like first finger on D on the A string, etc) – and thinking about it from there. Though, then again, I often think of where my fourth finger ends up as well. The ones in the middle sort of just fall into place in the middle I suppose!

Anyway… as I was checking my stat logs, I found a couple links to this post, when I had been playing for just five months. Ah… good to remember I was once struggling with my fourth finger in first position!