These pieces are kicking my ass, and I can’t seem to play them at tempo unless I totally ditch intonation. They’re just runs. Maybe I should just quit, after all. It’s just pointless over the hill stuff and I should stop pretending.

Tomorrow’s practice :

• m.52-92 review
• m. 122-140 new
• Rehearsal J-K

One thing I have to say is that this is really forcing me to focus my time. There are 200 measures in this piece and if I take chunks of 20 per day, I should be wrapped up in 10 days, leaving the rest to polish.

RHYTHM and TEMPO must come before pitch. Then pitch,then put it all together.

I am currently writing a book on computer programming in the R programming language. This leaves me little time for blogging. However, I will be posting my orchestral experiences after the Orchestra breaks for the summer.

So, even though I have several different tuners, not counting the ones on my phone, I decided to plunk down about $30 for a pair of A440 tuning forks, each attached to a resonance box. I wanted to see if I could make the forks vibrate sympathetically when I played a perfect A. The forks come in pairs so you can hit one and hear the other vibrate sympathetically. They are available from most scientific supply stores, but you want to get them pitched for music, not the 256 Hz that many kits come with.

Haven’t been totally successful, but my A ear training is getting better.

Had a minor injury that kept me away for two days, but some heat and ibuprofen and I’m back on it. No, you don’t care about these minor old people matters, but as this is a blog about the challenges of playing in midlife, it’s somewhat relevant.

It also means I lost the beginning of my thumb position callouses.

My Intonation is rusty and focused today primarily on extended second position for the Humoresque. Lots and lots of target practice. Once I get that D to C shift on the A string, life will be peachy.

I also want to set my goal of paying more attention to my right hand, which is tricky at times because I’m left handed. I always wondered if I would play better with a Charlie Chaplin left handed cello. Unfortunately, those are expensive, and it’s more than a matter of just reversing the strings and moving the soundpost (which is itself not trivial).

This has been my teacher’s mantra lately and is emphasizing that I get the arm into position early as I get near the third octave of my scales.   The arm should be guiding the fingers instead of the fingers finding the arm.  We are applying this to the C# minor scales. Does anybody know why we do melodic on the way up and natural on the way down, btw?

The scale is coming into focus now, although I’m still working on scales 30 minutes per session.   But I’m glad I’m tackling it instead of avoiding it.

Moving to the Suzuki Piece, Humoresque, I’m trying to use this idea to shift more confidently.