·:[ CelliMuse ]:·
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“Someday, I will triumph over gravity.”
~Mark Lord

Thursday (yesterday), D, Dv, Mom and I went to see David Finkel and Wu Han. They do all their music under their own music label and were wonderful to see. Mostly, what I got out of it is to “own” your instrument and make it a part of you rather than sticking to the militaristic beginner sort of style. David Finkel used his whole body to make the music out of his cello. It was fabulous. They just released a new cd, though it’s not supposed to be released in the US until April.

Today, D went to her school and to Dv’s school to show off what she’s been practicing at home on her ‘Cello, Dahlia.

Dv’s school had only a dozen people in attendance (or so), which was a great thing because both of us (D & I) were not quite sure of what we were doing or what to expect.

Our outline for the recitals was the same:

* Get the audience involved in the hand exercises we do.
* Introduce Dahlia and her bow, Aurora.
* Name all the parts of Dahlia (scroll, pegs, peg box, nut, strings, fingerboard, neck, body, f-holes, bridge, tailpiece, pin, fine-tuners).
* Name all the parts of Aurora (adjusting screw, frog, bow grip, stick, tip, horse hairs, rosin).
* Explain why posture is important and observe “noodle arm.”
* Play first song: French Folk Song
* Introduce Jillian (4/4) and compare with Dahlia (1/2). Ask audience why the difference.
* Play next song: “Opus” 42.
* Play next song: “Opus” 43.
* Introduce Archemedes (violin) and compare with Jillian and Dahlia.
* Play next song with Jillian and Dahlia: Hot Cross Buns, with D doing top part, me doing bottom part.
* D plays next song solo: “Opus” 41.
* D plays next song solo: “Opus” 44 (the hard one).
* Last song of the recital is Mary Had a Little Lamb. We play it twice. Once with Archemedes and Dahlia together with the audience listening. Once with Jillian and Dahlia together with the audience singing along.

We did it mostly this way, though I forgot a lot of things along the way and had to go back to redo them. Over all, it was a 30 minute debut recital for a 6 year old that went off VERY well. D really enjoyed performing for the audiences and they seemed to enjoy listening.

D’s class was much larger and there were several teachers and parents in attendance along with 30 kids. It was a large group to play for and I was concerned that D might get cold feet. But. D was very solid and just ate up the attention. It was really kind of funny. I asked her, once, if she wanted me to play with her, but she opted to play solo for the group - I was impressed. She kept hitting her G string when she’d go for her D string, which showed her nerves. She doesn’t do that much at home in our little practice room. I could tell she was nervous only by that little glitch and the one time she squeaked on Dahlia’s A string.

At one point after the recital was over in D’s class, one of the kids leaned over to tell another kid, “That was the best birthday present, ever.” Mom overheard and told me that later - I was VERY pleased to hear it. How terrific is it for a 6 year old to get to play a stringed instrument for all her classmates - ON - her birthday. We liked this format of “birthday” much better than the selfish - “It’s MY day and everyone has to do whatever I want” attitudinal child thing that normally happens on a birthday. D got to give a present to everyone else! And - she loved it.

I was surprised at the listening skills for both groups of kids - ages 3-5 and 5-6 - preschool and kindergarten. They clapped in the right places and asked good questions like:

* How long have we played?
* Is it hard to learn?
* Is it heavy?

I hope to plan another recital after we learn G on D string, so D has new songs to play for the groups. Maybe this time the music teacher at her school, who is adament that no strings join her band, will join us and listen to D play. I HOPE! It would be so cool if D could join the school band and get some other kids interested in playing a stringed instrument.

So, our goal will be to learn G on D and have a whole new page (or two) of short songs - like Ode to Joy - and maybe a song that D composes to play for the groups, say… the week before the end of school or so. THAT would just be cool. A good way to say, “Have a nice summer,” and a great way to end a school year.

Today is D’s birthday. We set up, as a special event for her and for a few classrooms, D’s Debut Cello Recital. We’ve been practicing the format for two months now, to learn Mary had a Little Lamb, the French Folk Song, and Hot Cross Buns.

Other songs we may play, depending on her stamina and nervousness levels, include two songs I’ve written. Those songs, Melting Moon and Moon Dance, have only the notes she knows in them, but they are a step more difficult than the others since they use all the strings and notes she has.

I’ll post and let you know how it goes! Wish her luck!!

Most people, I find, are quite interested in learning about the stars and the constellations that are up there. By the same tolken, they don’t know where to start. I often get questions on my Astronimagination tours like:

* Where do I start to learn this?
* Where can I get a telescope like yours?
* Is there better telescopes than yours?
* When is the next tour? Can I invite friends?
* What’s the best time to view?
* What can I see with a pair of binoculars?

And the questions just keep coming. I start everyone off with a basic astronomy log book and show them how to fill it in, then I start showing them what I know. I’m sure they’d feel much better, though, if they took a course on astronomy - like the free one out here.

About a month ago, I took on teaching Dv (5 years old) the piano. His piano is named Journey and he tells me that Journey talks to him. Mostly, it says that it’s tired and doesn’t want to be played right now. The imagination of a 5 year old! lol. He was learning, and continues to take weekly lessons, from Carrie. She wasn’t having much success, though, so I took the reigns at home to see if we could get him to learn and enjoy it.

I’m proud to say that he does love it now - 20 minutes at a time. ::grins:: If he plays Journey for 20 minutes and has a good lesson, he gets to play his V-Smile for 20 minutes before his nap in the afternoons. It’s all about approach, lol. I’ve been working with him on note recognition, where Carrie has him playing from books that teach him just the out-in-space kind of notes. They’re not anchored to the grand staff at all, so they just look like quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes that are a little higher or lower than each other. He didn’t know what to play that way until someone showed him and he memorized it.

Dv now knows Middle C; that it’s played with his right thumb, it’s location on both the grand staff and on the piano keyboard. He also knows D (played with right index finger, location on grand staff, and location on the piano keys) and E (played with right middle finger, location on grand staff, and location on the piano keys). He’s a clever little guy.

As of today, I’m starting him on writing the notes on the grand staff that he recognizes. I really want to set him to making small compositions with his three notes, but we’ll see.

D is doing very well getting ready for her recital that is coming up SOON! She recites all the parts of the cello and the bow. She has rehersed her songs until her fingers started hurting - which is terribly impressive for a 6 year old. She’s so excited about presenting her knowledge and her Dahlia that she can’t hardly get to sleep at night. It’s a real crack up. Yesterday, I introduced her to G on D string. It was quite confusing for her at first, to have two G’s. It took her mind a little while to grasp it, but she had it today and didn’t blink an eye about showing me both her G’s and playing them at the same time to hear the harmonix. Too cool. I’m so proud of her accomplishments! Is that wrong, to be so proud of something you’re not doing?

And, as for myself, after a whole year of playing, I’m working on 1/8 notes and slurs. I still bring the cows home, trying to get my fingers to work fast enough for those “fast” notes. lol. I’d better figure out the trick soon, though, because D is just about ready to learn those notes, too. She wants to play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” - and that has those 1/8 notes in it! So, we’ll work up to it. I’ve been practicing “I’m a little teapot,” “Happy birthday,” “This old man,” and “There’s no place like home.” All with those 1/8 notes and some with slurs. Lol. I don’t know if I’m hurting the cows’ ears or if they enjoy it, but they sure join in!

D & Dv really enjoy looking at the stars in our almost-lightless night sky. We ask the neighbors to turn out their outside lights and the viewing is fantastic. Each of them have star logs and draw what they see in the stars through the telescope or our binoculars. We look at the moon, the nebulas, constellations, and anything else that looks interesting. Lately, they’ve been just pointing to a star and wanting to see it through the telescope. Yikes! For an amature astronomer, it’s hard to find those little bitty twinkles of light so they can see them up close!

The other night, our first clear night in a long time, Dv came racing out to the shop to find me. “We can see the stars, Aunt Jay! We can see them! They’re out tonight! There’s no clouds!” He was so excited because I told him that the next night we had where there weren’t any clouds, we’d get the scope out and they could look at the stars. So. First, we looked at the Orion nebulas, then they wanted to see Sirius and Polaris. Then we just picked stars at random to see. It was fun.

I am planning an Astronimagination Tour for our next clear night sky, and we’ll have a few guests over. D & Dv will be able to show off what they know, show off their log books, and just enjoy their company while we eat dinner outside on the deck and look at the sky.

I use several different programs to make sure I’m looking at the right things up there, but first and foremost is a program that recently (in 2005) went with GPL licensing and is a free download. It’s Stellarium and it’s wonderful. The only thing more that I could wish for in this program is a red-screen so we don’t loose our night vision. But, you know, it’s just awesome and sometimes you just have to commit things to memory so you can guide others.

I’ve been playing cello now for 11 months. On my birthday, the 27th, it’ll be a full year. So, what have I been doing for the past year?

Well. Let me tell you!

With my first cello, I learned how to tune first. When I got it, it wasn’t set up at all (for safe travelling). So, not knowing how to do any of it, I went to my first lesson with an unstrung foreign object that I had never heard. My instructor, Richard Frost, was NOT impressed with my cello, though he didn’t say anything about it - it was a good beginner’s cello - especially for someone who wasn’t sure if she was going to stick with it or not.

Professor Frost first had me learn open notes and told me to get some books, All for Strings theory and sheet music. I sounded horrid! Squeak and squall, sharp shreiks and hitting two strings at once. I felt so sorry for my Professor! He gave me practice to do with just the bow, at first. I thought he was a little nuts - the sound came from the cello strings, not the bow! Or so I thought. Ha!

Before we would go any further, I had to master the bow. I practiced at least twenty minutes a day, which is a loooooonnnng time to hear yourself make those awful noises. And, let me tell you, the cello is not an instrument you can be quiet with. As you can see from my Cellmoooo story, it really brought the animals in to see what was dying. lol. I finally figured out, after MONTHS - three of them(!), how to keep my bow on one string. I learned how to develop the right pressure, the right speed, the right location on the bow, and have the right “pitch” of the bow (the right perpendicular angle to the strings).

D was beginning to learn the recorder, as she wanted to play flute, but was so intrigued by the sounds of the cello, that she decided she wanted to play it as well. So, we got her a 1/2 size cello (too cute!) and we went to lessons with Professor Richard together. I wished several times that I could have known what he thought of our little team and how much of a chance he thought we might have. Of course, he’s a good teacher and never once told us we were terrible. hahaha!

About that same time, he and I discussed why I was having so much trouble. He explained, using his violins, how different strings can sound and how different bows can sound. It was the same instrument, but the sounds produced were dramatically different. So. I got an upgrade to a German cello ($1500!), an upgrade of strings ($125, installed!), and an upgrade of a bow ($300!). I had as much in my first upgrade bow as I had in my whole first complete cello setup! It was a bit of a shock, let me tell you. My strings were two different brands, C & G Heliacore and D & A Jargar. About that time, I also started doing internet research and discovered that most cellist prefer Pirastro Obligato strings. So, I bought a set of those to try out, too.

D hounded me continually to practice cello with her. D named her cello “Dahlia” and I named my German cello “Jillian.” “Is it time to practice yet?” “It’s time to practice our cellos now.” “Dahlia will cry if we don’t go practice now!” “We have time to practice cello now, right?” She asked me once every half hour or so daily, from the time we awoke to the time we practiced. It was comical. She kept me practicing the basics, so I got pretty good at them. She was getting good, too. We stopped seeing our Professor for August, since he was out of town for the month. We didn’t hear from him again until the beginning of October and I had other priorities to spend money on at the time.

I’ve been teaching D what I know of the cello. I’ve even created some kindergarten level papers for her to learn the notes on the staff. She does exceptionally well with those! About that time, I was still looking at different bows, and found the “Incredibow!” I decided to give it a shot. I ordered the Aurorabow! and, when I got it, tried it against the bow I had previously purchased. It did sound better than the upgrade bow, but only marginally. I decided that, even though it was a full size bow, it would be D’s upgrade bow. She was thrilled with it, since it was pretty and looked like it “had the rainbow in it” and that, “it must be from the fairies!” I left it at that, since she was so pleased.

I found, about that time another bow. After doing some research on it, I discovered that it was a rare little thing. I found it on eBay and had been doing well through eBay on my cello stuff. So, I bid on it. And I bid almost to the price I paid for my upgraded cello! I paid a little over $1000 for it. It was worth, according to my research, nearly $30,000. And when it touched the strings of my cello, you could IMMEDIATELY hear the difference. The sound coming from my cello with that bow was rich and full and it fulled the room and entered your soul. It made YOU become part of the sound it played. It caught my breath and I actually was moved to tears with the sound. I knew then that this was the real deal and I had a special prize in this bow.

So, after my upgrades, I have a great sounding set that I play kids’ melodies on. Lol! Of course, I’ve purchased and started to attempt other music. The Rohan song of the Great Hall (out of LoTR) is one that I especially like. I can’t play it very well, but I couldn’t play AT ALL just a year ago. The more you practice, the better you sound, that’s for sure.