I'm Still Here

WOW!  It's been a long time since I've posted anything  Things have been very busy for me. My cello playing is still going strong although I'm still not finding as much time to practice as I would like.  Tonight I got a good practice session in -- 71 minutes.

I few months ago I asked on my twitter account what people's favorite rosin was.  I got several good suggestions.  Of all the rosins that I've tried so far, the winner is

LARSEN ROSIN FOR CELLO

This is a good rosin yielding a rich sound.  It also isn't as gummy or dusty as some rosins I've tried.  Now if I could just get a set of Larsen stings to go with it (FYI, Many feel that Larsen strings are among the best.  They are also among the most expensive).  I got this rosin at www.johnsonstring.com/.

Happy Easter

Today is Easter.  For a multitude of reasons, Easter is one of my favorite holidays.  Living in the western United States (Utah), Easter is often associated with spring.  Today, however did not seem much like spring.




When I looked at the thermometer this morning, this is the sight that greeted me.


I think that winter has decided to stay a bit longer.  This picture shows out dog Maxie enjoying the spring weather.

Regardless of the weather, it's a good Easter.  I am enjoying it with my family.  Since I don't work on Sundays, I will also have some time to have one or two hours of good cello practice.  I have had my cello for almost three and a half months.  I am thoroughly enjoying it.  I think I'm making good progress.  My teacher also tells me that I am.  As my skills improve my joy in play also increases.  The biggest issue I have with it is not finding enough time to practice as much as I would like.  I have practiced everyday since I got my cello.  Sometimes I only have half an hour to practice and sometime I don't get started until 11:00 PM.  Usually I practice forty-five minutes to an hour.  If I had time, I would probably practice one to two hours a day--oh well some day.

As I mentioned before, Easter is one of my favorite holidays.  Perhaps one of the reasons for this is what it represents.

The above picture hangs in the entry way of our home.  This picture represents to me what the true meaning of Easter is.  It shows Jesus Christ victoriously emerging from his tomb.  Religion has been and continues to be a major influence in my life.  At this Easter time, it is my wish for all that the life, teachings, atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ might help bring strength, peace and comfort to all.

Perhaps now would be a good time for those who have been blessed with some measure of musical talent to reflect on the words of Johann Sebastian Bach when he said "Music's only purpose should be the glory of God and the recreation of the human spirit."

May the joy of this Easter season bring you peace.

I am Blessed!

I do indeed feel very blessed.  I have many things to be thankful for and I do not acknowledge or express gratitude as much as I should.  It's easy to get caught up in the frantic pace of modern life and forget to count the many blessings that have been given to us. I have a wonderful, lovely and loving wife.  I have three intelligent, talented children.  I live in a fantastic neighborhood with wonderful neighbors. I have a good job.  I am also grateful that I now have a cello and can take lessons from an excellent teacher.  There are many other blessings that I have as well.

There is a is a song I know that says:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

 
Modern life can be stressful and it can be easy to forget just how much we have been blessed but if we "Count our many blessings" and are grateful for them, we will much happier.
 
Sometimes our trials are blessings in disguise. Since this is a blog about me taking up cello, I'll tell how a small trial has turned into a blessing.  I decided I wanted to start learning cello last year about March.  Due to finances I wasn't able to get a cello until last Christmas when my wife got me one for a present.  She was a bit concerned since there have been times when I've started projects only to abandon them after awhile. She was concerned that my cello obsession was also only a passing fancy.  However, the several months wait to get a cello only strengthened my resolve to get one and to learn play it and learn to play it well.  So by the time I got one I was very determined to do what ever it takes to learn to play it.  Learning to play the cello is not easy but I have really enjoyed it thus far.  I've had my cello for eleven weeks so far and I am making steady progress.  I have practiced every day since I got it.  I typically practice forty-five minutes to an hour each day.  Part of the reason for doing so well in learning the cello was the wait that strengthened my resolve.

Finally, have you ever noticed that blessings have a way of multiplying?  As I have become more involved with the cello, I have become more conscious of the sound quality or timbre as well as vibrato in my singing and I have worked to improve these.  As a result, my singing has noticeably improved--learning to play the cello has improved my singing.
 

I have been very blessed and I am grateful for my many blessings!

Eight Weeks and Going Strong!

It's been eight weeks now since I got my cello and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.  I also have started lessons--I've had five lessons so far.  It's been going really well.  My teacher has me playing from several book.  One of them is the first Suzuki book.  This is one that my kids used.  My teacher is skipping some of the songs but I'm currently working on the next to the last song in the book, a minuet by J.S. Bach.  I think it took my kids about a year to finish this first book.  So I thinking I doing pretty well.  My teacher also feels that I'm doing well too.

Things have been really busy for me lately--that's why there hasn't been an entry in this blog for awhile.  I guess two jobs and forty-five minutes to an hour and a half of cello practice a day tends to use up a lot of the, but I'm glad I have my cello.  It gives me a contrast in my life--a break my sitting in front of my computer writing Oracle database triggers, procedures and and functions (if you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry).

Requiem!

Last night we went to an amazing performance of Mozart's Requiem.  The local school district combined about 200 choir members and about 50 orchestra members from eight area high schools to preform Mozart's Requiem. About a month and a half ago I purchased a recording of this piece (the album cover is pictured to the left).  The performance was definitely on par with this recording!  It was conducted by Mack Wilberg who is an amazing composer, arranger and conductor.  He currently is the conductor of The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  

  

My daughter, Debora Lyn, played cello for this concert.  She even had a part where she played a duet with her stand partner.  She was really was excited to be working with Mack Wilberg.  It was a fantastic experience for her.  To the right is a picture of her after the performance (she's the one on the right holding a cello, of course).

My oldest daughter, Stephanie, was visiting us from college and so she was able to go as well.  My son Jonathan didn't go.  He was exhausted from spending the day in the mountains with his boy scout troop building a snow shelter that he will sleep in next weekend  Below is a picture of him and some of the other scouts getting ready to go.  He's the one in the middle in the red coat.

Oh Deer!

This evening, my daughter is in our living room practicing the prelude to the second Bach cello suite and I go in to listen.  She looks out the window and says, "There's a deer!"  I look out and sure enough there's a deer at the base of our crab-apple tree digging up and eating old crab-apples buried in the snow. I grab my camera and take his picture through the font room's bay window.  He's about 15 feet away.  So the real question is, did he come for the crab-apples or the Bach--I know which I prefer.

 There was other wildlife out in the snow today.  To the left is a picture of our dog, Maxie out frolicing in the snow.  She really does seem to love runnung around in it and eating it too.

It's now time for me to practice cello.  I wonder what I'll attract?

A Busy Saturday

It's been a busy Saturday.  First I went to a coordination meeting of a start-up company that some friends and I are working on.  This is in addition to my regular job as a computer consultant.  This start-up company really won't provide much in the way of compensation for a year or some but it's been a great learning experience and has great potential for the future.  Out product is a web based sport management system that cities can use for online registration for their programs and management of teams, schedules, classes, parks, etc. We've been working on it for several months and few cities have signed on as paying customers.

After the meeting and a quick run to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, I cleared a bit of the glacier from our driveway.  A couple of weeks ago, we had a big snow storm and it's been cold since then so the snow that was piled up on our driveway is now about 3 to 4 inches of ice.  Out house faces north which gives us a great view of the mountains (see the picture to the above--This is the view from my front door) but it also means that our driveway takes forever to thaw.  Then I practiced cello for about 45 minutes. Next, our family went to my son's city league basketball game.  His team won!


After doing a few more odds and ends my wife and I went out on a date.  Among other things we ate at Wingers.  We only ate about half of what we ordered and brought the rest home for my son and daughter.  They devoured it--especially my son but I guess that's what thirteen year-old boys do.  I was then able to practice cello for another 45 minutes.  I believe my practicing is paying off.  Bit by bit I'm getting better.

This last Thursday I had my first cello lesson.  A follower of this blog asked what I did.  The picture to the above shows the books I used and that I am now practicing from--a book of exercises, a book of hymns and a beginning Suzuki book.  I think I enjoy playing the hymns the most.  In fact, as I think about it, I really enjoy playing the cello and since I just starting, it's going to get better and better.

 It was a busy day.  It was a good day.  I was able to spend some quality time with my family and my cello.

My First Lesson

Well I just got back from my first cello lesson.  I've been practicing every day since I got my cello on Christmas day.  I've been using my kids old Suzuki book and my daughter has also been coaching me.  She's been playing cello for more than eleven years now.  However, I knew that I really needed formal lesson if I was to progress like I wanted to.  So Last week I called my daughter's cello teaching and she had an opening so I've become her latest student.  The lesson went well.  She was please that I could already play a bit.  I guess the daily practice has paid off.  She also said, "I like the sound of that cello."  So I guess my daughter did a good job picking it out for me.  I got myself a present as well.  I ordered a tuner from amazon.com  and it came to day. I took a picture of it as shown above.  We actually already have a couple of tuners.  My daughter the cellist has one as does my son the trombonist.  I have been using theirs but I'm sure there will be times that I will need a tuner and theirs will not be available so I now have one of my own.  For about the past year, I've really wanted to learn to play the cello and now I'm on my way!!!

High Tech - Low Tech

Why I Started the Cello

I live in two worlds now.  The high tech world and the low tech world.  For about the last twenty-five years, I've making my living as a software engineer, a computer programmer if you will.  In our culture we tend to identify ourselves with our vocation.  If somebody asks you what you are, we answer, a computer programmer, a teacher, a plumber, or whatever it is that we do to earn money but we are much more than that we are a parent, a child, a happy person, a smart person, etc. Also, it is not unusual to have more than one career.  I've had two so far.  I was a school psychologist and now I'm a computer professional -- two very different areas.  For the past several years, I have focused on my computer career to the neglect of other aspects of my personality. Lately, I've really wanted develop those other areas.  For what ever reason, in the past year, the cello has become a passion (or an obsession as my kids will tell you).  I believe there are several reasons for this.  First of all the cello is a beautiful instrument--both to look at and to listen to.  Second it uses a completely different mindset than computer work which is refreshing to me.  It's a challenge to learn to play well. It's low tech - some of the best examples of cellos are 300 years old (although there are some aspects of high tech like carbon fiber endpins, I still consider it a low tech instrument).  There is something satisfying to creating a beautiful sound from this wonderful instrument.  Mostly though, I think I wanted to learn to play the cello because it is symbolic of reconnecting with alot of aspects of me that have been ignored for years. A contrast to help me have more balance.  I will continue to live in both the high tech and low tech world.  The high tech world pays the bills and the low tech brings my a new level of satisfaction.

A Tale of Two Cellos

As I mentioned in a previous post, since about a year ago, I been very anxious to get a cello and start learning to play it. However our economic situation was such that it was not a prudent time to get one. After a few months, I was desperate--I needed to do something. We own a half size cello that my kids used several years ago and so I thought maybe I'll try to do something with it. First of all you must understand that I am a big guy. I'm 6'7" (about 2 meters) tall. The endpin of this half size cello wasn't long enough and so I had to prop it up on a box or thick book. Well that didn't work out so well. So after a while I gave it up and continued to forward to the day that I could get my own full size cello. I did learn a few things though with this small cello. I learned some basic fingering and I also learned that the cello is not particularly an easy instrument to play (beautiful to listen to but hard to play, at least in the beginning). I download alot of cello music to my iPod but after a while it presented a dilemma. It was beautiful music but it reminded me that I hadn't yet start on my desired journey of learning to play. It made me a little sad but it also strengthened my resolve. But then my lovely wife rented one and gave it to me as a Christmas gift. I was not expecting it. After picking my jaw up off the floor, there's been a smile on my face ever since. Practicing still presents some challenges. Since I'm so tall, my endpin is out about 18 inches or more and I don't know if I've found the best position but it will work. Since Christmas, I've been practicing about an hour a day and I am making progress. I can play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star pretty well now (until I get a teacher, I'm using my kids' old Suzuki books). I guess it will be a while before I'm ready for Bach, Hayden, Boccherini, Mozart, etc. but I'm patient and determined--I will succeed in this.