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.

There's snow out there!

This is the view that greeted me looking out my front door.  A good day to stay in and play cello. I guess we'll have a white new year.

Last night our family watched the movie Amadeus, a movie about Mozart.  I enjoyed it.  At the end of January, my daughter, Debora Lyn, is playing cello in her school district's presentation of Mozart's Requiem.   I'm looking forward to that.

In 1976, I lived in Salzburg, Austria for five months.  As this is his birth city, there lots of Mozart things--his birth house, the Mozarteum (a university of music and dramatic arts), Mozartkugel (a candy) , etc.

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Stopwatches

I took a lunch break and practiced cello for half-an-hour. I used a stopwatch to monitor the time. My wife said it's funny that my son Jonathan (he plays trombone) uses a stopwatch to make sure he practices enough but I need the stopwatch to make sure I don't practice too long. Oh Well back to work.

A Tale of Two Bows

I got a bow with my cello. It's not a great bow but it's OK. It's probably made of Brazilwood. My daughter has two bows. The one came with her amazing cello that we bought about a year ago. In the shop, it seemed to sound good but as time went on, she found she really didn't like it. So for a few weeks I was checking out bows on eBay. I know, I know, eBay is not the best place for stringed instruments. Also, you can have a good bow and a good instrument but they might not work together. You really should try them out together. I read of one person who tried out forty bows before find one they liked. Anyway, I found an fantastic deal on a JonPaul Legacy carbon fiber bow. This is the same model of bow that my daughter's cello teacher has and my daughter liked that bow. So I figured carbon fiber bows are probably more consistent between bows than wooden ones. Also, with the various guarantees I would only be out at most about twenty bucks if it didn't work out. But it did work out--I got a great $476 bow for $140 and my daughter likes it. So that is her main bow and it's been a good one except when it exploded (the hair popped off) scaring my daughter as she played. It was easily fixed--it just needed re-hairing.

So that means that I have two bows to choose from. The one that came with my cello and the one that came with my daughters cello which she said I could use. Decisions, decisions. My bow is easier to control but my daughter's old bow sounds a bit better. Sigh, I guess I'll go for control for now and use the bow that came with my cello. I am determine to master the cello so I'll get a better bow some day (the one I have is just fine for now). FYI, good bows can be really expensive. My daughters cello teacher's daughter got a new bow just be for she went off to college. It was $3700. Someday :)

I am progessing bit by bit. I'm getting better at holding the bow. This is just one of many things to master in order to play the cello well. I've averaged over an hour of practice since I got the cello on christmas but I noticed that my arm and shoulder are a bit sore. They're not use to what I've been subjecting them too. This is all part of the adventure.

How it all started

In kindergarten, my daughter stated playing cello in her elementary school orchestra. She is now a junior in high school and is still playing. After 11 years, she has become very good. About two or three years ago, her cello teacher said that we should start looking to get her a better cello since the one she was using was holding her back. So we started watch the ads and checking out cellos. We didn't find any good replacements.
Last January we were still looking. Later in the spring my daughter was going to be a solo artist in a concerto at her high school. She was also going to perform in a district music festival in a few weeks. So my wife and I decided it was time to do something but this was not a good time economically for us. I had been laid off at the beginning of January. However, my daughter did have enough in a saving account to pay for about half the cost of a good cello. With that we thought we could come up with enough to buy a good cello and investment in her musical future so we went cello shopping--not in the classified ads this time but at a couple high quality string instrument shops. We knew of a couple of shops and I did some research on the Internet and found another shop that seem good that we hadn't heard of before. We went to the first shop and she tried several cellos. We picked the best one in our price range and borrowed it for about a week so her cello teacher could check it out. Next we went to the shop I had discovered on the internet, Charles W. Liu Fine Violins in Midvale Utah. We found a good candidate there too. I then said why don't we try the next level up (you better watch what you say). So my daughter did and with first bow stroke, its deep, rich voice boomed out and any of the other cellos she tried paled in comparison.
We took the two cellos to here teacher to check out. The teacher played the one from the first shop and praised it as a good cello for my daughter. Then she tried the second. She took one bow stroke and simple simply said, "Yes." The Charles Liu cello won hands down. It is now my daughter's cello and it's a wonderful cello.
With that start, my fasination with cellos grew. I researched information about them on the Internet. I Filled my iPod with cello music. My interest (or as my kids say, my obsession) continued to grow. I loved to hear them. I decided that I wanted to learn to play the cello but we really couldn't afford to get one for me. For a while I started to play with a half size cello that we have but I'm a big guy and that didn't work out very well. However it did teach me just how difficult an instrument it is to master. This did not deter me though. My desire to learn to play grew and grew.
Then a couple days before Christmas, my wife and cello playing daughter went to Charles Liu's and rented a student cello for me. On Christmas day, after we had finished opening our presents, my wife excused herself to go retrieve a present for my other daughter. She asked for my cellist daughter to help her. After a few minutes I saw my daughter in the doorway holding a cello. WOW - I am still smiling inside and out from that--what a surprise. I can't thank my lovely wife enough for this. While this is beginning student cello (nothing to compare with my daughter's cello) it is one fine cello. I've spent two or three hours with it already. I've just about mastered Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (well I'm working on it anyway). The next step it to get a teacher and start lesson. YIPPEE! I can now start this adventure of mastering this wonder instrument!