30 min
Getting ready for lesson with a small slice across my left fingertip. Hurts to play. I put a layer of some super gluish product on it, and it helped.

Warmup with D MAJ and Popper, then on to Tarantella. I'm sure that that is all T4- will be interested in hearing tonight, with the studio class/recital coming up next weeked.

90 min
Back dating, as I missed a couple of practice posts.

D MAJ
Popper #9
Squire Tarantella.
The usual fare, followed by another 2 hours of playing duets - Offenbach Op 50. Fun.

20 min
~8 min running through Popper #9 three times.

~12 min working Tarantella from memory. Some of the transitions are still shaky, and the fast scales are still scrambley. Something to discuss at lesson in a very short half hour.

15 min
The song for church tomorrow is Not Unto Us by Michael Neal. Usually there are two cellos, and I play the bottom line when there are two lines. Tomorrow there are two lines but only one cello, and the bassoon prefers to play the bottom line of the cello part. So much for all those rehearsals! Since much of the song is in Ab I thought it would be wise to run through it and mark optimal shifts for the top cello line. Now I'm ready for my 7am call, except for the waking up part.

60 min
wu ~5 min Feuillard #33, Popper #9
~5 min D MAJ thru 1/8

~20 min Tarantella working on trouble spots. Also read once thumb position exercise in Suzuki 6 just before Squire. Not sure what the purpose of having it there is, but it's useful for other things. Practiced timing of upward shifts on old bow, rolling on and pulling off with LH fingers.

~30 min Handel Chamber Suite in D, read Adagio and fingered Allegro. Adagio will need work at a future session. Preparing Vc1 part to read at next quartet rehearsal in 2 weeks.

30 min
Popper #9, 1st page
Bach Fugetta
Dvorak Bagatelles
Remembered I hadn't listened to the recording of the Offenbach Adagio, so did that while I followed the score. Very useful - doesn't seem nearly so impossible. Worked a few minutes on the melodic Vc1 lines.

That's all the time I had, as I needed to label all of the new quartet music I got in th email this week. It was a decent warmup for rehearsal, though.

Spent the afternoon at the kitty ICU - Chauncey is very sick with unexplained renal failure. No practice today.

Chauncey died in his sleep (or altered mental status) about 11pm. I was very glad I had sacrificed a day of practice to be there earlier.

10 min
Only played one service this morning, and it felt pretty short. This afternoon we're off to celebrate my FIL's birthday, but I had 10 spareminutes, so...

Popper #9 Played through slowly once, paying attention to the short stroke into the slur. Then a second time, stopping to repeat each measure stumbled upon until I played it correctly 3x in a row. Kind of fun.

30 min
Warmup 5 min playing through Popper #9 slowly. Concentrating on keeping th eweight the same on staccato strong crossings. Thinking of the second staccato note leading into the slur.

Bach prelude #3 10 min. Really just playing around. Trying varying amounts of rubato, slurs in the opening. Just the first half of the page.

Squire Tarantella 15 min. Started with the Presto, working on the hand balance in the fast notes under the slur, then the elbow opening in the fast down bow. Experimanted a bit with putting them both together, then moved on the the B section. Passage work in a loop, paying attention to finger patterns. Then playing from memory, again focusing on hand balance and good quality of sound.

Moved on to the A secion, working the 2 scale passages that give me the most difficulty in gestures. Finally trying the entire A section from memory.

I did think about practicing, but rejected the idea as impossible. Spent the whole afternoon running a kitten adoptathon at my house, with a short break to run up and seal the deal on my new car. Hardly had time to enjoy that when Chester and Charlie were adopted and I was thrust into depression. Didn't have time to work out, either. I know it was a good day, but it will take me a while to get over it.

15 min
Reviewed tricky bits of 2 Dvorak Barcerolles Bagatelles (I couldn't spell that, anyway) and Bach Fughetta. Ready for quartet rehearsal.

40 min
Warmup 5 min playing through Popper #9 slowly, focusing on the short note leading into the slur.

Then 35 min trying to figure out the Vc1 part to Offenbach Adagio for cello quartet. I think I'll be OK except for a very high treble clef part in the middle.

Took a short break at 25 min to check all the email coming in, but stopped the timer while I wasn't practicing.

10 min
Vaughan Williams
Just enough time to finger the worst (looking) spots in the 3d mvmt.

60 min
Vaughan Williams Symphony #2
Spent first 10 minutes marking mutes on and off with highlighter tape: Pink for on and green for off. There are lots of them, and that should help us anticipate them.

Next 50 min on fingering the first 5 pages of the 1st mvmt. Tedious.

10 min
Tarantella
Mostly a refresher, with some time spent on the presto. I don't feel like I'm making any progress. Yes, partially because I've been avoiding practicing it, but also partially because I have no idea what to practice to make it better at this point. Just running through it isn't changing anything.

10 min
Popper #9 Another couple of run throughs. There are a couple of spots that I know will trip me up at any tempo. My speed is limited by the slowness of my reading ahead with many accidentals.

15 min
Popper #9 Getting ready for lesson. Just ran it a few times, with a little slow work over the trouble spots.

15 min
Tarantella
Playing from memory. Still a few lapses at phrase bridges, but worked out with repetition. Still sounds a little sloppy at performance tempo. Want to cover B section and coda at lesson.

16 min
Jumped right in to Popper #7. I think I would like to cover this tonight in lesson. Worked with metronome, starting at 1/8=120, running whole piece. At dotted quarter = 52 started tripping over wicked string xing section at m 17, so spent last few minutes at dq=52 working those 6 measures. Finished with a run through at proposed performance tempo, which is about dq=60. Definitely improved, plus warmed up, to boot.