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.

10 min
Warmed up with D Maj scale.
Feuillard #33 detache.
Perpetual Motion in 3 positions.
Desperately thinking of something to do at my lesson tonight, given how little I have practiced this week. I think a little time on thumb position might be it.

30 min
Tabata warmup
Same as Tuesday's

I am beginning to feel progress happening, especially in Feuillard #8 (the slinky hand upward). Even the downward part feels a little less impossible.

I really love this warmup. I think a big advantage is not having to think about what I'm going to do next. The focus on each task seems much more pure.

40 min
Same tabata workout I did on Wed, followed by 5 minutes each of Tarantella and Haydn C. Yes, I'm cramming for lesson tonight. I can hear the difference in the pieces, though. This has proved to be an effective way of isolating the technical bits and practicing them outside of the music.

30 min
Tabata warmup
Timer set to 10 reps of 2:40/:20
Tasks
1. Feuillard #33 short detache and warm up "body commitment"
2. Feuillard #2 var 17 2nd measure without bow, then big bow
3. Feuillard #33 with Haydn short down long up bow pattern
4. Feuillard #33 with Haydn short slurred 2 down long up pattern
5. Feuillard #8 var 1 with slinky hand shifts
6. Feuillard #34 var 4 and 34 ud
7. Feuillard #35 with Bach bowing 3 slurred down 1 up on middle note
8. Feuillard #36 with expository chords
9. Suzuki Haydn prep Perpetual Motion
10. Suzuki Haydn prep for m40

Modifications and notes:
(3) worked best with a metronome to keep the rhythm honest
(4) took awhile to get into the bowing. For this one, the metronome was a distraction. Looking at the notes helped.
(5) Too much to do in 2.5 min, so ended up repeating the first two hand patterns in a loop.
(8) Icky chords. Ended up just working a C major chord. Need to find a more useful chord progression. (Maybe Duport 7?)
(9) and (10) Ended up slowing way down to work on tone. Must unlock the hand from the frame while playing the notes.
(10) Practiced bowing variations before double stopping.

Learned: 20 sec is not long enough to get up, look at the list on the computer, and turn the page. Next time, need to at least mark the pages for quick page turns, and consider printing out the list.

Also, this is a *great* warmup. So great, I need a little break before I practice!

Stopwatch manual

32 min
Warm-up with Feuillard #33 a few times through with short detache at a variety of tempos. Then Feuillard #8, var 1. This is triplets ascending up the A string a step at a time in C MAJ. Exploring the notes with detache bowing.

Moved on to Haydn C exposition. Focus on the little bowing variations, alternating between the phrase and working the bowing in Feuillard #8. After 20 minutes, moved on to the second half of the exposition, learning the notes and fingerings in T4-'s edition. I notice that the Henle ed has different double stops than the other editions I have seen. Wonder what's up with that?

15 min
Warmup with random notes, then Feuillard #33, followed by a few random chords, then #2 var 17, 1st measure. I am a total spaz, but the coordination is slowly coming. That took about 5 min.

Popper #7
I fear I have forgotton many of the lesson tips about bringing that middle section up to speed. Spent most time there, comparing and contrasting the gestures. Didn't feel very efficient, but think I made some progress.

12 min
Warmup with Feuillard #33 detache at various tempi then #2 var 17 to get the finger pattern gesture on fingertips thing going.

D MAJ scale, practicing contrary motion with foot presses R on down L on up, linked half notes then 4 slurred quarters then 4 slurred martele quarters. Ridiculous swaying, on purpose. A glass of Kistler helps.

30 min
Warmed up with Feuillard, #33-35. Several iterations of 33 and 34 with different bowings, then the 3 Bach bowings on 35 - u2d2 in ds, u2d2 bowed, and d3u1. This is a very good preparation for working in the Bach.

Which is what I did next, focusing 1/3 on m37-44, the d3u1 bowing, and the bulk of this segment on m44-60, those thumb position chords. Within that, my primary focus was on the kinesthetics of moving into each chord change, working only the u2d2 ds bowing. I'm starting to get a feel for the large level changes required of the left elbow to facilitate the transition into and out of thumb position.

I took 2 days off for no very good reason, so figured I had better practice today. It was a short morning in church - only one service, and other than being there an hour early for rehearsal that took only 20 minutes.

24 min
Started with a Feuillard warmup. Did a #33 detache, then slurred bowings on #34. After about 4 min jumped into the Bach chord section. Finally realized that the "Bach bowing" I have been doing on #34 (up/down over 2 strings) is not going to do it for an alternative, since Bach is actually over 3 strings. Spent some time learning the chords to Feuillard #35, which is 3-note chords, and did some "Bach bowing" there. The again ran through most of the rest of the prelude.

I still feel like this isn't very good practice, as I am not absolutely committed to the bowings that I have chosen. I suppose I should just commit and then really practice.

25 min
Do not feel like practicing. It's been raining all day and my cello is a big wolfy, buzzing mess.

Nevertheless, I started wit Feuillard warmup, first detache #33 the a couple of chord variaitions on #34. About 4 min.

Jumped into Bach prelude. The chord section seemed too much to deal with today, so I focused on the first phrase. Used my new bow hold and pedal assistance to try to make a C MAJ scale as clean as possible. Not easy tonight.

A few forays through the rest of the piece which were not very productive, and intermittant detache cleanups on Feuillard.

At least I did something, I suppose.

20 min
Started with false harmonics ala Iberia.

Feuillard #33 gooey detache at a variety of speeds. This really is a pretty good warm up.

Bach Air is not good to get the fingers moving, but is great afterward as a whole body warmup. Worked the phrases, playing with the balance from the feet. I think I need to change a few of T4-'s recommended bowings. But the little thumb position section is coming along well.

Playing Emma today - Petra is still packed from orch last night, and I decided to just leave it to take to church tonight. G and C really dead - need to replace these old Helicores.

56 min
WU with Feuillard #33, trying for that gooey detache. Working with bow hold, trying to reproduce what we came up with at lesson last night: 1 on top, 2 hooked under, 3 in curve of frog pushing down on ferrule, 4 curved into frog where it meets the stick. "Allowing" arm weight.

New feet placement, making sure I am not internally rotated at the hips, using feet to push against floor to give more support. Rt foot pushes on downbow.

Bach Air.
Working on the new shifts. Lots of old finger shifts. New bowings, too. Appreciate T4- taking the time to work out recommendations. Supination to hook the string, start long notes with a phhhht instead of a kkkkkk. Spent about 45 min.

Finish with another 5 min of Feuillard, Emily's martele 4 and 8 to a bow. That was fun!

Index finger feels good today. Must be aware and not damage it again on Wed night.

12 min
Scale ~6 min. D Maj mm=60 w/u linked qu notes. Then Galamian slurred qr and ei notes, martele qu notes and ei note triplets.

Feuillard #34 and #33 about 3 mineach. Focus on gooey elbow.

6 min
d in linked halfs
Feuillard #34 floppy elbow
Feuillard #33 Bach chord pattern

Now that the Feuillard notes are memorized I am spending less time on them, focusing on one or two things. Excellent warmups.

10 min
Mini warm-up with open strings, D tonalization and arpeggio, Cossmann on G without bow. Focus on left hand loose and gooey. My fingertips are a little sore today.

Feuillard #33
Back and forth between detache and legato 8/bow. Trying to maintain the same suppleness of left hand with both bowings, easier with slurs. A few passes with left hand only. Would be interesting to video without sound to look at left hand. Memory is good - didn't need to pull out the music today.

Feuillard #34
Just worked the Bach chord bowing (uddu).

18 min
Progr subd on ds D-G. Feeling the small hand circles on the 1/16 notes.
C tonalization
Cossmann x1 down C string

Feuillard #34
Continue wu with 1st 4 bowings, progr faster on 4, more hand circles.

Feuillard #33
Memory is pretty secure with detache.
Played "start anywhere" game. Six measures, number 1-6. First note is C for 1st 5m-mid, high, high, low, mid (here, "high" is middle C, I2, "mid" is III4 and "low" is IVo). m6 starts with F on I. Didn't have a die handy, so randomly picked measure number to start on, or did patterns like 246135.
Found mm with fastest secure, regular 1/16 notes=68 (up from 1/8=96).

16 min
Both Feuillard #34 and #33 are sticking pretty well in memory, especially considering I didn't look at them yesterday.

#33 Spent a few minutes reviewing the chords using bowings 9, 3, then 4 at accelerating speeds.

#34 got the notes down at tempo I was practicing earlier, mm 1/8=96. Not completely stable at faster speed. Had fun trying out different bowing variations - not so hard looking at the notes, but the uneven ones really screw with the note memory.

18 min
Feuillard #33
Memorizing. mm 1/8=96. Started from the end backward, 1/2 meas at a time. Repeat 3x in a row. Did the two lines separately then together, entire ex 3x in a row. Shakiest spot is beginning of m 3. Short detache. Start bowings tomorrow.

13 min
wu: open string subdiv to 1/16 on D. Felt the outer hand kick in and the 1/16 notes felt like small circles today. I think that is improving.
C Maj tonalization
Cossmann down D string

Feuillard #34
Have chords pretty well memorized, but not automatic yet.
var 1-9, 34 d/u. The last felt like chicken wings.