30 min
Day 5. A busy day, and I didn't have time to practice before I left the house. Then in the afternoon I needed a nap more than I had a desire to practice. So it got left to the last thing, and I wouldn't exactly call it practice, but I did play for a half hour, and i did work on a couple of things.

I was going to jump right in to Bach, but Pi was sitting on my music stack, so instead I began with a D MAJ scale, then a d min scale. Played the first section of Prelude #2, but not from my marked part. Frustratingly bad since I last played it months and months ago, so played Prelude #3 instead. I can get through it now, but it's certainly not something I would want anyone else to hear.

Switched to current work, played Breval C followed by Squire Tarantella from memory. Worked a few minutes on the bow distribution of the opening phrases of the Squire with mm dq=84. Discovered that out, tip, in works for the first couple of phrases, then balance point for the next section. My previous tendency was to keep everything mid bow. We'll see if that flies next time it gets evaluated.

Last minutes spent on the opening thumb position in Handel. I really could use some tone production work in thumb position. I wish I knew what to do, as it all "looks OK," but just sounds bad.

So blah, but at least I played. I expect the next 2 days to be problematic as well, as I have stuff booked in the mornings. We'll see what happens.

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.

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.

Twitter log for 9/16.
The downside of the blog format is that you have t read from the bottom up.

According to tweets, 65 min over 1.5 hours. Turned timer off for 2 phone calls and quick bfast. No cheating! #cellopractice
12:26 PM Sep 16th from TweetDeck

8 min: fun part of the hour. Play through Bach Prelude #3. Bow hand is working really well today. #cellopractice
12:24 PM Sep 16th from TweetDeck

32 min: Bach Prelude#3 m44-60 chords in in ds u2/d2 for intonation, doubleminting the shifts. Fing m56-8. Freq stretches. #cellopractice
12:23 PM Sep 16th from TweetDeck

13 min: Feuillard #33. Mem 1st line (3m). mm 1/8=96. Build each fragment or meas until 3x right, until all 3m. Short detache. #cellopractice
11:31 AM Sep 16th from TweetDeck

12 min: wu w/progr subdiv open strings, C MAJ tonalization. Feuillard #34 mem chords, bow patterns 1,2,3,4,9,13. More 4 later #cellopractice

What am I thinking? It's practice time. Tweeting morning practice for @catepolacek, Stay tuned. #cellopractice
10:54 AM Sep 16th from TweetDeck