First Cello Lesson

So much awesome.

I hired a friend of mine to teach me how to play. She was the one who introduced me to cello (I think I went over that in my previous post). $15 an hour. Not terrible to have a teacher whose goal is to become a cellist. I think she would know what she was doing.

She (who will now be referred to as Teach) sat in one of the chairs that I had set up. I whip out my rental cello; more like stumble around attempting to get the bulky instrument out of its wretched gig bag case. Eventually, I managed to hand Teach my instument. She didn’t waste a moment.

We went straight into how to sit with a cello. I had experiemented with this previously, but that was purely on observation of symphonies that I had been to. I was allowing the instrument lean against me; the pro cellist all seemed very relaxed with the postures. Teach instantly corrected that situation. My posture turned chivalrous. My back turned aching. Apparently, one pinches a cello with their knees, so that both arms can be used to play. Cellos only get weirder.

While we were sitting with my cello, we went over anatomy (of the cello). It was very simple and much like most instuments… except the head is called a scroll and there is a pin and a tail piece. But, I knew after one run through. Pretty sure it was the only thing that I got right off.

Then, Teach told me to hold the bow. Of course, I held it like a five year old would: brandished like a switch (I am sure it would make a fine one). The correct way is like a claw. Now, don’t imagine that I was going to rip it to shreds. What I mean is that the fingers are curved and the tips are what is holding the bow. My hand is still hurting and it has been three days. I was determined to get the bow grip correct because she put a huge stress on it. We spend at least ten minutes on bow grip and every time a played something (it’s not strumming and it isn’t sawing…. what is the action of playing a cello?) I had her check my bow grip and fix it everytime. Not that I played much…

Finally, she started introducing me to playing. Not only did I have to focus on bow grip, I had to think about my left arm being in the correct position, my fingers being down  constantly (rather than uke, where if I press down with my ring finger, the rest of my fingers can be relaxed), making sure my bow isn’t sliding in the wrong direction, oh and did I mention bow grip? Keep my back striaght, arm relaxed, shoulder is too high, SCREECH, damn, what the hell was wrong with that?, bow grip, fingers down, there’s music too, which string am I on?, SCREECH. Finally, the tortorous attempt at playing was finished. I think it lasted a whole thirty seconds.

With my mind buzzing with cello lessons, I fed Teach a fine meal and payed her and sent her on her way. I hope this is the beginning of something fantastic.

A Birthday and an instrument… or two.

My birthday was a few days ago. The exciting part was not necessarily coming to a new age (though that does always have its thrill); it was two presents that I received in particular.

The first is a Tibetian Singing Bowl. These (rather pricey) bowls are made of an alloy of seven different metals and can be played like a child plays a crystal glass (no water required).  All though each bowl can only play one note, that note is incredibly pure and striking, almost piercing, going through one’s entire being. OK, yea, I get a little turned on by music. That’s a lie; I get really excited about music. Especially music that makes me feel awesome and happy to be alive. Even though each singing bowl only plays one note, every time I play one I am happy to be alive. That excites me.

The second is a cello. Sadly, not my own, a rental, for my parents did not want it to be a small interest and then get forgotten in a corner. I have the beauty for two months, though I have not an inkling on how to play it. Well, I have touched one before and played a scale after a minute of instruction, but that was all. I was backstage in one performance back in high school and a friend of mine was fiddleing with her cello. Not actually fiddleing, but in the sense of playing around without purpose. I sat down and played that scale. It was magical. I was happy to be alive. This was before my encounter with singing bowls. But, it was the same feeling; the light-heartedness I felt when I found that such pure power and tone could come from my hands; the exhiliration of creation without purpose, creation without forethought, creation without need. I wanted more. The want went dormant as soon as I went on stage that night. It was like glowing coals inside me: hard to see or sense the origin, but the heat and fire existed. Then, a few months later, I heard Apocalyptica, and they were like a breeze to my coals. The fire is relit once more. I asked my family more than sixth months in advance that a cello was what I wanted, just get me that and I would be more than happy on my birthday. Well, families do what they think is right, even if one demands otherwise. I received a rental, but at least for a time that creation is mine.
Hopefully, I can incorporate these two new instruments into some pieces. However, the next few months will be dedicated to cello, sadly allowing ukulele to fall slightly behind. A sacrifice I am more than willing to make.

Ukulele

Currently, ukulele is my past time of favor. I just got back from Kaua’i with my family (I know, not awesome… but it’s Kaua’i) and I discoverd there the style of stringing that replaces the top G with a G that is an octave lower. I was curious; I had walked into this random little ukulele shop (my favorite kind of shop in Hawai’i) and got into a conversation with the store owner about his ukes. He [Larry's Music] sells Kamoas, in case you were wondering. Got me jazzed about the low G stringing by giving me a free string. Went back to the condo, restrung my travel uke, instantly was revived by the way it sounded. Thinking of using this blog as my musical outlet. We will see how that goes.