Cello Lesson Number 15

Yesterday, October 9, 2026, I had my fifteenth cello lesson with Ana Ospina-Edwards at New School of Music.

Practice Session Notes

I practiced for 8 hours 30 minutes last week. I made a plan before each practice session, I stayed focused on my goals for each session, and I took notes. On Tuesday I practiced three times for a total of 2 hours 5 minutes. This was productive because I reviewed old pieces and covered all of material I was assigned, but I was mentally fatigued on Wednesday and Thursday, when I practiced much less. I do not yet have the mental stamina for practicing much more than an hour a day without losing enthusiasm.

In Blue Book of Tunes, I practiced “Scales with Slurs” for the D major, G major, C major, and A minor scales, always using a metronome and sometimes using a drone. After a week, the slurs began to feel less awkward under my fingers. I increased the tempo for all four scales from 60 to 80 bpm. I practiced “Ode to Joy” with special focus on the slurs, and I worked on memorization and increasing my tempo over the week from 60 bpm to 70, 80, 90, and 100 bpm. I practiced the melody and harmony parts of “It’s Raining,” and I recorded the harmony and played it back while I played the melody. I increased my tempo to 80, 90, and 100 bpm, but the audio example is played at 120 bpm.

In Suzuki Cello School Volume 1, I practiced “Rigadoon,” working on the preparatory exercises first before playing the piece. I often forgot to play C natural, automatically playing a C sharp after so many weeks of playing pieces in D major. I could play “Rigadoon” at 50% and 60% of performance tempo when I played with backing tracks. I continued working on “Andantino,” reaching 70% of performance tempo when playing with backing tracks. Looking through my notes, I see that I practiced “Rigadoon” and “Andantino” very little compared to the pieces in Blue Book of Tunes. To me, that suggests I’m trying to cover too much material each week.

During my practice sessions, I tried to reduce tension by not squeezing the neck as much and keeping my bow light on the strings. But when I’m not thinking about this, I revert quickly to bad habits.

Lesson Notes

At the start of my lesson, Ana always asks me how I’d like to start. This week, I actually made a plan before my lesson, and I asked to start by playing scales with slurs, using this to warm up my fingers. Ana wants me to play scales faster (I play very slowly). I mentioned that I practice with a metronome to increase my speed, but without the metronome I still play slowly. Ana says I need to develop an internal metronome (that ticks faster).

From Blue Book of Tunes, we played “Ode to Joy” as a duet several times. Ana wants me to play it faster, so I tried, but my internal metronome and my fingers wouldn’t let me go very fast. Ana says I should play “Ode to Joy” at an upcoming student recital. I have always liked this tune from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

From Suzuki Cello School Volume 1, we played “Rigadoon,” and Ana gave me suggestions for playing it more nicely. I kept making mistakes, and I haven’t memorized the entire piece. Looking back at my practice notes, I see I didn’t practice “Rigadoon” very much in the past week.

Ana introduced me to second position. She gave me a digital scan of Rick Mooney’s Position Pieces for Cello, and she demonstrated “Target Practice” on p. 3 before having me play it a couple of times. In this exercise, I move between the following notes: open D on string II, D harmonic using my ring finger on string II, D in first position using my fourth finger on string I, and D in second position using my second finger on string I.

From Position Pieces for Cello, Ana also assigned me “Fanfare,” but we didn’t have time to play it. Ana marked where I’m to play in 2nd position and where in 1st position.

I have ordered a paper copy of Position Pieces for Cello from Johnson String; this book is not available digitally from the distributer, Alfred Music.

Assignments

• Suzuki Cello School Volume 1
  • “Rigadoon,” playing faster and from memory with more expression
  • “Tonalization”
    • C arpeggio
    • C Major Scale (Two Octaves), as written, and then with slurs
  • “Etude”
• Blue Book of Tunes
  • “Ode to Joy”
  • “Bow & Fiddle,” with a little second position necessary
• Position Pieces for Cello
  • “Target Practice” on p. 3
  • “Fanfare” on p. 5