Cello Lesson Number 3
I began playing notes (usually badly) in the first position. I learned some exercises for warming up my wrists.
Yesterday I had my third cello lesson with Ana Ospina at New School of Music.
Lesson Notes
We started with some wrist warm-up exercises, and Ana wants me to warm up my wrists and fingers before playing.
Ana helped me with bowing; she wants me to make longer strokes.
I need to rock my bow across the strings instead of picking it up and putting it down again. (That is the lesson in the “Rock ‘n Roll” tune.)
Ana helped me with my left hand since I’m experiencing a lot of difficulty with finger placement on the fingerboard in first position. My left elbow needs to be up but also more forward to maintain a straight wrist.
I am also squeezing the neck of the cello with my left thumb. Ana told me to practice putting my fingers in position but making sure I can slide my thumb back and forth. The thumb goes opposite the middle finger.
Ana looked at my written work in the All for Strings Theory Workbook 1 - Cello. Now that I’m learning first position, she wants me to write the finger number I’ll use for each note for the exercises naming the notes.
Ana is moving me rapidly through Blue Book of Tunes - Cello. We played together, where I began playing notes in the first position. Sometimes my intonation was good, often horrible. We work on the following very short tunes:
- Rock ’n Roll (pp. 8-9)
- Around the World (pp. 10-11)
- Slow Slithers (pp. 12-13)
- Songs & Dances (pp. 14-15)
- Touchdown (pp. 16-17)
Ana asked if I wanted to perform in the student recital next week on Wednesday (June 3, 2026). I said I wasn’t ready yet with only three lessons so far. I asked when the next recital would be, and Ana said a year from now, but there would be opportunities for playing in the fall. I plan to attend the student recital to meet Ana’s other students and learn what they’re working on.
Ana’s student after me on Friday afternoons is Peter, who is an experienced player of the electric bass and guitar. Peter is close to retirement age, and he wants to learn cello as a challenge.
Once again, the hour passed very quickly and enjoyably, and I’m looking forward to practicing this week.
Assignments
My assignments for the next week include:
- warm up my wrists before practicing
- work on longer bow strokes and rocking the bow across the strings
- work on first position using the tunes Ana introduced in today’s lesson
Books
Since the All for Strings Theory Workbook 1 - Cello is based on material presented in the method book, I ordered the following method books this morning: