A few weeks ago, before my cello teacher fell and broke his collar bone (In six places! Healing fine after surgery.) he asked his students to come up with a list of goals for the summer. Here is what I sent him, and what I have been working on:
Skills / Technique
We’ve added a two-octave Eb Major scale to my scale work, which has some nice extension and shift work in it, particularly in the second octave.
My finger pattern work (I need to write about this separately to better explain) is coming along. For the first time in a lesson I was able to play (with metronome) whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes, and then work my way back down to whole. The simplest pattern is D - E - F - G - A using the D- and A-strings. There are five or six patterns, each with an alternate fingering.
At my lesson this week, while review the last couple pieces in book 1, David said that he had paid me a complement without my being aware of it. He said that his mind had wandered while I was playing Rigadoon. I was doing so well that he didn’t have to stay focused on it or what I was doing. That felt pretty good to hear and to learn.