Cello Lesson Number 17

Yesterday, October 23, 2026, I had my seventeenth cello lesson with Ana Ospina-Edwards at New School of Music.

Practice Session Notes

My focused practice time this week added up to only 3 hours 55 minutes. I took Sunday off completely; on Wednesday, Mike Block came over and helped me install the new Block Strap on my cello, after which I spent 60 minutes adjusting the strap and playing various pieces for experimentation.

After requesting no new material for this week, I continued working on:

• Position Pieces for Cello
  • “Target Practice,” p. 3
  • “Fanfare,” p. 5
• Suzuki Cello School Volume 1
  • “Rigadoon,” p. 18
  • Tonalization and C Major Scale (Two Octaves), p. 19
  • “Etude,” p. 19
• Blue Book of Tunes
  • “Ode to Joy,” pp. 34–35
  • “Bow & Fiddle” (“Drunken Sailor”), p. 36
  • “Scales with Slurs”, p. 38

I improved a little, but my progress has slowed down. As always, I continue to struggle with tension.

Lesson Notes

This lesson did not go well; I found it difficult to play accurately and with good intonation, and I found it difficult to understand new material. While walking home after the lesson, I realized that I had not slept well nor eaten well before the lesson.

We played “Bow and Fiddle” and “Ode to Joy,” neither of which are difficult for me in terms of playing the notes, but I don’t play these well. When we moved on to “Etude,” I made many mistakes. Ana worked patiently to teach me variations that will help me learn and play the correct notes.

Ana introduced me to extended second position and extended first position, in which I extend my first finger upward on the fingerboard to reach a note that is a half tone lower (e.g., from B to B flat on the A string in first position; from C# to C in second position). I could not play these consistently, but at least I know what to do.

Assignments

Ana assigned three new pieces:

• Position Pieces for Cello
  • “Extended Second Position Target Practice,” p. 13
  • “Ballad,” p. 15
• Suzuki Cello School Volume 1
  • “The Happy Farmer,” p. 20

My prioritized list is:

• Scales and scales with slurs with a metronome and drones as a warm-up
• Position Pieces for Cello
  • “Extended Second Position Target Practice,” p. 13
  • “Ballad,” p. 15
  • “Target Practice,” p. 3
  • “Fanfare,” p. 5
• Suzuki Cello School Volume 1
  • “The Happy Farmer,” p. 20
  • “Etude,” plucking and bowing with variations, p. 19
• Blue Book of Tunes
  • “Ode to Joy”

I will continue to practice “Ode to Joy” daily, starting early after playing scales, playing it slowly and carefully to improve the quality of my playing. At the end of the practice session, I will spend five minutes playing it with the backing track at about 120 bpm.