Cello Lesson Number 9

I had a summer hiatus of five weeks since my last cello lesson. During this time, I practiced thirty of the thirty-four days, averaging a little more than an hour a day on the days I practiced. I keep a detailed practice journal, and I have a plan for each practice session to make my practicing focused and efficient.

I normally practice in a room in the finished attic of our house, where I can close the door. But that room is not air conditioned, and the temperature rises to 90 °F or even higher on hot summer days. So I have been practicing in the air conditioned living room, but this is not as convenient and is a little more public than I like.

I spent the five weeks working slowly on the early pieces in Suzuki Cello School, Volume 1. I really like the approach this book makes, and I made good progress, but I did not move forward as fast as I thought I might.

I spent $48 on a year-long makemusic.com account to have access to the piano accompaniment for the Suzuki books. I logged in and tested it using my iPad, and it works fine. The user interface allows me to set various speeds for the accompaniment.

A significant accomplishment was that I worked on learning to bow without using the Wada Bow Grip, and now I’m comfortable with using a traditional bow hold.

Following general advice to listen to music and watch other cellists, I went to a live concert of chamber music, and I watched quite a few YouTube videos of cellists. This has been helpful.

Yesterday, August 14, 2026, I had my ninth cello lesson with Ana Ospina at New School of Music.

Lesson Notes

Ana had me play each piece that I had practiced and gave me pointers and corrections.

For “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Variations,” Ana had me practice the staccato eighth notes to make the cello ring out when I stop the bow by using longer bow strokes and less pressure. She also had me work on playing the sixteenth notes by holding my bow more loosely and using my wrist and fingers more, making little circles with the frog to enable playing faster and more clearly.

For “French Folk Song” and “Lightly Row,” Ana told me I wasn’t saving enough bow for the longer notes. She wrote dollar signs over the dotted half notes in “French Folk Song” to remind me to save bow for these long notes.

For “Song of the Wind,” there is a part that is tricky for me where I have to use my fourth finger to play a G on the D string followed immediately by a D on the A string. From my guitar-playing experience, I pick up my fourth finger off the D string to move it to the A string, but Ana wants me to slide the fourth finger smoothly. I couldn’t do it during the lesson, so I will work on that during practice.

I have been practicing “O Come, Little Children,” but I can’t remember if Ana had me play it. But for the “Tonalization” exercise on the same page, Ana had me play louder with long bows, encouraging me to make the cello resonate so much that I could feel the vibrations of the strings. She also said that when I change from down stroke to up stroke, I should draw a little smile with my right elbow to make a smoother transition.

I had jumped ahead a few pieces to “Perpetual Motion in D Major,” which caught my fancy. I have nearly memorized that piece, but I kept getting lost when I tried to play it for Ana. Ana wants me to practice at 50 bpm and work my way slowly up to 80 bpm.

Ana wants me to work on my breathing. For example, when I’m starting a 4/4 piece, I need to count one, two, three, and inhale on four.

That was an excellent lesson, and the hour flew by. I have plenty to work on this week before my next lesson.