Trick or Treat

No way was anyone here going to pose for a Halloween picture, so I cruised the 'net until I found the perfect one. At first I thought Guanaco's new practice partners had fancy footy pajamas...

Thanks to Cute Overload for posting this last week.

Teaser

This is for Guanaco.

I'm not quite ready to tell you about Zoe Keating's performance (and it's not NaBlpPoMo yet, either) but here she is in the lowest box on the left getting ready.

I think one of the secrets to posting frequently is to have a clearly defined single point in mind for each post. That violates some of the advice I've read regarding bullet points, but it fits very well with what we know about adult learning and what I've observed about contemporary attention span.

NaBloPoMo (Gesundheit!)

Not been so good at blogging regularly lately, have I? It's not so much because I am so busy I don't have time to write, though I claimed so a couple of weeks ago. I am busy, but I've been writing while busy before. I think it's more likely to be because my blog is pretty much about two things, foster kittens and learning the cello, and I have impediments in writing about both of those topics at present. I have no new kittens since I'm still under the ringworm quarantine, and I have hours and hours and hours of cello or music things waiting to be digested, organized, and transcribed. Sounds too much like work to me.

So I have decided, with NaBloPoMo in November, to simplify that task. (Hey - check it out! NaBloPoMo is on Ning!) I'm going to try to jump start (restart) my blogging by committing to a post every day in November, and to do so each day I will be writing about one (just one measly) thing I have learned in the last few months about playing the cello or music in general. I think I've found a small enough bit that I can do it without being overwhelmed, but we'll see.

As a preview of coming attractions, this is my material:
* A two-hour master class and one-hour private lesson with Pedro de Alcantara, cello and Alexander Technique teacher and author of Indirect Procedures: A Musician's Guide to the Alexander Technique (Clarendon Paperbacks).

* A three-hour hands-on string education session with Phyllis Young, Professor Emeritus of Cello and String Pedagogy at UT Austin and author of Playing the String Game: Strategies for Teaching Cello and Strings.

* Ten hours of didactic sessions with Edmund Sprunger, a Suzuki violin teacher with a Masters in Social Work, and the author of Helping Parents Practice: Ideas for Making It Easier.

* Hours and hours worth of cello lessons with Peter Howard, recently retired Principle Cellist of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

* Four hours of chamber music coaching with members of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

* Many hours of Alexander Technique lessons with Lauren Hill, who trained at the Urbana Center for the Alexander Technique in Urbana, Illinois.

* Tidbits from my voice lessons with Andrea Leap and maybe my piano lessons with Guna Skujina.

* The opportunity to see Zoe Keating, former cellist in Rasputina, perform live this past weekend.

I told you I've been busy.

For my sister

I saw this on Violinist.com and couldn't resist.

Busy, busy

I finally had a whole day at home, which I spent alternating practice hours with laundry and my 15-minute jog/15-minute walk on the treadmill. I'm beginning to think that skiing is a pipe dream for this season, but am happy to be up to jogging.

The practicing was cramming for a chamber music weekend tomorrow and Sunday. In addition to the ambitious program I posted a couple of weeks ago, I squeezed in four extra rehearsals for this weekend, plus last week I attended a medical professional conference that was here in town, and this week I attended a music teacher continuing education meeting featuring Phyllis Young (Playing the String Game). I hope to have more to say about that later.

Just wanted to check in before I disappear again for a couple of days. It seems I either have time to live my life or to blog about it.

Two's company

 

Three's a crowd

 

What's a girl to do?

Sometimes being the littlest is a disadvantage.

Coat rack

Thinking of taking up an instrument? Consider the 'cello. It is the most beautiful both visually and aurally, and also has many ancillary benefits. These include not only the general fitness induced by lugging the thing around, but the fact that if you have a hard case you never need to look for a coat rack.

What's wrong with this picture?

I'll give you a hint...



Most cello cases don't have tails.

October Practice Month

I wonder why September marks the start of new seasons for musicians. Yet another holdover from summers off for harvest? Or preparation for amusement during the long dark days of Winter? I surely appreciate the latter. If we have as much snow this winter as we've had rain this autumn, I'll be suffering from severe cabin fever shortly.

Now that my own musical activities are back in full swing, I find that I am again looking for a little tune-up in the practice department. More efficient = more activities I can participate in, you know. So I am delighted to find a couple of blogs that are focusing on practice, one for the month of October, and the other as its raison d’être.

If you haven't already, join me in studying Chris Foley's The Collaborative Piano Blog and Ben Clapton's Music Practice Tips this month.

Don't fence me out

After the Nursery was thoroughly cleaned, bleached, and dried I opened the door but set up a little fence to keep the cats from casually walking through the area. Was I surprised to look over a couple nights later and see Cricket sitting behind the fence. It wasn't at all askew, and as I was wondering how she got in, "hop," out she comes again. A few minutes later she hopped back in, then sat looking at me with her "I'll go wherever I want to, so there" face, long enough for me to show you my annoying little acrobat getting her own way.



Funny, she hasn't done it since.

Cello lesson 10/4

I'm not sure my heart's completely in it, but with the resumption of cello lessons my Fall season has started in earnest. We spent more than half the lesson talking about summer adventures and assessing where I am now and where I would like to go next. Then T- did something he almost never does, and that I have never encouraged: he went through my part in the Gaubert and worked out reasonable fingerings and bowings. My first teacher used to spend entire lessons fingering my parts, which I came to consider a major waste of time. But this was a real blessing, and saved me three or four hours of struggling.

After the marking I played for about 10 minutes, focusing on the first phrase. If I were to roughly summarize the steps we went through:
* Get the fingerings down
* Practice the bow gestures by air bowing while fingering the notes. Pay particular attention to where the bow speed changes, and where on the bow the notes are played. Play freely, with large muscular gestures.
* Play the phrase with attention to the musical elements. Focus on what I can "not do" (i.e. release tension) in order to make it sound the way that I want.

I left feeling inspired, and confident that I can learn this piece to play it for coaching in the next two weeks.

This is the agenda that I prepared before the lesson:

Goals with dates
Adult Chamber Music Weekend Oct 20/21 flute/cello/piano trio
Haydn Trio in D Hob XV:16
Von Weber Trio in g Op 63
Lully Suite arr. Cheret and Modzelewska
Gaubert Soir d’ Automne

Orchestra concert Nov 7
Berlioz Roman Carnival Overture
Elgar Enigma Variations

Suzuki teacher training audition tape – by Feb 2008
Faure Elegie

Additional Repertoire
Beethoven Sonata Op 5 No 2 (g min)
Schumann Fantasy Pieces
Gliere 10 Duets

Current Warm-up and technical baseline
Open string long bow exercise
...mm=60: 2 counts/bow,4,8,16,try 32 all strings up and down
Sevcik Op 8 one exercise/one string/day
...Ex. # based on day of month
...String based on day of week Su C, Mo G, Tu D, W A, Th D, F G, Sa C
Scale
...One scale/week, alt Maj and min
...Mm=88 acceleration pattern
...Arpeggio (I), 3 fingerings
...Thirds, first two octaves
...One additional specific goal each week (decide in or after lesson)
Thumb position
...Swan on thumb
...Grutzmacher 13 and/or sight read song or etude
...Offenbach Grand Duo Concertante Op 46
Bach 2nd Suite
...One or two phrases/week for technical elements
...Speed development outside of lessons
...Rotating review of chunks outside of lessons
Etudes
...?
...Would like to design etudes based on technical needs of repertoire in addition to or instead of assigned etudes

Adjunct schedule
MON Piano semi-private lessons
TUE Alexander Technique, ?piano trio rehearsal
WED Voice class, church orchestra rehearsal
THU cello lesson, HS Orchestra rehearsal
SUN church performance, flute/cello/piano trio rehearsal

New friends

I'm not completely out of fostering. You probably weren't counting, but I still have three longer-term residents, Sharae, GiGi, and Serengeti (Seri). I snuck Seri's back-dated log in a couple of weeks ago. Due to our recent unfortunate events they now get to join us in quarantine, so I'll have six kitties for at least the next couple of months.

So far Madeleine has a small lesion that is probably ringworm over her eye that we have cultured and I am treating topically. She was highest risk for catching it in spite of my routine kitten-quarantine precautions because she has long hair, doesn't cross-groom with the other cats, and really loves to have her face stroked, one of the hardest places for her to groom herself. So it was probably a slip in hand-washing technique on my part. Nothing otherwise - so far, so good.

I mentioned that we moved Seri over to my house partly to keep GiGi company. She seemed a little mopey after JJ left without her. It was rather entertaining for a few days, watching GiGi alternately play with and hiss at Seri. Seri is a trooper, though, a self-sufficient little creature who was found on the streets as a lonely only when she was about 9 weeks old and spent the first few weeks isolated because of her ear mites. Since she's been here she's made friends with all the cats and even wrapped her little flippy tippy tail around DH's heart strings.

Quarantine won't be so bad. These little girls are darling.

Out of Business

It's been a year and a week since I took in my first group of foster kittens. And now it looks like I have had my last for awhile.

Teddy had a little bald patch over one eye that turned out to be ringworm, a cutaneous fungal infection. It's not usually life-threatening, but when you are the ward of a busy shelter system it can be a death sentence because it's highly contagious, very expensive to treat, and can spread to humans who are usually not happy to catch it from a newly adopted pet.

Yesterday was a very traumatic day. I took the kittens in to be examined, they kept them for euthenization. And I'm banned from fostering for as much as a year, because they made a mistake and sent a kitten with an obvious lesion home with me.

I cleaned out the Nursery one last time, discarding nearly everything and soaking the rest with 10% bleach solution. It's hard to clean when you are crying. Then I took the Nursery sign down and threw it away, too.

That is all.

Betty, Hettie, Teddy, and Freddy

I have so many things to blog about that I'm not. Blogging. My writing outflow is like a bunch of tangled typewriter keys. Does anyone else remember typewriter keys?

So here's the most important thing today: a new group of kittens. These four are half of a group of 8, and really should still be with their mother. Somehow they ended up dropped off at the shelter without her, though. They weigh 13-15 oz, are the smaller-sized half of the group, and reportedly do know how to eat, but I'll assess that for myself after a little nap. For them, not me. So far they have succeeded in scattering kibble around the tub, but I'm not sure they ingested much.

They are splattered with mud, have scrawny limbs and little pot bellies, are known to have had fleas and ear mites (now treated) and probably have worms. But they desperately want hugs, love cuddling, and have huge purrs. They're adorable. And quarantined until the parasites have been eradicated and there are only kittens left.

I got to name them, so here you see Betty (female, tux), Hettie (female, black, largest white star and bikini), Teddy (male, black, middle white star and bikini), and Freddy (male, black, tiny white star and bikini, and the biggest mouth).

It's nice to be back in the baby business.

First voice lesson 9/19

This is going to be fun.

Last night was my first (ever) voice class. While I did sing in school choruses through 9th grade, I can't remember ever having any physical or technical instruction on how to produce music with the voice. Classes actually started last week, so I jumped right in without any introduction to speak of. While that has the advantage of leaving no time for worrying, I am glad I have some musical background, without which I would have been utterly lost.

We started with physical warm-ups:
* Roll head forward to strech neck, then to each side
* Drop head to chest and roll downward to hang at hips
* Roll back to standing

Breathing warm-ups:
* Pant like a dog
* Hiss out for 8 counts, quick inhale (relax to breath in) and repeat
* Same, for 12 counts

Vocal warm-ups:
* Sing zzzz in monotone for 8 counts, inhale, repeat
* Same for 12 counts
* Sing arpeggio with continuous zzzz, do - do sol mi do, where first do-do is an octave jump upward. Continuous meaning without discreet jumps to notes, just a continuous motion of tone toward and over them.
* Same exercise with either tongue-rolling trill or raspberry lip-blubber. (I can roll my tongue all day, but can't blubber worth a darn.)
* Same exercise using the words "I lo-ove to sing." Discussion of centripetal motion. Physical experience of same by swinging arms counterclockwise in large circle to facilitate octave leap. (An exercise involving randomly throwing a stability ball around the group was scrapped because we focused too much on the ball and not enough on what we were singing. Adults. Bah.) The goal was to make that octave leap in a smooth motion, no jerking from one note to the next.

We spent some time listening to recordings of vocalists that others had brought (evidently the assignment from last week.) I'm not a big vocal music fan, so it was very interesting to listen to singing as music, the same way I would study a cello recording. It was very exciting to start making connections about how tones become music. You'd think that is such a simple thing, but it's taken me a long time to be able to hear those nuances.

Next, singing last week's assigned piece, Amazing Grace. Important points:
* Open vowels, short consonants. Achieve this with very open mouth for vowels (exaggerate) and short closing for consonant. It felt a bit like chewing, and reminded me of one particular choir member in my last church who had a very lovely voice, but always looked like she was chewing the words. However, it was very effective. I found my throat opened considerably when I opened my mouth to sing those vowels, with a remarkable improvement in overall tone.
* Sing through the phrase, using the centripetal motion concept. Not blocky note-to-note movement. I can't tell you how exciting that was. This is exactly what I have been trying to achieve on the cello, with varying success. It was so cool to hear it happening without being buried in the technical "how." There's a lot to explore in the idea of making music "in the cracks" (i.e. between the notes, referring to the cracks between piano keys.)

Finally, we ran through the piece for next week, I'm Beginning to See the Light, circa 1944, by the committee of Harry James, Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges and Don George. New topic entirely. No big vowels. Short notes with swing and lots of bending, overt and implied.

My morning practice today was very interesting. I worked on my Bach invention (piano) first, and had intermittent interest from John, Cricket, and my newest foster, Serengeti. But when I started singing every cat in the house was sitting at my feet, watching and listening. Now, I'm not going to speculate on why they are so drawn to me singing, but this is a great piece of music. It just makes me feel happy.

Two weeks until the next class, and I can hardly wait.

Serengeti Log

Nothing to do with Africa, just a little addition to my foster crew with a face that calls to mind a tiny and absolutely adorable lion. I think D- feels a little bit sorry for me since she facilitated the adoption of Elle and JJ while we were in Scotland. So Seri is also a new buddy for GiGi, left behind.

SERENGETI (SERA/SERI)

06/07/2007	Est. DOB
08/15/2007	D- picked up kitten found as a stray found in Pine City, MN.
08/16/2007	She was checked out at LAH. She weighed 2.2 lbs. and no sign of fleas, but she had earmites. She was treated with Revolution and her ears were cleaned. She is a torbie (tabby, tortie with white trim).
08/23/2007	Seri vomits up stomach full of food and a huge live tapeworm. D- gave her a Cestex pill.
08/24/2007	First dose of Strongid
08/31/2007	First distemper shot
09/06/2007	Second dose of Cestex.
09/11/2007	Spay; Feleuk/FIV test negative.
09/14/2007	Second dose of Strongid
09/15/2007	Seri is not feeling well after spay; visited vet at Blue Cross Animal Hospital. Got one dose of amoxycillin that day and the next day started 1 ml doses twice a day to be continued for 10 days. She weighs in at 3 1/2 lbs.
09/17/2007	Sera moves to ggp's house for ongoing foster care.
10/02/2007	Third dose of Strongid, 0.9cc. (3.75 lbs)
10/02/2007	Second distemper shot
11/9/2007	Well-visit at WPC. Someone's stools tested POS for clostridium and giardia cyst. Ears look good. Panacure qd x 5d Distemper #3 Rabies #1
1/5-26/2008	Three week course of doxycycline 50mg/ml, 0.4cc BID for gingivitis (John had mycoplasma hemofelis on biopsy)
5/21/2008	WPC visit. Wt 9.5 lbs Viral URI, scant sneezing, mostly conjunctivitis. tx: Terramycin ointment OU TID

Glenmorangie

Oh boy, they feed you well on this train. Far too much to work off when you spend most of the day riding.

This morning we visited the Glenmorangie distillery and took the tour through the production facitlities. Not previously being a fan of Scotch, I found several interesting aspects of its production:
* the amount of CO2 produced during the second soaking of the barley is quite obnoxious
* the stills at Glenmorangie are 17 feet high, the highest in Scotland.
* Most of the flavor of the scotch is taken up from the barrels it is aged in.
* They use oak barrels produced in Missouri, but new barrels are too new for Scotch
* For the first 3 years, the barrels are used for Bourbon production.
* The barrel tops are painted red, and the first lot of Scotch is aged in them for 10 years.
* The barrel tops are painted black, and used for a second round of 10 yo Scotch.
* 20 yo scotch is produced by taking the 10 yo scotch and aging it for another 10 years in another round of red-labeled barrels.
* Special varieties of single malt scotch are made by using barrels that had previously been used to age port or sherry, rather than bourbon.
* The Scottish tax on whisky is 67%, due upon its exit from the warehouse.
* A very small amount of added water (1/2 tsp/dram) separates the oils and focused the flavor.
* You can only by Glenmorangie scotch at the distillery or Heathrow at the moment.

Too bad, I thought it tasted pretty good.

Train Day 1

After an hour's wait in the First Class lounge at Waverly (and our last contact with cyberspace for the foreseeable future), we followed a piper to our train, causing a minor sensation in the train station. What an unusual gaggle of tourists, and why is that piper leading them through the train station? Here you see the view crossing the Firth of Forth train bridge just outside Edinburgh, as we headed up the east coast of Scotland.

After tea on the train, the evening festivities included a ceilidh ("kay-lee") at Strathisla (-isla is pronounced "eye-la", as in island), home of one of the distilleries that produces Chivas Regal scotch whisky. We tasted several variants of the local whisky (12 yo, 18 yo, and single malt) and were introduced to a few Scottish dances (the Gay Gordon, Dashing White Sergeant, and Strip the Willow). I am happy to report that I was able to join in the dancing, as long as I didn't try to skip. We gave up on the Dashing White Sergeant quickly as a lost cause, but had quite a good time with Strip the Willow, which I am told is a common way to start a Scottish dancing evening, as everyone dances with everyone and it's a good way to scope out whom you might want to spend time with later in the evening.

The music was again provided by an accordion, this time accompanied by a snare drum. No fiddlers yet, but rumor has it I may finally hear one tonight.