December 13th 2019 Friday

Today’s lesson with Elizabeth was very useful and helpful. She made sure to ask me where and which part I struggled the most with. Our main focus was on the second page from the middle to the very end. Then she showed me what exercises to use and to practice with for the parts that I struggled the most with. Next, she asked me to perform the entire piece from the very beginning with a lot of passion, emotion and emphasizing the dynamics. Afterward, we kept focusing on how to start with the opening and later the timing was something that we managed to fix at the end. Finally, we worked on the intonation for some sections, especially on the first page towards the end. What I have improved based on what Elizabeth has told me is my ability to keep going and not hesitating anymore when I feel like there is a mistake. However, over the weekends, I will use the exercises that she gave me and practice it.

December 12th 2019, Thursday

Today’s bass lesson with Jeremy was useful and helpful to me. I learned 2 new songs on the bass. One was Bruno Mars Treasure. The rhythm was quite challenging as he told me I had to use my thumb finger to pluck the string quietly and use my index finger to pluck the string louder. Hand Eye coordination was a little tricky at first but I still managed to get some of the rhythm right, even though the rhythm was very fast. The other song I tried out with Jeremy was The Weeknd Can’t Feel My Face. For this particular song, even Jeremy himself said it was very tricky as the rhythm was an irregular time signature. I managed to give it a go and at the end, I finally did it.

December 11th 2019, Wednesday

I had my bass lessons with Jeremy and today we worked on this brand new song Locked Out Of Heaven by Bruno Mars. We listened to it several times and as usual Jeremy would ask me what is the key and later we would try to play. He would show me how to play and slowly guide me through it. As we were running out of time, he played the drums just so that I could get the rhythm right. In the end it was successful and I managed to memorize it.

December 7th 2019, Saturday

During the weekends I like to split my practice sessions. So Saturday would usually be for bass and Sunday would be for my cello. As today is a Saturday, I started out with some major and pentatonic scales because that really helps to warm up my fingers. Next, I’ll try out a few Michael Jackson songs such as Bad, Beat It, Thriller, Smooth Criminal, Billie Jean. Then I’ll move on to other songs that I mainly practice for my shifting and also to help me with extending and stretching out my fingers on the bass quickly but smoothly. Example, Don’t Start Now, Attention, Blurred Lines, Superstition, Runaway Baby, Can’t Stop The Feeling. My main problem is that I still can’t play with my two fingers, the index and the middle finger, even when I’m supposed to. So I try to play other songs that maybe do not have such difficult or challenging bass lines such as Bad Guy, Bad Liar, Uptown Funk, Cake By The Ocean, Get Lucky. But what I have improved is my ability to shift faster on the bass strings.

December 4th 2019, Thursday

I practiced on my own and the first thing I did was to practice the bass. So what I would do when practicing the bass on my own is I would go through every single song or bass line that I’ve learnt in the span of the several months that I have been here at CSVPA. I’ll normally rock out some Michael Jackson, for example, Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal, Beat It, Bad, Thriller. Then I’ll move on to other artists such as Billie Eilish’s Bad, Charlie Puth’s Attention, Bruno Mars’ s Uptown Funk, Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass, Dua Lipa’s Don’t Start Now, DNCE’s Cake By The Ocean, Stevie Wonder’s Superstition, Taylor Swift’s You Need To Calm Down and Look What You Made Me Do. Later, when it comes to practicing cello on my own, I always start with the scales and arpeggios to warm up and then I move on to the pieces, but I don’t start at the very beginning. I make sure to start with a specific section that I’m struggling with. Then, to relax a little, I’ll maybe move on to playing some film move soundtracks as those are my favorite. Lastly to sum it up, I’ll go to another piece that I’m working on for my audition and the next concert in March. The title is Nuoso Cinema Paradiso from the movie Cinema Paradiso.

November 29th 2019, Friday

Getting up early in the morning is hard, so having a lesson in the morning and starting out with cello is even harder, but I managed to push through as I have a concert coming soon. So as usual, Elizabeth and I started with the usual, scales & arpeggios, finger exercises, pizzicato exercises across the stringboard and bow wave exercises. Next we had to move on to the main piece which was yet again, the Gopak from Sorochintsky’s Fair. The middle section on the second page was still the problem as I still had a little difficulty trying to shift as smoothly as possible all the way from the first to the fourth position without making any hesitation or squeaking noises when shifting, which is what normally happens. We then moved back to the first page and started to work back from the very beginning which was the opening. Elizabeth told me I needed more energy as that specific part was the main eye opener of the piece. So she showed me how by giving me an exercise to do. Finally, I tried to play out the entire thing, although it wasn’t smooth but I still managed to play without any hesitation or stopping halfway.

November 28th 2019, Thursday

I had a bass guitar lesson with Jeremy and we worked on a new song which was called Dua Lipa Don’t Start Now. It had a really strong and significant bass line, therefore it made it even more challenging because it required a lot of strength from the fingers. Also what made it even more challenging was the quick shifts across the strings and glissandos, which is the sliding of the fingers along the bass strings. Jeremy told me it would take quite a while to master as this bass line was not easy and it had a really unique melody to it as well, so therefore he told me to practice it really slowly.

November 26th 2019, Tuesday

Elizabeth and I were started with tuning and then moving on to some warm up exercises for the bow and the left hand on the fingerboard and slurring exercises as well. We went through the G major (2 octaves), C major (3 octaves) and E major (3 octaves) , both melodic and harmonic minor scales. Next, we started playing one of Bach’s many cello suites, which was the Cello Suite No.3 in C Major, Bouree 1 and 2. Afterwards, we covered the main piece for the upcoming performance which was Gopak from Sorochintsky’s Fair. We made sure to go through section by section, espeically on the second page in the middle where the clef changes from the bass clef to the tenor clef. The shifting I would say was what I really struggled with, however we managed to get some parts right in the end. But we still had quite a lot to work on.

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