General reflection on String Ensemble
September
- Strengths: Played for 10 years in total and 6 years in Orchestra
- Areas should be improved: keep my bowing constant so other cellist can follow along
Whole month: I play the cello in String Ensemble. The pieces we are doing are not hard, but I definitely need to put in effort to play it well. Cello is heavy to carry around, so I guess this activity also pushed me to stay after and practice, which also helps me to release my stress after school while achieving my goal.
October
- Strengths: Motivated to play cello
- Areas should be improved: Balance the time between I spend on studying and playing cello
Whole month: I kept bringing my cello home for practice, which didn’t happen in a long time, so I’m not sight reading. I’m glad for certain hard bits of the piece it’s now much easier for me to follow and play. I’ve heard we are going to have a concert outside of school, and I’m really looking forward, and practicing hard for that.
November
- Strengths: Everything is on track + Enjoying the music even though its hard
- Areas should be improved: Practice more as I get less and less time for cello playing outside of school
11th: We are still going through the Romanian folk dance. In cello part, most of the notes we have are long, repetitive or rhythmic. For my cello friends in the ensemble, most of them are confused by how should the bowing and fingering work for different melody. As I played the cello for 10 years already, I can figure all that faster than them. I really appreciate that they can ask me for help. This doesn’t only improve them but also help me to recap the knowledge my own teacher taught me when I was still in Shanghai, which is already 3 years ago.
18th: We went through the 3rd and 4th part of the Romanian folk dance. As we only have no more than 10 rehearsals till the actual show, everyone is practicing hard. Besides being attracted only to the notes itself, three cellos can now talk about the bowing, the fingering and the dynamics. We presented our own way of approach and then agreed on one. It really helps to, say, bow in the same direction, so we can all control the dynamics and don’t need to look at others or have a sudden change in bowing in the middle of the piece.
25th: We shift from practicing Romanian Folk dance to Mozart again. It is a shorter piece but harder for all string sections. However, we picked it up really quickly. We worked on the dynamics more this time as this need to be emphasised in order to get a good music performed. This is also one of my weaknesses, and I wish long practice of techniques can bring my cello skills to another level.
