The two stages of my creative process seem to be pretty solidified by now (for classical performance anyway): the learning process and the performative process. I think that the essential thing here is that I start with a piece that has already been composed, and meticulously notated. The process varies depending on the genre - whether or not it's a musical language I'm already familiar with, or one that I have to learn (this happens a lot in new music...) 

The steps in the learning process are always the same, regardless of genre - of course, depending on the difficulty of the piece, the weighing of the categories can change rather drastically! 
Starting a new piece in so fun, exhilarating, and pretty soon frustrating. I often do a first, quick pass at fingerings and bowings, just to have something to work from, and assume that these will change as the piece matures. The more I learn, the more I understand that studying the piece without my instrument is essential, and the sooner I do it, the better: I need to know about form, harmony, details of performance instructions...but especially harmony! Starting to pay more attention the actual chord analysis on Bach has essentially revolutionized how I practice, and memorize it now -- every time I find something new and my mind is blown all over again.  

My favorite part of the learning process...Drilling. No thinking, just doing and listening, purely physical. Finding the most efficient and elegant way of playing a passage, then solidifying it and making it easy. I love the use of gadgets - metronome, egg timer, tuner, recording devices. 

The most difficult part: artistic choices. The more choices there are, the harder it is for me. Luckily, I have had some very excellent teachers and I know I lot about the history of the different cello styles, so a lot of times I already know the route I'm meant to take. Again, new music is in a different category - I usually hope that by the artistic choices time, I have learned to speak the language of the composer, and I know the dialect that I want to speak. 

Playing with the Randazzo Dance Company ballerinas has been a wonderful experience. Performing the Bach Suites is a lonely job, even if it is one of life's grand pleasures to play such great music. This way, I get to play the whole Suite AND collaborate, all at once. Best of all possible worlds. 

Learning the choreography, learning to accommodate and read the dancers has quite influenced how I play the third suite, of course - and I guess it's never the same twice in a row anyway! Also, how often does a cellist get to play a Bach Suite in four concerts back to back, for an appreciative audience most of whom have probably not heard a whole suite played in a live environment before? So very satisfying! Tonight a gentleman stopped me to tell me that I really moved him, and we also got a standing ovation from a lady in the front row. I don't think there could be better pay for the hard work than to know that we touched someone to tears. 

I have so many favorite moments...the Sarabande, the solos in the Allemande when the rhythm ebbs and flows, the ending for the Gigue when the cutest of all little ballerinas curtsies to me...This part and that part that sounds like skipping or piruettes and they are totally doing it! All and all, it's a good weekend to be a cello player.   

This January, I was  reminded of my old free-lancing life with a plethora of non-job related musical projects. I was also totally blown away by the commitment of a host of local musicians, a full sized orchestra of them, who volunteered their time to record a new piece by Chris Dietz in Bowling Green, OH. It quite re-energized, and re-focused me, to feel the strength of the new music community here in SE Michigan and N Ohio. I also met my long-time hero, percussionist Han Bennink, at the UM SMTD. I've been a fan since I first heard him in the Trio Clusone with the cellist Ernst Reijseger some 15 years ago. Meeting him was very liberating and inspiring, and oddly homey (I miss Europe...) 

                 

And by the way, I was very happy with the Bach and the Ballerinas - I had a couple of bad memory slips in the dress rehearsal, but both performances were stellar - I only made mistakes in my head, not out loud :)  

This is kind of a long story so I'm going chronological - 

E3Q has practiced two times since school is out. In and of itself that is remarkable. Mark has written a sweet chord sequence in C phrygian, and so I've been playing around ("fooling around") with the Phrygian. I love it - I think it's my current favorite mode. I have also been toying around with another progression that I wrote, and thinking about how to use the modes to write a Prelude for the Lullaby Project (recording soon!). At the same time, my friend Maria and I have been picking repertoire to play for a concert this summer, and I thought of the Cassado Solo Suite, which I have neither played or thought of in 13 years. Today I decided to play all the C modes (Major, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian...) to warm up, before reading through the Cassado to see what was what. And, low and behold, how does the Cassado start? First declamation, D dorian. Repeat that in C mixolydian, then c lydian. And so forth. The whole thing is modal. And I heard them, and was able to recognize them by ear and also by pattern for the first time. I didn't really know that before: I probably knew that he piece was modal in some way, but I didn't really KNOW it. Mind completely blown. 

What sort of freaks me out is that apparently my ear knew, and nudged my sub-conscience ("remember the Cassado?"), but it wasn't until I actually played the piece that I realized how exactly the Cassado fits all the other things I am currently working through. 

The things us classical instrumentalists hear from our teachers, "always practice with thought","don't just fool around but have intent" are certainly words of wisdom. I know that growing up, "fooling around" on the cello, and "playing without thinking" were somewhat synonymous. Now I am really questioning that. In fact, when I "fool around" with the modes or any other set of of parameters, I am thinking very hard and certainly, have just as much intent, if not more, than when I read music or practice music written down by somebody. I think "fooling around with intent" should be highly encouraged in instrumental learning! I really would love to see some brain imaging done on improvisers brain compared to a brain reading music...The two processes are incredibly different.

This Saturday, I will be performing the Bach Bourrees from the 3rs Suite with 16 lovely ballerinas. This is at once an exhilarating opportunity, and something that scares me out of my wits. Solo Bach is notoriously difficult to perform correctly when memorized. I always tell my students when they get lost, that it's sort of an initiation and so many much more famous cellists than them have been tripped up by Bach - indeed, I don't think I have ever heard a complete Suite without any mistakes played live (with one notable difference: I heard Erling Blondal Bengtsson play all six Suites in one concert at University of Michigan, completely perfectly from memory). Most recently when I have had to (or have chosen to) play Bach memorized, it hasn't felt totally absolutely horrible because I am better at improvising than I used to be, and if I know the form and the chords, I can make up stuff until I get back on track. Not so much, when 16 people on stage are depending on me to deliver exactly the right count of beats! There's no room for doubling back to a wrong spot when taking the repeat, or playing in circles like often happens with memorized Bach. 

My main concern is that I get so involved in watching the lovely dancers, or get so visually distracted, that I forget where I am in the form. So, I have enlisted the help of my kids. This week they are in charge of distracting me where I practice - today's session included ballet (obviously), and a round of "Q&A", where I had to answer their questions while playing through the piece. This should probably qualify for setting up an IRA for them, as my assistants? 

I remember my teachers telling me that some people practice while reading the newspaper. I've always thought that it's a little silly, it's just playing not practice, but perhaps that kind of practicing has a point in some instances..."playing" and "practicing" being two very distinctly different things in the classical world.

So, come Saturday, wish me luck :)  

1. always memorize everything possible, it speeds up the learning process so much. To memorize something you don't just have to remember the notes, you have to remember the music. So, in a short amount of time, as part of the memorization process you end up doing harmonic analysis, motivic analysis, structural analysis...

I'm learning so many new things that my brain is on total overload - and, as usual, I feel like I have so many good idea floating around I have no way of remembering them or writing them down, and certainly no way to follow through on any of them.

I got schooled a bit by the good professors, in preparation for our concert of the Dohnanyi Piano Quintet this Sunday. Bad for the ego, great for the learning process and long term development. I was just reminded how it's really awesome to get direct feedback. And how you can either get unnerved by it or use it for your benefit. I'm choosing the latter. 

There are also some really great reminders going on facebook. One of my favorites is a poster reminding to practice not until you get it right, but until you can't get it wrong. The only problem is, who's got time for that? I'm getting so wrapped up in practicing that I forget everything else. In theory this is very good for my soul and also for my playing, but not so good for the family, the students, the house or the job. It's kind of hard to work on the work/life balance when work is also a major part of the "life" to which that refers. Somebody let me know when you figure it out, please...    

First chamber music experience with the Silvestre after having really mapped out the fingerboard...Dohnanyi Piano Quintet with the Michigan Chamber Players, couldn't be better! To be honest, it's a little overwhelming to have all the choices I didn't have before.  I never had the choice of crossing strings whenever I want - to those who don't speak cello, what I mean is there are 4, sometimes 5 ways of fingering a note on a given string. Those were always available on the Hubicka, of course. For some notes, you can also play them on 3 or 4 different strings - and so the possibilities on fingering a passage are too many to count! The strings on the new cello are so well matched that I can cross strings whenever I want/need. I feel a little bit like a kid in a candy store - too many good choices and I can't commit, after all you only get to play a passage once! 

The Popper challenge is good for me. The Popper challenge is good for me. The Popper challenge is good for me...