I do get that. Believe me, my last lesson a few days ago was like I had never picked up my cello. Granted, I did miss a few days due to knee, hip and back issues, plus still waiting for my right ear to straighten up. My ear is pretty much back to normal. 

But, nothing he said registered at all. Huge mental block! I told him that I really did play. Even with the issues, I did get a lot of serious practice pinpointing trouble areas. He said he knew and could tell. I think he LIED! LOL

I will sometimes go back to songs in Book 1 and 2, thinking they should be better now. They actually were the last time, but still not like I expected. 

Just now, I just finished a detailed spot practice session. I was working on the last 5 or 6 measures of that minuet. The measures, or half measures depending on which measure and difficulty level, I worked on were not too bad on there own, but together or adding the one before, blows up in my face. 

Periodically, I do start from the beginning and go through to the end. I don’t want to create a habit of stopping at specific spots. I tend to do that and it is not something I can correct later.

How can I get over the hump of not being able to connect the trouble spots together? Is that something that will come when I become accustomed to those spots that are causing me issues and am able to just treat it, not treat, but it just comes naturally without a second thought? Do you think that maybe if I don’t think about it that it will just naturally come together because those spots no longer intimidate me? 

I can feel myself progressing, really. My instructor is taking me into areas I would never have tried or thought possible. I would look at those pieces and say, “No way I am ready.” Like this minuet. It changes from G to B(? Has the E Flat - I have forgotten the key identification I learned back in 7th grade. I am picking them up again as I come to them). That change is in Minuet II. They kind of flow together. I just listened to Yo-Yo Ma playing it on my new CD’s that arrived yesterday. Very helpful listen.

He, like all other versions I have heard, treat them pretty much as one, so the one minuet, in my mind has a key change. On my cello, for some reason, it causes panic. Well, my violin, too. Does not on piano. I am not beyond, probably, intermediate piano so it is not because I am better, I am further along in my cello knowledge. Just for reference.

The hour long lessons I switched to are a whole lot more beneficial. That was a definite good move. Maybe I am expecting too much, too fast because I really want to feel like I can play anywhere, sans audience, I want to. Ie my deck, under my front tree, with my phone recording myself. 

This is not me thinking of moving on, not going to happen, it is just me thinking things I still have issues with, should not cause me issues. 

I think you are correct with your school analogy. That was a very good one. The music lessons are the opposite what was expected in school. My geometry teacher ended math, which I absolutely love, for me. I actually have some math books to just do.

My cello instructor is so encouraging and patient, it is on me, this issue, is on me, I think. 

Thanks, Pete. Very encouraging.

Thanks, Pete, much appreciated, and very helpful.

After my second lesson with him, a few months ago, and a couple other times, when we were talking outside the studio, including with my husband because he drives me. My instructor has said that I probably think he pushing me and something else that I can’f remember. 

I told him that I didn’t. I told him that I would never have moved on and progressed if I was doing it alone (to myself I was thinking, “or with my other instructor”). I would have looked at those pages full of eighth and sixteenth notes and said, “no way am I ready”.

He said that he knew I could do it. He has said that quite often.

It is mainly me, I know it, I just have realize, what you said and I had already knew but never remember, that this is the opposite of school. The instructor needs to hear where your issues are, and actually expects issues somewhere.

I don’t bring in my own pieces. He is bringing in pieces that logically follow my next step and have those steps in it. I like his order of progression or introducing of things. He adjusts for what and when and how he learned things if he did not think they were helpful in his learning process to the way it seemed to work better for him. I like this. Benefit of a young instructor is that they remember how they were taught and what worked and didn’t. I do play my own music for “free time” playing and try to use what I have been learning in it, like bowing and fingering.

I think another thing that is giving me cause to question myself is that we are now introducing the tenor clef part of cello. I had no idea about this. Thought that bass clef, only, was cello. I did, however, wonder how the higher registers would be written on staff paper. Tenor clef takes care of that, I was thinking that it would just be joined in with treble. Sure would have been easier!

When new things, a new direction, are added to anything, I get that self-doubting again. This forum really helps with this.

I think you all make good points. I am going to ask my instructor to slow down a tad. I did forget to tell him about my need tp go slow at my first lesson. When I get new things to learn, in anything, I tend to take a while to learn it, but after I get the knack, I can usually take pff with it. I know that from years of experience. I also tend to consider new things harder than they are because they intimidate me, probably because I know it will take a little longer for me to get it.

I also know that this particular minuet makes no sense to me after the first two lines. The first few lines are very familiar from having heard it in commercials, or something. Beyond that it makes absolutely absolutely no sense melodically. I have major problems with classical music, because it is like jazz, many times it sounds like notes are must thrown into the air and allowed to drop on the staff paper. Then they are just divided into measures. 

I am just going to keep working on the little three octave scale and the minuet and ask to slow down at my next lesson. I know what he is dong, because he knows I get intimidated with new things, he has seen that. He has also heard me play through a song pretty well, but, also pretty bad (lol). He knows I can do it and wants me to keep trying, but I think we need to spend more time on the song in more detail before moving on. I am getting what he wants me to get from the song, I know that, it is the poor execution and I really think that slowing down will help with that.

Thanks for the encouragement and thoughts, everyone. So much appreciated,