I restarted my 35 Day cello challenge this morning. As with my violin challenge, I will be concentrating on my intonation.

This morning I started with just slow bowing the open strings to hear what the open strings sound like. Sounds weird and like a waste of time, but I don't think I was ever able to really listen to their relationship to one another, or even what the pure sound of an open string sounds like. Lessons were always rush rush rush. I think this helped.

Then, I worked on the A and D strings, including the fourth position 3rd finger. This is because so many of the songs, even easy, could use playing the A on the D string, and many songs, especially ones I already do poorly, have the E on the A string. 

I also played 3 octave C scales, and 2 octave G scales. I didn't use a book for any runs, I just wanted simple scales, no fancy bowing. I played long slow notes, listening and paying attention to finger positions and how they felt. I worked hard at the shift from 1st to fourth to get the A on D and E on A strings. Starting this in fourth position, for me makes sense. I paid close attention to the slide up to 4th  and then getting back to 1st.

A version of Edelweiss that I have has me going from the D string to A string a lot. It only uses those two strings. It is good practice for what I am working on, for the most part. 

I will not be updating every day for the 35 days, but rest assured, I will be playing.

🐭