Piano Hands

I have tried to get to my cello at least every other day this week, and guess what? - I'm improving! My fingers are settling into the proper positions and I have made it through Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star without having to repeat notes to fix the tuning. My G major scale is coming along nicely as well.

Since I have not yet planned another lesson with Kristiana, I decided to find another song on my own. I printed off Beethoven's Ode to Joy and was excited to get started learning it. After I tuned and was all set up to play I realized that I didn't really know enough to figure out the positions for each note of the song. I printing a simple fingering chart so I could write in the finger positions that I didn't already know. Problem solved :)

Up to this point I've mostly been plucking (aka playing pizzicato) when I practice. It is easier to make a consistently rich sound this way, the only downside is the raw blister I'm getting on my pointer finger. I've started bowing the scales and Twinkle, Twinkle little star but it doesn't sound great. It seems that my left hand messes up when I'm thinking about bowing, and when I shift focus to my finger placement my bowing quality goes down.

I'd like to get better at bowing this week so that I can at least save one of my soft piano hands and start focussing more on more technical pieces. It seems there's no hope for my left hand though, that one will just have to toughen up!