I’ve been working on the things I know, which for basics are the Bach cello suites. Always a classic, but they have good reason to be as they have so many technical skills integrated into them. My favourites are the minors, C minor and D minor. They’re fun to play too. I performed and memorized the prelude to suite 3 in C major, but I don’t have the same finger flexibility I used to and need to play it. You need thumb position to play a big part of it, but because my thumbs are double jointed, I must bend mine at weird angles and need to work on being able to hold them in place for the whole section of the piece without it hurting. My biggest struggle is being able to hold sound, especially in chords, for half and whole notes, even more so when going up bow. It starts to sound crackly or wobbly and I want to get better control over the sound.
I’m feeling better overall though. I was a bit intimidated when I started because back in 2020, I was studying music theory, practicing by myself, and for orchestra, chamber, and with my teacher 30+ hours a week. Obviously, it’s unrealistic to imagine I can get exactly back up to par with where I was, but still, I’d like to at least try. Below is a video of the cadenza at the end of the JC Bach cello concerto. It’s my first time playing it in a long time so there are some mistakes, but I am pleasantly surprised with how it turned out.
