Free Inquiry: Week 5

I have never been more grateful to have my cello than now. I have so much work to catch up on during reading break, but my executive dysfunction is killing me. The number of times I have sat down in front of my laptop then just started playing the cello for hours on end is insane. I live in dorms right now and my residents have knocked on my door because they thought I was blasting classical music, but it was just me playing. I was surprised they didn’t think I was lame for playing the cello. I know after 13 years I shouldn’t be ashamed of playing a classical instrument, but the little music nerd in me is still a little scared when I must tell people. I have been playing the suites a lot, they’re a lot of fun to play and I like how many there are. I can play whatever I want depending on my mood, keep it simple and basic if I don’t want to have to stop over and over, or I can try the tougher ones if I’m feeling it. I am currently really liking the Prelude of Bach’s Suite 2 and the Serabande of Suite 6. They’re both tough for me, but for different reasons. Suite 2 challenges me because it is supposed to be slow, but I’m not so great at going slow. I struggle a lot with maintaining sound consistently for longer notes or chords and I think because of that, I speed up and rush through the piece which 1- takes away from the piece, and 2- makes it 10x harder for me. Suite 6 is challenging because of all the chords. Chords and double stops are when you play more than one note at once, which requires a lot of focus to play and precision so the chord doesn’t sound like a dying cat. It is so pretty though so right now I am starting by just playing the top note of each chord, and going from there. I have a video below of the two suites. The Prelude to Suite 2 is at 17:15 and the Serabande to Suite 6 is at 2:14:23.