Would you believe that’s me in the picture, playing a sacred hymn?

No … I didn’t think so.

July 7 is coming.  That’s the date when I will play my cello in the little park near my home.

I’m watching cello instruction videos.  Mike is a great teacher.  He’s slowly building up the viewers’ skills.  However I need to move faster than “slowly” – there’s a concert on the horizon!

Mike has taught us the fingerings for the D Major scale … one octave.  This morning, lying in bed, I figured out what two octaves would be like.  The cello has four strings.  From the lowest pitch to the highest, they’re C, G, D and A.  Two octaves of the D scale starts with the first finger on the C string and ends with the fourth finger on the A string.

Hmm … knowing the notes over two octaves would let me play a lot of songs.  My adventures on the 7th could be far beyond Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

I also have a keyboard.  It sits in my bedroom, with a fine view of the slate roofs near the Leie River.  Decades ago, I could read cello sheet music easily but I never learned to read piano music.  I played “by ear”.

If I wanted to learn the melody of a favourite piece, such as Pachelbel Canon, I’d figure it out on the piano, using the C Major Scale.  It’s the easiest one since it only uses the white keys.

Just so you know, two octaves of the C scale start on the open C string (no fingers on the string) and ends with the second finger on the A string.

I could start finding a melody on the piano in C (rather than D), then transfer the notes to the cello fingerings.

My God … I can do this!

And (more good news), I can do all this in first position – the easiest one.  Depending on where you put your thumb on the neck of the cello, you can play in first, second, third or fourth position.  I vote for first!

Now that the mechanics of this have been revealed to my yearning eyes, what pieces do I want to play?

I can think of three:

This Wandering Day, from the Prime Video TV series Rings of Power

You Can Close Your Eyes by James Taylor

Song for a Winter’s Night by Gordon Lightfoot

***

“Do it, Bruce!”

Why not?