My cello lesson is this afternoon.  My newest piece “Meditation” presents challenges – new positions for my left hand on the neck of the instrument.  As a teenager, I played in First Position and Fourth Position.  That was it.  “Meditation” introduces me to two versions of Second Position and to Third Position.

Here’s a diagram showing some of it:

You see the four strings of the cello running vertically.  Look at the string on the right (A) and follow it down until you see “Re”.  In First Position, I put my fourth finger down to hit that note.  Easy.  But in Upper Second Position, I shift my hand and play the note with my second finger.  In Third Position I use my first finger.

Before last week’s lesson, I studied this a lot, which led to an exploding brain.  I got so mixed up … and that was clear as I tried to play the piece during the lesson.  It was embarrassing to play poorly.

At which point my teacher Lieven stopped me.  I was invited to feel the melody on a piano, see what finger was written on the sheet music for a certain note, and then slide the finger on the string till the sound matched what the piano said.  “Forget the positions!”

Woh!

I was being asked to dismantle the scaffolding, lean into my cello and fall into melody.  Inside my head was a message: “Let go, Bruce … and now some more.”

***

I moved my cello into the bedroom, where my keyboard lives.  For the past few days, I bounced back and forth between the two instruments so my body could absorb a bar or two of the melody.

And then yesterday in Music Theory class, Jan (a friend and classmate) showed me an app called “Perfect Piano”.  Now I can set my phone on the music stand.  As I sit with my cello and read the sheet music, I can play a short of stretch of melody on the phone keyboard.  Much better!

***

I’ll practice some this afternoon before my lesson.  And then I’ll sway into “Meditation” with Lieven and my classmates, moving through the good notes and bad, “positionless”.

Hopefully with a wee smile on my face