Today is the perfect day to start part 2 of my cello journey tale. It was the first lesson of the music year . It was so amazing and filled with such excitement and positive energy, I knew that this is what I have been working towards all these past several years....hour after hour...day in and day out. I am at a point in my cello journey that was just a hope and a dream many decades ago.
My second chance started 6 1/2 years ago after moving into a new neighborhood 1 1/2 yrs before that. I was trying to make new friends and joined a bell choir at a local church. It was fun and I loved playing those bells. The woman leading us was a violinist in the community orchestra and another bell ringer, a violist, was a member also. Week after week I listened to these ladies talk about orchestra happenings and I kept thinking....this could have been me! I admit to feeling regret of what might have been. I told them my story and my passion and love for the cello and one day the leader, Lois, said she had a name of a reliable and trustworthy luthier...why don't you see about getting a cello? I knew as soon as she said that, I would do it ! Things happened so fast after that, I have always felt it was fate and have felt that many many times over the past 6 1/2 yrs.
This luthier had just received 2 cellos and one was still unsold.....within a few days I went to pick up my cello. I was so lucky to have someone trustworthy as I was clueless about how to buy a cello.....it was a nice cello I later found out. I asked him about a teacher. I told him what kind of person I wanted as a teacher....experienced.... serious...kind....and would take me seriously...this wasn't a lark or a hobby. This was my dream ! He thought a bit and finally said....Carole. Although, she had never had an adult student before, as we talked on the phone she agreed to teach me and after a few more minutes of chatting, she agreed to come the following Wed. The future would show that that was my lucky day !
Wednesday came and Carole handed me the bow and she said.....you hold that bow like you have been playing all these years....I know you had a good teacher (Mr. Liberti). Then she said...I give my kids "froggy" stickers where their thumb should go...do you....words never left her mouth when I said..yes !! I want anything that will help me move along and learn .....so , for a few months I had a froggy sticker on the back of my cello's neck.....Carole is a smart and experienced teacher....it was a simple thing and so effective..I eventually made a transparent little circle so it couldn't be seen but I could feel it :-) Ok, so now the world knows I had a froggy sticker...but, you have to start somewhere:-) Right? :-)
Lessons started and I was breezing thru books every few months....Carole said my muscles remembered what they had to do . To me it was a miracle as it was so long that I played/learned.....I went at a steady clip through all the materials for about a year or maybe a bit more before things started slowing down a bit. I was on the road to my lifetime dream.
Then at about 6 months...just before the rehearsals began for the Christmas program at the community Orchestra..Carole said I should join the Orchestra...she is principal cellist there (1st chair-section leader). The Christmas program was easy she said and the only advice she would give me was to.....do no harm !
She had such faith in me to risk her reputation on what I would do...I had only been learning for 6 months. I asked her a few times if she was worried I would mess up...no, she said. Let's just say for more than a few months I was playing a lot of "air" cello. I had a wonderful stand-mate...a young man...who always watched my back and was a huge help. Believe me, I needed all the help I could get:-)
There was a whole lot of work , excitement, and the joy of getting the cello of my dreams ahead of me.....continued in part 3.
A quote that describes ,better than my words can say, how I feel about my cello journey:
One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. - Helen Keller
My second chance started 6 1/2 years ago after moving into a new neighborhood 1 1/2 yrs before that. I was trying to make new friends and joined a bell choir at a local church. It was fun and I loved playing those bells. The woman leading us was a violinist in the community orchestra and another bell ringer, a violist, was a member also. Week after week I listened to these ladies talk about orchestra happenings and I kept thinking....this could have been me! I admit to feeling regret of what might have been. I told them my story and my passion and love for the cello and one day the leader, Lois, said she had a name of a reliable and trustworthy luthier...why don't you see about getting a cello? I knew as soon as she said that, I would do it ! Things happened so fast after that, I have always felt it was fate and have felt that many many times over the past 6 1/2 yrs.
This luthier had just received 2 cellos and one was still unsold.....within a few days I went to pick up my cello. I was so lucky to have someone trustworthy as I was clueless about how to buy a cello.....it was a nice cello I later found out. I asked him about a teacher. I told him what kind of person I wanted as a teacher....experienced.... serious...kind....and would take me seriously...this wasn't a lark or a hobby. This was my dream ! He thought a bit and finally said....Carole. Although, she had never had an adult student before, as we talked on the phone she agreed to teach me and after a few more minutes of chatting, she agreed to come the following Wed. The future would show that that was my lucky day !
Wednesday came and Carole handed me the bow and she said.....you hold that bow like you have been playing all these years....I know you had a good teacher (Mr. Liberti). Then she said...I give my kids "froggy" stickers where their thumb should go...do you....words never left her mouth when I said..yes !! I want anything that will help me move along and learn .....so , for a few months I had a froggy sticker on the back of my cello's neck.....Carole is a smart and experienced teacher....it was a simple thing and so effective..I eventually made a transparent little circle so it couldn't be seen but I could feel it :-) Ok, so now the world knows I had a froggy sticker...but, you have to start somewhere:-) Right? :-)
Lessons started and I was breezing thru books every few months....Carole said my muscles remembered what they had to do . To me it was a miracle as it was so long that I played/learned.....I went at a steady clip through all the materials for about a year or maybe a bit more before things started slowing down a bit. I was on the road to my lifetime dream.
Then at about 6 months...just before the rehearsals began for the Christmas program at the community Orchestra..Carole said I should join the Orchestra...she is principal cellist there (1st chair-section leader). The Christmas program was easy she said and the only advice she would give me was to.....do no harm !
She had such faith in me to risk her reputation on what I would do...I had only been learning for 6 months. I asked her a few times if she was worried I would mess up...no, she said. Let's just say for more than a few months I was playing a lot of "air" cello. I had a wonderful stand-mate...a young man...who always watched my back and was a huge help. Believe me, I needed all the help I could get:-)
There was a whole lot of work , excitement, and the joy of getting the cello of my dreams ahead of me.....continued in part 3.
A quote that describes ,better than my words can say, how I feel about my cello journey:
One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. - Helen Keller
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