Lessons Learned

I took my third cello lesson today! I have graduated to "Book 2". Now, instead of playing "Prelude" (which consisted of whole note Gs throughout the entire song, which I did not "get" artistically), I get to play such delights as "Dance of the Siamese Cats" (also all G notes, but they've made it a frolic of whole AND half notes!), and "Waltz of the Polar Bears" (which is all dotted half notes, but I get to mix it up with Gs, Ds, and As.)

My instructor is fun and knowledgeable. I get the impression that she teaches to a lot of kids. Case in point: in my first lesson she recited what seemed a well-versed lesson of how to carry the cello, how to hold the cello, how to hold the bow, how fragile the bow is, and why it should not be used in a sword fight. I commented that I was 49 years old and rarely engaged myself in sword fights of any type. And she and I get along great!

It's interesting to learn a completely new instrument at this stage in my life. I read music fairly well, I have played the piano since I was a wee kid, and started the flute in the 5th grade and still play both. The cello is different from the other two, and this is a fun learning curve for me.

So I wonder: who has the advantage: the kid who enrolls in orchestra class in 5th grade and takes a daily lesson with his peers, or do I, the more mature student who can already read music, has already played in bands and orchestras, who has a "practice" ethic? I wonder. I almost think the kid has the advantage of the daily exposure and peer exposure.

This reminds me of when I studied Arabic in our Cairo days. Every day I would walk to my class at Il Mahid Il Britaani (the British School) and learn to speak, and to a lesser degree, read, Arabic. It was fascinating to me. I had studied German, French, and Spanish to varying levels in school and college. But English is a Germanic language, and French and Spanish are both Romance languages - this means that the former two and the latter two were somewhat similar, so it was easy for me to assimilate the informaton. But Arabic, for me, was all by itself: a completely different alphabet, written and read from right-to-left, except numbers, which are written from left-to-right. And vowel sounds and consonants that this Okie had a hard time wrapping her tongue around.

This cello business seems much the same, in that it is completely different from the keyboard and wind instruments with which I am well-acquainted. Fortunately I do not have to rely on my cello music to acquire groceries and directions and phone messages. And boy, is THAT a relief!