Has anyone got an exercise for speeding up the left hand? After a particularly difficult and embarrassing session at orchestra yesterday I have decided that somehow I must do something to promote speed in my fingers. Although I am left handed, well usually left handed, this is my slowest one. I remember learning scales on the piano and finding the right hand used to work faster than the left. I said 'usually left handed' because sometimes my brain cannot decide which hand is best for a particular task. It works rather well for table tennis and painting, but I don't really have an option for the cello. Obviously practising must be the main activity, but I am just hoping someone can come up with another piece of tried and tested wisdom. I thought I was getting on rather well with my concert pieces, but yesterday we went so fast I completely lost it several times. Meanwhile the young teenager beside me flew along, attacking the strings with confidence and verve. When I did manage to do something I was timid, out of time, and flat or sharp, I couldn't even decide which!
When I returned home I had a headache and acted like a consumptive poet for a while until I decided a tandoori might comfort my battered pride, so off we shot into the sunny Sussex countryside and indulged in an expensive repast. Things appeared better later after a snooze and the news that England had beaten Australia in the rugby quarter-finals (again!), so I retired to my music room (that's the dining room in our house) and played lots of pieces I learned a year ago and found hard. Then I got out some I had put away as they were too hard to attempt, and discovered I could sight- read them. Improvement happens in spite of things.
By the way, my picture is a watercolour I did 2 or 3 years ago of Flo, one of my granddaughters. She's the one who wants to play the harp.
8 comments:
What better way to restore your confidence, than to "get back up on that horse" by playing those pieces that you found so hard a year ago! My teacher recently had me do that to remind me that it is always going to be a learning process, and I must remember to enjoy the "ride".
Thanks guanaco. Yes, you are absolutely right. It was a bit of a revelation to me when I found so many of those 'too hard' ones suddenly attainable. And, yes again, the 'ride' must be enjoyable, else what is the point? And I must not allow the orchestra to become a trial. It has helped me so much aready to progress and enjoy. Thanks for reminding me!
I, too, am rather mixed up in handed-ness. Some things are better left-handed, some right. Sports type things, like throwing a ball, definitely right. Writing, definitely left.
I've read that the research indicates that there is a gene for right-handedness but not one for left-handedness. If you get the right-handed gene, you're right-handed and that's the end of it. If you don't get it, it's 50-50 whether you're left-handed or right-handed. I reckon we ain't got it.
Terry: Hello! I don't think we've met! Yes, throwing a ball - right, lacrosse stick - right, but tennis racquet, table tennis bat, doesn't matter. Short garden fork and trowel - left, secateurs - right. Soup spoon - left, but knife and fork like everyone else. We are wonderful, are we not?!
Wonderful? Well, I won't argue. I guess we haven't "met", but you may have visited my now long-neglected blog, folkcello.blogspot.org.
On gaining speed, there's something I do for scales that I can sometimes apply to other things.
First play, starting on the first note, in twos -- long, then very short:
taaaa-t-taaaa-t-taaaaa...
Then play the first note long and the second long:
t-taaaaa-t-taaaa...
Then play in threes: taaaa-tt-taaaaa-tt-taaaaaa...
t-taaaaa-tt-taaaa-tt-taaaaa..
tt-taaaaa-tt-taaaaa...
Then fours:
taaaa-ttt-taaaa-ttt-taaaaa...
t-taaaaa-ttt-taaaa-ttt...
tt-taaaaa-tttt-taaaa...
ttt-taaaa-ttt-taaaaa...
etc....
Maybe you might eventually get to: ttttttttt....
I think it works better than gradually speeding up the metronome. If you can do two notes really fast, well, why not three notes really fast? Ok then, why note 4 notes really fast? Well then, why not 5?...
I think that in her book "Music for the Joy of It," Stephanie Judy describes a method similar to what Terry stated above. Guess I really ought to give it a shot since I'm also now struggling with tempo issues in orchestra music.
Gorgeous watercolor! Flo looks like she'll be an angelic looking harpist.
Hi, I've visited your blog before but I don't think I've ever commented!
Anyway... My teacher introduced me to a book of exercises by a guy named Bernhard Cossmann... The full name is "Studies for developing agility, strength of fingers and purity of intonation." (Now that's a mouthful!) The exercises definitely help in all of the above, although they can be devilish at times...
Good luck!
Sorry I have not replied for a while.
Terry: thanks very much for the excercise. I am giving it a go and will let you know how I get on.
cellodonna: I've heard of that book but have now made a note of it and will try getting it from Amazon. Thanks.
musicgal: that sounds advanced!Perhaps I will order it when I look for cd's book! It all depends on whether a particular method clicks, doesn't it? And I love buying books. Many thanks.
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