Riley's Week 2 Summary

Hildegard,

I really don't think we'll always be so high maintenance, but because we are new at the practice business, I wanted to e-mail you and give you a more in depth report on our practice endeavors from this week. Of course, I don't expect an e-mail response, but I hope it will help you to help us steer our practices in the right direction. I don't have a clear sense of how much correction on technique The Maestro can handle from me, so I've really tried to keep it pretty positive. The Maestro, of course, supplies everything with a huge dose of imagination.

Some interesting notes:

We start and end every practice with the bows. At first The Maestro's bows were restrained in form, like yours, but after repeating that over and over for 3 days, The Maestro must have decided it was more fun to do "the deepest of bows", because now he is bowing low to the group and pops his hands up behind him. I haven't commented on this, but I make sure to keep modeling the standard bow.

You've continued to be a consistent figure in his imaginative play (he has constructed your "apartment" out of pillows sandwiched between the foot of his bed and his dresser). Currently, at our practices, he always wants to pretend to be you, but I've made up the rule that I have to get to be The Teacher every other time. Since we have the cello out practicing about 3 times a day, I'd reasoned that if I'm only determining the order we do things half of the time, it probably doesn't hurt a ton. (Unbeknownst to you, you took me to a concert hall today and kept saying, "There's lots to do and see in a concert hall, even with no concert.") The Maestro has gotten used to calling you The Teacher, and has firmly decided that cello lessons and practices can only happen when he's fully clothed (good, huh?)

Thus far in The Maestro's life, he hasn't been very comfortable singing,. I would guess it will be quite awhile before he'll sing at lessons. At home, if we turn the "I love my cello" song into a game, leaving blanks, or singing "I love my The Maestro very much, I play him every day…", he'll say or sing up to about half the words.

One of the things I have repeatedly tried to guide The Maestro on is sitting toward the front edge of his seat. At first, he didn't believe me. At one practice we talked a little bit about how sitting forward on the seat gives our knees room to grab on tight to the cello. It's been a tiny bit better, but I still seems like physically he doesn't feel stable sitting on the edge.

We are working on the focusing exercise. Once The Maestro made it to a 7 and I really praised him for it, but most of the time we are at about 2-4 seconds.