Tattoo and Pink Hair

Keep in mind that I don’t go to the lessons, or really, have many face-to-face conversations with the Teacher. Most things reported here as being said by the Teacher have passed through a series of filters, like playing telephone at summer camp. Hildegard did NOT say that she was a rock star. Her intent was, as I understand, to speculate that perhaps the Maestro had built her up in his mind by pretending to be her, thus increasing the pressure on he put upon himself when it came time to perform. So, let the record show that the Teacher does not consider herself a rock star, tattoo notwithstanding, even if the Maestro does.

I did get a better report of what happened at the lesson, and what is coming next. It turns out that the only things that he did well enough to get a sticker on the chart were: arrive on time, unpack the cello, and pack it up again. Bowing didn’t happen, nor did singing the song. I knew he wouldn’t sing, so that was no big surprise. So new assignments mainly are to build on things he can do in the comfort of his home environment, such as beginning singing Twinkle variations, and add some more steps to the bow. Riley showed me the sticker chart, and pizzicato is actually several steps ahead of the other assignments.

One thing I had been concerned about was that he wouldn’t have the patience to keep doing the thing he was asked to do long enough to get to the part he wants to do, which is pluck the thing like Mingus. That, and he’s going to pluck it anyway, in between practicing rest positions. Now that he has been shown the proper technique, he can do it without causing problems for the future. Last night he taught me how to pluck it properly, using the index finger of my bow hand, with my thumb on the edge of the ebony finger-board.

It reminded me of a time about a year ago that he was going through a harp phase. He has seized my bread cooling rack for his harp, and was plucking it. I came by and strummed it one time, and he went into demo-mode, demonstrating to me how a harp is actually plucked and not strummed. A girl we know plays the harp and she had shown him. At the time, I thought my two-year-old was over the top, correcting my technique on playing a cooling rack. He does have a drive to do things the right way, when he can, though.

The other assignment he got was to perform for people whenever he can. We’ll see how that goes…

Oh, and to my knowledge the Teacher doesn’t really have a tattoo. I just made that up.