Puppet Friends Come to Visit

It seems like my hope for the Maestro's practices this week is holding true.  A friendly fireman finger puppet came to practice Monday; Tuesday it was a mouse and a snake.  Another new puppet friend came to practice today.  It sounds like Riley is maintaining variety while trying to ride this puppet shtick while it will still work.  The Maestro told me today that he likes having visitors come to his cello practices, so it sounds like a good plan to me.

 

The Maestro really likes to use him imagination.  On Sunday he came into my room and starting telling me about his friend Spack.   Spack is a girl amd is a teenager who can drive.  She is taller than another friend of ours, and she lives in the Western United States.  Sometimes she drives to our town to visit other people, not us.  Sometimes she flies here, though, on an airplane.   When she is in town she comes over to play, and they play Bow and Arrow, and she watches him shoot targets.  He came up with all of this, and Spack isn't really real in our world.   He made all of that up and told it to me with a straight face.  After all that, why would giving a concert to a dog puppet be a big deal at all?

 

He had gotten pretty good at holding his feet in the right spot on the carpet and having his bow hold adjusted.   The emphasis this week is on maintaining a proper bow hold while playing.  When he saws on his cello, Riley noticed that he almost immediately shifts his thumb over so he can hold it more tightly.   Yesterday the mouse wanted to see him keep a good bow hold for a quick count of ten.  The snake wanted to see a good bow hold for a slow count of ten.  

 

Tonight I asked the Maestro how his practice went and he said it was good, good.   Riley said that it went really good, good.  He held his good bow hold for a good long time with springy curved fingers and thumb.  This is good.   The tighter you hold your bow the worse your tone is, as I understand it.  Hildegard gets back this weekend, and we are hoping that he can maintain a good hold while playing for extended stretches by the time she gets back.