Cello-playing goodness!

[baratron]

I have a cello teacher again!

Been contemplating starting lessons again for a while. When I was virtually housebound with depression the year before last I did try quite hard to pick it up again, but it was too difficult for me. Not only was I 6 years out of practice, but between me moving house so many times and my parents moving out of my childhood home, I'd lost all my music. I bought new copies of some of it, but without a teacher to help me figure out the fingering it was too daunting a task. I couldn't possibly afford lessons then, so I just left it, regretfully.

My dad's been talking about giving me money towards lessons - what he actually wants is for me to go back to college and finish my PhD, but I've tried to explain that I don't want to do it without going into too many details about my health. I managed to get him to agree to me having French conversation lessons (which I've wanted for years - I'm sick of knowing a language that I can't speak because I'm so traumatised from having everyone laugh at my accent) and I'm really hoping I'll be able to convince him to pay for the cello. If not, I'll just have to find the money myself.

It's strange that virtually no one who knows me now knows me as a cello player, yet it was one of the hobbies I spent most time on when I was a teenager. I always enjoyed it - practising was fun (unlike the piano) and it was amazing to be able to make music. Most of all I've missed playing an instrument with other people. Having a teacher again is a first step towards that - eventually I'd like to be part of a string orchestra again.

The really cool part? My new cello teacher is my old cello teacher. I managed to find her number by going through the (residential) Phone Book looking for people with her surname in her town. After the first couple of calls I got a sudden hunch that her husband was called Andy - and the first A. [Surname] I called was her! She was very pleased to be back in contact with me and we arranged a lesson for next Thursday.

I am very nervous, but she knows I haven't played properly in 8 years and is just pleased that I'm picking it up again. I will have to speak to my downstairs neighbour to let her know that I'll be practising and there will be lots of dying cat noises until I find my timbre. Mostly I'm excited - so happy I could cry.

"Effervescent" should be a mood option.

Comments

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm impressed with your perseverance in finding her - I find it really difficult to call strangers, especially when I'm depressed.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I had one of the random surges of enthusiasm that made me think I had manic tendencies before I had the nature of my type of depression pointed out to me. (Wow, that was a complicated sentence!). Once I worked out that playing the cello was something I needed to be doing, I had to go through whatever steps it was necessary to be able to do that. I used to hate ringing strangers, but nowadays it's easy because I do it all the time at work. The trick is to have prepared what I need to say.

I rehearsed in my head a script and then rang people and said it at them. "Hello, I wonder if you can help me. I'm trying to find my old music teacher from school. I remember that she lived in [town] so I've been looking in the phone book for people with her surname. Do you have a Mrs [surname] there who plays the cello?". It explained the situation simply but with enough detail that no one had any need to be hostile. Most people were unhappy because they couldn't help me.

[kyte.livejournal.com]

I'll echo Liz's sentiments there :>

And go you :> That sounds like a very good kind of progress - the kind that will encourage you :>

[jenett]

This is really immensely cool. Go you!

It's possible it might help the mental health stuff too: it's not such a big deal for me any more, but when I was in my teens, going and playing music for a while very energetically was a major mental rebalancer for me - in my case, for stress and letting my back brain do deep processing it needed to do.

But seriously, yay. More people having fun with music is a wonderful thing.

[emperor]

cool. I'm deeply impressed - I'm an iffy cellist myself, and since moving into rented accomodation and spending too long at the vets school, I'm way out of practice too, so I know what you meant about how hard it is to take something up again after a long time out of practice. Good luck with it!

[inquis.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remember you being a cellist. I seem to remember you were quite good too :o) I hope it goes well for you - making music can be so much fun :o)

[baratron.livejournal.com]

"Good" is such a relative term when it comes to musicians. But I had something of an aptitude for the cello that I certainly didn't have for any other instrument I've ever tried to play. Getting to the standard of piano playing I managed was through sheer hard work, to the extent that it stopped being fun. Whereas I picked up cello playing easily - though I never learned to do vibrato properly! No doubt my teacher remembers this... I was so bad at that one thing that it was almost amusing.