Early Valentine's cards

I participated in the Valentine artists trading card (ATC) exchange at Drawspace. I drew nine cards and will receive cards from others. It's fun drawing for others, and collecting other people's art. (Wish we could do this somehow with the cello--maybe a joint CD--wouldn't that be fun!)

The cards are small, only 2 and a half by 3 and a half inches, just big enough to experiment with. They are just about the same size as they look on my blog. Since it is not even February yet (though quite close to it), I am posting only a couple of my cards. These are all colored pencil and ink on Stonehenge drawing paper (thick, like posterboard).


(Yeah, I know, it should have been a bass clef, but we play in treble clef too.)

Lots of Snow

I was not expecting this snowstorm! (These are tall trees, bent to the ground with snow.) Fortunately, my husband parked at the end of the driveway to minimize shoveling. Then he drove me to work and picked me up afterwards. An easy day for me. Hope others are warm and toasty. Or at least as warm and toasty as one can be with the thermostat turned down.

Cello Blogiversary

It's been a year since I started this blog. So, it is time to reflect on its history. I first discovered blogs about five years ago. I was indexing a periodical on information technology, in which the author mentioned blogs, cautiously, as a source of business research. He said you could find weblogs on many subjects. So I searched for weblog + cello, and found only AMK's cello log (at that time he had a blog entirely devoted to his cello lessons; now cello is only part of what he writes about). I found it fascinating, as he working on Suzuki pieces that I had recently worked on. His blog was not interactive though, so you couldn't communicate with him.

Nevertheless, inspired by his weekly summary of his lessons, I decided to start an offline lesson diary, to keep track of my own progress, or, rather, to facilitate that progress. Sometimes it seemed that my teacher was telling me the same thing every week. Oh, yeah, I would remember, we have talked about this before.

I was not successful in writing after every lesson, but do have entries through last March. It became more of a music diary than a lesson log, detailing struggles and accomplishments, frustrations and goals. I will try to reactivate it, now that I have remembered it again, as it serves a different purpose than this blog.

I can't remember when I discovered the Internet Cello Society's cello forum, but that was the next step toward this blog. I have never been a very active poster in that forum, but it was fun, occasionally, to join in the discussion and "meet" other cellists.

It was probably in December 2006, I discovered three very informative and entertaining cello blogs, Cellomania, If at First You Don't Succeed, and Cello Dreams. These bloggers also find other cello bloggers and have built a wonderful cello community online. At the same time, I was thinking about writing. I index books, and have co-authored/co-edited a book, but I really wanted to write one. I thought maybe blogging might be a step toward writing more regularly for publication (more in the sense of feeling comfortable about making one's thoughts public than as a means of finding a publisher).

So, since I read only cello blogs, I decided to start a cello blog. An excellent idea! Now, a year later, I have contributed regularly to this blog, communicating with family and friends, as well as the "unknown reader" through it, "met" many interesting people, written a "novel" for National Novel Writing Month, gotten interested in photography and re-interested in art, and I work for the local newspaper. A newspaper is not a book, but I quite happy with it, and the publishing process is much shorter. Getting involved with Drawspace.com and being part of National Blog Posting Month introduced me to many other blogs, even, non-cello blogs!, and that has been enriching. It's been a good year. Thank you for reading, for commenting, and for blogging.

Writing reviews

I finally finished my review of the "Triple Concerto" concert. It takes me hours and hours to write reviews. I wish I could do it faster, but maybe that will come with time. I should have a lot of practice this winter/spring season, with seven or eight concert reviews to write.

I started writing reviews 3 or 4 years ago because the previous arts reviewer for the local newspaper did not feel qualified to do so, and the professional musicians did not want to critique their colleagues. I fell into that middle ground of enjoying music as an amateur musician, though I do not have a musical education, besides flute and cello lessons, and enjoying writing.

I said "no," the first time I was asked to write a review, saying I was not qualified, but the person on the other end said that my cello teacher thought I would do a great job. How can you argue with that?

So, I e-mailed my sister, who is not only a professor of music, but also teaches English, including how to write a review. She gave me a lot of excellent advice, and suggested I get a recording of the music to be played to become familiar with it before the performance, do some background research, talk to people, etc. For that first concert, I actually bought a Music Minus One recording of the solo violin piece and studied the score, listened to the CD, and read the very detailed and interesting performance notes. I bought CDs for all the other pieces of music being performed and researched them, too. It turned out to be a very expensive concert, even though I got the tickets for free. I invited a friend to join me for the concert. She does have a music degree, and she teaches music at the elementary school level. She had a lot of insights, including some nonmusical observations, such as the fact that a violist was chewing gum throughout the concert.

So, many reviews later, I am now the arts and entertainment editor for the local paper. I no longer buy CDs for each performance, but I do listen to online performances, such as the Triple Concerto, and I do as much background reading as I can to better understand context of the piece. And I talk to friends who attended. (It was great to talk to Carol about this last concert!) I view reviews as an enjoyable part of my own self-administered music education. There is nothing like going to lots of concerts, and writing about them, to teach music appreciation.

Beethoven Triple Concerto Oistrakh Rostropovich Richter 4/4

This is part 4 of 4.

Beethoven Triple Concerto Oistrakh Rostropovich Richter 3/4

This is part 3 of 4

Beethoven Triple Concerto Oistrakh Rostropovich Richter 2/4

This is part 2 of 4