Mastering 1st Position And Note Names
By now you should REALLY know your first position note names and fingers. If not, go back and see exercises 1 through 5. Schroeder No. 6 is a mastery exercise. It will thoroughly test you not only through using every note you know if first position, but purely by the length of the exercise. You may want to start by breaking the exercise into two or even four segments so you can eat this elephant one bite at a time.
One of the things I absolutely love about Schroeder No. 6 is that it resists being memorized. Many of my students work on the first 5 exercises long enough that by the time they pass off the exercise they are more or less singing a song and playing the cello. The lyrics to that song are the names of the notes in the exercise. At that point, they aren’t really reading music. They are memorizing note names and fingers. Schroeder 6 is boring, formulaic, and repetitive… but patterns change just often enough and the exercise is just long enough to make it hard to memorize through repetition alone. Students who have been more or less memorizing previous exercises usually take a month or more on No. 6 because the task is finally difficult enough that they actually have acquire the skill we have been working on all along!
The brackets below the staff connecting beat 4 of the first measure to beat 2 of the second measure are an editor’s reminder to keep 4th finger down while playing the open string. That marking occurs several times throughout the piece and in each case is acting as a reminder to keep 4 down. The simple act of keeping fingers down can significantly simplify your left hand motion making your playing more efficient and intonation more reliable.
Pro Tip
Hopefully, by the time you are done with Schroeder No. 6 you are immediately proficient naming the notes. This skill is easily lost if it is not used. Review the say and play skill often. Go further in flash cards than just 1st position. Be a literate musician!
Schroeder No. 6 is LONG! It’s not only a test for your note reading, it’s a test for your posture. Somewhere in the middle of this exercise it’s VERY LIKELY that your posture, bow hold, or bow path will go askew. When that happens, take the time to reset. Walk through your checklist and understand that the longer you play the more likely it is that something will collapse:
- Posture – feet flat on the floor, cello between your knees, touching at your sternum, sitting straight up, shoulders relaxed, elbow out like a kickstand, straight EWP (elbow-wrist-pinkie)
- Left hand – thumb and fingers bent (making a “C”), fingers arched and contacting the string with the pad of the fingertip, thumb bent and under 2nd finger
- Bow path – bow travels straight across the string (t-bow), midway between the fingerboard and the bridge (forte-freeway)
- Bow hand – thumb slightly bent, index finger touching the stick between the first and second knuckle, hand pronated, fingers slightly apart — not overly spread or bunched together
- Keep fingers down as you play – as you ascend the scale don’t lift the finger you just played when you place the new finger. As you descend place all 4 fingers and then peel off the fingers one by one.
- Check intonation – verify your intonation. Play with the video, use a tuner, watch your hand in a mirror to check that you are on the tapes. Don’t assume, verify.