Prologue

October 14, 2013. That’s the day when I played cello in front of strangers for the first time at a cello student concert. And why am I writing about this now, almost 6 years later? Strangely enough, to this day, I am still discovering more and more about what I have gained from this experience. Before my memory fails me, I’d better write this down as a keepsake. OK, actually my teacher has been nagging me about the benefits of keeping notes of my study too.

//Checkpoint (1)//

How It All Began

This all started, about 6 months before the concert, when my teacher asked me if I would be interested in participating in the concert. To be honest, performing in public has never been my forte. But I felt I needed a checkpoint at that stage of my cello study. Considering my teacher would be playing together with me on stage, this seemed doable. So during the week after, I spent hours on YouTube every night looking up duet pieces that I might be able to handle technically. But more importantly, a piece that touched me. And that’s when I came across this video, Prelude by Dmitri Shostakovich performed by 2Cellos.

Next, I needed to find the score. At the time I was only able to find a copy of the violin version, Prelude from Five Pieces for Two Violins and Piano. Then some folks in a music forum mentioned one could just transcribe the violin version into cello version by moving it one octave down.

So I went to a nearby stationery store and bought a manuscript notebook for 5 dollars. First, I used a pen to draw the vertical lines to separate the bars and to group the First and Second cello sections. Then I used a pencil to draw each note. It took me several hours that night to finish this.

Figure 1. Transcribed Score

With the score in hand, I eagerly went to my next cello class, and showed my teacher the 2Cellos video and the hand-written score. He agreed it was a good choice. But he pointed out that the First cello part didn’t need to be moved down by one octave as it would not sound compatible. “Oops!” Then he suggested I played the Second cello part. “Oh…” Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed. But believing my teacher must have a good reason, I reluctantly replied “O…kay” and moved on.