Strings Class and Cello

Hello. Today I'm talking about my experience with strings class and playing cello.

I started to play cello in sixth grade so I've been playing for 4 years now. In 6th grade at North Middle School the year started with 3 or 4 cello players so I was not alone and there was one person that was abetted player than me so I would have been 2nd or 3rd chair. My teacher was Mr. Cushwaw for most of that year until he stopped teaching so I had another teacher, Mr. Newburger for the rest of middle school. 7th grade was when things really got started because all the other cellos in my grade stopped playing. This meant that I would be the only cello player and I was for the rest of middle school. During concerts if I was lucky there would be 1 or 2 other cellos because that was the only time all 3 grades ever played together. Being the only cello player for so long definitely helped both my playing skills and gave me a lot of confidence since I would often be doing solos. Being the only cello I was also often playing loud, fast, deep parts, which happen to be my favorite part to play and it's also the reason the cello is the instrument I chose. My 7th and 8th grade years playing I had a good amount of friends in the class too, and being an essential part of the orchestra definitely helped me, even though a senior cello player could have taught me some useful things.

After 8th grade I went to high school to play at Spring Mills High. At high school the orchestra was a lot larger because all of the grades are in the same class and practice the same music together, and because of this there was an even larger range of playing ability and there were 2 other cellos, both better than me. I think that this was my worst year because since I was last chair I got a lot less attention and since my orchestra teacher, Dr. Sturm, doesn't have time to teach every single thing to every student, the senior players in each section are supposed to help and teach the others in their section. Neither of the other 2 players ever taught me anything even though they were both much better than me so I started to really lag behind and there was a lot of guilty fake-playing-hide-behind-other-cellos. Also most of what we played didn't have those loud, fast, deep, almost dreary parts that I played in middle school and I definitely missed that and didn't have near as much fun playing these other pieces. One song that did have those elements was Fantasia on Theme (no not Disney) and I very much enjoyed that.

This year I am in the same situation as I was for most of middle school in that the other two players quit and graduated so I'm the only player. This way I've started to actually learn things and grow and get better as a player because I'm being taught directly by Dr. Sturm, who's great. Because I'm actually learning new things and becoming a more well rounded player I'm also enjoying all kinds of music and not only what I was used to playing. Recently there was an event called WV Strings Day hosted at our school where the best players from our school played very challenging pieces with good players from across the state. My regained confidence and skill had me enjoying something I'm sure I would have dreaded the previous year and I was even 3rd chair out of 9 cellos, which is pretty good. There's another girl playing cello this year I'm friends with and she's just starting this year so I've resolved to actually teach her things and help her get better, unlike the other 2 players from my previous year.

I'm definitely looking forward to playing cello at Spring Mills High for the next 2 years and it's going to be a very awesome experience being the head of a section with my friends also a surprisingly large amount of cellos coming from various middle schools next year and the year after that. So there was my history of playing cello and strings class. Bye.


- By Ashton