This summer I considered murdering, among other people, my cello teacher. He assigned me an etude. That is, I received the sheet music from him somehow, finding it on my music stand after he was gone, or he gave it to my kid, in a way that prevented me from asking him about it face to face. Just a few instructions penciled on the back.

It was slow and sad, something I remember requesting once. A slow, sad piece. It is an etude build mainly to practice double stops, however, so it sounded that much sadder while I was trying to figure it out.

It was hard to practice, I felt compelled to wait until everyone was gone, including the neighbors.

When you play double stops, you want to get the intonation right, which I was not doing. A piece without them, if my intonation is off, it still sounds roughly like a tune, to me at least. But this sounded like hell all summer long. I played it without double stops, just individual notes, to get an idea of what it should sound like. But despite that, I was swimming the entire time.

I dreaded going back to my first lesson of the new school year Monday. So imagine my surprise when my teacher expressed great satisfaction with how things stood. Amazement, even.

Even given the likelihood that he was wanting to start off a new year on a positive note and probably praised every student, his effusiveness made it impossible for me not to cheer up a little.

All I need to do is iron out a couple little things, like bowing and intonation. Everything else was already perfect, he said. That sounds like a joke, bowing and intonation being as important as they are, but I gather he was referring to things like the positions I had figured out and other elements.

So cello got off on a positive note this season. It was a real U-turn for me, attitude wise, because I had already begun wondering whether I ought not just sell the damned thing to the woman who has a crush on it.

My teacher asked me what I wanted to learn this year. How to read music, I felt like saying. More double stops, I said. What about thumb positions, he said. Sure, them too, I said. They could be useful if you’re considering doing more composing, he said. Absolutely, I said. thumb positions it is.

I have been doodling around on the piano again lately. So, maybe.

He also gave me some scales to practice. Fairly easy ones. I’m trying to figure them out. Not so easy for me, despite their simplicity. My problem is I still try to do everything at once, instead of taking it step by step. If I slow down, it’ll go faster.