I just read a post from another cello site. She said, “What colour /texture/flavour/taste/mood is that D?” I don’t know the answer and this is a problem for me. It frustrates me that I don’t see my notes in colors, flavors or tastes. Moods, maybe. I can get down to the bridge and put some arm weight into the music and make a ferocious sound (is that mood?) or I can pull a fast bow with little arm weight close to the fingerboard and make a kind of wispy sound. I guess that’s mood. It’s difficult for me to get to this next major step in playing because it seems like such a far reach. As a late starter, I concentrate so much on the notes, the shift, counting, the tempo. It’s just adding another layer and I can’t quite get there. My teacher suggested making up a story to the music. This actually did help. I was playing a slow movement from a concerto (yes, very slowly!) and made up a complete story about the movement, phrase by phrase. I even wrote it down and said the story out loud as I was playing it in my lesson. I got so emotional about it I was in tears! (It was a sad story.) Perhaps I needed to know the music so well that I could get to this next step. It probably helped that I practically knew the music by heart so I wasn’t relying on my eyes as much as my ears. Anyway, I still didn’t see colors or flavors, but I did play it more musically. I guess that’s what it’s all about. What do you think?