Adult beginner: the Bach G major prelude is humbling me. Pacing tips?

Started cello at 41, four years in, and the first suite prelude is exposing every weakness - string crossings, bow distribution, intonation, all at once. How did you pace learning it without burning out or ingraining bad habits?

Don’t learn it as one piece - learn it as string-crossing etudes that happen to be Bach. Isolate four bars, get the crossing pattern clean and even, then connect. The intonation settles once the bow arm stops fighting.

Adult-returner solidarity: four good bars a day genuinely compounds. I tracked mine and was shocked how fast “impossible” became “fine” when I stopped trying to play the whole thing.