This.
Pretty much the whole point of my blog. And maybe my life.
Emily Wright
Memorial Day.
EW: I posted this last year but thought it was worth revisiting. Have a wonderful Memorial Day, lovely readers. Someone whom I respect and care very much for said about Memorial Day, “It really has no meaning for me at all.”…
Cheers, Socrates! A commentary on YouTube haters.
I’m used to being misunderstood. Heck, I’m used to being understood and then despised for what I genuinely mean. Anyone who has ever posted or commented on YouTube knows that it is a haven, a sanctuary….a sucktuary, if you will,…
Sometimes the music looks back at you.
It’s been busy times in the stark raving life of your friendly neighborhood cellist. I suspect this will be one of the last blogs at this address: the whole shebang is going to move over to my big site. But…
Striking out.
Ryan Howard is a baseball powerhouse. He’s led the majors in things like slugging and home runs, and is known as a Big Bat, for good reason. If you’re not a Philly fan, you probably just feel a little uncomfortable…
Rock and Roll, part 2
It’s been a fabulous week of playing, meeting, planning and general mayhem. It looks like I’ll be heading into the studio around the end of summer to record an EP. September should be an exciting month. By then I hope…
Rock and Roll
In an alarming number of ways, it’s been so easy to be away from the classical world. I mean, look: everybody’s foaming at the mouth about declining audiences, gigs are scarce, and the likes of me was always begrudgingly admitted…
Untold inner monologues of great composers
My new cello crush.
I know I’m totally late to the Stjepan Hauser party, but watching him have a great time with the cello is a reminder of how much fun it is to do this thing we do, and also of the fruits…
From the mailbag.
Today, I got two emails. One, from someone I have known for a long time. Another, from someone I have never met before. Email #1: Hi again, I’m no avid reader of your blog but I do admit to checking…
Cat vs Metronome
For those of you who detest working with ol’ metro, this is for you. I enjoy the McTwitchersons action.
A quick reflection about practice.
I was practicing yesterday and encountered, for the first time in a long while, the temptation to stop after the first 20 minutes. I’ve set about going through the Popper études and plowing roughshod through the repertoire to prime myself…
Dive in.
One of the most rewarding things about this blog are the emails I get from people who have been touched by something I’ve written. I react anywhere from “Aw, shucks” all the way to ten-minute cathartic bawl-fests, and I am…
The Nice Lady
As some of you may have gathered, I’m hustling out here in Baltimore. Gone are the days of composers calling me up for last-minute tv gigs, of weeks full of teaching my beloved students, of having the luxury of near-daily…
The Best Valentine’s Day Ever
You know you love the music. Buy it here.
This looks cool!
I got a flyer in the mail for this, and it seems perfectly suited for adult student cellists. Here’s their gallery from last year.
Choosing Happiness
There has been much tragedy in my life. At least half of it actually happened. -Mark Twain I get a lot of stick from some of my most beloved blog/Twitter pals for being largely upbeat most of the time. I…
The Perfect Teacher.
It’s me! No, not really. Good gravy. But I frequently am the recipient of students who bring with them some seriously low expectations and occasionally, horror stories. Yesterday, I offered a few tips to help get the most out of…
The Perfect Student
Ah, yes: the perfect student. Doesn’t exist. Can’t, in fact, exist. Humanity gets the better of all of us, at some point. Malleable students lose themselves. Bright students preempt new concepts. Astute students set unattainable goals. Which is what makes…
Sir Ken talks about creativity
I have such an edu-crush on Ken Robinson.
ex machina
I think the most common question I get asked these days is, “What do you want to do?” If blogging and writing and private lessons paid the bills, then I would happily do that and feel like I was putting…
Cello Shopping: The Italian One
The Italian One is orange. Flamed bird’s eye on the sides and back, fine stripes down its unassuming front. Heavier than most modern cellos I’ve tried, with a steel endpin I would replace with a tungsten carbide scepter of death…
Cello shopping
The other morning, I woke up with a bee in my bonnet. That bee has a name, and that name is, “Emily, you need a better cello.” I do not like this name, or the bee himself very much, but…
A word about regrets.
The perfect recipe for an unhappy life goes like this: make mistakes and either fail to learn anything from them or allow yourself to be so consumed by regret that you are not present for a single moment of your…
The how and what of good practice.
It happens more than it should: I walk into a lesson and the student is jaw-droppingly unprepared and the excuse offered is, “I didn’t have enough to practice.” It was a frequent occurrence in my own early lessons. I would…
HotLanta workshop!
This is starting to be a habit! For the third year running, I’m being hosted by Ann and the Atlanta Cello Project. This time around, I’ll be talking about memorization, offering tips, and passing along some handy information about short,…
The real me.
Ask anyone who has ventured into the deep end of music teaching about how they balance performance and pedagogy, and you are bound to get all kinds of answers. In my own experience, I can candidly offer the following: There…
2010: Lousy Post #2
While the last post was so awful and nebulous that it sparked a misunderstanding with one of my favorite cellists, this post showed me that people don’t come here to read about my non-cello life.† So up it goes, as…
2010: A Lousy Blog Post Retrospective, part 1
Inspired by Travis‘ idea, I now present you 2010: A Lousy Blog Post Retrospective. He noted that some of his favorite posts were the ones with either zero reaction or active disdain from his readers, and it’s funny to go through…
Happy Cellomas
It’s not uncommon to be a little more sentimental during the holidays. Heck, I’m easily touched as it is. This year I thought I would make a little video to put faces and names to some of the people who…