I just got off the phone with the preop nurse at Hopkins. On Monday morning around 4am, I will drink the permitted 8oz. of Gatorade and then we shall set off into the predawn, arriving in Baltimore no later than…
If you’re one of my students, you’ll be familiar with me barking “breathe!” from time to time, or more subtly encouraging respiration with an exaggerated sigh of my own, hoping you follow suit. Although it may seem silly to…
Hey all: it’s been a ghost town around here of late. Sure, I’m working on a giant post about breathing, and also have a good chunk of the next book in the hopper, but the reality is that I’ve been…
Last year, I nearly had a retreat set up when the venue ended up falling through. I’d like to do a few small 3 or 4 day workshops around the country (or any country, really), and I turn to you…
If you (or someone you know) if having a rough go of the cello, dealing with financial difficulties and can’t afford lessons, or maybe feeling a little detached from the instrument or lost on the path, I’d love to start…
Creating a meditative state for your practice may sound like some kind of hippie crap or a fantasy, perhaps an urban legend. Too often, I find students fostering a mindset about practice that is akin to battle. You have to…
As 2017 draws to a close, my mind turns to making resolutions. I’m a big fan of them, no matter how short lived or unattainable they may seem to be. There’s a certain optimism in the idea of a fresh…
The best thing about my new PT guy (not so new, I suppose…it’s been a few months) is that he encourages my curiosity, and listens to me when I posit new ideas. “You’re in charge of your treatment: it’s all…
If one thing is clear, after all this time, it’s that the cello is hard enough as it is- and that people will do all kinds of stuff to make it much harder or even impossible to get to the…
The last installment is not so much a spend/save juxtaposition, but more of a list of stuff you can do to add value and maximize the tone of your rig: it’s everything short of buying a new axe. Lighter endpin:…
Continuing yesterday’s theme: Spend (sort of): strings Don’t ever put the lowest end strings on any cello that will be played. They’re just terrible, and also are not made with any kind of quality control- they break, sometimes don’t even…
There are a million ways to spend money on cello stuff: cases, stands, stand lights, strings, premium rosin, super premium rosin, bows, bridges, time spent at the luthier’s table- you get the idea. When I was a young cellist, buying…
I talk to lots of musicians in pain- if there’s one thing I’m grateful for after all these years of questionable medical care and countless wrong turns, it’s the education the experience has bestowed upon me, so I can at…
I miss her.
Here’s a wee presentation I did a few years back at a workshop. There’s no voiceover…although maybe at some point I’ll add it, if you think that would be useful. The single most important thing that contributes to artistry on…
There was a piece going around on Twitter a few weeks back- an acclaimed author had posted a thread about how much of his success was about luck and privilege, and that it’s completely possible to be good at what…
It’s hard to narrow things down to ten main tenets, but I think these cover most of the important things. I’ve had overwhelmingly positive experiences with students- perhaps 1% had some degree of unpleasantry at some point, but because of…
I originally didn’t want to play the cello: as a young girl, I dreamed of the linear perfection of ballet- the wonderful music, the teamwork, the possibility of being sent far, far away to an academy to train hard and…
As teachers, we are charged with a wonderful but daunting task: to formulate a path, tailored for each student, to reach their goals. The reason it’s daunting is because most students will demonstrate a sincere desire to do one thing,…
This may be the simplest “hack”, but it’s also one I wish more students used. Something as rudimentary as a bandage can work wonders to draw the physical attention (that is, the body’s awareness of what is happening while other…
The cello and the computer (and driving, and knitting, and reading…) seem to promote two dangerous postures: a chin that juts forward, and shoulders that curve inwards, towards each other. Held for short periods, no harm done. Done for hours…
I wrote about this nearly ten years ago, but it’s stood the test of time for a tense/hyperextended/jerk of a pinky. My school of bow technique asserts that the pinky is largely inert during most actions, and although there are…
I once launched my bow into the audience at a CSUN concert after a particularly zesty up-bow release. The inside chair gave me his bow and sat through the rest of the movement quietly, but the person who caught the…
Here’s another snippet from the upcoming collection of essays. One of the highlights of my college years was winning the concerto competition at Kingston University with the Rococo Variations. It was a time of immense personal and professional growth- I’d…
Vibrato may be describable in words, they’re not easy to come by. For most students, it’s a bit of a long haul to add it to the list of techniques considered well in hand (pun resisted). I’ve had several freakish students…
There are techniques that feel, for some, completely unnatural. It gets to the point that struggling students can’t even feel what right is, so they either give up on the technique (this is common with vibrato, for instance) or develop…
Keep in mind I am making fun of the art direction and not the models themselves. Lord knows they were only doing what they were told. This was supposed to be a lovely slideshow instead of some 1998 Netscape mismatched…
Having server issues, but I bet you won’t mind if Maurice Ravel and the Enso quartet occupy this space for the day. 🙂
Even if you can hear the music in your head when you look at a piece, it’s never a bad idea to listen to several recordings and study the score as part of your general practice curriculum. To experience mastery,…
Part of the reward of teaching is grafting new students onto the lineage of instructors who influenced me, and in effect, into the legacy of the instructors who influenced them. It always tickled me to hear Cathy’s tone change when…