On the 7th day of Cellomas
My teacher told to me: 7) Take the thing you hate the most and make it your favorite. You know that measure that twists your fingers into a knot, befuddles your bow or just sounds plain awful? Well meet your…
Category archive
On the 6th day of Cellomas
My teacher told to me: 6) Practice sightreading at least once a week, if it’s not already part of your routine. There are few tricks to getting better at sightreading. You just have to do it; preferably with a metronome.…
On the 5th day of Cellomas
My teacher told to me: 5) Go slow, go fast, go slow again. The hallmark of erratic driving is a great test of true grasp of technique and timing. Take a short piece or study that you have roughly under…
On the 4th Day of Cellomas
My teacher told to me: 4) When you can’t practice your cello, there are still ways to practice being a better musician. Let’s say you’re away from your instrument during the holidays for more than 3 days (the amount of…
On the 3rd Day of Cellomas
My teacher told to me: 3) Tune your half steps. Ideally, you should have half steps between your fingers with a nice big space between 2 and 3 which is flexible enough to be tempered up or down. Using a…
On the 2nd Day of Cellomas
My teacher told to me: 2) Find a way to record yourself. Lots of my students have balked at this one. “I get nervous!” “It will sound bad!” etc. To me, those are reasons to record yourself. Unless you are…
The 12 (or so) days of Cellomas
I’m not swimming in time these days, but I thought I it might be fun to offer a few basic reminders to take into your next practice session. Whether you’re an agnostic low-layer, a celebrant of another religion or a…
once more, with feeling
I have talked big and small game about doing a swing out to a few cities for master classes and private lessons. This time, I think I’ll actually go to the trouble to make it happen. My thought is Midwest…
Haw nit to write a celllo blah
I laughed so hard at this, mainly because I use a BlackBerry and all my friends send me garbled emails and texts from their iPhones.
how not to write a cello blog
It’s quite simple. It starts with actual cello playing and teaching, which remarkably takes away from blogging. Then add in some college football, possible moving plans, and the beginnings of Holiday Mania. Finish with a completely non cello related video,…
The impossible dream
Though we sometimes hesitate to admit it, even professional cellists and teachers have bits of technique that we develop “work arounds” for. It seems like forever ago that I developed one such habit to adjust for my weak left pinky…
brb
…not that anyone is waiting on my blogcast, but I’ll be back and blogging on Friday. In the meantime, how about this: When you practice, even something new and overwhelming, pick an element of technique to focus on while you…
heh.
Haydn, part 2, with a section about playing fast for our beloved Guanaco, coming up soon.
Veterans Day
Thank you.
Haydn C major, part 1
There are still a few glitches, like a mystery 12 seconds of black at the beginning and a less than pristine set, but all in all, I think it’s worth posting, and I’ll make improvements on the second installment. The…
Teaching your first lesson
I like to prod as many students into teaching as possible, and I thought that it might be nice to back up my dare with some pointers to help you. 1) As a rule, have twice the experience of the…
it’s about time
This blog has gotten too serious! Nearly professional and useful! Time for a random post, and this one goes out to all of you cat people who also are into crafts. (and I know who you are!) PS: The accompanying…
conversations with Andromeda
What a cool title for a post, eh? The lovely and talented Guanaco sent me an email and told me to check out Andromeda Romano-Lax’s new book, The Spanish Bow. So I did! It’s not light reading, but also not…
take one!
What a learning curve this week has been with Final Cut Express. I’m posting this as an exercise in humility as much as a beneficial lesson for students. Clearly, I got the compression wrong…I recorded this in HD (without a…
Cello Easter Island*
Just a little post until I can really dig in and get back to the good stuff. Along with the usual teaching and seemingly endless list of errands and small fires to put out, I lucked into some High Holy…
iBleh
I have been working all day on a video blog post, learning the ins and outs of iMovie to cobble together something I hope you will find interesting. When I went to save it, I noticed that there was no…
good for Pretty Boys, I guess
Like every day, even those not ending with victory, it was a good day to be a Trojan fan. It’s too early and extremely silly to talk about titles after just 2 games like the fair-weather media is doing tonight.…
and finally
Andrew Cook turned me on to the final permutation of the scale exercise I’m prescribing: Start the scale from the lowest note on the cello in the key, not just the tonic. So that means you start every scale on…
extra credit (on the 24 scale challenge)
Yesterday, it was particularly edifying to play each group of 3 twice, since the universal fingering works in handfuls of 3. So it goes (using D maj as an example, slurring 3) D E F#, D E F#, shift G…
24 scale challenge
This week, I am warming up with the 12 major scales, and then 12 melodic minor scales, using the universal (every key the same) fingering. Who’s with me?
now you’re making me nervous
For those of you who are not immersed in the world of college football like I am, this might seem like cause to celebrate. Ooh lookee! My team is rated #1! No, no, no! Stop! We have a bye week…
the secret Zen of clamshell packaging
So we are in yet another Hell house. I am now on a first-name basis with the people at all of the local plumbing, hardware, and lumber stores, which also means that I have had to do the self-checkout tango,…
Up, up and away
I finally started flying lessons a few weeks ago, and it is so good. Although I am very familiar with Whiteman and Van Nuys airports, which are just a few minutes away from the house, I opted to take at…
upon your return
The early stages of coming back from an injury or a long break can be like starting over, except that you have these remnants of knowledge, muscle memory, and expectation to tempt you right back into pain and frustration again…
seasons
Must be something about summer. We all kind of fall off of the horse in one way or another. Cellists stop practicing. Bloggers quit blogging (or go all sporadic, like me). L’s work parallels the TV season, and it’s interesting…