nailing it
Hahaa! I bet you didn’t expect a technical post today! Well, I enjoy the element of surprise now and again. One of my newer readers, Eigen voiced a pretty common question about left hand technique: What is up with 1st…
Category archive
something to look forward to…
For college football fans, there is a sense of loss after the January bowls are all said and done, and not just because the BCS is run by crackheads. Sure, we can distract ourselves from the pain with an extra…
Free Stuff, part 2
I want to resuscitate the podcast, and I need your help! So send me questions and comments about anything, and the first 5 people will get a variety of classical CDs, courtesy of a friend who works at EMI. You…
and now, for something completely different
…I only wish the very last one had been edited out. EDIT: now showing: Episode 2.My personal fave is the Storm Trooper. EDIT, again: The Star Wars Special!
groovy
Son of Bow Month
I got this fantastic email from our Far and Away friend in the Philippines, who wanted to talk some more bow. Twist my arm! (so long as it’s onto that right index finger, of course) “Ola, Ms.Wright 🙂 My student,…
Grey, part deux
Well, you can see that the eye is doing a lot better! We can also see that he is very much a he. Good lord. I had never, ahem, seen an intact cat before. Quite shocking, really. But now, other…
Grey
So there’s this cat. This magnificent, aloof, probably feral cat, who has gradually been slinking closer and closer to our door over the past few weeks. I immediately named him (I think him…could be her) Grey, because he is so…
Free Stuff, Part 1
The time draws near for the April issue of Strings magazine to come out, and we all know what that means. Contact me and you’ll get an issue! Woo hoo! The first 10 people to email me through emilywright.net get…
A good problem to have
Bow Month lives! Thanks to Terry and his wife for taking the time to chronicle yet another bow grip. One thing I notice is that the kind of student who lives in the world of cello blogs AND is likely…
photo unrelated to Bow Month
CelloGeek (but aren’t we all?) submitted this quandry: …”I struggle with 2 things with my bow hold (I’m sure there’s more but these seem to be the peskiest) 1 – my thumb starts nice and curved but gradually will get…
pinky pressure
Another darling of our community, CelloGirl has stress when it comes to her pinky joint. A portion of her comment reads, “…Sore pinky joint. This one I struggle with quite a bit. I know that I seem to tense up…
lookin’ good (soundin’ bad) (for a while)
Other possible blog titles include: Acting the partAll for showTest yer gesture (ha) As many of you know, I am in the business of teaching how to play the cello. I was about to write, “I teach the cello” but…
keepin’ it real
I live a dangerous life. Cave diving? No. Ebola specialist at the CDC? Nope! Sword swallower? Nah. No, I base my income on the wispy whims of people whose ability to pay me is a direct reflection of sentiment about…
Not even a little bit cello related
So you wanna go to music school?
This list, like the last one, is drawn directly from my experience. This is hopfully going to be the emphasis of my next book, tentatively entitled something like, “Ignore This Book if You Want to Go to Your 9th Choice…
Excalibow
The 2nd movement of Beethoven 5 has claimed many a victim at symphonic auditions. It seems to be custom made to sound great in a section, but like utter chaos when played alone. For years and years, I have chipped…
Be Prepared
Maybe you don’t need this list. But maybe your students do! Things to have in your cello case: 1) spare bow and rosin 2) at least a good spare A (whole set is ideal, but pricey, I know) 3) nail…
up there
Back in June, I wrote about extensions. I recently revisited the post and noticed that Terry had posed a question of upper position whole tone movement, and thought I would go over my approach to this potential nightmare of advanced…
wamma wamma
Like an athlete on the DL, I have slowly been working my stamina up to where it was when I was in college. Sure, I’ve been playing 5 hours of lessons a day with my students and doing studio doubles,…
Recommended
I had the the Stahlhammer endpin taken out and replaced it with a deadly-looking, lesser-angled tungsten carbide one. If any of you out there are considering a new endpin, I cannot say enough good things about this bad boy! No…
Devin
Devin Barlow is a student of mine. We meet once a week, for 30 minutes. Sometimes it feels like 2 hours to Devin, and not just because I am long winded and overexplanatory. Devin has very little short-term memory because…
Bah
When I originally submitted my manuscript to Oxford, I received a very cordial letter of not-quite rejection, not exactly acceptance. It praised the vibe of the book, the formatting, content, and even the images I selected. The editor suggested that…
back in the saddle again
I really detest summer. Don’t get me wrong: I have all sorts of happy memories from the summer months, but the weather had nothing to do with the happiness. I actually had to forgive the memories of their hot weather…
without warning, it appears
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