Category archive

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…

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…