Anything but Crumb-y
The end of the year always makes my fingers itch for something new, or something old to make new again. A few years ago, I was inspired by Josh Roman’s Instagram post where he was being adjusted by an Alexander…
Category teaching and learning
COMING fall 2025: Wednesday-themed intro to cello intensive
Already know you’re interested? Go to the bottom of the post and let me know! It’s been so much fun to see interest in the cello and playing pop/contemporary styles since Netflix’s Wednesday crashed into our hearts and minds in…
POSTPONED: Summer School 2: practice lab
This course has been postponed, please do not purchase it unless you are happy to have a credit for when it actually does run! Thank you for understanding ♥️ Summer School 1 was a real-time look at the way I…
Summer school, part 1
Don’t wanna read the whole post? Scroll to the end for the course description and details! Many of you know I stream my practice semi-regularly. Why? I suppose I’m trying to demystify the process a bit and build on one…
Range
One of my favorite podcasts is If Books Could Kill, where the two hosts take a critical (good faith) look at the pop-sci books that take the zeitgeist by storm every few years. Examples of this include: What these books…
How would you fare?
I came across this video where the delightful Ray Chen challenges some Colburn students to do crazy things for a small cash reward or a free student level instrument. Now, what these kids—who are playing on extraordinary violins purchased for…
New video: using a tuner effectively
I was incredibly lucky with my first cello teacher, Catherine Graff MacLaughlin. You’ve probably heard me refer to her as my cello mom, a riff on Jackie calling William Pleeth her cello daddy. Fun fact: Cathy studied with Pleeth, too!…
What the hell, community orchestra conductors?
Over the last few years, I’ve noticed a trend in community orchestras: the repertoire and rehearsal schedules are becoming INSANE. Programs featuring Liszt Les Préludes, Bartók Concerto for Orchestra, that wild Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker arrangement, Strauss tone poems, and the like.…
Read it now: thumb position fundamentals in Strings March/April 2025 issue, now with 86 percent more rat!
It’s always fun to write about technique. Perhaps this is a sign of madness, but I really enjoy being assigned a massive task—in this case, creating a primer on thumb technique for beginners through advanced players—with a hard word count…
Deeper dive: practice quality
You may have seen this graphic before: Today I’m going to tease these elements apart. mechanics and approach: the foundation What we do is, at its core, a physical enterprise. Yet, sometimes it can feel like this wild mental scramble…