Nathan talks about the Swan
I know I’ve made this point before, but you people need it hammered into you: Kids don’t have some magic ability to tame instruments. The main difference I see is they lack the self-loathing and expectations adults bring to the table. If I could offer adult beginners (that is, people of all proficiencies that started […]
Keeping a Bigger Perspective
I find this very useful. Want more?
Change up your practice.
Try this: it’s like interval training for cello, and it got me over the hump when I was crashing on Rococo Variations. 1) Play a scale really slowly. As many octaves as you’re up to. Slur 2 to a bow, half notes, metronome on something Jurassic like quarter=42. We’re talking slow. 2) Open up your […]
a gift for the weary student
@ Yahoo! Video
Frazier/Ali
It’s interesting how much I learn from teaching. Over the past year or so, I have had four or five students rise quickly to the “uh-oh this is serious!” level of intensity with their cello practice and approach to playing. It looks like a few of them are even going to take it to the […]
defining
click to enlarge!
great lessons
Well, as if to prove that there is some balance in the world, my lessons today were miraculous. My first student is a professional musician and an accomplished teacher with the most destructive habit of denigrating herself. She brings me a cello she’s considering purchasing, and it really is a marked improvement over her current […]
not that I have any experience with this, but…
Muumuu, Kickstand, Holland.
My dad once told me that being a good teacher isn’t about thinking of things, but rather thinking of things to say. Each lesson is a struggle to convey how to do this or that, but more often, I need to sell the student on why doing it this particular way is important. In doing […]
frog leg syndrome and others
Like most things, all it takes to work on the pinky is a little discipline. Ok, a lot of discipline. If you have already injured yourself, there might be steps in between, like some rest, taping 3rd and 4th together in your daily life to avoid throttling the poor little thing, a serious course of […]
