send me your problems!

Everyone has reacted to the changes brought about by covid-19 differently. Many of my musical colleagues have become prolifically creative; the sudden confinement and lack of performance outlets funneling their […]

Does your bow grip work?

Originally published 5 Jan 2008. I really wish I had somehow been able to wrangle the bow in the picture into my life. While the current Sasano bow (I’ve had […]

Dear Emily: advice on buying a cello

I get several emails a week from students asking whether they should buy cello A or cello B, although cello C is lovely and has a single-piece back, here have […]

high maintenance

It’s funny that Cello Muser, aka @risktical asked for a post on periodic cello maintenance because until recently, I hadn’t been doing too much of that. In fact, I had […]

unfair

I got a letter from your pinky the other day. I’m used to whole cellists writing to me asking for technical advice, but this was…a little awkward. What a conflict […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 – […]

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 […]

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 […]