tuesday night practice stream
This November, I’m going to be streaming an hour of my practice on Zoom one night a week! This will be my real, actual practice, with no commentary (with the exception of my own mutterings) and no interaction with viewers, to keep it squarely in the realm of practice and not a demonstration or performance. […]
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 since my second year at CSUN) is wonderful, I can still remember the miraculous glide of this one. I nicknamed it “Excalibow”. A colleague had […]
music from another time
Originally published 11 Dec 2007. I still haul these pieces out now and again, and they continue to surprise me! Maybe I’ll spring them on some of my more advanced students who are working on the elusive perfectly tapered “long, but short” note. I have had a bockety practice schedule of late, but I have […]
visualization: the mental mock-up
A short medium sized video about the importance of visualization and the difference between it and simple imagining.
stuff to round out your approach: studying scores and critical listening
Even if you can hear the music in your head when you look at a piece, it’s never a bad idea to listen to several recordings and study the score as part of your general practice curriculum. To experience mastery, you need to know every crevice, every detail, technique, stretch, shift and emotional/dynamic implication of […]
vintage srcb, part 3: pinky pressure
Originally posted 9 January, 2008. This, and the next one, are two of the most popular posts on SRCB, according to the Google-mo-tron. 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. […]
vintage SRCB, part 2: practice makes perfect, if you survive
Post originally published 12 June, 2007 I wish I could send my adult students to music school, if only just for a week. Not to be inspired by the hours and hours of practice or the tide of talent that floods the halls every hour. No, I want them to witness the bizarre behavior of […]
small change, big results 3: improving your practice as illustrated by Dr. Who
In the third installment of this series, I’m going to encourage you to do something fairly radical: pay much MUCH more attention to your bow during your practice. Favor it. Examine it. Look to it as the cause of 80% of your difficulties, even those of intonation. I am compelled to ask this of you […]
small change, big results 2: improving your practice, as illustrated by English period drama
If we think about the relationship between you and your instrument as a romance, practice can be seen as courtship. You’re getting to know about the cello, finding out about yourself, and making your intentions known. You want this…most ardently. This part of the “small change, big results” series will use period drama pieces to […]
small change, big results: improving your practice, as illustrated by MXC
The goal of this series is to provide you with several small changes in approach, presented one at a time, that will streamline and improve your practice process, while also reminding you that MXC* was perhaps the only worthwhile programming ever to air on SpikeTV. View post on imgur.com Practicing can seem like an […]
