Tag practice

On the 5th day of Cellomas

My teacher told to me: 5) Go slow, go fast, go slow again. The hallmark of erratic driving is a great test of true grasp of technique and timing. Take a short piece or study that you have roughly under…

On the 4th Day of Cellomas

My teacher told to me: 4) When you can’t practice your cello, there are still ways to practice being a better musician. Let’s say you’re away from your instrument during the holidays for more than 3 days (the amount of…

On the 3rd Day of Cellomas

My teacher told to me: 3) Tune your half steps. Ideally, you should have half steps between your fingers with a nice big space between 2 and 3 which is flexible enough to be tempered up or down. Using a…

On the 2nd Day of Cellomas

My teacher told to me: 2) Find a way to record yourself. Lots of my students have balked at this one. “I get nervous!” “It will sound bad!” etc. To me, those are reasons to record yourself. Unless you are…

The 12 (or so) days of Cellomas

I’m not swimming in time these days, but I thought I it might be fun to offer a few basic reminders to take into your next practice session. Whether you’re an agnostic low-layer, a celebrant of another religion or a…

The impossible dream

Though we sometimes hesitate to admit it, even professional cellists and teachers have bits of technique that we develop “work arounds” for. It seems like forever ago that I developed one such habit to adjust for my weak left pinky…

and finally

Andrew Cook turned me on to the final permutation of the scale exercise I’m prescribing: Start the scale from the lowest note on the cello in the key, not just the tonic. So that means you start every scale on…

upon your return

The early stages of coming back from an injury or a long break can be like starting over, except that you have these remnants of knowledge, muscle memory, and expectation to tempt you right back into pain and frustration again…