Category Archives: cello practice

cello practice

Arm Action

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Upon further exploration of the left hand, I noticed that the arm plays an important role in providing balance to the hand. I like to use the chicken wing metaphor when describing the up and down motion of the arms. This helps distinguish the upper arm from the shoulders and forearm. When it’s elevated, it also gives the hand a stabilizing table to connect to, requiring less effort from the wrist and finger muscles.
But there’s another arm motion, the forearm one. It correlates to vibrato, it was recently explained to me. It’s like a pushing motion, or like when you gesture to someone to back away further. I believe the muscles used for this help support the angling of the hand and fingers. It’s a little like having a prosthetic arm or a mannequin arm, where you can move the arm around while keeping the hand still. The arm is doing most of the work. The hand must be loose, of course.

originally published on 1/3/10

cello practice

Bing Cherries

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Why is it always my birthday o’clock when I glance at the time? Odd. The bobbing motion I enjoyed yesterday may have different implications than I thought. Even with my arm still, I can find comfort with the left hand angle and vibrato as long as I am playing slowly, with little or no rhythms. Once you add different note lengths and emphases, the position goes all to hell. But I think with the aid of the rhythmic bobbing, I can reconcile the distortions and imbalances. It forces a balance and symmetry to the arm/hand unit. It can be overused, as I was experiencing at work today, but maybe when used as a cherry on top of an already functional position, it adds the last crucial piece to the puzzle.
I have also been futzing with my bow grip over the last many months, moving the hand closer to the end of the bow. I wanted to use more fingers than just the index to make sound, so having them touch the frog seemed like a good start. What has also happened is my thumb has become nomadic. It varies placement anywhere from the inner curve to the corner of the frog. I think I have become more sensitive to thumb-related issues of late, so I’ve been considering the exact role of the right one. It seems to be pushing (pulling) the bow to the right and up, which ends up driving the hair down into the string. But this particular direction seems best achieved with the thumb wedged into that corner next to the stick.

originally published on 1/6/10

cello practice

Mashenski

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When I get it right, everything seems to hum. The fingers just lay on the string with their own weight. The vibrato only requires a gentle wiggle. I feel a warm feeling of trust and ease throughout my body. It’s like someone once said, the body is actually supposed to fall naturally into place, if only you could direct it appropriately.
These good vibes this morning were a result of last night’s practice session. I discovered a simple truth. In order to achieve a like feeling in all of the fingers, you have to arc them the same, and distance them equally from the thumb. The thumb must be willing to alter its depth. So it is deepest for the fourth finger, gradually getting shallower as you descend to one, until the thumb may not even be in contact with the neck for the first finger. I couldn’t believe how obvious it was, especially since I’d never heard talk of it.

originally published on 1/7/10

cello practice

Thumbs Up

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I just noticed that there’s a delightful bonus when I am at liberty to bend my thumb. I can phrase. I have somewhere to land after an up feeling. I am not up all the time. I can come down, musically and physically.
It works both ways. If I bend my thumb, it helps engender the downward downbeat arrival placement in a timely fashion. And if I strive to make the consequence of an upbeat feel and sound right, I discover that a locked thumb impedes it.

It seems to assist this when I have the thumb straight (but not bent backwards) during the upbeat. The thumb seems to play the music with me. How helpful.

Another surprising twist is that these upbeat and downbeat thumb responses need not be on upbows and downbows. They can happen anywhere in the course of a bow stroke, as long as the music calls for the appropriate inflection. It is incredible, this pliancy and independence of the thumb.

originally published on 1/22/10

cello practice, hypotheses and philosophies

Lefty Loosy

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I realized something. Music-making is really just the tip of the iceberg. It is the cherry on top. There are so many other ways to forge your way through life, to while away the hours of a day. Those things are the journey. Music-making is just a rest stop. The best music comes from an accumulation of many other things. The pith of those other things will determine the quality of the music. I have always thought you can work on music just on its own, but now I am changing my mind.< In addition, I can now see why too much awareness and self-reflection detracts from the overall quality of the music. Making the music be the focal point will unravel all that it is made of. Music should be allowed to be abstract. Unfettered. originally published on 6/10/07

cello practice, hypotheses and philosophies

Blanket Statement

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Upon further investigation (a reading session with some friends) I better understand what makes music-making so elusive and challenging. The pithiness inside yourself I referred to earlier sustains you in the midst of creating the music. One can so easily cave in on oneself if not for that support system. The richness of the music, the grandeur and beauty, must be counterbalanced by whatever one might experience in the daylight of real life.

The thing is you cannot substitute will power or intellectualization for life experience. That is the temptation, because it seems so much more efficient. However, the more time-consuming path of making my life enriching will actually accomplish what I need. And in the end it will be quicker. I won’t keep going in circles, for one thing.

originally published on 6/11/07

cello practice, everyday observations

Iffy

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I played tonight here in WY. I was focusing on my relaxation goals. I noticed the response of my instinct/training in regards to my breathing. On different nights I breathe differently. Of course, everything changes on a constant basis. It can be rather annoying, but once a nice girl colleague at a music festival told me it’s better than being bored.

One thing I noticed about breathing is the continuum between total inhalation and total exhalation and the effect it has on my overall sensation. When you inhale it is a refreshing, invigorating feeling, and it gives a somewhat strengthening result. During exhalation, you feel soothed, calmed and loosened. It can make you feel like rubber.

The troubling thing that happens in my head if I make strides, is that I get overwhelmed by the possibilities and permutations. I suppose that isn’t helpful for any mental equilibrium.

originally published on 8/5/07

cello practice

Pinto

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Today I realized something at rehearsal. It’s a good thing, too, and is as follows: I can incorporate the Perlmanesque approach I’ve been working on as an ingredient in my playing, rather than the whole entree. Having worked fairly steadily for the past few days on being utterly loose, I noticed this feeling cropping up this morning even when I wasn’t focusing on doing it. I was trying to be relaxed in general, but the specific Perlman loosy-goosy-handed and -armed sensation is special, so I could tell when it arrived.

It’s more organic for me to continue on in my practicing with the semi-vague goal of simple non-tension, versus the somewhat idiosyncratic Itzhak way of doing things. I don’t feel obliged to suppress the other positive influences on the health of my playing, either. They can be all friends and share space inside me, I hope.

originally published on 8/8/07

cello practice

Red Rug

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So after I got over being sick this last time, I had some new insights on the cello. It might have something to do with the stubbornness thing, which by the way has pretty much returned. I am finally starting to see the advantage of keeping my left shoulder about as relaxed as my right, or at least as low. It’s one of those new options I’m giving myself – broadening my horizons. All I can say is that I hope this isn’t a passing faze. Impermanence is a bitch.

I am trying to explain something more, though. In quick succession after the shoulder business, I deduced that 1) there are muscles that are useful to engage versus those that impede the goings-on; 2) there are muscles that are seemingly unrelated to the goings-on which play an invaluable role; and 3) I know quite well what I am doing, so I need to stop trying so hard because it only hinders the goings-on. Numbers 2 and 3 kind of take care of number 1 by default, so number 1 becomes an intellectual puzzle mostly rather than something actively applicable.

originally published on 1/6/08

cello practice

Pan fried

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I see, I see! No extraneous movements! No squirming, no fudging, no second-guessing! That’s how I will beat the beast of left arm exhaustion. It’s been there all along. I’m sure Starker harped on it repeatedly, in me and others. But now I’m ready to use it.

I see now that any moments of epiphany always involved this approach. It’s kind of like the middle way. I had to test the waters of all the edges in order to wean myself down to the simplest point of motion.

originally published on 4/25/08