Nan Kemberling, Atlanta Cellist
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Cellist, Teacher, and Coach

Attacking Chicken Attack

6/6/2017

4 Comments

 

by Erica Vacare

Erica is a student of Nan's who rediscovered the cello as an adult.  She enjoys biting off music in small chunks, like a turtle eating a piece of fruit.

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“Have you seen Chicken Attack?” asked my friend Chris.
“I don’t think so,” I replied.
 
I opened the YouTube link he sent. “Looks like a kung fu movie,” I thought. “Wait, did that chicken just turn into a ninja?! Oh my god. Now he’s fighting that guy. And this music is awesome.”
I informed Chris that this was the best thing I’d ever seen, and listened again. And again. I was hooked. After the fourth play in a row, I glanced across the room. Surprisingly, my cat did not look perturbed in the slightest, despite the continuous stream of yodeling coming from my laptop. I clicked the video a fifth time, and pictured how it would sound on the cello. I had to try it. A couple of Google searches later, I was the happy downloader of a straightforward-looking transcription. I printed it out and set it on my music stand.


The first thing I noticed was that the notes on the staff looked higher than Snoop Dogg. No problem, I could just move things down an octave or three. My mind wandered to my cello lesson, which happened to be the following day. I hadn’t played much this week. I pictured Nan, with her usual smile, asking me how my practicing had gone. “Well, I didn’t work on anything except for Chicken Attack,” I would have to confess. How embarrassing. I racked my brain for a way I could make Chicken Attack educational, more respectable. Then I noticed that playing it as written would put it in thumb position, which Nan had conveniently just gone over with me. “Perfect! I’m going to use Chicken Attack as a thumb position exercise!” I declared. My cat seemed unimpressed.


I sat down with my cello (which caused my cat to flee), and set my thumb on the A and D harmonics. I found I could play the beginning of the verse in the hand position Nan had showed me, without having to shift. Sweet. This was going to work well.
​


I was congratulating myself on my brilliance when my eyes fell on this high E:
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​Not too scary, though. I knew where that note was, after all: a whole step above my third finger on the A-string. But how to get from point A to point B? (Or, more accurately, point E to point higher E?). I wasn’t sure. “I’ll I just skip all those high Es for now,” I thought to myself. This allowed me to continue for a hot two seconds, until a wild F appeared:

Son of a monkey. If I wanted to play this, I would have to learn how to shift in thumb position. It was inevitable.

I brought the music to my lesson the next day. As Nan and I went over it, it became clear that Chicken Attack would be no mere exercise. It would involve a range of techniques, from basic to advanced! It was the perfect way for a thumb position newbie such as myself to dive right in.

Are you new to thumb position, too? Want to join me? Here are a handful of exercises plucked (sorry) from my practice pad! (Note: the version of Chicken Attack I’m using has been transposed down a fifth from the original, to be a bit more cello-friendly).

Finding thumb position on the harmonics:
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Bringing the thumb around in measure 4:
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Learning how to move the left hand in an octave structure:
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Utilizing technical shifts:
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Employing a sneaky pinky move in measure 11:
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Chicken Attack used as thumb position training is such a breath of fresh air in the studio!  ​Thanks so much to Erica for sharing it with me and the rest of our cello family. -Nan
4 Comments
Cathie Pritchard
7/13/2017 07:59:20 am

fallen in love with that yodel. can I get the chicken to do thumb position for me?

Reply
Katie Truex link
7/13/2017 01:48:04 pm

This. Is. Amazing!!!
Also the thumb position practice is great too :)

Reply
Endang Handzel
7/13/2017 09:54:13 pm

As adult beginners, have been struggling with all the fingering positions. Especially left finger. Thanks for sharing

Reply
David B Teague
8/26/2017 01:16:38 pm

I usually totally dislike (most) pop music. When I saw "Snoop Dog" I was, in a word, unimpressed. That is, until I read this piece. Then I was truly intrigued.
I watched the video and now I'm hooked. Though I'm doing this on the bass, it is tuned in 5ths. Most cello stuff works well here. What I lose is close thirds in low positions, some double stops and some chords, and facility on the lowest strings.
I downloaded the transcription of Chicken Attack. After I play my church service double bass solo with piano tomorrow, I'll come back here and learn this. More later on how this progresses.

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