Category: Basics

Nail it with shorter nail beds

9/16/2016

It's no secret that you need to have short nails to play the cello effectively. But I have found that "short" has different meanings for different people. What exactly is short enough?

Not even close.

No.

Nope.

...still no.

Make the Cut!

The following video is the only tutorial I could find on the subject of cellists' nail length. Near the end, RealCelloGuy explains that you should cut your nails as short as you can "without hurting yourself."

The Long and Short of it...

Great. Cut my nails. Got it.

But what if your nail beds themselves --not your actual nails--are so long that they interfere with your playing?

What can you do when can't cut your nails any shorter?

Nails are gone, but they're still too long...

First of all, let's clarify what I mean by "nail bed." A picture is worth a thousand words:

So now that we have the terminology solidified, grab your equipment (nail clipper and file) and watch my video:

These are my "long" nails. Usually there's NO white!

Make sense?

This is exactly what Martha recommended to me many years ago, and now the tips of my left hand fingers are super meaty, perfect for easy cello playing--even when my nails are "long."

Need more proof?

Thanks, Erica!

One of my wonderful students graciously allowed me to take a picture of the progress she has made with her nail bed recession efforts. The nail on the left has been filed (in the way I describe in the video) for many weeks now, and the nail on the right has been trimmed normally.

The difference she has created is obvious!

Need equipment?

Okay, it's time to get to work! Here's what I recommend you use:

KlipIt is the best!

I own two sets of these. I have never found a more substantial and effective nail clipper--and I have gone through quite a few!

buy Klipit

Filing in style

A file is the most important weapon in the fight to shrink your nail beds. This one is highly rated on Amazon, reusable and high quality!

Buy file

I'm a cello-file. Heh. Get it?

Maybe you want something that will explain to the outsiders why you are filing your nails so much.

This file says it all.

buy cello file

Feel free to leave questions and comments below. Happy filing!

11 Comments

Playing with Barbie (Fingers)

7/15/2015

1 Comment

Sorry, Barbie. You are out of tune!

I bet every single cellist reading this has struggled with a mysteriously sharp second finger. Or perhaps you have been plagued with a third finger that constantly sounds flat?

Most likely you have had to deal with BOTH defiant digits!

You're not alone.

In my twenty years of teaching, I have never seen a beginner cellist with naturally accurate left-hand-spacing in the neck positions. I didn't have it either. Our fingers do not easily fall into the beautiful half-step intervals that are required there.

Instead, the left hand will look like the picture above, with the middle two fingers that tend to stay together. You can probably see why I named this particular problem, "Barbie Fingers."

What causes Barbie Fingers?

As much as we hate to admit it, we cellists are human beings after all. And human hands have adapted to pick berries and fight, not manipulate the strings and bow of a cello.

Science Made Simple explains the mechanical connection between your middle two fingers:

The tendons in your fingers are independent from one another apart from the ones in your middle and ring finger. These tendons are connected.

In addition to the musculoskeletal connection between these fingers, some studies have revealed a neural linkage as well. No wonder scientists refer to the attachment between these two fingers as "enslaving." They are so bound together, how could they ever work independently?

To feel the power of this phenomenon, try this experiment:

From David Darling's Encyclopedia of Science: http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/H/hand.html

Place your left hand, palm down, on a flat surface.
Tuck your middle finger under your palm.
Try to raise your index finger
Try to raise your pinky.
Now try to raise your ring finger.

Three steps to halfsteps

That ring finger isn't going anywhere! I'd say that is pretty enslaving.

There's good news here. We don't have to let this physical and neurological oddity get in our way! It IS possible to free ourselves from this force.

Well, not entirely... But enough to make our fingers into the half step dancers we want them to be!

STEP ONE: Stretch!

Using a hard surface, or your right hand, gently push the fingers of your left hand apart in what looks to be an upside-down Vulcan salute.

Hold for 15 to 30 seconds, then relax. Repeat five times.

Do this daily and it will slowly loosen the physical connection between the two fingers. Who knows? You might also enjoy the added benefit of attracting Trekkies.

STEP TWO: Isolate

Slowly play each of the following exercises on your cello. Repeat each measure as many times as you need to. These might not be easy to execute at first, but keep trying. It will get better!

First line is arco with left hand pizzicato; Second line is arco (double stops)

STEP THREE: Listen and adjust

Try the following musical example on your cello. Listen carefully to the intervals. Try to make the notes with the upward arrows higher and the ones with the downward arrows lower in pitch. This will help your hand get used to the bigger spacing required between the second and third fingers.

EXTRA HELP: Martha has an excellent book that helped me work through my Barbie finger issue. It is called, The Road to Secure Intonation in the Neck Positions and you can order it HERE. I highly recommend it, as most of my exercises here are based on what I learned from her.

Defeating Barbie

The improvement in the spacing of the fingers of your left hand won't happen overnight, of course. Simply knowing that this problem exists can help so much... but if you also follow these three steps, you will be well on your way to being a Barbie-free cellist!

Don't be like Barbie.

1 Comment

Warm up, shwarm up? Think again.

3/9/2015

6 Comments

"But I SHOULD be able to play without warming up!"

One of my students was disappointed in a recent performance that she had given cold turkey.

"No way," I found myself shaking my head. " You must always warm up first. You can't expect your hands to be able to go from zero to concerto like that!"

Martha's warm up book

I couldn't believe these words were coming out of my mouth. I have never been a big proponent of warming up.

When I was a young person, Martha constantly reminded me that I needed to warm up. She even wrote an entire book about it (which I highly recommend!). But, as with many wisdoms she shared with me back in the day, I had to learn it on my own (I have some kind of problem with doing what people tell me to do sometimes. Even if they are exactly right! See my previous blog post: Saying Nay to the Naysayers and you'll get a better idea of what I am talking about).

So on my best warm up days, I would hastily wade through a D major left hand pizzicato scale (see below).

And that's it.

The first octave of Martha's warm up scale. I still use it!

It was better than nothing. But it wasn't enough. And there were many rough performances back then that I can see now were at least partially due to having cold arms and hands.

If only I had made sure that warming up was a part of my practice and performance routine. Like Brian Magnus who says,

"A daily warm-up routine is important at the start of a practice session. Jumping right in to difficult music can cause tension, and frustration when your hands don't seem to be working right."

(See Brian's excellent post on practicing, which includes a section on warm ups.)

It has become even more clear as I have gotten older. Nowadays, I know I can't play well until I have a little slow and easy time with my cello. I have finally learned!

But it didn't really hit me that I needed to teach my students how to warm up until very recently. I have been watching my older students suffer. Arthritis and bursitis wreak havoc on their joints and I desperately want to help ease the pain.

Stretching

Emily Wright herself has a post entitled "Yoga for your hands" which is a detailed description with pictures of stretches you can do that are specifically designed for cellists.

A massage therapist and cellist named Linda Hickey wrote an excellent article on the hows and whys of stretching before playing.

Martha devoted an entire page of her warm up book to stretching (see right).

Violin teacher, Ronald Mutchnik, created his own list of stretches for all string players. (If violinists need to stretch, well... we better do more!).

As you will read in the above links, stretching is good for your body. But it also just feels good!

Don't forget the bow

The bow hand needs attention as well, of course.

I love to begin each day with slow bows on my open strings at the bridge. It wakes up your bow hand gradually and doesn't ask too much of it at the start. It can also help your cello sound better!

When I first experimented with warming up (in college, of course), I would be in the practice room at 7 am droning on my open strings. This was in the era before my tour of Brazil when I was introduced to coffee for the first time, so there I was trying to warm up at the crack of dawn without any kind of caffeine to help.

Needless to say, a few times I jolted awake to find I had fallen asleep playing my open strings!

Check out this really fun bow warm up page : http://www.stringedtech.com/2013/02/02/bow-warm-up-exercises/

With these invigorating bow games, I guarantee you won't fall asleep during your warm up!

Preventing injury

Besides helping ease your body into cello mode in a gentle way, warming up can also prevent playing injuries due to repetitive strain such as tendonitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome. ( I even got something called cubital tunnel syndrome! Luckily, it went away pretty easily, but I still stretch my arms diligently to keep it at bay.)

Cellist Emily Wright knows a thing or two about the injuries one can incur by playing cello. A recent blog post of hers about her injuries that prevent her from playing was so moving and sad. In this post there was a basic plea to all of us:

"So if your teacher tells you your hand is too tense, that the way you’re using your body will cause injury, is only a short term fix, or is unsustainable: please take it seriously, while you still have the option to play without pain. I would give anything to go back and do it all differently if I could."

I am passionate about ergonomic technique as well, but the most important thing we can do to prevent injury is develop a warm up routine and stick to it.

The bottom line

You're going to need some stretching, some bow exercises, some left hand finger motions... All of these must be a part of your warm up routine.

But you don't want to spend all of your valuable practice time just waking up your muscles and joints!

So, to fill the need for a short but effective recipe for warm ups, I have devised an exercise sheet that will take only about 10 minutes of your time. The best part is that any cellist at any age and any level can use it!

Feel free to modify it to fit your needs!

If you want this warm up sheet but can't print it from here, just contact me and I'll be glad to email you a PDF of it!

Learn from a pro

Watch Johnannes Moser and his approach to warming up before playing his cello:
http://musaic.nws.edu/videos/warm-up-routine-on-the-cello

And leave a comment to let me know how you like to warm up!