It's the stuff our nightmares are made of...
But tuning with your pegs doesn't have to be scary. Arm yourself with these tips and face your fear.
You can handle it!
You can handle it!
It's the stuff our nightmares are made of... But tuning with your pegs doesn't have to be scary. Arm yourself with these tips and face your fear. You can handle it!
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Sitting with the cello should be simple. But as we teachers have struggled to find a uniform method to prescribe for every student, it's only gotten more mysterious! The following examples are just a taste of the countless methods one may find on this issue: We teachers have the best intentions with our instructions, but the reality is that the variables involved are too numerous for us to pack it all neatly into an easy description. Too many variablesWe can think of so many differences in body types. Long torso, short arms, little hands, long legs, barrel chest... It's mind boggling! But that's not all... I also try to take into consideration different chair heights, heel height, and on occasion even trouser material! My goal as a teacher is to get my students to be as comfortable as possible with real-world cello situations, so I must include these realistic (and sometimes not ideal) variations. Not all of us are able to take a custom cello-chair with us wherever we play (the most I can get away with for most concerts is a subtle seat cushion addition!). Your comfort is keyEveryone's body is different. Every situation is different. The best we can do is make sure we can accommodate our own body. We must get as comfortable as possible within the confines of the situation while still being able to effectively manipulate our instrument. Keep in mind that you must fit the cello to you. Not the other way around! Head, shoulders, knees and toes I have tried to distill the act of sitting with the cello into a simple set of instructions involving three main points of contact. These are only guidelines to help facilitate your getting comfortable with the cello. I would love to hear your thoughts on sitting with the cello. Do any of you use Posture Pegs? My puns are getting worse and worse. Sorry, guys. My purpose here, besides delivering to you that awful word play, is to compile a few articles and videos that I have found useful in my quest to explain more clearly how to make a massive sound on the cello without pressing or squeezing. Stick tiltIn lessons, I am always talking about being efficient with our bow arm energy by using gravity to our advantage. This all starts with the stick tilt, in my experience. Here's an excerpt from Harry Wimmer's book, The Joy of 'Cello Playing, Master Lesson 5 that explains it so well: I have heard many people say that tilting the stick prevents a cellist from using all the hair of the bow. I have never found that to be true! I can tilt the stick, use all the hair, and enjoy producing a massive tone without much effort. Test it out and see if it works for you! Energy flowThe Strad's story, How to produce a strong, uninhibited sound without pressure, by cellist Joel Krosnick, is extremely insightful, although I heartily disagree with the method of leaning into the first finger when in the upper part of the bow. It's a natural thing to do, but it seems to squeeze the sound and I feel it causes an uneven tone production. He says, "From the upper two thirds out to the tip, I will probably lean on my first finger a bit more than the middle one." I much prefer the feeling of heaviness in ALL the fingers. TRY THIS: To fight the feeling of leaning inward to create a bigger sound, think of your pinky as the finger that is taking on the job of tone production at the tip. It will take getting used to, but will help your sound production greatly. Please DO read this article, as Krosnick's thoughts on energy flow are extremely useful! Open soundMartha sent me an article by Bonnie Hampton, How to Avoid Tension in the Bow Arm. In the article, Bonnie discusses how she produces a big, round sound by refraining from hunching over the cello and being mindful of the tension that tends to creep into cellists' shoulders. She talks about how she simply guides the bow, letting all her arm weight fall into the string, while her flexible fingers "cling to the frog like suckers." Here's a little video I took at a masterclass that Melissa Kraut did for Franklin Pond just two weeks ago. Deja vu! She also touched on the idea of bow weight being held up by the string and reinforced the concept of flexible "octopus fingers." Need more help?Check out this blog post video at Cellobello.com that is also very useful in helping us grasp the idea of this type of sound production: http://cellobello.com/lessons/12
Have fun experimenting with how YOU can make a big, easy sound! Let me know how it goes in the comments below. |
Nan sequitursI live and breathe cello everyday, and I want to share thoughts about it with you! Categories
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