It's that time of year again... Graduation. 

As I write this, Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance is on repeat in my mind, and it takes me back to the very end of my high school days.

There's a young, sweaty me, sitting on a folding chair on the football field, wearing a robe that feels as though it might melt onto my skin. The tassel on my mortarboard keeps hitting me in the eye, but at least it mops up a little perspiration as it swings across my face...


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Who knew back then that I would be a cellist and teacher a mere *mumble mumble* years in the future?

Uh, I meant to say, back to the present ...

During lessons this week, I discovered that both of my students who are high school seniors this year are valedictorians.  

And so was I all those years ago.

How crazy is that?  It's all a big coincidence, right?

I'm not so sure!

This got me thinking about the connection between music and the mind. 

You have all probably heard about the Mozart Effect --the idea that simply listening to Mozart's music can help kids perform better on tests.  Mozart's music has also been shown to decrease the amount of epileptic activity in the brain of patients who have seizures (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9660010/). 

Even listening to non-classical music can have significant performance enhancing benefits (http://www.livescience.com/2953-amazing-power-music-revealed.html)!


So if listening to music is helpful, what about playing music on an instrument?  
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Those of us who are more mature can reap major benefits from playing a musical instrument as well.  Not only can it improve your health--staving off anxiety, depression, and general cognitive decline (http://www.livescience.com/40597-playing-musical-instrument-good-health.html)--but it can also help prevent dementia
(http://dementiaresearchfoundation.org.au/blog/playing-musical-instrument-later-life-protective-factor-against-dementia).

Learning an instrument could be just about the best thing an adult can do to improve his or her brain health
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2996135/#S4title).  

​And it might also be a little bit fun! 
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If you're interested in seeing a few more articles on this topic, check out these:

• http://portlandchamberorchestra.org/what-happens-when-the-brain-plays-a-musical-instrument/

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• http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/09/10/343681493/this-is-your-brain-this-is-your-brain-on-music

And this one, specifically about the defiant nature of cellists (who, us?):

•  http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2016/05/why_cellists_like_sergei_roldugin_are_the_most_rebellious_musicians_in_the.html

Do you have personal experience to support or debunk these ideas? Let me know what you think about all this in the comments section below.  

And in the meantime, congrats to all the graduates!  For the rest of us, we'll just enjoy all that Elgar wafting through the spring air!

Adult cello.  

It does sound a bit risqué, but I am trying to refer to learning to play the cello after you have become a fully mature human being (I'm still waiting to achieve this status, hence all my "adult cello" jokes).

It's one of the most rewarding and intriguing (some of my students might prefer to substitute the word "frustrating" here) endeavors I have ever been involved in.  And it is not for the faint of heart. 

Learning the cello as an adult takes some serious guts!

I began playing when I was 10 years old after seeing the James Bond movie, The Living Daylights.  (Most of my students already know this story, but click HERE if you don't).  Though I technically began cello as a child, I did have to relearn much of my technique when I got to college, so I am no stranger to the humiliating task of having to retrain inefficient or sloppy habits.

But still, learning the cello FROM SCRATCH as an adult is a whole different ball game.

I think about this adult vs. child issue nearly every day, since about half my studio is made up of people of all ages who began practicing the cello as a grown-up.  

One of my adult students recently sent me a link to an article that she said had helped her immensely:

In the Express Lane: Learning the Cello as an Adult, by Ethan Winer. 

I immediately read it, loved it, and wanted to share it with you as soon as possible, so here's an excerpted passage from the introduction:

Read the rest of his article to find out what he prescribes to help the adult student progress quickly: http://ethanwiner.com/adultbeg.html

For your convenience, I have condensed all the exercises he has sprinkled throughout his explanation into an organized three-page warm-up. Feel free to print these out and add them to your practice routine.  I highly recommend doing so!

Thanks Janet, for sending me this article.

And thanks to Ethan Winer!

For many of us, sight-reading can be such a daunting task.  No matter how easy the piece is, it seems like we are having to wade through the farcical insanity notated above.  

I know that this skill can be beefed up, especially by simply reading unfamiliar music everyday.  After all, that's how I got better at it!  But sometimes I find it hard to explain the EXACT methods that work for me.  Perhaps they were built unconsciously, driven only by my desire to avoid a musical train-wreck!

Thanks to Nancy Mack, one of my most thoughtful and studious adult cello students, for alerting me to this incredibly helpful article: http://jazzadvice.com/5-steps-to-mastering-sight-reading/  It demystifies the sight-reading process by outlining the tried-and-true techniques in a shockingly clear way.  I urge you to read it-- especially those of you with All-State auditions on the horizon!  

Want to test some of these techniques on your own?  Visit https://sightreadingfactory.com/ for unlimited on-line sight-reading examples.  

Prefer sight-reading from a book?  Try one of the many collections of short examples for cello, like this one by Doreen Smith.

Feel free to share your sight-reading stories or helpful techniques in the comments section below. I love learning about what works for different cellists!

Happy sight-reading!