The three pillars of a solid BASIC SOUND:

​

1. Finger Flexibility (try the windshield wipers exercise at right) 
2. Straight bow (try the table glides exercise in my other blog post)
3. Stick tilt (see the stick tilt section of another of my blog posts)

Once you have spent so much time focusing on these factors that they start to feel easy, you are ready to move on to adding a layer of bow sophistication.

In order to increase your awareness of what your bow arm is doing, it helps to have exercises you can work on  without being distracted by left hand issues. 

That's exactly what this number-based bow exercise below is for.  Think of it as Sudoku for your bow!  It mimics real life bow-usage issues but subtracts the distraction of the actual music. 

Each number in the following grid stands for how many beats an open-string note should be held (in one bow). It will be up to you what tone variables you tweak in order to maintain a beautiful sound.  And that's the only goal--a beautiful sound for each number, whatever it takes. 

Remember, listen carefully. Your ear is your best teacher! 

Of course, there are rules for you to follow with this exercise:
​

1. Use metronome (I like 60 bpm)
2. Play loud  (try your best to match the previous bow's loudness)
3. Use whole bow 
4. Use consistent speed in each bow*
5. Change bow without accent*
   
   *rules 4 and 5 are more advanced and can be added as you gain confidence in your control
   
   

At first I would try to play one number and get comfortable with that.  Pick one of the middle strings (D or G, since they don't require a lot of extra work to keep the bow straight like the outer strings seem to) and experiment with the placement, weight and speed until you get a nice tone using the whole bow.

Let's say you start on the second line with the number 2.  That means you would manage the placement, weight, and speed in such a way that you not only achieve a good tone but the second click of the metronome occurs in the middle of the bow.  

Play a bunch of 2's in a row until it feels easy.

Then move on to a 4 (the second number in that line).  Again, alter the placement, weight, and speed so that you have a nice sound, but this time the third click of the metronome should occur at the midpoint of the bow.  

That feels different!  You probably have to move your placement a bit, maybe get more weight into the hair, slow down the speed.  

Do a bunch of 4's then until that is comfy. 

Then try to recall the feel of a 2.  Can you play a 2 and then a 4 in a row and still have a beautiful tone?

Imagine how much your right arm and hand are learning with all this attention! 

Perhaps you prefer to play numbers 1 through 9 in consecutive order so you can make smaller changes at first. That would be helpful.  Then try skipping a number. Then try two of the numbers above. Then add more numbers in that row.  Play any row backwards. Diagonally. Use the Sudoku puzzle in the paper that you finished this morning. Make up random numbers.

​Would lottery numbers work? Hmmmm....

Then once you are feeling amazing about your bow control, add some extra credit:

• Use only a portion of the bow (bottom half or upper half for example)
• Add string crossings so each number is on a different string (crossings sometimes cause inadvertent speed changes)

Above is a worksheet for you to use in your practice.  I hope this exercise helps you as much as it has helped me!

Please comment below and let me know how it's going or what you have found helpful in your fight to tame the wild bow. 

Happy practicing! 

Want more guidance on this topic?  Check out my previous blog post: Practice: A Gift to Your Future Self

Let me know how your practice is going in the comments section below.  Happy practicing!

In an effort to help you "get experimental" with your cello vibrato, the following is a breakdown of the techniques suggested in the song. 

What method has worked best for you?  Is there some technique you like that I completely left out?  

Lets' talk!   Leave a comment below--I would love to hear from you.

In the meantime, here are a few videos I really like that deal with cello vibrato in a helpful way.  If you don't have much time, watch the first one (top left).  The adult amateur cellist in the video speaks very candidly about her frustrations--and offers a logical and fresh approach!

Don't forget to leave a comment--and happy practicing (yes, karate chopping counts)!

I like to climb trees.  

Wow, that is definitely  a Nan Sequitur!  I thought this blog is about cello...

I'm just saying, that's probably something you didn't know about me. I like to work out, but mostly by doing things that are fun for me:  gardening, home improvement projects, dancing...tree climbing.  

That's nice, Nan, but what does this have to do with cello? 

Hang on, I'm getting there!

Lately, I have wanted to do more than a headstand, so I signed up for Chris Salvato's FREE 28-day HANDstand Challenge.  

Are you trying to get us to buy something?

No, I promise I am not advertising for this guy!  (Even if I were, the Handstand Challenge materials are free.) I was just looking around on the internet for some fun bodyweight exercises to do and was instantly taken in by Chris's positive attitude and helpful advice on consistent practicing and its role in developing a new and challenging skill...

And of course I had to draw connections to the wonderful world of cello and the difficulties we all face with finding the time and motivation to practice. 

The limiting factor for handstands, as with cello playing , is consistent practice of the skill.  

In other words, what holds us back from making progress with either of these activities is NOT how old we are, how talented we are, or how passionate we are. 

It's usually all about not "finding" the time to practice.  

Now, we all know that despite how busy our lives can be, there is Always Room 4 Cello!   The hardest part is getting the cello out of the case... and then keeping a regular schedule of practice.

Now for the real challenge: CONSISTENCY!   There are three things you can do to help you keep up with your practice, and I have organized them with this mnemonic acronymn to help us all remember: 
Anchor. 
Chart.  
Two-rule.

This is something that I already encourage my students to do, but could never express clearly! (Thanks to Chris for clarity on this subject!)

In order to remember to practice, it is helpful to attach your cello time to another required daily event, such as enjoying your morning coffee, arriving home from school or work, getting out of bed in the morning, or going to bed at night. 

This is called anchoring.

You can place a reminder near the place where that event occurs to help motivate you.

Soon it will become a habit and you will simply associate that activity with your cello work!

Life happens.  

There will be days when it is impossible for you to have any time with your cello.  When that occurs, you should try 5 minutes of mental practice, which includes activities like marking your music, listening to recordings of the piece you are working on, singing your piece, or going through the bowings, fingerings, or dynamics of that piece in your mind. 

That stuff counts!  Mark a big check for that day if you get some mental practice done!

But what if I have such a messed up day that I can't manage any mental practice either? What then?

If and when that happens,  just mark an O for the day and remember the Two-rule:

Make sure you don't miss two days in a row!

This is so important because it gives you an action to take when this unavoidable problem arises.  Instead of wasting time beating yourself up and identifying yourself as a failure, you can think of what you will do tomorrow. 

This way one missed day isn't a big deal!

So many times in my life, a glitch in perfection like this has been so demoralizing.  At these times, I try to remember: 

Perfect is the enemy of good. 

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. 

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.  

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!

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.   

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!

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!

Back in the day when anyone would mention bow bugs, I would laugh. 

Yeah, right!  There are bugs that eat your bow hair if you don't open the case often enough? 

Sounded like some boogie-man story used by frustrated string teachers to scare students into practicing everyday.

Well, I'm alot older and a bit wiser now and have learned the truth about bow bugs.

They are REAL!

Have you ever pulled a bow out of a case (that maybe hasn't been opened for a while, ahem) only to find the bow hair is totally falling out?

You might think that the dynamic duo, Two Cellos, has been sneaking into your house and secretly using your bow (IT COULD HAPPEN!  Those guys seem to be in need of so many backup bows--and who knows how they get them? I'm just saying). 

To get more info on bow bugs and what to do if they have already infested your case, read this article on the Johnson String Instrument site: 
http://www.johnsonstring.com/Bitten%20By%20Bug.htm

But, now that I am a teacher myself, I just can't help saying:

Practice every day and the bugs will stay away!

That's by far the best insurance.

Also, be sure to clean any cases you happen to purchase on CRAIGSLIST.  Probably a good policy anyway...

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!  

There.  I said it.  

It's been weighing on me, and I just had to get it out there. 

Wait!  Hear me out!



Unlike wind instrumentalists who use the same fingering for a scalar passage no matter what the context, string players must choose from a myriad of different finger patterns for the same passage based on many variables:

• Which notes come after the scalar passage?
  
• Which notes come before?
• What part of the scale am I playing?
• Will the passage be fast or slow?
• Should I use open strings?
• Do I want to incorporate string crossings?
• Do I want to maintain the timbre of a single string?
• What dynamic do I want to eventually achieve?
• Does the passage grow into the next notes or shrink away from them (or neither)?

...and I'm sure the list could be longer. 

Scales do not present you with any of these contextual challenges.  They can help you drill a certain fingering for scales that you MIGHT use for a passage once in a while,  But that isn't enough for me.  Why must my student work for hours and hours on learning all her scales for an audition while her solo pieces and etudes suffer? She can't spend 7 hours each day getting through all that mess.  

I am asking the string world (please pardon the pun): Why are we forced to spend time on something that doesn't benefit us in a MAJOR way?   

Sorry. I don't give a flying flip about tradition.  I will take efficiency over tradition any day.  

I could understand this if you just want an adventure "up high" without really working to understand the upper registers.  Easy scales. Whole-steps and half-steps.  If that's what it takes to get you out of neck positions, go for it!  But if your goal is just to get your hand into the stratosphere of the cello, also give Daredevil Shifts a try:

Or how about working on some pieces or etudes that take you up, up, and away!  Try Rick Mooney's Position Pieces for Cello Vol. 2 or his Thumb Position for Cello Vol. 1 or Vol.2 "Thumbs of Steel."

TRUE.  If you are a beginner, sure, scales can help.  If you need to devote all of your mind to the proper execution of these patterns, scales might be a nice and easy way to do this.  

BUT playing simple tunes in the key you want to target can provide the same results with the added benefit of contextualizing the patterns.

On the other hand, let's say you want to get really good at improvising in different keys.  

Scales and arpeggios can help you internalize common finger patterns that you can then call upon when you launch into your blazingly amazing cello solo.  

See, I'm not TOTALLY against scales.  

I think this practice is dated, but we do need to exist in the real world.  With that in mind, we DO have to practice scales for this purpose. But that doesn't mean we need to get into scales as a way to learn finger patterns. In fact, we are able to use the SAME fingering for every single major scale and arpeggio that exists on the cello (except C major).  
This will save you so much time when preparing for your All-State audition!  The secret of this wonderful fingering is outlined in the excellent scale book my cello guru, Martha Gerschefski, wrote.  In it she reveals the universal fingering for scales that makes D-flat major just as easy as D major.  You can order The Road to Four Octave Scales and Arpeggios HERE.

That's the answer I got from Heinrich Schiff's short article on the benefits of scale study: 
http://thestrad.com/latest/editorschoice/scales-and-exercises-are-essential-for-all-string-players-says-heinrich-schiff

I'm still not convinced. 

Working out the technical stuff is called PRACTICE.  If you are emoting constantly and being "distracted by the music" when you practice, you are doing it wrong!  Much of your practice time must be devoted to training the motions of right and left arms/hands.  

However the other time should be used to make decisions about the direction of the music. Considering this musical direction can actually inform your decisions about how you want to go about "programming" the motions.  So, the drills of practice and musical expression are essentially always linked to each other, but not in a way that "distracts."

Scales are not evil.  They DO have a few uses.  

Besides beefing up your improv chops, scales can help you train your ear.  If you have difficulty hearing if you are in tune, playing scales with a tonic drone is a wonderful way to work on this problem without becoming distracted by what you are trying to say with the music.  

Scales are nice and dry and boring,  perfect fodder for focusing your mind on something else. Like your intonation. 

Play a wide variety of music!  Different keys, different styles. Force yourself to sightread each day.  Join a group in which you get a bit outside your tonal comfort zone (playing musicals is the best way to learn how to navigate D-flat major!).   Practice coming up with fingerings on the fly. 

Also, there is no substitute for making deliberate fingering choices as you practice pieces and etudes.  Choosing a fingering for a passage in a thoughtful way, taking into consideration all those contextual variables listed above, is what you have to do as a professional cellist.  Why not get used to this job now?  

If we did this each day, being very mindful about our fingering choices, I think we would become better cellists more rapidly than playing scales over and over without a real objective. 

I don't know of one student of cello who gets fired up about practicing scales.  And for me, motivation is as important as technique.  If cellists don't practice, they won't get better!   

I know a child who loved the cello so much that extremely lengthy and in-depth practice sessions were like play time. Then this little cellist started studying with a teacher who spent the majority of the weekly lessons drilling scales. The little cellist soon stopped practicing.  Stopped loving the cello.  

Such a tragedy!  

You get the idea! And I think I have ranted long enough... But I feel better getting that off my chest!  And I look forward to receiving my letter of excommunication.   Until then, happy practicing without scales!