Do you encounter passages in orchestra that you feel certain are impossible to play? 

​Do you diligently practice them slowly, but it doesn't seem to help one bit? 

When you rehearse with the group at tempo, you can't seem to even move your bow as fast as it needs to go--and forget about the left hand! 

It is almost as if your brain melts and you are paralyzed by the sheer rapidity of the notes flying by...

Sound familiar?  It does to me!

Well, before you throw your cello in the corner and set it on fire, you should try faking!

Here's a video all about what it means to "fake" in orchestra:

I hope you see now that faking can be an effective technique for keeping up with your ensemble. It's not something to be ashamed of!  You are simply putting your group first by refusing to cling to every single note--in this way, you won't be getting in the way. And you'll probably play more notes than you ever thought possible--maybe even all of them! 

Happy (fast) practicing!

The three pillars of a solid BASIC SOUND:

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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:
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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! 

​I made the video below to help answer a few most common questions about harmonics. 

​This video is by no means comprehensive!  If I included all the information on this topic, I feel like the video would be longer than The Lord of the Rings Trilogy!

If you still have unanswered questions, here are a few websites on harmonics I really like:

• PRACTICAL BASICS: https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Cello/Notation/  Go down two-thirds of the page to the heading Notation for Fingerings (left hand); diamond harmonics are referred to as "fingering notation" and the non-diamonds are "sound notation."
• ILLUSTRATION OF HARMONIC FRACTIONS (and a nice overview of everything having to do with harmonics):http://www.moderncellotechniques.com/left-hand-techniques/harmonics/harmonics-overview/  This article refers to artificial or false harmonics as "stopped" harmonics.
• PHYSICS LESSON: https://physics.info/waves-standing/  If you want to know more about what nodes are and why they are found on fractions of the string, this article is helpful--and even goes more in depth than what we need to play the cello. 
• HARMONICS FROM A COMPOSER'S POINT OF VIEW: http://www.timusic.net/debreved/harmonics/  This blog post is so interesting since it approaches the topic from an arranger/composer perspective, and we can get a glimpse into the world of the people who write these crazy notes for us to play...

Test your harmonic knowledge with these passages:

Is the note indicated by the red arrow a natural or artificial (false) harmonic?

Try these exercise books dedicated to harmonics: 

Or take a look at this piece using natural harmonics from CelloExpressions.com (bottom notes indicate rhythm and string, middle notes show where to place your finger, and the top notes indicate the sounding pitch):