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Things Cello Has Taught Me (so far)
StoreTags: balls, cello, me, you, hard
Author: Roshi on January 03 2007 Viewed 4190 times. 32 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
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I realize it’s been a while since I’ve updated people on my progress of learning the cello. These past few months have been alternating between frustrating and tiring and fleeting moments of joy. But it’s been worth it.
Here are (a few) things that learning cello has taught me so far:
1) Practicing and discipline. I’ve heard that cello is an “honest instrument” - that there are pretty much no shortcuts to learning how to play well. Consequently, I’ve been trying to practice at least an hour a day. When I was a young whippersnapper and learning the saxophone, I never saw the point of practicing. I usually could scrape by. Well, now that I’m older and paying for lessons, scraping by isn’t acceptable. I have to be disciplined and tackle the technical issues I never tackled when I was younger.
Real world application: I think I am a little more disciplined with using my time musically. Concentrating on aspects of a song, as simple as it sounds, helps me to organize my arrangements.
2) Expressivity in instruments. The cello has so many dimensions of expressivity it’s almost scary. My teacher has mentioned that the bow is the “voice of the cello” - and there are so many different ways to bow that produce vastly different effects. Your sound can become scratchy, thin or full depending on how much hair from your bow is in contact with the string. Not only that, you have a lot of control over your volume. Pablo Casals in “Casals and the Interpretation of Music” (a must read, IMO), describes this in details. One of the eye opening pieces of advice he gives in that book is that repeated notes and phrases must never sound identical - the dynamic shape of the phrase must be discovered in the context of the piece.
Real world application: I am no longer satisfied with static looping sounds. When a phrase is repeated, there needs to be a new spin on it, a reason for its existence. I think I am learning how to make my music more dynamic and make it breathe more.
3) Instruments have natural decay to their notes. One of my greatest challenges has been learning how to play legato (connected notes). This is especially hard to get right when crossing strings - the bow angle is different for each string. The name of the game is anticipation and reading ahead. This seems to ready your fingers and your body for the anticipation and release, the ebb and flow of one note to the other that seems to be the essential part of legato. My teacher stresses that tension and release is the key to playing well - accenting is the key to not hurting yourself while playing since you build the tension with the accent and release it afterwards.
4) Be more daring and not afraid to fail. I am starting to learn 4th position, which requires a large shift from 1st position in the left hand to reach the notes. If I don’t try and try again, I would be afraid of this and wouldn’t progress much farther past this point. Janos Starker notes that sometimes the physical sensation required to make the jump to a higher position isn’t enough; sometimes you must “aim for the feeling” of hitting that note.
Real world application: I am trying to “aim for the feeling” more when writing my music. I’m excited to jump into the unknown more - I don’t feel like I’m writing electro in a box anymore.
Anyway, have a great new year all. 
Edit: Here's another one:
5) The True meaning of Amateur. We think of amateurs as not being good enough. Well, the latin root of amateur means love. An amateur is someone who does something for the true love of it, not necessarily for professional gain.
I'm proud to be an amateur. | |
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01/03/07
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pierlu001
lol @ Hanon
when i studied piano i did every single exercise in it, and when i finished my teacher told me to start over again ha!
Roshi, what you wrote is really interesting and yes, the feeling a real instrument can give to you is what makes music really worth to learn.
As for scales, Astroid, i think you can buy some book that has all of the fingerings covered for very little money. What is important to learn when playing scales is the "thumb" movement... i mean the movement you have to make to cover all of the extension of scales. it's also very important that you start with one octave scales that you have to learn to play with both hands at the same time... once you have learn to play C, G, D, A, E scales with both hands with an octave span, you will have to start again learning to play them on two octaves... moreover it's important you learn to play them following the circle of fifths.
Once you have covered the C, G, D, A, E you will study C, and its relative minor scales: A melodic and A armonic, then G and E armonic and melodic and so forth.
Anyway any good book about playing scales with piano is organized that way, so it will be easy to practice following that example.
don't mess around with online resources on how to play scales: buy a good book and follow those exercises. Scales are just a mechanical matter and there's no way to learn them but with repetitions (ad nauseam)
Recent blogs: first blog!
01/03/07
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daswesen
practicing a real instrument is a wonderful mind-expanding experience, it really is meditation, focusing your attention, listening to your body and controlling your mind.
01/03/07
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chimplogic
wow.
this was an excellent read roshi. looking forward to hearing your new compositions at some point.
very inspirational blog considering this new trumpet i have to relearn .
thanks for sharing your thoughts too astroid!
peace
01/03/07
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Roshi
Astroid...wow...you pretty much hit all of the hard points about practicing.
Really, the piece of practice advice that I never learned: do NOT just play an etude all the way through badly over and over again and call that practice. Find the spots that give you trouble and work on them. Slowly. Over and over. The point is to get it so you feel it in your fingers. If you need to, write the fingering/bowing in - it relaxes your brain and lets your brain know that you're in for a spot where you need to concentrate.
The other piece of advice is that you need to do your homework before you even start a piece. Identify phrases, harmonies, structures of the piece. This will be your map of the piece. Mark mark mark your music.
I have a little card called "The Piano Student's Guide to Effective Practicing". Lots of great little tips, including these:
1) Back up. Instead of working from the beginning of a section to the end, start at the end and work back to the beginning phrase by phrase. After practicing backwards, playing forwards is easy.
2) Connections. Draw a vertical line connecting each pair of right hand and left-hand notes that go together. (works really well for ensemble pieces too)
3) accents. accent the first note of each group, then the second, then the third, etc. Keep your hand loose on the accent.
4) Imitation. Sing the phrase and listen to its shape, then play it with the same inflection.
Lots of other great tips there.
Cello specific practicing:
Bowing open strings. I love doing this - it's meditative and the resonances of the open strings are quie awesome. The point is to keep your bow hand relaxed.
Intervals. I do the scales in intervals a lot (thirds, sixths). Mostly because it helps with intonation.
Drone tones. I have a drone CD that's sustained roots and fifths for each note. Playing to it is great for intonation.
01/03/07
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Roshi
I am also happy that the technique book I work on is a book of duets (it's Kummer's Violoncello method) because it keeps me honest (I can't cheat when I play) and the duets are a nice "reward" at the end of the week.
01/03/07
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chimplogic
@ roshi - even though i play bass, i work through bach's violoncello solos to keep my chops up. i also have found that simandl's 'new method for double bass' and berklee's 'chord studies for electric bass' to be equally challenging/rewarding.
hearing john patitucci play bach's 'suite no 1 - prelude' on 6 string bass is always inspiring for me to go back and revisit my technique.
ah, so many great lessons and books etc.
edited: Jan 03 2007
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berfmurret
roshi
i realize this is a slight OT. but i have been looking into buying a cello sometime in the near future. any advice? i am debating on whether to give in and buy one of the cheapies that flood ebay or wait it out and try to find a used student model for ~$500.. i don't know how seriously i'm am going to take to it. i know i want one for a few passages here and there and for drone and for the timbre.. maybe i will get into it and get serious with it. i guess it all depends.
great discussion btw.
ps. i may have inquired to you about this before. please forgive me if i have. i asked for advice in several places. i'm still quite lost. heh.
01/03/07
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papergoose
fabulous thread.
thanks so much for the inspiration.
i'm teaching myself to play piano right now, so alot of this hits home, and inspires the hell out of me.
but also now I want a cello.
01/03/07
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FailedSitcom
A highly inspirational blog Roshi, I'm about to start learning the violin (in many ways because of your original blog about deciding to learn the cello) and now it's harder than ever to wait to get it strung.
edited: Jan 03 2007
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mlbot
Reading this thread has taught me something:
Bow to no one
01/03/07
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Roshi
Hey berfmurret: I am not a great person to ask about buying a cello, since I rent. However, another discussion board that I cruise, Cello Chat, has a good instruments and equipment forum to ask these questions: link
One of their conclusions: Chinese ebay cellos that you get for $300 can be worth it, but only after about $300 of work at the luthier (planing the finger board, string setup, bridge setup, soundpost adjustment, etc). They can also be complete duds. Caveat emptor. You might want to look into a place that rents to own, where you can put your rental fee towards the cost of an instrument (like making monthly payments). Stringworks link has a very good reputation.
If you do decide to get used on craigslist or such, go with someone knowledgable (such as your teacher or another fellow cello player). I personally think it's better to rent to own, since you're not out $600 or so if you decide you don't like it.
01/03/07
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Roshi
FailedSitcom: Go for it! I can't believe how many years I spent fretting over looking stupid starting as an absolute beginner. I've wanted to take lessons for about 8 years (since college) and I spent 8 years worrying about looking dumb instead of spending those 8 years learning! Silly.
I also discovered the Cellists By Night forum: link , and a lot of those people have started at 50 or 60 and they're great! Very inspiring.
Also, I should add another lesson to the top:
5) The True meaning of Amateur. We think of amateurs as not being good enough. Well, the latin root of amateur means love. An amateur is someone who does something for the true love of it, not professional gain.
I'm proud to be an amateur.
01/03/07
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Roshi
Wow, chimplogic, playing cello solos on Bass? That would seem to me hard, especially because of the tuning difference (cello - 5ths, bass 4ths).
01/03/07
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astroid
thanks for the advice, pierlu. i think there are resources online that are organized like that-i found one which shows the three basic types of major scale fingering for one octave and another which shows the three basic types for two octaves. at least i have enough to practice before i can get to the music store to get the book. i'll treat myself to that today anyway
i love that mechanical practice. i'm gonna take up a new instrument every decade until i die
01/03/07
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Roshi
astroid said: "i love that mechanical practice. i'm gonna take up a new instrument every decade until i die"
Awesome. I think brass (like trumpet) is the one instrument family I haven't tried yet.
Of course, I guess I could always spend about 20 years studying tabla. I guess you don't even get to play them the first year - you're just speaking/singing the rhythmic patterns.
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