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Things Cello Has Taught Me (so far)
StoreTags: balls, cello, me, you, hard
Author: Roshi on January 03 2007 Viewed 4189 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. | |
Comments
01/03/07
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astroid
yeah, but you nailed it about being an amateur. i don't care about being a virtuoso, just getting that new partition in the brain filled with the instrument-specific love. it's always a shocker. ie. everyone says "piano is soooo linear". yeah right!
i think 40 will be the cello. it's a lovely instrument.
01/03/07
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chimplogic
roshi, i guess it's a matter of what you started with - for me, playing them tuned in 5ths would prove hard (since i play bass only and have learned that way) while you attempting to play them tuned in 4ths would prove challenging as you learned cello, not bass - did that make any sense? ha ha. what i'm trying to say, is that i do not have a frame of 'tuned in 5ths reference' to work from, so playing them on bass 'feels' totally natural. man, i can not articulate like i want at this moment.
i suppose it helps playing the suites on an extended range bass (in this case i have both a 6 and 7 string)
i also like to bust out my Afro-Cuban studies books from time to time too. so lovely and so deep.
01/03/07
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Roshi
No, that makes sense, chimplogic.
There are passages in the first Cello suite that a lot of players use open strings a lot, though, so that would seem very hard to translate that to bass. Then again, as you say, having 6 or 7 strings probably helps.
01/03/07
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oxymoron
Hi Roshi et al., what a wonderful thread!
I played cello as a kid in the public school system and almost considered a career in classical music until ... I stopped at 19 or so, occasionally playing on borrowed and rented instruments over the years. I looked into buying my own instrument about five years ago and was shocked at the prices even at the lower end of the spectrum. Factory cellos from Eastern Europe, Korea, and now China are affordable and actually OK compared to some of the mass product of the 60s and 70s. I chise a used Yamaha electric cello, SVC-200. It's well-made. It has line and headphone outputs [even a (very cheesy) switchable reverb]. I've had fun playing it through multi-fx units and directly into my audio interface.
The amplified tone, frankly, sucks. A properly mic'ed acoustic should sound much bette, but the Yamaha lets me practice at any hour. Plus it folds into a light, portable shape which has come in handy.
There are many makers of electric cellos, some worse, many better. For the beginner, I would second Roshi's suggestion that you rent-to-own a real acoustic cello. A real cello's unwieldy and difficult, but it will inspire you more. Once you get comfortable, you can easily add an electric to your setup.
Just realized how disjointed this post is, but I'm back at work today...
Thanks for the inspiration, Roshi!
01/03/07
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Roshi
astroid said: "also, when trying to figure out melodies (during sessions or just out in the world) a little vst saxophone pops into my brain, and i can hear the intervals that way. quite handy."
LOL! I wish I had one of those.
01/03/07
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Roshi
Thanks for the advice on the electrics, oxy. I am still trying to figure out how (if ever) I will play live (and processed)...though there are some pickups out there that look pretty great. I figure that with a pickup and my preamp (which has a parametric eq to eliminate feedback) should work out great.
01/03/07
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craque
I think these are really wonderful observations on learning a musical instrument (including the voice). Bravo!
My composition teacher once told me: if you repeat something, you better have a damn good reason.
01/03/07
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anomaly
i was forced to play the cello for 7 years
as a kid, i loved it and hated it at the same time
now i wish i still took lessons, in fact, im sure if i had continued,
i'de be playing the piano by now.
i miss my cello with a blistering intensity
01/04/07
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bbwax
midi cello?
01/04/07
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Roshi
craque said: "My composition teacher once told me: if you repeat something, you better have a damn good reason."
Well put!
01/04/07
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Roshi
Midi cello? link
Don't know if it works any better than the guitar MIDI pickups...that would be a great way of inputting MIDI notes that was expressive.
A breath controller probably does just as well, I would guess, though you don't get to do things like portamento (though I doubt anyone would care except me).
01/04/07
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bbwax
oh shit that's crazy. i was just joking. damn, they really make midi cellos. looks pretty cool and "futuristic" actually. looks like you are set if you wanna make aphex beatz with a cello.
01/04/07
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Roshi
LOL, no aphex beats, but I have some plans for building a PD application that reacts to my playing.
01/04/07
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astroid
you should make a pd app that, if you play the cello well enough, makes you a nice sandwich.
01/04/07
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Roshi
F-that. My PD porno reward system is now in place. Play a scale, see some moob.
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