|
Things Cello Has Taught Me (so far)
StoreTags: balls, cello, me, you, hard
Author: Roshi on January 03 2007 Viewed 4181 times. 32 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
People who enjoyed reading this: astroid, Lara, celibacyclub, airliner, jdg, SenorFrio, mapmap, nutjob, room, bodo, Ochre, dach, FailedSitcom, delete, chimplogic, daswesen, prugelknaben, papergoose, RRine, mlbot, energygiant, Zanf, flies, lowlifi, AtlusZero, oxymoron, craque, Jetsom, bbwax, Leonid, notcool, meatbingo
-->
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. |
