One of the trickiest parts of practice is effectively breaking down the difficulties into digestible bits. Lately, I’ve been having my students do what I call “ghosty bow”, where they move the bow just above the string while singing the music so as to practice bow changes without distractions from a funny note or a weird rhythm. Just today, I read an article from Laurence Lesser that suggests the same thing minus the funny name.
He’s full of good advice, like:
- sing a musical line to hear where you naturally emphasize and back off
- learn technique to make music more beautiful and natural, not to be a technician
- link everyday, natural activities to motions on the cello. I especially appreciated the example of shifting from a high position to a low position. Think about the motion of your hand when it goes from resting position to pointing at your nose and relate that hand/finger/forearm motion to your downshift.
- notice the syllables you use to sing notes to inform your bow stroke and length
Happy practicing, everybody!