Positions in Cello

Cello Positions

Material for Getting Practice in Various Positions

    Learning the positions on the cello is usually a big job. Getting introduced in an ideal manner helps ease the tension created by just the thought of the new skill. Teachers that seem to have just what it takes to read a student, but more importantly, how to get the student to think in a logical sequence of motions will go a long way toward developing a solid system of shifting. 

    Shifting is the manner in which we get from one position to another. While one may initially think that it can't be all the complicated, "Just move your hand/arm, right?". That is not really the case, since form and posture play a significant role in getting around. 

    Beyond the posture of the right arm and hand, it is more a matter of getting to know which notes constitutes 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, position and so on. There are some excellent books out there that get you thinking more concretely about the positions. 

    The exercises range from the dry to the musical and everything in between. I am going to name and provide links to several in this post. If you are currently finding it difficult to know when to choose to shift into an different position or don't realize the distances between notes/positions these two books are particularly useful. 

1. Position Pieces, by: Rick Mooney (Vols. 1 & 2)

     - Volume 1 is for positions up to 4th, including ½ position. 

     - Volume 2 targets 5th through 7th positions. 

      (- Both of these volumes start each position with certain "Target Exercises" that are                      excellent for focusing the student on finding the each position from both below and                  above.)

Position Pieces Vol. 1  https://amzn.to/3zsbuHn

Position Pieces Vol. 2  

2. Harvey Whistler's Introducing the Positions for Cello, Volume 1

    - This is a very technically oriented work. One will become very familiar with every note          of the position and how to think about the approach to shifting. 

    - For any student that has not yet thought about the notes in a thorough and clear manner         this will start the process.

Harvey Whistler's Introducing the Positions for Cello, Volume 1

https://amzn.to/4grF1S6

(I earn a small commission on sales. Thanks for your support.)

Online Lessons on Preply

 Preply

Have you ever taken lessons/classes online? 

Nowadays, the answer is more likely than ever, "Yes". 

Not only can you take Cello lessons from me on this platform, Preply, but you can choose from hundreds of other teachers as well. 

You might want to learn another instrument. Ok, choose piano, guitar, drums. 

It could be that you need some tutoring in a school subject. Cool, do a quick search for a seasoned tutor to guide you to better grades and understanding of the material.

Whatever the subject, whether MUSIC or science or language, etc. you can find teachers for that on

Search for a Tutor on Preply

Preply.

Click on this link to explore and sign up for lessons.

https://preply.com/en/?pref=ODY0NTU4&id=1695972218.235969

Podcasting: Creating a New Project Cello

Creating a Podcast 

The incredible tools that we have at our fingertips today allows us to create studio quality things at home. (Provided we have most of the right equipment.) One of those tools is the access companies like Spotify give us. One of Spotify's offshoots is its Podcasting Platform. There you are free to create and upload as much content as you wish. 

This platform's name is "Anchor.fm" by Spotify.

My own ambition, since I first found out what a podcast was, was to create my own. Now, I can happily say that I have done just that. You can listen to this podcast directly at Anchor.fm or at Spotify, where it is automatically uploaded to once you have done the initial uploading to Anchor. 

My own podcast is called Forgotten Cello Music. I'll write more about this what is behind this title in another post. Suffice it to say, the podcast is entirely about music for the Cello that has largely been forgotten or at least neglected.

Some Cellist/Composers who I have researched and played as a result and are featured in my 36 podcast episodes:

1. Georg Goltermann
2. Julius Klengel
3. Oscar Brückner
4. Joseph Hollman
5. August Nölck
6. Bernhard Romberg
7. G. Gabrielli
8. Giacobbe Cervetto

and there are many many more. 

Each episode has background music throughout. Sometimes it features entire movements or pieces and other times only excerpts from compositions of composers talked about on the podcast episode.

It is a dream of my come to reality. The enjoyment level is at a high. However, there are still relatively few people who listen and engage. The next part of my dream is to get thousands of listeners and likes, comments, engagement of some kind from at least a small percentage (1-2% I think would be great). 

Cello Lessons Online

Online Cello Lessons

With Aaron Sinnett, from Traveling Cello

There are so many people who have come up to me over the many thousands of performances just to say one pressing matter. "I wish I had learned cello when I was a kid." 

Most continue on with, "I still would like to learn cello. It is one of my favorite instruments!"

You still can learn to play cello. The journey will start when you fill out this Cello Lesson Form I created using Google Forms. 

However, this is also an opportunity for kids, too. Beginners through to advanced. I have taught all levels of students. 

Creating Content for "Forgotten Cello Music" and Support

 

Social Media 

Adagietto: Consolation for the Soul

Few pieces of music written in the last 100 years are as moving as the Adagietto from Mahler's fifth symphony.

The tranquility, the serenity, the harmony, the rhythmic movement that caresses the senses; all of it together causes time to stop while simultaneously continue. Time doesn't continue in the normal way though. It drifts along, floating about on a cloud of beauty.

This is the place where my life is. Time has ceased to carry any meaning. Yet, it moves on so rapidly that I have lost valuable time. I drift between a state of silent stupor and anxiety-filled stress.

Much of the Adagietto gives up hope of better times. Yet, it rests peacefully, blissfully unaware of the awful things it ponders.

Please take some time to listen to my own 5 cello arrangement of it on Youtube.

Thank you for your time.

Cello Duets

James Hook 1746-1827

IMSLP

    This is James Hook, an English composer and organist. The duets I will write about are his Op. 58 in which there are six duets. (This set of 6 was a common practice in those days. Think of many of J.S. Bach's works: 6 French Suites, 6 English Suites, 6 Suites for Solo Cello, 6 Brandenburg Concertos, etc.)

     The works in question are really only possible to write about because of the wonderful website, IMSLP. Without it, there would have been zero chance of finding them. J. Hook is a completely unknown composer to me. However, after reading through his Cello Duets Op.58, I have found a delightful set.

     They are not ground-breaking and I am sure there were not meant to be. They sound as though they were meant to delight the player and soothe the audience. By the sounds of them, I would venture to guess that they could have doubled as much for ambient dinner party music as they could for teaching material.

Please go have a listen to me performing both parts of Op.58 No.1 Tempo di menuetto at my Youtube channel.

James Hook Cello Duet Op. 58 Nr. 1 Tempo di Menuetto

Wikipedia

Music Lessons

One on One: In person and Online

Having taught thousands of lessons and coached hundreds of ensembles I have amassed a certain fluency in communicating a knowledge in music. I have spent the past 20 years teaching mostly cello lessons in which my students learn to proficiently practice by themselves and acquire the tools necessary to excel. They regularly exhibit technical and musical proficiency.

It is now my great pleasure and with much excitement to announce to the whole world that I am accepting students who wish to learn cello (also taking violin students). Just as I worked up to better skills through the tutelage of my teachers I look forward to helping many students improve to a higher level.

Let's begin a journey together in which I will guide you through all the twists and turns of challenging technique used to serve our end, musical mastery.

When you are ready to begin this musical journey please don't hesitate to contact me.


The following book really got me turned on to self-learning again . But also onto getting some outside help. Check it out!

Chirstmas Concerts

Primarily, I'm a freelance cellist. I play as a substitute or in ad hoc orchestras for specific programs. In this case I just played Messiah by G.F. Handel and Nutcracker by P.I. Tchaikovsky. Both of these works are amazing pieces of music to take part in. Both elevate the musician and the listener to a different realm but in different ways. Nutcracker is simply a charming ballet with almost mesmerizing music that transports one into a world of magical elegance. However, Messiah elevates one to the realm of the sublime. It's message, of course, has much to do with it and is the reason for the composition. The music itself is nearly enough, though, to stir the soul's longing for a better world, giving rise to hope in the message, which the music creates in the most compelling ways.

Lost motivation

Cold. Lifeless. Hopeless. The cello sat in its case looking so beautiful. Soft amber hues. Each grain gliding, slightly curving from shoulder to tail. Bridge standing tall. Silvery strings taut and attentive. Everything about the instrument invites me, begs me to take her out and practice until I can't get anything I do, wrong. The music swirls inside my head. All the years of study and listening. I can name almost any piece, that comes on the radio, within a few notes or if not sure a few seconds worth of listening. If I can't name the piece I go for the composer based on the use of harmony, sonority, instrumentation.

I love music. It invigorates me just to hear the music that I have known since I was a child come singing through the speakers in a public space or store unexpectedly. There is nothing I know better than how better than to play music on a cello. That's what I studied the longest and most diligently for 15 years straight. All those cello lessons from my beginner moments when I was 8 and 9 years old--having to relearn posture on the cello, compared to the violin, was not as easy as I my young mind had imagined.

The struggle was real. Sitting and holding something that was touching the floor at one point didn't allow me to move like I had been able to with the violin. This would be a great disability until my masters degree nearly 15 years later. There seemed to be no way that I could get comfortable and therefore I played with tension throughout my back, arms, and hands. Fortunately, I overcame much of that problem. Now, the problem is quite different. It lies not partially, but completely within my brain, my thoughts as though they were permanent fixtures attached to a building.

Progress in cello had been slow. Progress in career had been even slower. Nothing I did could help me overcome my greatest blockade; my belief that I was incapable. And even after some small victories I struggle to advance my career. Now, it is more to the affect that it seems like too much effort. Finding a suitable audition or rounding up students or practicing with a regular musical partner, it all requires so much moving, organizing, and the most agonizing one of all is the necessity of money to get where I want to go. The efforts are real and enormous--in my head.

Well into my 30's I have little to say for what I have invested and shrink back from diving into new territory, expending the energy to get where I think I'd like to be seems to great a task. The unknowns swirling inside my head ever suggesting that the risks are great and the rewards to small. Perhaps it is better to eke out the living I have always done, dependent on others to get me one student here, wait for the call that will pay me enough to buy a week's worth of groceries (or two if I am lucky).

Scared. It's scary. That's what I have always thought. I don't know how I came to that conclusion. I have always decided before I experienced it that it must be scary. How does that work? How does one think it scary before even going through it? The human experience is so strange. The mind confusedly winds in and out of negative thoughts with the occasional ray of sunlight to keep my going. Unfortunately, the underlying thought pattern has been to defeat any progress before any attempt has been made.

Even now, writing this blog is a defeat. (Practice, post videos, direct traffic to your efforts, send out CV's, let people know you are available for work...)

Goltermann: amended thoughts

After re-reading the brief paragraph on Georg Goltermann by Margaret Campbell in her very worthy book "The Great Cellists" I decided a post addressing the comments she made about him as composer warranted another post.

It's not that I wholly disagree with her and the fairly harsh pronouncement on Goltermann's decided course of change in career, but rather that I find it more an annoyance. It sounds as if she searches for some witty comment at the expense of a lesser known cellist/composer simply to fill what little space she had intended to commit to him in her book.

While Herr Goltermann's works are not particularly inspired or inspiring to listen to, they do serve a significant purpose. That purpose is one needed in the field of teaching and learning. For those students who are not so technically advanced much of his opus created a way for those students to show off in the level they had acquired. To me this is a very courageous act on the part of the virtuoso cellist since he probably knew that writing such music would not push him into fame in the realm of compositional greatness.

However, to justify Campbell's comment at least in part, I offer the following observation. After reading several of his concertos and some character pieces that are certainly intended to be played by the advanced performaer there is much left to be desired. Yes, he provides decent melody and some exciting passage work and then some more passage work that repeats itself or is a slight variation on the first rendering of the passage--if that makes any sense.

In short, there are a few pieces worthy of the concert stage or at least in a soiree. However, most other compositions are mainly useful as teaching material. He makes one work fairly hard for the virtuosic licks, meaning that technique must be well developed to execute those passages well. This refers mostly to his concertos 1,2, 5, and 6, which I have read a few times just to be sure I was not having a knee jerk sort of reaction to the writing.

In the end though, I think we would be prudent to give this music some chance and at least the benefit of the doubt for study purposes.

Nocturnes and Concertos

Out of the choice of cellists who were themselves composers, I find it odd that Georg Goltermann has come to my attention. As a student I learned the well known Concerto No. 4 in G Major just like every other student in the intermediate stage of development. However, no teacher ever introduced anything else from that composer/cellist. It was almost as if Goltermann wrote one lone piece that he arbitrarily titled Concerto No. 4.

Now, some years after initially studying that concerto I have found a number of other works that have piqued my interested. Some Nocturnes and a few of his concertos have proven compelling enough to play through several times in a week. It seems he wrote eight concertos and a goodly number of nocturnes which include a half dozen opuses.

Though his music is rarely played, even by students--his music is generally a student-type of music--it was once on the regular circuit of performing cellists. One such name that most will recognize is the legendary Pablo Casals. There is even a recording of him playing the concerto no. 4! This I want to hear. I had a mind to record it simply because there were none to listen to. As I found out though, there is one extant recording, therefore I stand corrected. However, I think it would be good to record it for the sake of quality in the recording itself--not to be confused with the quality of playing.

Album Leaves

12 Album Leaves for Cello and Piano
by: Reinhold Glière

 Discovering heretofore unknown works for cello from the Romantic period and before is a pleasant, if not exhilarating experience. Seeing the printed music for the first time, I generally get a sense of excitement at the chance that the music will be interesting enough to play more than once. The notes are on the page and they begin to speak before being played. Then, as I draw my bow over my strings, with my fingers stopping notes as the composer wishes, the music has a voice. This is the moment that I have been waiting for. What is the voice that the notes wish to express?

In the case of the 12 Album Leaves or Albumblaetter (in German) the sounds coming from my cello gave rise to a soothing, though dark Russian voice. As Russian composers are known for their darker music, even happy music can have a somewhat heavy tone to it, this music seemed to be no exception. I played through all 12, one or two page, movements in one sitting. Each little piece gained in melodic beauty, all the while compelling me to continue. The notes were not written for beauty's sake nor to prove the composer's ability at writing flowing lines that meld together.

I don't know any people who have played these pieces let alone anyone who knows they exist. I am grateful to the generous uploader to IMSLP for allowing others to discover one more reason for playing cello.


On a short note about Reinhold Glière, I read in Wikipedia that he was born to a German father and Ukrainian mother in Ukraine after his father moved to live there. His father's family name was Glier. Only later on did Reinhold change his Germanic family name to the more Belgian/French looking and sounding name Glière, which also changed the pronunciation. If this is true it certainly clears up the questions I've always had about a Russian with a French looking name.

Memory: Part 1

How does memorizing a piece work for you? What methods do you employ? Or is it just the faith that many, many times through it will render the music incapable of escaping from your brain? I have certainly seen the latter but it never quite stuck there as a permanent solution to the problem. At least not in my experience and not from those immediately surrounding me.

Well, I've been working out my own memory problems for the past year and have come up with something that works pretty well for me. It certainly is a huge step ahead of the previous haphazard non-method of ramming through a work and hoping that it sticks. 

This is a list of what I've been able to memorize using this new method:

Bach Suite 4, Dvorak concerto, Schumann concerto third movement, Scilienne by Marie Theresa                            von Paradis, Cassado suite first movement, a TV commercial jingle I played in Taiwan, Franceour sonata in E major first and second movements.

Any thoughts are welcome. Please comment. 

Vaudeville Performance

Saturday, February 2, 2013

9:30 a.m.

Arrived at New Life SDA English Church in Taipei. Held in the auditorium of the Adventist Hospital. Played along throughout the congregational singing for both Sabbath School and the Worship Service. This weekend was communion and so I happened to miss the closing hymn but that worked out very well. They are used to hearing only a piano and a song leader anyway. (Soon they will be used to the addition of the silky voice of the cello.)

This was not a vaudeville performance. ;)


5:30 p.m.

Arrived in Zhubei in Hsinchu county at one of the plethora of the so called "event restaurants". These are big open spaces with cafeteria style round tables with a small stage at the back of the restaurant. Waiters bring in the food and drinks while the organizers of the event speak ad nauseum about the happenings of the past year and what will go on at the event.

I stepped up to play around 6 p.m. Just two short pieces. The Habanera by George Bizet and the Prelude from the first Bach Suite. Could anyone hear that I was playing? Yes, the people that sat directly in front of the stage. Despite a microphone the sound simply could not penetrate the loud chatter among the hundred or more guests. I thought that it might be that they were simply not interested in the cello or the foreigner playing it. As the meal wore on it became clear that the mass people were obviously not going to quiet down for anyone or anything.

No hard feelings. Just another experience in playing and a time to experiment with sound production and how to get just a few more people interested enough to listen to the music.

Auditions Sharpen Skill

Auditions are often viewed by many as a necessary evil to advancing oneself in the performing arts career. They are certainly no walk in the park, otherwise everyone and their mother would be doing them. They were perceived and described to be vital parts of one's career. No problems with that perspective. But they were so often regarded as hard, scary, stringent exercises in one's will to succeed regardless of the reception the one auditioning got from the panel of judges. Again, I don't disagree fully but perhaps they could be perceived slightly differently to benefit more the performer's efforts and career.

Recently I was listening to some motivational CDs. In the middle of one CD the man mentioned a crucial thought to improving one's career. He had been speaking about the necessity for employees to increase their own worth in the eye's of their boss. He said something like this: (paraphrase) Go take interviews as a way to sharpen your skills and continue learning and growing.

As a musician I equated this, of course, to the audition (really an interview but with a different name). Having recently taken an audition myself I began reflecting on my thought that I had improved since the last one. This could be a part in the perspective that I have been missing all along, making auditions a dreaded and fearsome experience for me?

Interviews, auditions in my case, can really be looked upon as exercises in improving skill, adapting to surroundings, finding out how to play better, what to do before hand, how to act while in the room with the judges, etc. Those auditions are meant to make me a better player and person. They aren't there only for me to win, as it were, but to sharpen my ability.

For me, it was a revelation to think of those feared moments in a new way. This paradigm shift has implications well beyond any audition but also to the career itself where we performing artists are seeking to hone our skill every day. The audition is just another tool in the kit.

The Richland Auditorium

The Richland Auditorium is one of those old turn of the 20th Century venues that are falling apart due to lack of funds and/or neglect. This place is like walking back into history about 50 or 60 years. The renovations done to the original building are so old that they are even crumbling. The theater seating is falling apart and looking up at the ceiling makes one wonder if there won't be some surprises dropping in on the audience.

Despite the state of disrepair the building is a fascinating acoustical space. It's played operas, plays, political events, women's suffrage rallies, classical concerts and even Liberace graced the "at that time" state of the art venue with his presence.

My Dad and I were asked to play for this fundraiser. Here is one video of just me playing Bach Suite No. 4 in E flat major, the Prelude. It was fun to play and basque in the reverberant acoustics of the Auditorium. I felt like I was playing for only myself and it came across not bad either.

It was recorded on an NEX 5 with only the internal microphone from the balcony.

Gut Strings

Steel versus Gut

I have taken up the challenge of comparing gut and steel. Last week I ordered Eudoxa Chrome/Gut A and D strings, and Passione Chrome/Gut G and C strings. These things are monsters in terms of girth. I took the Evah Pirazzi A string off and then began winding the A Eudoxa but had to double check the package to make sure I had the A string. It seemed like I had grabbed the G string by mistake at first.

Size issues aside, I began playing the instrument with all gut core strings and noticed one phenomenal difference. I could draw the bow horizontally without downward pressure whatsoever and get a soothing, ringing tone immediately. Conversely, I had squeaks and whistles and garbles like you wouldn't believe by exerting the same pressure I normally did with the steel strings.

Regardless of the near absence of downward force I still found that i didn't know how to control the response. Granted I have only had them on for a couple days, but honestly I didn't think the difference in control would be so great. I did manage some sweet sounds but found that the A string was difficult to control especially when crossing from D back to A.

Who has experience with gut strings? Leave you comments on how you dealt with the differences between gut and steel, do you like gut in the first place, and would you be willing to try gut even if you are the biggest proponent of steel.

That Time of Repair

There comes the inevitable time of every cello's life when repairs and adjustments must be made. The health of the instrument depend on these repairs. Just yesterday did I pick up my cello from the repair shop after a four day stint of getting some substantial work done. Thankfully, none of the work was body work that required any open heart surgery and revealing the innards of the cello. Rather, it was a routine bridge and sound post change.

The luthier took a photo of the inside of the instrument while he had some of the removable parts out. Here is a really cool shot of what my cello looks like from the inside.

The Cello's Innards

From this picture you can see the sound post--the wooden dowel--just right of center in the picture, which holds up the top as well as acting a sound quality control. The other cool thing of this photo is how it reveals the other-worldliness of the inside of the cello. There is the bass bar running along the top of the photo--just left of center, then you can plainly see about half of each f hole, and other hardware supports that give the instrument shape and robustness.

Popper Etude Op. 73 No. 5

I think it is not half bad for looking at it for less than a week. All the while also memorizing Dvorak third movement and Bach Suite No. 4 Courante.