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). 

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...)

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. 

Attempting a Photo Shoot

Only recently did I realize how few pictures I have of myself playing cello. Since I'm with my cello, playing it and carrying it everywhere I go pictures are some of the last thoughts that go through my head. So, this past weekend I took some pictures or rather, my brother and sister in law shot the pictures for me in their new house. The lighting is much better than other places I can think of and they have wooden floors throughout the house. It really makes for a nice back drop. Thanks to Sean and Rachel--not forgetting little Pierre--for letting me get some pictures.

These pictures are experimental but I want to post them anyway. It used to happen that I would not show anything that I was uncertain of or thought could be better. As you may have already guessed, nothing was shown in public because it never met my over unrealistic standards. *slight chuckling
These are unedited. They is what they is and I'm sticking to it....for now.

Pierre's eyes were glued to the bow most of the time.
He was insistent on having the bow.

He did pluck a few strings.

He watched carefully as I pulled the bow
back and forth, even getting the basic motion himself.

 Above: I could not resist posting those with my nephew Pierre. I pulled him up on my lap and was showing him the cello and bow. Instead though, he wanted to show me how to play and hold the bow.

Revisiting My Cello Story

Yes, it has been six years since I last wrote anything on this blog! It really was the summer of 2005 that I started it and then quickly forgot about it. I realized that it would be fun to continue the stories of me and my cello. A lot has happened since 2005 and I might even write about all of the major life changing events as well as the smaller ones that still had a lasting impact on me. At any rate, the main reason for this blog is to give snippets of my life as a cellist. I'll keep the posts more regular for now, especially in light of the six years of events that I want to share stories from.

A new cello

Upgrading my cello was a very important step in my career. I dreamt about it and imagined that I would be playing on an instrument that was easy to play and could sound any way that I wanted. I envisioned the octaves to be a snap and the loudest ff to be so easy I could relax while pulling the bow. My thoughts ran with the potential of a perfect cello that would be my practice, audition, and performance instrument. It would make my life so much easier and better. Did it? Yes, even if I don't practice I still can make it sound pretty good. It's a free sound and a direct sound as well as vibrating excitedly even with the slightest pizzicato or the lightest bow stroke. It feels like I only have to initiate the sound with only minimal effort and the music comes out of the cello.

It was the summer of 2008 in Chicago, IL. I had been to quite a few shops and had tried out numerous instruments both in the shops and at home. Even after more than a dozen (perhaps two or three dozen if I count all the instruments that weren't even considered to be worthy of purchase and those that were played for fun though out of my budget). Up in the top floor of the Fine Arts building on Michigan Ave. in the shop of Bein and Fushi I found myself holding a brand new cello. This cello had been finished only a week or so before. I was one of the first to play it and I was sitting down with it and gingerly drawing the bow over the strings to test out the sound. What was this sound? Why was it so easy to make a pleasing sound with it? After some scales and excerpts of concertos I stopped to think about the response of the strings and the tone produced with the bow and by pizzicato. Was I really getting the beautiful ring that I had envied with others' instruments?

Perhaps I was being fooled by the brand new instrument.....but wait! A new instrument isn't supposed to ring and vibrate so exuberantly! I tried again and again and pleasantly received the same lush sound with each pluck and each bow stroke. It was nearly a purchase right then and there, well, at least it was that feeling of wanting it some way, somehow. None the less, I took it home for a few days to test it in the environment that it could potentially have for most of it's life with me.

When I arrived home with the cello I pulled it out of its case immediately and began to play in the carpeted and low ceiling room. To my great pleasure the ring and the tone were all still present. After the trial time had expired I returned to the shop and began the purchase process. It was definitely going to be part of my life.

The cello by William Whedbee, fecit 2008 in Chicago has been a companion in growth from the first day I brought it home as mine. The tone has expanded just as my ability to pull out beautiful tone has expanded. The depth of sound in the cello's qualities has grown just as my search for depth and new layers has grown. I expect that this cello can keep on developing just I will continue to develop. It has been a great three years with this instrument. Here's to health and music!

Breaking in a New Cello

Now that the search and purchase was over and done with I could focus my attention on practicing. The instrument was fantastic. Yes, that is true. However, it was a change. We all know that change is welcomed on many occasions but at the same time can be a challenge to overcome too. I was used to a larger instrument, but that wasn't a big deal. The smaller bouts were greeted with pleasure since it was actually easier to sit with. As I mentioned before, the response was immediate and full of vibrations that wouldn't die away seemingly forever, that was just awesome. That was one of the big reasons I liked the Wheedbee so much in the first place--no problem there.

What was the biggest challenge of changes that I faced? Mainly it was the learning curve on what a new instrument would do when faced with changing weather and climates. A synopsis of this cello's history: 1) Whedbee put the final coat of varnish on it only in early July 2008, 2) the cello was setup--end pin installed, bridged carved and fitted, strings put on for the very first time--just weeks before I went to Bein and Fushi for the first time looking for cellos, 3) I was practically the first to play on the instrument during that first trip to the shop, 4) I was the first owner of this cello.

What does all that mean as far as getting used to the instrument? In reality, it wasn't me getting used to the cello as much as the wood was getting used to its new found structure, that is, in the shape of a cello. Wood planks are chiseled, planed and sanded to get the right thickness and shape. The bouts --sides of the cello, which are curved--in addition to the chiseling, are also molded into the shape. The parts are glued and clamped together in a long and exacting process, assembling the cello piece by piece until you get the body or box of the instrument. The neck is glued into place as well to finish the process of the main cello. For the cello to withstand the immense amount of pressure that the steel strings have on the instrument it has to be precisely fitted and glued, even reinforced at strategic spots so the whole thing will not simply snap in two once the strings are tightened up.

Although tension is high once the strings are in place and tight, the wooden instruments--held together by glue--somehow withstands the rigors of vibration and being picked and put down, transported in a case and even bumped (by accident). However, just like a person being pulled from one side and then another--"Hey, come with me", "No, come with me", sort of a feeling--the cello also gets this treatment. After all, the wood was forced--molded--into the curved shapes and then glued together. Can't you imagine the person being pulled in one direction then another would want to revert back to his/her relaxed position? That's what's happening with the cello but on a continuous basis from the very first time the pieces were glued together. All this time it is resisting the changes and seeks to "relax" itself, reducing the tension placed upon the seams, or where the pieces of wood were glued together.

The seams are the pressure release valves on a cello. If the tension is off or becomes unbearable for the instrument this is usually the first place to go. The seam opens up and therefore releases the tension and, consequently, also half of the sound. The first time this happened on this cello I was wasn't expecting it at all. After all, it was brand new. What was there that should go wrong with a new instrument?

It was November 2008 and the weather had changed to the cooler and dryer climate of the ensuing winter months. The heat was on in the apartment and the moisture was being evaporated as fast as it was produced. That's life in the Midwest. I guess I was thinking that it was new and didn't need quite the attention as my old cello did. WRONG. And quite possibly the biggest factor that I hadn't accounted for was the fact that my cello was finished up in the middle of summer when the humidity was the highest and the temperatures were the hottest. Does wood expand when it's wet? Does wood contract when it's dry? Yes, and yes again.

Not only was the tension of the strings bearing down on the glued seams but the dry air was sucking all the moisture out of the wood and causing the pieces to shrink. Now I was dealing with a cello that was trying to pull itself apart. The glue couldn't hold any longer and finally let go allowing the seam to open along the back of the cello down at the bottom near the end pin. This happened several more times during the Winter. Luckily, I know benevolent luthiers who are also really good at repairing string instruments, so it didn't cost too much.

In the end, I did learn a lot about an instrument and how it "grows" into it's determined shaped. It takes time for it to adjust to the tension and the expanding with humid days along with the opposite pull during dry days. Now I just moisten the humidifiers in the cello case every day during the Fall and Winter regardless of the humidity inside or out. The easiest way to avoid going to the luthier unnecessarily is by keeping the humidity level up.