Training Plan Details: Workout Types (Part 2) — by Jonathan Thomson
TEMPO A tempo run is a set distance run at a fast sustained pace. An example would be 7 miles overall, with 5 miles run at a 7:24 pace (the first and last mile are slower, to warm up and cool down). Again, the tempo workout alternates with the speed workout (opposite the long run), and increases in distance while also quickening the pace as the race date approaches. The tempo run is a particularly important workout because the long run is usually not run as fast as race pace. Instead, the long-run is geared toward getting the body accustomed to running long distances, while the tempo run is geared toward sustaining a quicker pace for long periods. EASY Easy runs are low intensity workouts, designed to allow the body [...]
100 Cello Warm-Ups and Exercises Blog 10: Mentalization and Mimes Part 2 — by Robert Jesselson
As I mentioned in Part One of this blog on “Mentalization and Mimes”, I have found that in learning or relearning a physical task it is often very helpful to do it away from the cello. There are several ways that we can retrain our bodies, including through visualization, biofeedback, using a “phantom cello”, and with mimes. I discussed the benefits of visualization, or what I call Mentalization. Here is a practical example of how to do this: […]
100 Cello Warm-Ups and Exercises Blog 9: Mentalization and Mimes Part 1 — by Robert Jesselson
Although I am in China this week and next, I would like to share these two blogs on mental practice – it’s “mind over matter”. Playing the cello is very much a physical activity. Our ability to play is in many ways governed by how we hold the instrument and the bow. As soon as we take the cello out of the case and sit down our body automatically does what it is used to doing – […]
Training Plan Details: Workout Types (Part 1) — by Jonathan Thomson
After considering goal-setting and a general approach to musical practice as similar to marathon training, it is helpful to look into specific workouts runners employ in training. A marathoner's goal is fairly straight-forward: to train the body to run 26.2 miles, as fast as possible. For many, simply finishing the race is the main objective. Others will have more specific goals, such as: finish without walking, set a new personal record, or qualify for the Boston Marathon. While endurance is typically the key factor to consider, it would be a mistake to think that the training process is simply to run frequently, always at a similar pace, and increase the distance until the race. Rather, a training plan is much more nuanced and specific. In the same way that a more [...]
100 Cello Warm-Ups and Exercises Blog 8: Open String Warm-Ups Part 2 — by Robert Jesselson
Part Two of Open String Warm-Ups will continue with exercises for sautille, bow changes, string crossings, dynamics, etc. Bouncy Bow Exercise: This exercise is a great way to work on sautille, building it up from spiccato to the fast, uncontrolled sautille stroke. […]
100 Cello Warm-Ups and Exercises Blog 7: Open String Warm-Ups Part 1 — by Robert Jesselson
On most days I like to warm up with open strings. I love the sound of the open strings, and the feeling of the natural vibrations against my chest. I like to listen to the fundamental pitch, and then try to hear some of the overtones that make the tone color – a pure sound which connects me back to the earliest sounds of music, the aural “ur-sound” of the first stringed instrument played by a human being. […]
100 Cello Warm-Ups and Exercises Blog 6: Balance Exercises Part 2 — by Robert Jesselson
In Part 1 of this blog on finding balances, we discussed the large body balances which are useful in playing the cello. As Elizabeth Morrow wrote in a 2007 article in the American String Teacher journal: “Balance is a necessary component to arriving at maximum energy efficiency with minimal effort, a sensation we interpret as relaxation”. Next, we will explore some of the balances involved in using the bow. I prefer to use the term “bow balance” rather than “bow hold” or “bow grip”, because “holding”or “gripping” implies using muscles. Just as we prefer to use the term “arm weight” rather than “pressure” in describing the way to produce sound, the words we use influence the way we think about what we are doing. In our “bow balance”, the thumb [...]
100 Cello Warm-Ups and Exercises Blog 5: Balance Exercises Part 1 — by Robert Jesselson
"It's All About Balance" If you can walk or run then you know something about balance, and you do it every day without thinking about it. We figure out how to balance when we are small children, and then we go through life taking it for granted… …until something goes wrong. Then our body has to re-learn how to balance. Recently I broke my ankle, and when it had healed well enough the doctor had me stand on one foot, trying to find my balance—first with my eyes open and then closed. It was harder than you would think. He said that I had to retrain my proprioception, the awareness of the position and orientation of my body involving balance. This sensory feedback system also helps us understand [...]
To Change or Not to Change — by Selma Gokcen
“Change involves carrying out an activity against the habit of life.” “You can’t do something you don’t know, if you keep on doing what you do know.” —F.M. Alexander Summers take musicians to new places where teachers and students meet for the first and sometimes the only time, and within this one or perhaps two or three encounters, Chance and Fate can open unexpected doors. Being out of our familiar circumstances and roles and away from the people we see every week in the same place—and for the same reason—provide just the right marinating sauce for Serendipity. It was during a summer festival in Belgium that I met two Alexander teachers and had my first lesson. I wasn't aware of the effect of that lesson at the time but four years later I [...]
100 Cello Warm-Ups and Exercises Blog 4: Stretches Part 2 — by Robert Jesselson
Stretches – Part Two In Stretches – Part One last week, I discussed some large body warm-ups and stretches. Here are some more warm-up exercises specifically for the wrist and fingers. First, here is the international greeting for Cellists: Hello Cello! […]
100 Cello Warm-Ups and Exercises Blog 3: Stretches Part 1 — by Robert Jesselson
I think that most people understand the importance of stretching before (and after) playing an instrument. I like to say that we are athletes: we are “small muscle” athletes involving the fingers, wrists, and arms. But actually playing the cello really involves the entire body. Whether it is a matter of producing sound from the lower back, or being physically expressive with our movements, we need to make sure that we are using our bodies in the best possible ways. Just as with any athletic use of the body, we need to make sure that our muscles are warmed up well before we start playing – and that we “cool-down” afterwards. Warming-up helps by increasing blood flow and oxygen to the muscles, reducing the possibility of soft-tissue injury, and [...]
100 Cello Warm-Ups and Exercises Blog 2: Introduction — by Robert Jesselson
What is the very first thing that you do before you actually start playing the cello on any given day? Do you have certain habits or “ceremonies” when you take the cello out of its case – do you dust it off, or look for cracks, or check the bridge? Do you always take the bow out of the case first by habit, or do you remove the cello first? Do you do any stretching to warm up your body? Then when you actually start playing, do you plunge into the piece you are working on, or do you first do some scales and arpeggios? Or perhaps do you have some little exercises to help you warm up, focus and get started? Maybe you haven’t consciously thought about what you [...]
100 Cello Warm-Ups and Exercises Blog 1: Summer Preview — by Robert Jesselson
If scales and arpeggios are the building-blocks of our musical universe, then exercises work at the atomic level. They focus on just one small part of our technique. Isolated from the musical context of a piece of music, they enable us to concentrate on […]
Heads Up — by Selma Gokcen
"In order to change the world, you have to get your head together first." —Jimi Hendrix Here is a question for you...what is the foundation of good balanced movement at the cello? There are many answers and many ways of defining balance and coordinated movement. The CelloBello website offers some great advice here. In this short blog, I propose to turn the question on its head, as we do in our work as Alexander Technique teachers. "How can we prevent interference with our balance?" And by defining what gets in the way of balancing ourselves with the cello, we can discover what to let go. Years ago, in my student days, I gradually made the discovery that something in my bow arm wasn't working. For years I tried to correct the [...]