cellobello Archives

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 [...]

By Jonathan Thomson|2017-10-10T03:09:57-04:00October 15th, 2015|Categories: In the Practice Room, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: Jonathan Thomson, Marathon, Cello Workout, how to practice, training plan, cellobello, CelloBlog|

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. […]

By Robert Jesselson|2023-12-18T13:33:42-05:00October 12th, 2015|Categories: 100 Cello Warm-ups and Exercises, In the Practice Room, Playing Healthy, Teaching, Videos|Tags: Robert Jesselson, bow, Cello Exercises, cellobello, Open String Warm-Ups, dynamics, bow changes, CelloBlog|

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. […]

By Robert Jesselson|2023-12-13T02:21:01-05:00October 5th, 2015|Categories: 100 Cello Warm-ups and Exercises, In the Practice Room, Playing Healthy, Teaching, Videos|Tags: right hand, Warming Up, cellobello, open strings, CelloBlog, Robert Jesselson, bow, Cello Exercises|

Second Double Bass Smashed at Atlanta Airport This Week [SHOCK]

Reposted from the Violin Channel. Only days after American bassist Karl Fenner published alarming photos on social media of his badly damaged instrument, following a US flight from Atlanta to Denver, University of Georgia faculty member, Milton Masciadri has today posted similar images of his beheaded double bass – following a flight via the same airport. Mr Masciardri has indicated he was travelling from Atlanta to Arkansas, on Monday when the neck of his 18th Century Carlo Antonio Testore double bass was severed in transit – believed to have been caused by a Transport Security Administration (TSA) officer failing to reattach the case restraining belt following a routine inspection. ‘In my case they failed to put the restraining belt on the neck of the bass after inspection,” Masciardri has scorned angrily on social media, ” … this is the second instrument broken [...]

By Blogmaster|2019-05-26T04:11:54-04:00September 29th, 2015|Categories: Cello Travel, News|Tags: cellobello, TSA, CelloBlogs, airport, Southwest Airlines|

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 [...]

By Robert Jesselson|2023-11-30T17:41:36-05:00September 27th, 2015|Categories: 100 Cello Warm-ups and Exercises, In the Practice Room, Playing Healthy, Teaching, Videos|Tags: Cello Exercises, Cello Warm-Ups, cellobello, Right Hand Balance, cello technique, CelloBlog, Robert Jesselson|

Air Canada Announces Discount and Pre-Boarding Privileges for Musicians

Enhancements to Policy on Musical Instruments We are happy to introduce a few enhancements to our carry-on baggage policy that will be of great interest to you if you travel with a musical instrument. In addition to our current policy that ensures items which meet our carry-on size requirements * can be brought on board and stored in the overhead bins or under the seat in front of you, we now offer a 50% discount off any fare, including the lowest available one, to customers who would like to purchase a seat to accommodate their musical instrument in the same cabin that they are booked in. […]

By Blogmaster|2018-11-30T20:27:42-05:00September 26th, 2015|Categories: Cello Travel|Tags: CelloTravel, cellobello, CelloBlog, Air Canada|

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 [...]

By Robert Jesselson|2023-11-13T13:20:54-05:00September 21st, 2015|Categories: 100 Cello Warm-ups and Exercises, In the Practice Room, Playing Healthy, Teaching, Videos|Tags: CelloBlog, Robert Jesselson, Cello Exercises, Cello Warm-Ups, CelloBalance, cellobello|

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 [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2021-11-22T14:18:43-05:00September 16th, 2015|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: change, Alexander Technique, Pierre Fournier, CelloBlog, Selma Gokcen, cellobello|

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! […]

By Robert Jesselson|2021-12-15T11:13:19-05:00September 13th, 2015|Categories: 100 Cello Warm-ups and Exercises, In the Practice Room, Performance, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery, Videos|Tags: CelloBlog, Cello Stretch, Cello Warm-Up, Robert Jesselson, cellobello|

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 [...]

By Robert Jesselson|2021-12-06T12:55:28-05:00September 7th, 2015|Categories: 100 Cello Warm-ups and Exercises, In the Practice Room, Performance, Playing Healthy, Teaching, Videos|Tags: CelloBlog, Cello Stretch, Cello Warm-Up, Robert Jesselson, cellobello|

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 [...]

By Robert Jesselson|2021-11-30T14:02:57-05:00August 31st, 2015|Categories: 100 Cello Warm-ups and Exercises, In the Practice Room, Performance, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery, Teaching, Videos|Tags: CelloBlog, Cello Stretch, Cello Warm-Up, cellobello, Robert Jesselson|

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 […]

By Robert Jesselson|2018-08-05T06:24:55-04:00August 23rd, 2015|Categories: 100 Cello Warm-ups and Exercises, In the Practice Room, Performance, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery, Teaching, Videos|Tags: CelloBlog, Cello Stretch, Cello Warm-Up, cellobello, Robert Jesselson|

CelloStream Artist Master Classes – Fall 2015

Streamed live from Pierce Hall at New England Conservatory in Boston COMING THIS FALL 2015 MARCY ROSEN Tuesday, September 22nd 2015 10 am EDT LLUÍS CLARET Sunday, October 11th 2015 1 pm EDT GARY HOFFMAN Sunday, October 18th 2015 1 pm EDT PETER STUMPF Tuesday, October 27th 2015 7 pm EDT To tune in for a live-viewing of a CelloStream Artist Master Class, please navigate to the CelloStream page at the appropriate time. To read bios of previous CelloStream master class artists, please see below. […]

By Blogmaster|2015-08-12T05:53:44-04:00August 12th, 2015|Categories: Artistic Vision, CelloStream, Chamber Music, In the Practice Room, Performance, Repertoire, Self Discovery, Teaching|Tags: cellostream, CelloClass, cellobello|

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 [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2021-08-26T17:39:23-04:00May 19th, 2015|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: health, Alexander Technique, body, Selma Gokcen, Cello Schooling, CelloBlogs, Playing Healthy, cellobello|

Viva, Joel Krosnick! Viva, Astrid Schween!

A true cello icon from my generation of string quartets is stepping down—after a remarkable 42 seasons in the Juilliard Quartet, Joel Krosnick leaves at the end of next year (and continues as Chair of Juilliard’s Cello Dept.) Mega-Congratulations Joel, and welcome to a wonderful cello colleague and friend of mine, Astrid Schween, who will join the Juilliard Quartet in September of 2016! —Paul Katz CELLIST JOEL KROSNICK TO CELEBRATE HIS 42nd AND FINAL SEASONWITH THE JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET. Krosnick Will Continue to Teach and Remain Chair of Juilliard’s Cello Department. Cellist Astrid Schween to Join the JSQ September 2016 NEW YORK—Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi announced today that the 2015-16 season will mark cellist Joel Krosnick’s final season with the Juilliard String Quartet, the quartet’s 70th season. Mr. Krosnick has been [...]

By Blogmaster|2017-10-16T04:29:49-04:00May 13th, 2015|Categories: Chamber Music, Interpersonal Relationships|Tags: CelloBlog, Astrid Schween, Joel Krosnick, Juilliard String Quartet, cellobello|

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