This blog will be the last one of the year – but we look forward to starting up again in 2016. In the first two blogs on Cello Geography we discussed the basic neck positions, and extensions. Next I would like to focus on a tool that I feel is helpful for sorting out one of the most important fingering principles on the cello: the “Mary” System. […]
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 [...]
"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 [...]