fingers Archives

The Joy of Feuillard – A Sequential Approach to Teaching Bow Technique (Part 30 – Collé)

I am "interrupting" my blog series on Feuillard with today's post dealing with collé. I usually wait with working on collé in the private lessons until other technical aspects of the bow are internalized and solid. Part of the reason I do this is that I have found that students sometimes get confused by the use of the fingers for the vertical motion in string crossings as opposed to the use of the fingers in the horizontal collé motion. I find that it is better to solidify the string crossing motion before explaining the collé motion, since they are so similar and yet completely different. I do sometimes teach collé to all the students in my Saturday Pre-college classes. However, that is in a large group situation and I can [...]

By Robert Jesselson|2019-04-08T04:27:03-04:00April 8th, 2019|Categories: In the Practice Room, The Joy of Feuillard, Teaching|Tags: fingers, Duport, collé, bow hold|

The Joy of Feuillard – A Sequential Approach to Teaching Bow Technique (Part 29 – Feuillard No. 35 – Variations #52-59)

Today's Blog will deal with the last variations on this page of Feuillard's theme No. 35. Although Feuillard indicates these to be played in the middle of the bow, I prefer to use Variations #52 - #57 to work on a heavy spiccato stroke at the frog. This involves using an active upper arm and a "passive" wrist to create a brushy off-the-string stroke with a very ringy sound. A light version of this stroke might be used in Mozart symphonies or quartets, while the heavier version might be in Wagner or many contemporary works. Variation #53: The model for these variations is #53 with its two arm levels, and I like to have the students play this before going sequentially through the other variations (see below). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65Ax1NoMr0Y&w=560&h=315 [...]

By Robert Jesselson|2019-04-01T01:32:54-04:00April 1st, 2019|Categories: In the Practice Room, The Joy of Feuillard, Teaching|Tags: spicatto, fingers, wrist, Feuillard, upper arm|

The Joy of Feuillard – A Sequential Approach to Teaching Bow Technique (Part 28 – Feuillard No. 35 – Variations #42-51)

Today's Blog will deal with Feuillard No. 35, Variations #42 - #51, which all deal with legato string crossings using the upper arm and the wrist/fingers. As we started working on these variations I first reminded Zach about the Seven Arm Levels that we had discussed earlier (the four open strings and the three double stops), and we reviewed the "Seven Arm Level Exercise". Then I explained how these variations will involve a combination of the various arm levels and the use of the wrist/fingers to go between the double-stop levels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ6jTDH0etE&w=560&h=315 So, the model for these next variations is #45 - using the upper arm on the double stop level, and the wrist moving between the two strings. I often have the students play Variation #45 [...]

By Robert Jesselson|2019-03-25T02:42:53-04:00March 25th, 2019|Categories: In the Practice Room, The Joy of Feuillard, Teaching|Tags: legato, string crossings, Feuillard, upper arm, fingers, wrist|

Holding On for Dear Life — by Selma Gokcen

"Doing in your case is so 'overdoing' that you are practically paralysing the parts you want to work." —F.M. Alexander As an Alexander Technique teacher, I work with many cellists who are in distress—the kind of distress that means they can't play for the time being. Their conditions vary from tendinitis to De Quervain syndrome to back pain to focal dystonia. The list is long but one thing most of them share is the habit of 'holding on to themselves.' What do I mean by this? When they are in a position of rest on my teaching table—lying on their backs with their heads also resting on a small pillow—they remain gripped by tension in their necks, backs, arms and legs that may take us many months to undo. [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-11-24T03:53:28-05:00November 26th, 2013|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, In the Practice Room, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: Preparation, pack up our habits, act, Awareness, position of rest, Selma, detect your intention, response to life, back, distress, neck, solution, attention, effect on cello playing, standing, discovery, effortless quality, experiment, successful functioning in daily activities, familiar, fingers, head to toe, motion, the preparation phase of movement, blog, sitting, holding, Habits, well-practiced, accuracy, tension, neuromuscular system, support, response, cello, our surroundings, Alexander Technique, cello playing, cellobello, overdoing, Gokcen, effect|

THINKING IN A NEW WAY—Overcoming Habits (Part 4 of 6): The Arm Becomes the Bow — by Selma Gokcen

The whole organism is responsible for specific trouble. Proof of this is that we eradicate specific defects in process. —F.M. Alexander To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. —Lao Tzu We now come to the bow, the most challenging aspect of cello playing by far. There are so many fantasies and fallacies surrounding the technique of the bow, as well as profound differences of opinion regarding sound production and articulation. Rather than address these directly, I would like to introduce another way of thinking about the bow: as an 'instrument' whose function exists in relationship to the whole body. By starting from the general (the whole of ourselves) and eventually arriving at the specific (the 'bowing instrument'), we might view the process in the right perspective, rather [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2023-10-30T13:36:03-04:00February 25th, 2013|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Beyond the Traditional, Playing Healthy|Tags: bow strokes, Casals, inner pitch, simple gesture, arms, fingers, misguided effort and unease, Habits, teaching table, collapse, wrist, nasal sound, perspective, unwanted sound, Six Part Series, cello, partnership, dynamics, volume, contraction, cellobello, powerful accents, Alexander Technique, thinking in new ways, beauty, powerful arms, Gokcen, bend and extend, process, pressured sound, body at ease, flexible, principle of opposition, Selma, cello playing muscles, neck, pull and push, sensory awareness, importance of quietness, challenges, repeated sensory stimulation, function, increased resistance, energy, sensitive gesture|

THINKING IN A NEW WAY—Overcoming Habits (Part 1 of 6): The Value of Quietness — by Selma Gokcen

We can overcome habits of a lifetime in a few minutes if we learn to use our brains. —F.M. Alexander The obstacle is the path. –Zen proverb I offer this six part series of articles to demonstrate how I work with the Alexander Technique to help musicians to overcome deeply ingrained habits. If a quick and easy fix is what is wanted, then the reader won't find it here. The process as I see it is multi-layered—the same habits that affect our cello playing and music-making are also our habits of life, the way we perceive, react and behave, moment to moment. Such observations are at the heart of Alexander's work. Albeit with the help of a good teacher the process of unlearning habits can be easier, there are no shortcuts. [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2019-10-31T15:42:33-04:00February 3rd, 2013|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Beyond the Traditional, Playing Healthy|Tags: strain, cello, laying on the floor, Alexander Technique, rediscovering, music-making, cellobello, legs, Gokcen, shortcuts, force, music, manifest, shoulders, brain, process, mental messages, re-education, stretching, animate, neck, overcome deeply ingrained habits, Selma, the value of quietness, arms, Patrick Macdonald, thinking, automatic movement, Habits, perceive, back, behave, learning, powerful expressiveness, nature, collapse, pressure, primary information, attention, Pablo Casals, doing, exploration, pushing, Observation, fingers, feet, hands, react|