patience Archives

Presence on Stage (Part 4 – Presence) – by Ruth Phillips

Presence "The mind in its natural state can be compared to the sky, covered by layers of cloud which hide its true nature." – Kalu Rinpoche Once we learn to generate movement from our core and not interfere with it, once we start to follow rather than control the music, we experience an extraordinary new space. Presence. Like a city dweller suddenly finding herself under a huge desert sky, for some this space can be terrifying. What do I put in it? Who am I in it? In fact, it is there we find connection. With ourselves, the music and the audience. Thought “In order to really be, you have to be free from the thinking… Non-thinking is an art and, like any art, it requires patience and practice.” [...]

By Ruth Phillips|2022-09-05T23:31:25-04:00September 15th, 2018|Categories: In the Practice Room, Performance, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: patience, stage presence, presence, inspiration, thought, gravity, power, Practice|

Working With the Infinite Onion — by Thomas Rosenberg

Here’s a riddle for you: I am like an infinite onion. There is always another layer of me for you to peel back and you might feel like crying the entire time. I am also like doing the dishes. There is always another meal to eat and that means there will always be more dirty dishes for you to clean….forever! What am I? The answer is: INTONATION! Great intonation in a chamber music ensemble is one of the most difficult technical aspects to achieve for any group striving for excellence. It often requires a lot of rehearsal time, can test anyone’s patience, and all your hard work can seemingly disappear on stage, even for professional ensembles. I would like to explore the reasons it can be so tricky and complicated, [...]

By Thomas Rosenberg|2022-09-07T23:44:58-04:00January 27th, 2014|Categories: Chamber Music, In the Practice Room|Tags: great intonation, time management, intonation, group intonation, working, tuning, hand position, Adjustments, intonation exercises, Listening, left hand position, chamber music, onion, patience, open strings, rehearsing, Rosenberg, expressive intonation, string groups, fuzzy sound, student ensembles, good instrument tuning, Thomas|

The View from Both Sides — by Robert Battey

Critic. n.: one who walks out onto the field after a battle to shoot the wounded. As a still-occasionally-performing cellist as well as a regular music critic for the Washington Post and STRINGS magazine, I feel exquisitely the sentiment expressed by the wag above. There are few things more discouraging than to give a concert of which one is proud, only to later read that you “had an off night, with wayward intonation and a pinched sound.” On the other side, to judge from the press quotes sprinkled in concert flyers and musicians’ bios, one might think that everyone is incredible. In such a subjective realm as the performing arts, these anomalies and injustices will always be with us. No two people hear the same thing at a [...]

By Robert Battey|2021-03-08T16:24:07-05:00January 7th, 2013|Categories: Artistic Vision, Beyond the Traditional, Performance|Tags: Philosophy, expertise, Heifetz, Battey, Beethoven, robert, traveling, critic, commitment, Strings Magazine, problems, patience|

A Cellist in Kabul (Part 1) — by Avery Waite

On September 4th, I packed up my things, hopped in a taxi and drove to JFK airport. My destination, Kabul. My job, the new cello teacher at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. When I first heard about the opportunity to teach in Kabul, I knew deep down that I had no choice but to go. Something drew me to it. I applied for the job without really thinking it through completely. But when I was actually offered the position, I had to really take a step back and give it some serious thought. In fact, it took me almost three months to fully accept the decision I had made to go. Some days I would be thrilled and excited, and other days I would be scared out of my [...]

By Avery Waite|2017-10-30T05:19:45-04:00September 21st, 2012|Categories: Beyond the Traditional, Interpersonal Relationships, Self Discovery, Teaching|Tags: teacher, beauty, patience, intensity, success, Afghanistan, improvement, Avery, impact, Kabul, Teaching, language, traveling, cello, musical language, Waite, cellobello, adventure, students, learning|

Looking & Seeing — by Selma Gokcen

In my last column, I mentioned getting to know some of your habits at the cello…the worst ones can become your best friends, in that they will offer the richest material for work on yourself. So now we step into the arena. Looking at oneself is not easy. The same instrument that presents the problems is also doing the observing, so how reliable can our observations be when the instrument itself is faulty? This was F.M. Alexander’s dilemma. His vocal problem was hidden within himself, and so he set about observing himself in a mirror, later three mirrors, to see if he could discover any correlation between what he was doing with his whole body and his specific vocal defects. After long and patient examination, he identified several harmful habits, [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-10-08T02:56:56-04:00July 9th, 2011|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: breathing, Instruments, discovery, artistry, Coordination, Mind, cello, Gokcen, Observation, cellobello, movement, seeing, Practice, self-observation, Awareness, Selma, body awareness, sound production, patience, practice habits, attention, Technique, body, Habits|

Searching For One’s Cello Voice — by Bonnie Hampton

It is a remarkable thing that just as our vibratos show our individual expression, so ultimately does our “cello voice” as we develop our sound with the bow on the cello. What are the elements which make up this search? It is a given that we can’t make a beautiful sound unless our bow arms are free and we are finding our energies all the way from the back, with none to the various joints or muscles adding physical tension or tightness. We need to have in our imagination, the qualities of sound we respond to. Perhaps we have heard a wonderful cellist who has inspired us, or perhaps there is a tone quality in our inner ear which we strive for. We are so fortunate, the cello is capable [...]

By Bonnie Hampton|2018-03-09T04:16:06-05:00May 23rd, 2011|Categories: Artistic Vision, Self Discovery|Tags: musicians, patience, bow speed, performance, tone, Habits, tension, concert halls, vibrato, Bonnie, cello, Hampton, cellobello, individual voice, clarity, individuality, support, Sound, muscles, expression, imagination, overtones, Teaching|