Preparation Archives

Behind the Scenes with Brannon Cho

We are thrilled to introduce you to Brannon Cho, First Prize Winner of the 2018 Paulo International Cello Competition. In this conversation Brannon takes us behind the scenes offering insight into his preparation, mindset, and aspirations. Blogmaster: Can you give us insight as to how the competition felt for you? Did you play as you aspired to? Brannon Cho: The competition was quite exhausting. As opposed to other competitions I’ve done in the past there was almost no time to rest between rounds. In some ways I appreciated it because it was similar to the concert schedule of a touring soloist. As a soloist, every two days you have a big concert. In contrast, in Belgium last year I would sometimes have a week before I played the next [...]

By Blogmaster|2021-07-05T18:34:38-04:00December 1st, 2018|Categories: Competition, Interviews, In the Practice Room, News, Performance, Self Discovery|Tags: Practice Room, Competition, Paulo Cello Competition, Brannon Cho, Practice, Preparation|

Rule #1 — by Jonathan Thomson

I can still vividly recall the lesson in high school when I first learned of RULE #1 and RULE #2. Somehow, though, I am still unable to impart these crucial principals upon my own students with the same gravitas as my teacher did then. These two general guidelines shaped the way I learned to focus my practice time and prepare my mind and muscles for performance. The more I study about how we learn, and about strategies for mental preparation—things like "chunking," myelin, meditation, visualization—the more I realize how valuable these two simple "rules" have been. We must practice not only for technical mastery, but also for expression. We must imagine future performance scenarios in the practice room. Putting the focus on communication provides the goal to work toward, and the [...]

By Jonathan Thomson|2022-01-10T12:58:15-05:00November 3rd, 2014|Categories: In the Practice Room, Performance, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: sports, CelloBlog, Jonathan Thomson, Chunking, Rule #1, Practice, Visualization, Preparation|

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: 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, Preparation, pack up our habits, act, Awareness, position of rest, Selma, detect your intention, response to life|

Exploring Beethoven 5th, Variation One — by Jonathan Pegis

Continuing our discussion of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, let us examine the first variation. As I did with the theme, I will first talk about the technical challenges of this excerpt and then look at the musical challenges. First of all, it is very important that you play this excerpt in the exact same tempo that you played the theme. A common mistake is to play this variation much faster than the theme simply because of that long first down bow. One trick that helps is when you finish the theme keep counting the quarter note rests at the end of measure 10, and then count off the two quarter note rests in measure 49. (Almost like you were making a cut!) You can do the same thing at the end [...]

By Jonathan Pegis|2023-05-01T13:22:31-04:00December 11th, 2012|Categories: Artistic Vision, Auditions, In the Practice Room, Orchestra, Performance, Repertoire|Tags: details, musicality, intonation, legato, shifting, Pegis, Sound, continuous vibrato, Beethoven, practice tips, sound production, bow technique, Rhythm, phrasing, bow control, vibrato, tempo, technical challenges, cello, attention to detail, cellobello, Beethoven Symphonies, Excerpts, dynamics, Beethoven's 5th Symphony, singing, cello excerpt, Preparation, melody, Jonathan|

The Process of Unlearning Habits — by Selma Gokcen

“It is not the degree of ‘willing’ or ‘trying,’ but the way in which the energy is directed, that is going to make the ‘willing’ or ‘trying’ effective.” –F.M. Alexander As professional musicians, we have a deeply trained muscle memory system, a network of learned movements which allows us to study and perform a huge number of works in any situation, often in a short space of time. This system is a blessing when it is reliable and accurate and a burden when it does not serve us well. Confronted by unwanted tension or a repetitive stress injury such as tendonitis or carpal tunnel syndrome, some of us, as F.M. Alexander did, may ask: what is my part in this? How have I brought about this condition? And it [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-11-24T04:09:57-05:00November 5th, 2012|Categories: Artistic Vision, Beyond the Traditional, Performance, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: head, training, tension, Habits, effort, cello, muscle memory, cellobello, singing, Effective, Preparation, Alexander Technique, professional musicians, process, Gokcen, unlearning habits, neck, brain, relationships, function, musicians, Selma, nervous system, energy, back, Technique|

Exploring Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony — by Jonathan Pegis

Here in just a few measures is an excerpt that has confused, befuddled, and downright scared more cellists than just about any other excerpt (please click image to enlarge): The theme from the second movement of Beethoven's fifth, along with the first two variations, shows up on the vast majority of cello audition lists. I thought it would be educational to spend some time exploring this theme, and future blogs will explore the first and second variations. To begin with, this excerpt is one of a handful that I have coached for many years where I am actually LESS confident than I used to be. Why? Because every teacher, every coach, and every conductor has had radically different ideas about all the different aspects of this theme. Temp, color, dynamic, [...]

By Jonathan Pegis|2017-07-15T05:12:25-04:00October 19th, 2012|Categories: Auditions, In the Practice Room, Orchestra, Performance, Repertoire|Tags: markings, cellobello, confidence, education, teacher, Audition, Excerpts, pressure, Teaching, coaching, nerves, inflection, mistakes, dynamics, release, orchestral excerpts, orchestra, recording, Beethoven, accents, Preparation, singing, bow speed, blog, control, sustain, Rhythm, bow changes, Symphony, vibrato, technical challenges, phrasing, legato, cello, variations, practicing|

The Force of Habit — by Selma Gokcen

“You translate everything, whether physical, mental or spiritual, into muscular tension.” “We can throw away the habit of a lifetime in a few minutes if we use our brains.” —F.M. Alexander My Alexander teacher is always speaking about the force of habit and the difficulty of keeping the mind on a new track, when, for example, a simple decision is made not to lift an arm or get out of the chair in the usual way. Our kinaesthetic sense, the sense of our muscles in movement, is of little help here. We measure effort by how something feels, and that feeling is our habit. To give up wanting to feel our way forward in the early stages of Alexander Technique lessons comes down to a battle with habit, which is [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2021-10-18T12:14:27-04:00October 2nd, 2012|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Beyond the Traditional, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: transitions, Experience, Alexander Technique, Preparation, Gokcen, safety, movement, musicians, Selma, challenges, Mind, effort, Habits, Force of Habit, adventure, expectation, lessons, muscular tension, cello, exhilarating|

The Power of Quietness — by Selma Gokcen

The place to find is within yourself. I learned a little about this in athletics. The athlete who is in top form has a quiet place within himself, and it’s around this, somehow, that his action occurs...There’s a center of quietness within, which has to be known and held. If you lose that center, you are in tension and begin to fall apart. – Joseph Campbell True quiet means keeping still when the time has come to keep still, and going forward when the time has come to go forward. In this way rest and movement are in agreement with the demands of the time, and thus there is light in life. The hexagram signifies the end and the beginning of all movement. The back is named because in the [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-10-09T01:48:34-04:00June 15th, 2012|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Beyond the Traditional, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: Alexander Technique, artistry, Gokcen, power, movement, cello, cellobello, Selma, Preparation, training, accomplishments, performance, quietness, Technique, unlearning habits, balance|

Raising the Arms (Part 2) — by Selma Gokcen

A wheel needs a central point of contact, an axis, in order to turn and spin. One never loses touch with one's central point—the spine—as one moves through life. But society today has lost that core. It has no idea where it is going. - Svami Purna When I was well into my studies as a young cellist, I became fascinated with the question: How does one raise the arms to play? My naive mind wondered: is there a wrong way and a right way, and how does one distinguish between the two? I read a great many books on cello technique and for years I asked this question of my teachers. It seemed to me to be a very important gesture that most people took for granted, and my [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-10-09T01:35:06-04:00May 7th, 2012|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Performance, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: connection, Alexander Technique, cello, Gokcen, cellobello, music, Selma, Preparation, gestures, Awareness, cello technique, Primary Control, sound production, injury, energy|

Stage-dreaming — by Mickey Katz

A few days ago I was on the Symphony Hall stage, playing Brahms’s A German Requiem in concert. While playing the second movement, I started thinking about what I was going to make for dinner the following night. The last time I cooked it, I thought, it came out a little dry. Maybe this time I should… But wait a second, I was playing one of my favorite pieces in one of the world’s best halls, with a great orchestra and a great conductor, how could I not be completely absorbed in what I was doing? Was I the only one on stage whose mind was wandering, and if not—did anyone in the audience notice? I was aware that I was a part of a great concert, and the audience [...]

By Mickey Katz|2022-04-24T13:11:05-04:00April 26th, 2012|Categories: Artistic Vision, In the Practice Room, Orchestra, Performance, Self Discovery|Tags: Mickey, Symphony Hall, Brahms, performers, expression, performance, inspiration, practicing, cello, Technique, cellobello, Katz, musicianship, Symphony, Practice, distractions, Preparation, Boston, concentration|

Ready, Set, Stop! A Different Kind of Preparation — by Selma Gokcen

It is what you have been doing in preparation that counts when it comes to making movements. -F.M. Alexander In all my years of musical training I was shown many important aspects of cello technique, which included movements associated with the bow and left hand—what I call the ‘ready-set-go’ school. Your teacher explains, you listen and watch, and then you do... and then you do some more of this work in the practice room until the movements are learned. I only became aware of the profound importance of another, entirely different form of preparation when I began training as an Alexander Technique teacher. The beauty and simplicity of it took my breath away. Many years later now, as I work with students, some of them express the same incredulity. How [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-10-09T01:19:47-04:00March 13th, 2012|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, In the Practice Room, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: pressure, Alexander Technique, Gokcen, Selma, Spine, expression, self-observation, Preparation, simplicity, spinal column, Primary Control, Habits|

So You Think You Know? (Part 2) — by Selma Gokcen

“Sensory appreciation conditions conception; you can't know a thing by an instrument that is wrong.” -F.M. Alexander. Our body-mind could be called our home. We live in it from the inside, looking out at the world. It provides our orientation, our focus, our sense of what is right and wrong, up and down, around us, beneath us and above us. All day long we are encountering and interacting with the world; stimuli are filtering through our senses and being evaluated against past experience. The question raised within us after only a few lessons in the Alexander Technique is the same one that F.M. Alexander grappled with for nine years as he searched for answers to the mis-use of his voice: what am I doing and how can I know that [...]

By Selma Gokcen|2017-10-08T03:12:40-04:00February 12th, 2012|Categories: Alexander Technique for Cellists, Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: Sensory, lessons, healthy playing, Alexander Technique, progress, Gokcen, sensations, movement, tension, Selma, cello, nature, cellobello, body, Preparation, Mind, Awareness, repetition|

Myth Busters — by Brant Taylor

Instrumentalists often prepare for an orchestra audition by seeking feedback on their preparation from a teacher or colleague. Perhaps because my career includes both orchestral playing and teaching, I am frequently asked to coach players who are preparing solo work(s) and orchestral excerpts for a given audition. Some players I hear are very new to the audition game, while others are already seasoned professionals looking to step up to another ensemble or for a promotion in their current group. After years of talking with these musicians about auditions in general and about the specifics of their preparation, I've noticed several assumptions that players sometimes make about auditions. While some of these assumptions are true, and made with good reason, many others are best described as myths. Some of these are half-truths, and [...]

By Brant Taylor|2017-11-09T02:42:34-05:00November 16th, 2011|Categories: Auditions, Orchestra, Performance, Repertoire|Tags: Instruments, Preparation, musicianship, Taylor, recordings, fingerings, Audition, tempo, coaching, expression, repertoire, mistakes, cello, Conductors, Brant, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, potential, CSO, assumptions, orchestra|

It’s Time to Start [NOT] Practicing — by Martha Baldwin

It’s September, the school year has begun, and the concert season is looming large. This time of year is the New Year’s Eve of the academic and music world—a time for resolutions and new beginnings. For cellists everywhere these resolutions often focus around practicing—namely doing more of it. For myself, I somehow already feel behind and the temptation to try to cram as much work in as possible, especially on my “day off” from the orchestra is strong (well, to be honest there are other days when the temptation to sit on the couch is stronger). But this year my resolution is two-fold. Yes, I want to prepare upcoming repertoire earlier than ever this year but before I come up with a plan for that, I’m going to be planning [...]

By Martha Baldwin|2017-09-15T02:54:54-04:00September 29th, 2011|Categories: Playing Healthy, Self Discovery|Tags: energy, Injuries, Martha, relaxing, practicing, taking time off, repertoire, improvement, Rest, cello, cellobello, school, orchestra, routine, Preparation, self-improvement, Baldwin|

Behind the Scenes of a Music Festival (Part 2): The Devil in the Details — by Aron Zelkowicz

According to their blog, Audio-Technica’s acclaimed Artist Elite 5000 Series UHF Wireless System with an AEW-T4100 Cardioid Dynamic Handheld Transmitter was the microphone of choice for Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” concert tour (“It really sounds like her!”). Of course, all systems use the AEW-R5200 True Diversity Frequency-Agile Dual Receiver. Thank goodness all we have to do is walk on stage with our cello, find a hole in the floor, and play. When compared with such high-tech riders, organizing an acoustic recital is low maintenance, right? Right?! Sure—although maybe you should have had that dress rehearsal where someone could have spiked the chairs’ locations on the floor with masking tape because once you start the Brahms Piano Quartet you realize you are blocking the violist’s sight-line to the pianist (causing some uneasy [...]

By Aron Zelkowicz|2017-11-01T00:47:39-04:00September 23rd, 2011|Categories: Repertoire, Technology|Tags: challenges, Aron, rehearsals, Zelkowicz, distractions, live performances, passion, music festivals, organization, enjoyment, cello, Production, cellobello, festivals, music, details, Preparation, small details|

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