problems Archives

“But I Don’t Want To!”: How to Get Yourself (or Your Kid) to Practice… — by Martha Baldwin

One of the most frequent problems my students ask me about is how to get inspired to practice. Old, young, serious and casual cellists alike come to me in frustration: “But I just can’t find the inspiration to practice right now/ever/this month/today etc. etc.” Parents ask even more often how to get their child to practice without a battle. Here’s the thing—there’s a hard truth about being a cellist, about the practicing it takes. It’s not always fun. It’s hard to get started. You don’t feel inspired to practice all the time. Don’t feel bad—you know that student next to you in the practice room who’s there every day without fail? He’s not more inspired than you, you’re not missing the I-Love-To-Practice gene. Parents—you know that mom who says “I [...]

By Martha Baldwin|2017-10-24T04:04:38-04:00March 3rd, 2014|Categories: In the Practice Room, Self Discovery, Teaching|Tags: practicing, feel like practicing, how to get yourself to practice, Habits, inspiration to practice, cellist, rehearsal, inspiration, problems, schedule, cello, routine, truth, cellobello, Baldwin, structure, Practice Room, discipline, appointment, Martha, daily routine|

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: commitment, Strings Magazine, problems, patience, Philosophy, expertise, Heifetz, Battey, Beethoven, robert, traveling, critic|

Are You a Manager of Your Cello’s Problems? — by Wayne Burak

In the past month I have had several cellists come in for adjustments. The interesting common denominator in each case was the complaint that something could not be achieved technically on the cello because of an adjustment issue. These problems ranged from neck angles being so low that the c bout edges were hit easily with the frog, fingerboards which were worn and misshapen, necks which were too thick (fatiguing the hand in fast passage work), to many bridge and soundpost position issues. One cellist remarked that he felt like he was managing inconsistencies and limitations which even affected his programming choices! What? I pondered this for several days while working on both new and old instruments. The central issue of course, is that the cello is proportionately successful to [...]

By Wayne Burak|2017-08-03T22:12:33-04:00May 9th, 2011|Categories: Luthiers, Performance, Technology|Tags: maintenance, problems, cello, cellobello|