MARC CHRISTIAN MIRANDA. Taking your event to the next musical level.
Season 4 · Episode 3
Tuesday, September 30, 2025 • Duration 58:49
Alicia Keys, are you reading this? Here is a cellist for you. Marc Christian Miranda started out the conventional cello way but has for the past several years explored a niche that is in high demand.
When he sets out for a gig his car is packed with cables, mixers, speakers and his electric cello.
Inspired by his own wedding, he's on a mission to make your special day, whether it’s a wedding or something completely different, as beautiful and memorable as possible.
TIGRAN ARAKELYAN. Armenian-American conductor based in Seattle, Washington.
Season 4 · Episode 2
Monday, August 18, 2025 • Duration 54:12
Does conducting an orchestra entail more than waving one's arms? Yes it does and Tigran Arakelyan is more than happy to share a number of the things you have to keep in mind as a conductor standing in front of an orchestra.
Among Tigran's many credits is the historic feat of facilitating the Pacific Northwest's first orchestral concert at a bar. Tune in to hear his story from growing up in post-Soviet Armenia and Belarus, to finding his way as a musician and conductor in the United States. A way that still has a long way to go. Careerwise, is Tigran where he wants to be?
When there is a voice in me that says “I should have done this today, and I didn't.” I can observe that this is a thought. It's not some voice of universal truth, or someone I know blaming me for something.
It's a thought in my head.
It's as if my thoughts don't always trust me to do the right thing…!
In fact, my thoughts are the thoughts of a lunatic. They contradict each other and are not coherent and they will throw me from one state of mind to another.
I'm not saying that I'm suffering from a mental illness here, I'm just describing the thoughts how they behave for most of us if we give them some attention.
A thought comes along and pretends that it needs to make me feel inadequate. The thought then goes away at some point without me noticing, and a new thought comes along in order to make me feel better.
If I'm not at all aware of how my thoughts are treating me, I'll be a ball bouncing between the thoughts as they please. I then leave my state of mind at any given time in the hands of my thoughts. Do I want to do that?
Sometimes we have to figure something out, of course. We plan our day, compare insurance companies, prepare a speech, whatever we need to do. But when we have achieved the task at hand, can we still be selective with our thoughts?
Cello playing can be one of those activities that lets the thinking mind step back, and instead allow for a different way of existence; existence through the tactile sensations of playing, through the sounds that we make, and through the things that happens in us when we do this: memories, emotions, images, peace of mind, or perhaps a creative idea?
I think that cello playing can also become another one of those things we have to do, and to think about how to do, and we can play the cello while we are in our mind and our thoughts. We might verbally judge what we are doing: “this is out of tune, this sounds wrong, this is difficult, I don't know if I'm doing the right thing, I hope no one can hear me, I need to practice more,” etc. These thoughts can make you decide to quit cello playing altogether,
The Cellist’s Journey #7 Life with the Music You Like
Season 3 · Episode 7
Monday, May 15, 2023 • Duration 05:55
When you're learning to read sheet music, you're preparing for being able to play classical music.
But what if you're interested in playing your cello in a different setting? Pop, rock, jazz, -many of these other music genres use chords more than the written out music we find in sheet music.
If you want to play along to your favourite pop song, it'll be a lot easier for you if you have knowledge about the chords. That way, you can in most cases look up the song online, find the chords straight away and start playing.
As cellists we often have a bass function, which is fortunate since the bass notes are the only notes written explicitly in the chords.
When you see a Gsus7 chord, for instance, you can ignore everything that is not the root note which is G. The letter of the chord is the root note (the bass note) so if you know where the Gs are on the cello, you can pick your preferred octave and join in on that G.
You'll get far by knowing the placements of the tones in 2 octaves on your cello, and you can play along to any chord while remaining in the 1st position.
When you can comfortably play along to the song with the root notes, you can start to get familiar also with the 5ths of the chords.
A 5th is the interval that the strings of the cello have in relation to each other. When you play 2 open strings at the same time, you hear the interval called a 5th. It comprises 5 tones, for instance C and G.
And chords are built up of the root note, a 3rd above that, and a 5th above the root note.
An easy way to play the 5th of a chord on the cello, is to first place the root note, then place your finger on the exact same place on the string above, meaning the string to your left of the string you're playing the root note on. You can now practice each of the chords only with the bass and the 5th.
In rock music, you can often play the root and the 5th at the same time. Electric guitarists call it a power chord, although it's not strictly speaking a chord, it's just a 5th.
The Cellist’s Journey #6 Life with an Orchestra
Season 3 · Episode 6
Monday, May 8, 2023 • Duration 08:15
Even smaller towns may have their own local amateur symphony orchestra, or string orchestra. And if you don't have that where you live, there are plenty of different orchestra courses happening one or more times a year in a lot of different places in this so-called Western world.
And besides that,
I'll mention that when I was younger I really enjoyed playing along to recordings of orchestral music. It's hard to know when to start playing when you can't see the conductor of course, but apart from that it went pretty well.
Playing in an orchestra is simply amazing.
A good number of people getting together in one room to exchange sound waves with each other. No need to talk, just get lost in the harmonies, the rhythms, the different voices you hear all around you, the bass carrying it all, melodies being brought back into life from the sheet music that might have been written 400 years ago.
It's like a sonic exhibition. It's only happening in that moment and will never happen just like that ever again. There are no screens, no internet, no ads, no pop-up windows, and not much language to deal with except from terms in the sheet music, and depending on how talkative the conductor is.
When you have been practising the cello for some time and you're curious about how you'd fit in in your local orchestra, I'd recommend you get in touch with one of the cellists there and ask to see the cello parts for the current project. Ideally take a photocopy of them so that you can sit at home and see how challenging they are for you, and take them to your teacher and ask for a guided tour.
Maybe you can join the orchestra for the easiest pieces and skip the harder ones?
What you'll need to know before joining, is how to tune your cello, how to read sheet music, possibly in the tenor and treble clefs as well as the bass clef, and you'll need to get acquainted with some of the most common words that describe moods in the music, and techniques on the cello.
Many of these words are common in cello playing in general, and you'll recognize words such as pizzicato and arco, as well as repetition signs and dynamic symbols. But it might be in the orchestra that you first come across con sordino, the fermata sign, or words such as divisi, solo and tutti, to name only a few. The words will often be Italian, they are sometimes in German, sometimes in French, and sometimes in English.
The Cellist’s Journey #5 Life with Sheet Music
Season 3 · Episode 5
Monday, May 1, 2023 • Duration 07:24
'What to play?'
is the topic of this episode, now that we have
1) our intention in order
2) everything we need to get started
3) a cello teacher
4) an idea of how to practice
I know it's a bit weird that I'm talking about this as if you already have a cello teacher, cause why would you be here in that case? I'm here just aiming to give you an impression of how the cellist journey might look like in the beginning.
So.
The common way to start is to acquire a teaching book. There are many of them to choose from. Any of them will get you started, it's hard to go wrong.
I'd say you can browse the internet and get the book that your gut feeling approves of. Any teaching book for a beginner cellist will have the same basic information and very similar first tunes based on open strings, advancing one new tone and one new rhythm at a time.
I love it when a new student comes to me with a book that I've never seen before. And so far I have not seen a book that was better or worse than any other. One that I have is called Abracadabra published by Collins Music, if you want a specific title to start your search with.
As an adult, you might want to find a book that doesn't look too childish, and of course you want to make sure the book is in a language that you understand. If you're interested in playing along with backing tracks, check if the book comes with a cd or a playlist on the internet.
Also bear in mind the possible taxes that are added if you're ordering something from abroad.
I always prefer to use my local music shop instead of ordering online, but shops with sheet music have been rapidly disappearing for the last couple of decades because of the popularity of online stores.
The Cellist’s Journey #4 Life with Practice
Season 3 · Episode 4
Monday, April 24, 2023 • Duration 11:45
If you've been following the previous episodes, you've heard me talk about taking the step into making the cello a part of your life in the first place, which things you should acquire before you're ready to start, and on the topic of finding a cello teacher.
This trajectory has now led you to your first cello lesson, and you find yourself at home the day after the lesson and you think "What now?"
That's what today's episode is about.
One of the benefits of being an adult when you start playing the cello is that you are aware of the value of practice, and you are able to find a structure that works for you and that makes sense to you. You also remember what you did the previous days.
I think many of us who started learning when we were children, have few recollections of our cello practice for the first few years.
As children, we were so much in the moment and if our parents didn't encourage us to take out our cello, we might not even have been aware that there was a cello in the house. When we did unpack it, we didn't have a clear idea of what we were doing or why.
As an adult, you have an accumulated well of knowledge from your life experience that you can utilize when it comes to your cello practice.
You have been learning for decades already, and you have an idea about how important it is for you to read about the thing, watching demonstrations of the thing, actually doing the thing, and reflecting on the thing.
Some are more on the doer side and they throw themselves into the thing, while others feel safer after first having read about it or watched other people do it for a while.
Cello playing is mainly something that we do. In my teaching I've seen how people vary when it comes to jumping into it or standing on the shore dipping a toe into it.
Some are scared of making anything sound, and the cello can produce quite a level of volume.
Some are scared of sounding bad, and so they play very hesitantly and stop immediately when they make a sound that they dislike.
The Cellist’s Journey #3 Life with a Cello Teacher
Season 3 · Episode 3
Monday, April 17, 2023 • Duration 07:36
First of all, do you really need a cello teacher?
There are now so many YouTube channels and online forums to do with cello playing, maybe that's sufficient?
You can for sure gain a lot from these websites, especially if you have played an instrument before. You can pick up some tips and get started.
The websites don't see or hear you, though. Cause you'll for sure have lots of questions when you start practicing. And maybe you'll find your answers on Quora or Instagram or Reddit or YouTube, and maybe not.
And maybe you don't want to use so much energy on internet searches.
A cello teacher will likely see and hear straight away how you can overcome one obstacle after the other. A teacher can point out where you're tensing your body without being aware of it, and how that gets in the way of your playing overall.
A teacher can see in an instant how you can use your energy more efficiently, and to point out possible bad habits before they grow roots and become very hard to get rid of later.
A teacher can also play together with you, which can be very rewarding and enjoyable, as well as being the groundwork for your future music making together with others.
But taking private cello lessons can be expensive. The teacher has to include VAT and taxes in the price. The teacher might be paying rent for the space. And you're not just paying for some minutes of their time, but for decades of their studies, experience and practice.
If you're not able to pay the required sum of money, you can of course ask them if they can give you a discount. The worst that can happen is that they say no, and that you have to look elsewhere. It's worth asking, since many teachers will want to accommodate someone who wants to make the cello a part of their life.
In some places you can sign up for group lessons, which are probably more affordable than individual lessons. Learning in a group can be really nice if you get along with the others and can therefore get a sense of having a community of beginner cellists, which can be very motivating in itself.
The Cellist’s Journey #2 Life with the Cello -Materialized
Season 3 · Episode 2
Monday, April 10, 2023 • Duration 10:24
So,
you have a dream, and you have an intention. Next, you'll need a cello, a bow, and a case.
I've also experienced that finding a teacher comes first. The order of events don't matter much.
To find your cello, the safest is to go to your local luthier, if you're fortunate to live in a place that has one or more of those. They might have a cello that you can rent or buy. You can be pretty sure it's a playable instrument if you get it from a luthier, while getting something via an online market place is more risky.
I have seen a cello where the fingerboard didn't line up with the rest of the instrument, which means that an expensive visit to a luthier has to happen before the actual cello playing can start. This is also the case if the cello has a crack, for instance. And if the strings are worn out you'll need to first order a new set of strings.
You can ask any music school in your city if they have cellos for rent or for sale. You might end up with an instrument with very old strings, and with a bow in need of a rehair, but it's potentially an affordable place to start.
And there are shops online where you can order a whole cellist start-kit complete with instrument, case and rosin. And among the adult beginners I have come across so far, ordering a cello online has been pretty common.
Once though, one of my pupils came to me with her brand new cello she had ordered online, wondering why the bridge was in bubble wrap and lying under the strings. I guessed that this had been done for safety measures during the transportation, and I could help her set the bridge in its place and tune all the strings. So you might want to be in contact with a cello teacher sooner rather than later.
In addition to traditional wooden cellos, there are also electric cellos and carbon fiber cellos. These are typically more expensive than a wooden beginner's cello, maybe unless you're fortunate to come across one second-hand.
Electric cello is practical if you want to play loudly without disturbing your neighbours since you can play it with ear phones.
The Cellist’s Journey #1 Making the Cello a Part of Your Life
Season 3 · Episode 1
Monday, April 3, 2023 • Duration 08:58
The widow of George Harrison was asked what the secret to a long marriage was.
She said, "Don't get a divorce."
Those who appear to be successful in their music making, are those who didn't get a divorce. Obstacles will show up, as purely technical challenges on the instrument, or injuries, or a lack of motivation, or struggling to find the right teacher.
But don't divorce your instrument straight away. You might overcome the obstacle, resulting in a relationship that is stronger than it was before.
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depending on how you treat these thoughts.
So here I'm proposing a change of habitual thinking.
First, have a notebook and a pen with you in your practice and write down the thoughts that come to you during your practice.
Even write down the thoughts that are not related to your practice. We typically think of something we should remember to do later, something we regret doing, a person that is important to you in the moment, whatever it is.
Then, look at what you have written down. Acknowledge them for what they were: thoughts that showed up in your consciousness.
Now, are any of these thoughts useful to you?
Let's take the thought "My playing sounds bad, I don't think I'm improving."
I'd say the thought in itself isn't useless, but it's useless to repeat it without doing anything about it. We can continue this thought by questioning it:
"What exactly do I think sounds bad? Could it be that I'm trying to do too many things at the same time so that I'm unable to focus on one thing properly? How can my cello teacher help me with this?"
Now that we have continued with the thought, we can let the initial thought go, which was "My playing sounds bad, I don't think I'm improving."
What does it mean to let it go?
It means that when we notice that it's coming back, we can say "I recognize this thought and I've already moved on from it" and we can let the thought pass by without spending more energy there.
Ok let's take the thought "I should practice more, I think I should quit cello playing because I don't have time for it."
If this thought is allowed to circulate in you undetected, it will make you feel all kinds of self-sabotaging things such as insufficiency, disappointment, or a diminished self-confidence overall in your everyday life.
I think we can agree that that's pretty useless.
Therefore, it's important to nip these thoughts in the bud and see them for what they are before they are allowed to live in us like a dark cloud.
"I should practice more." Yes, we should all practice more shouldn't we, we should just practice all day every day or else... Or else what?
Let's face it, we can always practice more.
Go and ask a music student and they will most likely say that they are not practicing enough even though they are practicing all day every day. Go ask a professional musician and they will most likely say that they don't practice enough.
We are completely stuck in a feeling of deficiency. We are never enough, time is never enough, and our music making is never enough.
Here comes the power of thought.
When we are aware of how we think and how our thinking makes us feel, and how these thoughts and feelings keep on perpetuating endlessly, we can call it out and shine a light on it.
And then we can change it.
How absurd is it to think that we are never enough? We are just living and breathing on a flying rock in space until we one day stop breathing.
Of course we're enough. We are sufficient, time is sufficient, and our music making is nothing more or less than what it is.
Our music making is something different from one moment to the next. One day it's a few long open strings where we are immersed in the vibrations of our gorgeous instrument. On another day we are enjoying the technical complexity of a scale.
Our cello playing doesn't need to be anything at all.
It just needs to be something that you enjoy.
This concludes my series of short episodes related to cello playing.
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When you play a root and a 5th, you can't hear if the chord is in minor or major. That's because it's the 3rd of the chord that determines that. A 3rd is an interval that comprises 3 tones, for instance C and E.
C and E played together is a major 3rd, and it's a building block in the C major chord.
All I have to do to make it a C minor chord is to lower the 3rd from E to E-flat.
So the next step in getting familiar with the chords is to play the root, the 3rd and the 5th of each chord in the song you want to play along to.
How do you know if the chord is a major or a minor chord?
If there's only a capital letter, such as G or D or E, or if the letter has a b after it, such as Eb or Ab, the chords are in major.
The b means that the root note is E-flat rather than E.
And when there's a small m after the name of the root note of the chord, it's in minor.
I have found it extremely useful to be able to play from chords, as a cellist.
The composers of classical music also used chords, but instead of letting each musician improvise on them, the composer decided which note should be played and when.
When playing together with others, it's a lot more fun when you have an idea of how chords are put together, since you're always playing together in chords and intervals when playing with others.
When a particular beat in the bar sounds terrible, it's helpful to know if it's due to intonation or if it's actually supposed to sound disturbing because it's made up of tritones, which is another interval.
Anyway,
there’s a lot more to say on this topic, and I intend to do so in my online course.
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Aside from the terms and symbols in the sheet music, there are some good habits to have as well.
Arrive at the venue ahead of time, so that your cello can acclimatize and you have time to get seated by the time the rehearsal starts.
It's respectful to not play more than the necessary warm-up before the start of the rehearsal. It can be tiring for the brain to hear 20 different tunes being played simultaneously. Most people can't help themselves and they play anyway though.
Always have a pencil on your stand, so that you can write in an instruction from the conductor, or a different bowing from the cello section leader.
I'd recommend you use ear plugs if you can afford the type that is made specifically for musicians. Wind instruments and violins can be hard work on the ear.
When tuning your cello, play as quietly as possible so that everyone can hear themselves. In the orchestra everyone tunes at the same time, you know that familiar sound at the start of a concert you're attending where there's an A being played by the oboe in a symphony orchestra, or a violin in a string orchestra, and then you hear the clash of 5ths and 4ths and woodwind arpeggios.
I loved orchestra so much in my teens, that I recorded this particular sound of everyone tuning together and had it as my mobile phone ringtone for a while.
One trick here as cellists, if you tilt your head to the left so that the tuning peg of the c-string is on your ear, you hear your own cello very well and you can tune quietly.
When we are playing in an orchestra or together with others in general, the most important thing is the rhythm.
We can get obsessed with playing the right tones and in tune, but imagine if everyone on the orchestra had to wait for everyone else to adjust their intonation before moving on to the next beat in the bar… it wouldn't work.
So this is something that you can practice already now at home with the piece you're currently playing, however easy it is. Decide to at least once every practice session play from beginning to end without stopping. Keep your metronome going, and if you stop playing for any reason, just get back in as soon as you can.
It's a challenging exercise, cause we want to correct our mistakes as soon as possible, and going back to the beginning to start again will make us feel that we don't accept mistakes.
However, when playing together with others, the mistake is to not continue. Rather, we have to accept and move on in a split second.
Another thing you can do that will prepare you for orchestra playing is to play your current piece from memory.
Why am I saying that? Surely it's not the norm to play from memory in the orchestra?
No, but when playing with others, you want to know the music so well that you can focus on things in addition to the actual notes.
If you learn the piece you're currently playing from memory, you can play the piece while listening to the sounds you're making, feel your body and your breathing, be extra aware of what your bow arm is doing, be extra aware of how your left hand is feeling, listen to the direction in the music, and so on.
In the orchestra, you need to focus on how you are playing in regard to the rest of the cello section, you listen for the voices in the orchestra that you are accompanying, you're watching the conductor for changes in tempos, moods, and dynamics, and so on.
You can keep these things in mind the next time you play a duo with your teacher.
If there's a shop you can visit, you can compare the different books easily, and having a smaller selection to choose from isn't necessarily a bad thing.
I you're lucky, you might even be living in a place where you can buy sheet music second hand. Getting your first book second hand is not a bad idea because your very first teaching book isn't used for a very long time. It really depends on how quickly you understand the basics. You'll be using it for maybe a year, depending on the scope of the book.
If you don't want more paper in your life, you can use an iPad and download sheet music onto that. If that's your preference, it's good to have a pencil you can write on it with as well, cause during your lessons your teacher will help you with fingerings and bowings or other helpful scribblings.
From a teaching book you'll learn how to play the cello with the help of sheet music.
The book breaks it down so that you focus on one new aspect at a time. In the beginning you'll be occupied with open strings, the first position, pizzicato, and simple tunes in c-major, g-major and d-major.
And you can prove me wrong! If your first teaching book presents you with a tune in b-flat minor, or playing in the 4th position, I'd love to know about it. Please send me an email and say which book that was.
If you see the value of technical exercises, I would recommend getting a book by Louis Feuillard who wrote several books on cello technique in a very structured way. His book called 'Daily Exercises' starts with moving between 2 notes at different tempos, then he takes you through the positions one by one. This book can be downloaded for free on IMSLP.org.
IMSLP is short for International Music Score Library Project, and is a site that collects scores that are no longer under copyright, which includes enormous amounts of classical music.
What will you not learn from a teaching book though?
Maybe I can compare it to a cook book. You can for sure make delicious meals using a cookbook, but if you cook in the presence of a chef, your skills will be taken to the next level.
And regarding cello playing, a teaching book can help you get into playing pieces of music, but the book won't comment on how you use your bow, how you use your left hand, or how you can play the exact same notes in many different ways.
After your first teaching book which takes you through the very basics, maybe you want to start focusing on the music that truly appeals to you. You can find collections of well-known tunes, of folk music, easy classical pieces, easy baroque pieces, a soundtrack from a movie, pop songs and so on.
I'd also like to add that you can include improvisation as a part of your practice. The simple glissando exercise I mentioned in the previous episode is an example of that. You have a long fingerboard there to play with, and a teaching book will normally just have you play in the 1st position for a while. In your improvisation you can explore the whole fingerboard as slowly as you want to, just get a feel for how it's like to press down the strings anywhere. And if you let your fingers lightly touch the strings instead of pressing them down, you'll hear the harmonics. You can play around with different contact points for the bow, you can pluck the strings, and play two strings at the same time.
This has been the 5th episode of The Musician’s Journey Podcast’s Cello Special.
There can be some childhood conditioning underlying all of this.
Some think that they are not musical, some are even told as children that they are not musical, and they are almost waiting for the moment in their cello practice when this fact is yet again proven.
A lack of self-confidence is in this case a big barrier.
Some are simply not used to being immersed in a creative activity, and the power of it can be daunting.
Playing the cello is also something that will make you drop tension in your body, in order for the arms to weigh down on the cello and the bow instead of holding anything up, as well as freeing up your breathing and ideally also letting go of tension in the neck and the forehead. This can be challenging for people who carry a lot of tension in their body on an everyday basis.
I'm just saying all of this because you can from the very beginning observe if any of these descriptions fit you, and you can therefore be aware of it from the start.
It's much easier to work with something when there is awareness around it.
All of that being said,
now imagine that you are at home, or wherever you will practice, you have a chair that is high enough to give you at least an angle of 90 degrees between your hips and your thighs, you have unpacked, and you're trying to remember what the cello teacher showed you yesterday, or the day before that.
Maybe your teacher gave you clear instructions and you know what to do. That's great.
And if it's all a bit vague, you can of course contact them and ask.
What I would say to a student reaching out to me with that question is the following:
Start with the bow only.
Take it out of it's case, tighten the hair, and hold it vertically so that the tip is pointing at the ceiling.
Feel the middle finger on the metal of the frog, or maybe it's halfway on metal and bow hair, or only on the bow hair. There are different preferences when it comes to this. Place the other fingers as they naturally are, as if you're holding a small glass of water. Don't flex any of the joints.
How are you breathing right now?
We find that as soon as we start to concentrate on something, we stop breathing.
So check in with yourself briefly and see if you want to breathe just a little deeper, and when you exhale you can let go of the tension in your forehead that usually also comes when we concentrate on something. Even when we focus on holding the bow, it's amazing how much of the rest of our body can tense up.
Now, while you're holding the bow, stretch out all your fingers as if you're writing a short line in the ceiling with the bow tip. Then bend your fingers, without moving your wrist.
Do this exercise a few times so that you warm up your bow hold and feel a little more connection between your fingers and the frog.
Then, put your bow down on the music stand or a table or somewhere else, and get your cello out.
If you don't have a carpet or wooden floor to support the spike of the cello, also get your strap out. Whatever you have to strap around the front left leg of the chair. Sit towards the edge of the chair. Lay the cello over your thighs and adjust the length of the spike, or end pin.
Place the cello in front of you so that the tuning peg of the c string is just behind your ear. Your left ear. Adjust the length of the end pin if needed. Tilt the cello a tiny bit towards your right, so that when you look down you don't see your left leg at all.
Now you can tune your cello. I won't go into the ways of doing that here, but I have a video on it in my online course.
As a beginner, all of the above can take several minutes already. But it will take less time as you continue your practice. You'll get used to how long the spike should be when you're sitting on the chair you use at home. You'll also get used to positioning the cello in front of you, and there will be less tuning needed as your cello stabilizes.
After your cello is tuned, you can spend some quality minutes on playing open strings.
Then you can give your bow arm a rest, and get a feel for how it's like to press down the strings with your left hand. Without the bow, you can focus entirely on the sensations that come with pressing down the strings, without worrying about playing out of tune.
When you want to play with both hands at the same time, I suggest you start with a glissando. That's when your bow is moving evenly on the string while you press down a string with a finger and move up and down on the fingerboard.
There are no wrong notes in a glissando. You can vary which string, which finger, how fast, how slow, how loud and how quiet. So there is an element of improvisation to this as well, without it being too daunting.
If you've come this far in your practice, I say take a short break.
Lay the cello on its side on the floor, get up from your chair, take a sip of water, and see if you feel like rolling your shoulders or shaking your hands or anything else.
Then you can get back to the cello. Maybe you were given a simple tune consisting only of open strings, or maybe you were given a piece consisting of pizzicato.
Whatever you have to practice, this is the time for that.
You can vary between playing through from beginning to end, and repeat just one bar. You can use a metronome if you like, and remember to at least once check in with how you're breathing again.
When you feel your focus is waning, it's time to finish.
With a cloth, wipe rosin off the stick of your bow, and the strings and belly of the cello. I also like to wipe the whole fingerboard, since everything we touch regularly becomes greasy after a while.
Loosen the bow hair, and put your instrument back in its case, which is usually the safest place to keep it.
What you are doing with this type of practice is to lay the foundation of your technique. It's easier to play a piece of music when you're used to playing open strings.
When it comes to using the left hand on the fingerboard, first check if you're able to adjust your intonation by ear.
If that's just frustrating, you can put tapes around the neck similar to the frets on the guitar. That's something that your teacher can help you with, or you can try yourself with the help of a tuner.
Aside from the 'what' in regard to cello practice, there's also the 'when'.
You can try to schedule in a short cello practice in the early morning, after lunch, or in the evening, and see what you prefer.
A practice session only once a week will not propel your progress forward at a satisfying pace. Try every other day, or three to five days a week.
There's also a 'why' in regard to your practice.
Answering the 'why' for yourself can give you some clarity in your work.
If your goal is to play a specific piece of music, it makes sense to focus on the foundational technique in order to build skills that will allow you to eventually play this piece. Being clear with what your goal is can be an energy source and inspiration in itself.
In the end, the whats, whens, wheres and whys are all personal choices and preferences.
The beauty of cello practice is the unique way in which you will develop a relationship to your cello playing, based on your personality, your life experiences, your goals and desires.
But anyway, now that we know how to get started with our practice, what shall we play?
That's what I'll say a little bit about in the next episode.
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But this is not for everyone.
It's impossible for the teacher to address everyone's individual needs in a group, and therefore you might feel frustrated that your needs are not met, or that you are either learning faster or slower than the rest of the group.
Attending a group lesson can be an exciting experiment though, and if you like the teacher you can ask if they also teach individually.
A more affordable option is to get in touch with the music conservatoire if you live in the vicinity of one, and ask if any of the cello students would like to have a pupil. Chances are high that that's the case, and being students they don't charge as much as a professional. They nevertheless have many years already of cello practice under their belt, and you can likely find a satisfying teacher among them.
With the possibility of online teaching, you can of course roam the internet and find a teacher anywhere in the world as long as you share a language in common.
Online cello lessons can be surprisingly effective. Through the screen and the microphone, the teacher will be able to get a good impression of how your playing has improved and how it can improve further.
But in the very beginning you'll likely want help with tuning your cello. It's not uncommon for beginners to break a string when they start twisting the tuning pegs for the first time, and then you might also need help with changing the string.
Also, playing together is something that doesn't work well over the internet. You also won't get the full impact of the teacher's own playing when they demonstrate something.
That being said, online lessons can be a great and perhaps more affordable option, but preferably in combination with lessons in so-called real life.
Cello teachers are needless to say all different from each other.
If you have an idea of exactly what you want to learn, and even what kind of structure you prefer for learning a new skill, communicate that as early as possible to the teacher you're reaching out to.
For instance, if you know that you prefer to learn using the Suzuki method, or if you prefer to take things as they come and see what happens, or if you need a clear frame around everything where you are learning technique and theory in a structured way, these are all things that your teacher would love to know about.
You might have one lesson with a teacher and afterwards feel disappointed, while if you had voiced your needs and interests during the lesson, the teacher would have been able to give you a completely different experience.
What I've seen the most though, is that beginner adults are simply interested in playing the cello and there are no strong preferences for methods of learning. If that's the case then finding the right teacher for you comes down to personal chemistry, and of course practical aspects such as when they are free to teach and how far you'd have to travel.
Music schools, at least here in Scandinavia where I'm situated, tends to have lessons every week. This is for many adults a bit too often, and when they feel they don't get to practice enough in-between the lessons, they feel bad and might decide to quit altogether.
I have some adult beginner students who prefer bi-weekly or even monthly lessons. That way, they have time for all the other things in their lives, as well as to practice between the lessons.
Cause it's of course up to you to shape your cello life in a way that is sustainable for you long-term.
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And carbon fiber cellos are great if you live in a dry and cold climate far from a luthier.
I spent some years in the north of Norway. If anything were to happen to my wooden cello, I'd have to take an airplane to get it fixed in one of the bigger cities. My wooden cello has frequently opened up in the lining during the dry winter, which is nothing scary but it's not something I can fix myself.
So I ordered a carbon fiber cello to use during the winter when I was out and about, while my wooden cello could remain safely at home where I did my best to provide a stable level of humidity. However, most people use their wooden cello all year round.
Next, is bows.
You can also get bows made of carbon fiber, which is typically cheaper than a wooden bow and doesn't break easily. In my experience though, there's something about wooden bows that carbon fiber doesn't have. Since carbon fiber is a fancy word for plastic, it's especially in our current anti-plastic days a little funny to even compare the two. Also, it doesn't hurt to have 2 bows, in case something happens to one of them, so I have one of wood and one of carbon fiber.
As a beginner cellist, a bow often comes with the cello, so you don't have to think much about it. If you're getting something second-hand, you might want new bow hair, which is something that your teacher can take a look at, and it might be in need of a good dose of rosin.
Rosin is next on the list.
If you were to drag a bunch of horse hair across a metal string, not much would happen. We need to apply rosin to the hair, so that there's friction between the hair and the strings.
If your fingers get sticky when you touch the bow hair, there is rosin on it. And it's because of the rosin that we don't generally want to touch the strings at the same place we're bowing. Our fingers get sticky, and that doesn't go well with playing on the fingerboard.
Sometimes the rosin also comes together with the cello you're getting. But buying a new rosin is not expensive and it lasts a really long time. If you have a rosin that is a bit old, maybe it's broken into too many pieces or dried up so much that it's very hard to use. No shame if you chuck it and get yourself a brand new one instead.
You also want a case.
I have both a softcase and a hardcase. The softcase is cheap, and light in weight. The hardcase protects the cello better, and it's heavier to carry. The lighter the hardcases are, the more expensive they are, unfortunately.
Whether you get a hardcase or a softcase, make sure that it has a backpack system, or at least two straps. Some cases only have a handle for carrying it with one hand. That's very heavy after a while. And again, as a beginner cellist, the case might come together with the cello you're buying.
If the straps on the case can be detached from the it, you can also use them to support the endpin of the cello while you play.
You'll need something of the sort. There are many different items out there for the purpose of supporting the endpin while you play. My favourite is to have a sturdy carpet under the chair, but when there is no suitable carpet the best is to have a strap of a sturdy material that isn't flexible. The purpose of this item is to both support the cello on the floor while you play, and protect the floor from the sharp endpin.
Cellos often come with a rubber hat sitting on the tip of the endpin. I haven't experienced that that works well for keeping the cello in place while playing, but at least it protects you from injuring yourself or others. The endpin can be very sharp.
For the sake of support on the floor, I'm using a strap I rescued from an old cello case. It's also completely fine to use a piece of wood that is attached to a string you can have around the leg of your chair. A few different terms I've come across to name this particular item are: endpin stop, endpin anchor, and endpin strap anchor.
I usually just say strap, since that's what I'm using myself.
A so-called rock stop is not connected to a strap, and it's often not reliable.
Now I've been through the essentials.
I'll also mention some things that you'll probably want to get hold of as well.
A music stand is handy if you're interested in playing from sheet music.
Obviously, acquiring some sheet music is handy of you want to play from sheet music. More about that in a later episode.
It can be useful to have a tuner, if tuning an instrument is new to you.
It can be useful to have a metronome, at least I find it very useful in my practice.
Both tuners and metronomes can be downloaded as free apps on your phone, but I personally prefer to not rely on my phone during practice so I have a metronome device.
I don't have a tuner device since as a cellist you learn eventually to tune your cello with the help of the instrument itself. I do have a tuning fork, which gives me the A440 which is the starting point for tuning the cello.
You'll want a pencil for writing fingerings and bowings in your sheet music.
And some like to have a cushion on the chair they are practising on, a firm cushion that gives you a comfortable angle between your hips and your thighs. The cushion is typically higher at the back and more narrow at the edge of the chair. This type of cushion can really make a big difference to how it feels for you to practice, especially if you have long legs.
So now you hopefully have your shopping list in order. In the next episode I'll talk about things to think about when finding the right teacher.
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