I love the way you take your time to express everything you wanna teach in these training videos. I wish your 30 day course took as much time to get your expression because that’s where we find the teacher.
I started to learn to play cello 10 yrs ago at age 65. Journey has-been rocky due to other's attitudes. I'm determined! I was in foster care as a child and cello wasn't available 😕
About shifting what clicked for me was using a metric almost calculated piece of the old note to go to the "inbetween note" and then tap the real note in tempo. I was one of those waiting until the last second to shift to try to make it legato xd. But doing this, at first is hard because you are adding a real note in between shifts, but then it makes all the shifting so calmer, you can with time reduce it but in fact those sounds are really part of the instrument language and if you want to mess with expression you can play with the time to go from note to the other This also becomes extremly noticable when going from figner to same finger (something sacrilegious for some teachers)
#2 myth straight bow...very interesting! I think you need an overhead cam to really illustrate your point, but I get it. I think parallel with the bridge is at the point of contact, not the entire bridge itself, since everything is curved on a cello! And being careful not to travel up and down the string vertically while bowing to avoid that "tinny" sound is important. But the "curved" straight line gives such an effortless richness to the sound, it's amazing! And confirms, to me anyway, what Georg Mertens teaches with his ergonomic approach to cello. Thanks Billy!
You are absolutely right about the balance between precise and careful, it is constant and ongoing, you always have to work on finding the middle and going back and forth. Great Video! Love the part about shifting as well.
The third myth fast is fast on shifting/slurs is also so helpful! I just started a piece with slurs and the ones that change strings starting with an up bow stroke are difficult, because my bow hand feels weak at the get go. I either go too fast like you said, or I wait too long to change the note in the slur putting more time on the first note. This helps a lot, thanks Billy!
Great insights, Billy! Really do appreciate #1 and #3. #2 is still a struggle for me. As I always find my bow shifting contact point closer to the fingerboard… I will try the exercises you shared. Many thanks! 😀
Myth 1: I guess I didn't get the memo. Once I "got" the geography of the fingerboard down cold, I let it rip. My favorite thing is to improv over Fantasy/Medieval/Celtic scores by BrunuhVille or Adrian Von Zeigler. The single most important thing I did was learn the board forwards and back, all the half-step intervals. Then I'm just transcribing what I hear in my head onto the cello pretty effortlessly.
I love the way you take your time to express everything you wanna teach in these training videos. I wish your 30 day course took as much time to get your expression because that’s where we find the teacher.
This advice about not trying to be too precise has made huge difference in my playing. My teacher has noticed difference.
I started to learn to play cello 10 yrs ago at age 65. Journey has-been rocky due to other's attitudes. I'm determined! I was in foster care as a child and cello wasn't available 😕
I love your analogy about the horse drinking nothing about water
You are a great teacher! Thank you so
much.
About shifting what clicked for me was using a metric almost calculated piece of the old note to go to the "inbetween note" and then tap the real note in tempo. I was one of those waiting until the last second to shift to try to make it legato xd.
But doing this, at first is hard because you are adding a real note in between shifts, but then it makes all the shifting so calmer, you can with time reduce it but in fact those sounds are really part of the instrument language and if you want to mess with expression you can play with the time to go from note to the other
This also becomes extremly noticable when going from figner to same finger (something sacrilegious for some teachers)
#2 myth straight bow...very interesting! I think you need an overhead cam to really illustrate your point, but I get it. I think parallel with the bridge is at the point of contact, not the entire bridge itself, since everything is curved on a cello! And being careful not to travel up and down the string vertically while bowing to avoid that "tinny" sound is important. But the "curved" straight line gives such an effortless richness to the sound, it's amazing! And confirms, to me anyway, what Georg Mertens teaches with his ergonomic approach to cello. Thanks Billy!
You are absolutely right about the balance between precise and careful, it is constant and ongoing, you always have to work on finding the middle and going back and forth. Great Video! Love the part about shifting as well.
The third myth fast is fast on shifting/slurs is also so helpful! I just started a piece with slurs and the ones that change strings starting with an up bow stroke are difficult, because my bow hand feels weak at the get go. I either go too fast like you said, or I wait too long to change the note in the slur putting more time on the first note. This helps a lot, thanks Billy!
Very well put on the bowing and shifting explanations. I think borrowing time from the first note to the shift will prove bery helpful. Thanks again.
Great insights, Billy! Really do appreciate #1 and #3. #2 is still a struggle for me. As I always find my bow shifting contact point closer to the fingerboard… I will try the exercises you shared. Many thanks! 😀
Great, thanks !
Myth 1: I guess I didn't get the memo. Once I "got" the geography of the fingerboard down cold, I let it rip. My favorite thing is to improv over Fantasy/Medieval/Celtic scores by BrunuhVille or Adrian Von Zeigler. The single most important thing I did was learn the board forwards and back, all the half-step intervals. Then I'm just transcribing what I hear in my head onto the cello pretty effortlessly.
Very helpful
This was brilliant as usual Billy. And I found the first five minutes a metaphor apropos to life in general. 😉