I recently “misplaced” my cell phone for a few days and was forced to realize how much I depend on this little device to play the cello. This is because my favorite tuner is an app on my cell phone called PitchLab, which I use tune the instrument to a very high degree of accuracy. Although when I lost my cell phone, I wasn’t too worried because I usually just use it tune the cello, and not during actual practice. Besides, I do have other tuners and an old phone with ClearTune on it. However, the extra degree of accuracy on PitchLab was far more important than I realized. It can tune my cello to such a high degree of accuracy that string resonances are easily apparent when I play in tune which allows me to actually practice without a need for a tuner. Yes …my tuner makes my tuner unnecessary. By contrast, when I used my old ClearTune app, I was able to get the strings to within 2 cents of the actual note, but this wasn’t good enough for the sympathetic string resonances to really kick in, so my pitch accuracy during practice was only in the 10 cent range. 2 cents off in tuning leading to 10cents off in the ear? That is what is referred in math as a multiplier effect, and this is caused by missing an audible and tactile cues of string resonance that is in my case apparently more accurate than pitch hearing itself. To be able to benefit from string resonance, at least on my student cello, I need an accuracy tighter than 0.1hz or about 0.5 cents on the A string.
So what causes string resonances? Well they are related to overtones. When you play a note, it vibrates at multiple frequencies other than the strongest one (ie the one that shows up on your tuner). These other frequencies (called overtones) will align with the main frequencies and overtones of the open strings causing them to vibrate in sympathy. This causes the whole cello to resonate in subtle yet quite lovely and complex ways which makes the tone much more enjoyable.
String resonance is a gentle feedback mechanism that cello players use to tell when they are in tune. The other side of string resonance coin is that when you play slightly out of tune, the overtones won’t quite line up, and the resonances can even work against you causing the cello to vibrate in ways that make the note unstable in pitch or somewhat muffled, particularly when you play the notes in quick succession. This can even happen on a cello that is in tune but being played with bad intonation. On a cello where all the strings are a little bit off pitch, it is impossible not to have negative or misaligned resonances with at least two strings, and if you are resonating with one of them, then you are still playing out of tune and likely messing up your ear! In terms of tone production, misaligned resonances are essentially what creates a wolf note, and a cello that is out of tune is basically playing lots of little wolf notes, but instead of being loud and obnoxious sounding, they will instead be dull, muted, or less stable in pitch or volume.
Playing out of tune can make legato notes sound choppy, double stops feel like one string just won’t activate quickly enough, produce dull muted tone, and alter the general response of your cello. Needless to say, playing on a cello that is even slightly out of tune can result in a wasted or at least frustrating practice session, because the response of the cello is so radically different that you might as well be playing with a rubber mute.
You could also make a case that playing on a cello that is tuned to equal temperament will cause these kinds of bad resonances on the lower two strings when compared with Pythagorean or Just intonation. This is because, unlike the latter two tuning methods, many notes on an Equal Tempered cello won’t have overtones that are pure frequency multiples of the lower strings, unless you’re playing a basic key like C or D or G where the 5ths will at least be somewhat accurate. I haven’t tested Pythagorean tuning thoroughly enough on my cello to make any solid claims about this, and will have to do a little more experimentation and research. It should be noted that string resonance matters mostly for playing solo music. If you are playing with a piano or with an ensemble, then Equal Temperament is pretty much required, and the resonances will be mostly harmonic ones between instruments and this is happening directly in the wood, the air, and the room itself, and not just between the strings of a single instrument.
…After rereading this post, I realize that if my teacher reads it, she will most certainly redouble her efforts to get me to use my tuning fork more often, and I am sure she would be right!
Every cellists desires a sweet and resonant tone, but what is the secret that differentiates a rough scraping bow from a beautiful and pure buzz? In an effort to answer this question, a curious German physicists named Hermann von Helmholtz, peered into a “vibration microscope” in 1863 and saw something that changed our understanding of sound. They didn’t have slow motion video technology and wouldn’t for another 70 years, but what Helmholtz discovered was as clear to him as the video below…
You may have already heard of the “stick-slip” action of the string and the bow hair, but the way the string slips and returns to the hair is fundamental to a pure tone quality. In the first fraction of a second, all is chaos, but the pattern that emerges within the dancing string is a magical side effect of the nature of bowed instruments, like pistons on a train wheel transforming that straight line motion of the bow into a rolling rotation on the string itself. This circular wave of a cello string is called Helmholtz Motion after our intrepid German physicist mentioned above.
When viewed from above the wave appears to be tracing out a familiar elliptical “eye” shape (shown in blue below) and this standing wave pattern is what our eye actually sees when we bow the string. This very unique vibratory pattern is specific to bowed instruments such as the violin or cello, and is what gives these marvelous instruments their characteristic rich bumblebee sound.
Figure 1
Well this is all very cool display of physics, but I imagine at this point you are wondering “how does this impact my cello playing”? Well for starters, the motion described above is the idealized version and is only the result of very good bowing technique. When we use improper technique, the pattern gets distorted which results in poor tone and unwanted noises. For example, using too much or too little bow speed, or letting contact point drift up and down the string can cause the hair to stick to the string too long or in wrong part of the wave which results in a diminished irregular wave, a more gritty tone, and plenty of unnecessary string noise…
Basic Elements of Good Bow Technique:
There are TWO basic ingredients to maintaining a pure Helmholtz wave:
Steady contact point: This means no sudden changes of the distance from the bow hair to the bridge. This is easier if your bow is parallel to the bridge. Changing the contact point changes where the wave re-sticks to the bowhair, and should only be done with great intention during longer notes. For shorter notes, alter the contact point by lifting and resetting the bow entirely at opportune points between notes.
Matching your bow speed with your bow pressure: the more weight you apply to the bow, the faster the bow speed must be. However, to keep things interesting, when you are closer to the bridge, you need more pressure but less speed! Confused? Welcome to the cello.
The Schelling Diagram (below) clears things up a little bit by showing the range of viable pressures at various contact distances from the bridge. The range of clean sounding Helmholtz motion is shown in yellow. By wandering into the areas outside of the yellow region you will discover the source of sound effects for horror movies. The term β simply describes the contact point as a fraction of the total string length, so smaller values of β are closer to the bridge, and larger values are closer to the finger board. Notice how the range narrows as you get closer to the bridge, requiring more force and greater precision, and widens as you get closer to the finger board, requiring less force and less precision.
The range of viable forces near the bridge vary by around 30%, but near the fingerboard they can vary by more than 5000%. Since the different strings require such different forces to activate them, this makes string crossings and chords quite a bit more challenging when playing near the bridge because the pressures required are far more precise and differentiated. Whereas playing nearer to the fingerboard, the required forces are much more similar for adjacent strings and can even overlap.
The Importance of Equipment, Strings, Intonation, and Bowing Tricks:
There are many other variables that impact Helmholtz motion, such as the diameter and elasticity of the string, the stickiness of rosin, resonance and responsiveness of the cello itself, the difference in mass and tension of strings during string crossings, etc. All of these elements must be taken into account, and adjusted each time you change rosin or try out a new brand of strings. Playing in tune will also make Helmholtz motion a bit easier to begin or maintain because the cello won’t resist new vibrations that match the overtones of an open string or those of a note that is already resonating in the wood. Granted this resonance doesn’t work as well for dissonant intervals (ie major and minor 2nds), but it does still work if your strings are particularly resonant (Evah Pirazzi Golds are excellent at this).
As you saw in the first video above, Helmholtz Motion is not necessarily instantaneous. This is because the force required to start the string moving is greater than that required to simply maintain that motion. Any delay in responsiveness no matter how short can dramatically impact sound quality. As a general rule a faster responding setup usually means a brighter sound. Brighter is not always better, and many cellists who can’t afford cellos that have both speed and depth will sacrifice depth of sound for speed by fitting their cello with brighter and more responsive strings because a higher pitched sounds can still be fairly sweet if you can achieve more pure Helmholtz motion. Hence the popularity of tungsten wound C and G strings… extremely responsive compared to their chromium wound counterparts, but also quite bright sounding. There has also been a move towards altering the mass, tension, and elasticity of strings so that adjacent strings aren’t quite so different. This can be seen in the evolution from standard Jargar strings to the more modern Larsens, EPs, and Thomastiks.
Some cellists will compensate for a reluctant C string by plucking it right before bowing it. This little trick gives the string an initial momentum and reduces the force required to start Helmholtz motion. This is also why starting an accented bow stroke is relatively easy: the initial force is always sufficient. To compensate for the initial resistance when playing an unaccented note, you can start off with low pressure, and gradually sink more weight into the string in the middle of the bow stroke to get a fuller sound, then ease off the pressure at the end of the stroke. This is like the gentle sinking motion a boat makes when lolling in and out of the water.
Consequences for Continuous Bowing
One important consequence of the stick-slip wave motion is that the direction the wave travels (clockwise vs counter clockwise) depends on the direction of the bow. If the bow is going in the opposite direction, then the string would release in a clockwise direction (instead of counter-clockwise). This has significant implications for bow direction changes. Somecontroversy has arisen over whether or not it is possible to create an inaudible bow change by continuing the momentum of the original string vibration: the so-called “endless bow”. However a Helmholtz wave moves very much like a train wheels, propelled in a circular motion by straight line cranks and pistons (ie the bowing itself). Much like a rolling iron train wheel, the circular energy of the wave has it own momentum once pushed into motion. Changing bow directions reverses the rotational momentum of the wave and inverts the wave pattern, which requires both time and energy. It is impossible to invert the wave without cancelling or at least disrupting the original wave. This means that there will always be a small disruption in the generation of sound from the strings no matter how good your technique is. All you can do is minimize the pause by making it as short as possible and maximizing residual resonance of the sound via room acoustics and if you are very lucky: an extremely resonant cello.
I wanted to upload my current rendition of the Sarabande from the first Bach Suite to mark my progress and share what I have been working on for the last 4 months. Oddly, I found the record button to be a bit more stressful than playing before a live audience, and this version was on my 3rd take. I think I need to log more hours with a mic recording me so that I get used to that unique kind of pressure. It starts off perhaps a bit rougher than my recital performance, but I imagine this was generally how I sounded last Sunday. I hope you like it, but if not, rest assured, I am working hard to improve every aspect of technique of which I am currently aware.
More About This Recording:
The fingering and bowing was apparently from a Fournier edition. It is quite a bit more challenging than the Barenreiter edition, in my opinion which has somewhat easier bowings without much of the left & right hand acrobatics required in this version. It was a great learning experience though, and the increased difficulty only caused me to be more aware of the processes involved in cleaner shifts and string crossings.
At this point, my bow hair and strings pretty are both a little worn out and in need of replacement, and hopefully once I do, my tone will warm up and smooth out a bit, particularly on the upper strings which are year-old Larsen mediums. The lowers are both Evah Pirazzi medium non-soloist, and are holding up a bit better than the Larsens even though the EPs are almost a year older. I am thinking about trying a full set of the new Magnacore strings, but they are quite expensive, and I am not sure if they will last as long as an EP set, though they are designed to last longer than the standard Larsen strings.
During my first year of learning the cello, I read some sage advice that a new musician should start their performing career with music that is at least a couple degrees easier than the most challenging piece they are currently learning. I cannot attest to the truth of this suggestion because during the 2.5 years that I have been playing the cello, every single performance has been with music that is beyond the edge of my current abilities. As a result, all of my performance preparations have been imparted with a heightened degree of urgency and significance. This last recital was no exception in which I played my heart out to the tune of the Sarabande of the first suite, a movement that is written in the style of a slow, sensual, and spiritual Spanish dance.
The Sarabandes are some of my absolute favorites from the Bach Cello Suites because they are all so deeply moving and span a wide range of intense and meditative emotions. The mood of each can also seem to change dramatically depending on how they are played. To my ears, the Sarabande from the 1st suite feels like waves of passion, a sublime sense of nurtured longing that is as rooted and ephemeral as a well tended garden, like a summer love that lasts for decades growing stronger with each year, constantly renewed with a quiet sustaining energy – like the sensuous rousing of a lover waking from a deep and restful sleep. As is always the case with music, words fail, but these are the images in my head that I am attempting to convey when I am in the practice room.
The technical aspects of the piece include a multitude of shifts, asymmetric bowing, sostenuto bowing over challenging string crossings and double stops, harmonics, 8th and 16th note vibrato, legato bowing during shifts over string crossings, and many harmonious and dissonant doubles stops and chords – including one fairly tricky dominant 7 chord. In addition to these items, there is also the intangible challenge of performing such an iconic piece with whatever musicality and expression that my novice skill can muster.
Perhaps everyone who plays from the Bach Suites feels some hesitation at presenting these masterpieces through the narrow lens of their current ability. But by that same logic, having played for only a couple years, I realize that no single performance can be seen as final verdict. For this particular performance, the dominant thought on my mind was simply a desire not to utterly disappoint my teacher. It has felt like she is taking something of a chance by teaching me these Suite movements (which are so important to every cellist), and also by allowing me to actually perform them with so little experience. Perhaps it was my near-addiction to practice that convinced her to leap forward with this material.
In any case, I am happy to say that for my current level of skill, the performance could hardly have gone better than it did, and I hope it was sufficient to justify my teacher’s hopes for my potential and eventual growth. While I was under the powerful narcotic of stage anxiety/excitement and very likely unable to fully hear what I was doing, my teacher reported that my performance was the best she had ever heard me play it. Another more advanced student noted that my double stops sounded “perfect” which was a huge relief to hear objectively. To my own untrustworthy ears, it sounded at least as technically accurate as my best practice session, and my only regret was that it lacked whatever emotional dimension I can arouse when I am alone with my thoughts. This was probably because all of my emotional energy was being spent trying to keep some semblance of composure and focus.
A significant part of the reason for this success story was based on some timely and wonderful insight from a wise musician on the cello forums that implanted the encouraging idea that a performance could actually exceed anything achieved in a practice room due to the heightened focus and energy being on stage affords. All things considered, this turned out to be the case for me last Sunday as the room was filled with kind and encouraging eyes and it also didn’t hurt that I truly wanted to share what I had learned about a piece that feels very personal to me.
As always, I was quite nervous and keyed up despite my reportedly calm outward appearance, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t also a little sad when the piece was finished and felt a certain sense of loss when it was time to leave the stage. This was quite a difference from prior performances where I practically leapt out of my chair and ran off stage in cathartic relief. Now, I find that I am actually looking forward to the next performance not just as a stressful trial by fire, but also as another opportunity to share what I have learned, and perhaps also to share something more personal about myself through the language of music.
Right now I am just a babbling baby cellist who is playing with words of which I barely comprehend their full meaning. In next year, one of my goals will be to learn to speak clearly and with purpose, and perhaps also to begin to grasp the narrative structure of music so that one day I can begin to tell musical stories that might actually hold the attention of a skeptical and unfamiliar audience. Ambitious goals much? Well for now, I’ll stick to forming complete musical sentences…
Other Interesting Developments
As I mentioned before, the Sarabande is a piece with many dissonant and harmonious double stops as well as chords. The range of notes extends well into the lower registers of the Cello. After four months and roughly 120 hours of practicing this single piece, the wood on my Cello has opened up significantly, particularly in the bass. Perhaps this is from the energetic bowing on the C and G strings, and perhaps some part of it comes from the complex interplay of competing overtone frequencies resonating throughout the wood. In any case, the C2 and D3 fundamental tones on the open strings are now much stronger, whereas prior to this time period, they were almost completely undetectable on my spectroscopic tuner. I hope this trend continues since my student cello began its life with an emphasis on the brighter overtones and often sounded almost like a violin or viola. Now it sounds distinctively more cello-like, though it still pales in comparison to anything above a student quality instrument.
This last weekend, I performed The Swan at a recital. Despite the difficulty of the piece and the surprise presence of a microphone a couple feet from my endpin, the 1700 hours of preparation worked, and I managed to not fall flat on my face. Yo Yo Ma, I was not, but honestly, I cannot imagine how I could have played it any better at this point in my cello career, and in many ways I felt like I played it much better than I have any right to at my age and experience level. Yet it was not a fluke either, and I know that my ability to expressively control my tone has improved rather dramatically since my recording of the Minuets. In the weeks leading up to the performance, I was beginning to feel increasingly confident that I finally stumbled upon a recipe to consciously improve the sweetness and sensitivity of my tone rather rapidly – or at the very least, decrease the raspy clumsiness. During this time of preparation, I have been writing and adding details to this post, but I wanted to wait until I tested these practice techniques in a public performance before I posted them here.
Now, with the help of my teacher, I have a set of focus points and exercises that have allowed me to rapidly improve tonal and expressive control. This is truly amazing because for the longest time, the path towards attaining a smoother and sweeter tone seemed so incremental that the totality of it was very abstract and shrouded in mystery. It feels like a fog has lifted and I am seeing the cello again for the first time, and I am excited to share with you what I have gleaned so far…
DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION HAS TRANSFORMED MY TONE, BUT BEAR IN MIND, THESE ARE MERELY THE MUSINGS OF AN ENTHUSIASTIC AND CURIOUS AMATEUR. IF ANYTHING YOU READ HERE DISAGREES WITH YOUR OWN MORE EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE AND/OR YOUR TEACHER’S INSTRUCTION, PLEASE DISREGARD IT.
Smoother Bow Starts:
The sweetest notes enter the scene like a whispering wind or a prowling cat. I have often wondered: how the heck do cellists do this? It is such a cool trick, yet it turns out that the basic principle of this technique is fairly simple. It rests on the fact that the pressure required to get the string to begin oscillating is a great deal less than the weight used in the middle of a stroke. Through a very instructive bow exercise learned in my lessons I found that for each location on the cello, there is a precise minimal pressure to activate the string and that there is a rather easy way to learn this pressure:
Begin by lifting the bow off of the string and then lowering it slowly until it makes contact again. Now wiggle the bow back and forth across the string in tiny movements, less than a millimeter. If the bow pressure is too light, the hair will slide over the string making a small raspy hissing thin sounding tone. However if you use too much pressure, the hair will latch onto the string and you will hear an audible accented “chirp” or “crunch” sound if you continue the motion into a full bow stroke. In between these two extremes of force is a “Goldilocks Zone”, where the hair just barely latches onto the string during a micro-wiggle. At this precise minimal pressure, if you continue the motion into a full bow stroke, the string will activate smoothly and cleanly without hiss or scratch or chirp. Voila! You have found the pressure needed to make a string sing without making it cough first.
It’s important to note, that the amount of force required varies greatly depending on the stroke you use, the position of the note, the part of the bow used, the bowing direction, speed, acceleration, and other physical parameters (rosin build-up, string thickness, etc) As a result of this exercise, I am also far more aware of my bow speed and am now using a small fraction of the rosin that I used to.
Handling the bow:
I recently had the opportunity to rehabilitate my bow hold. Without going into the details, which in all likelihood don’t apply to your unique grip, I discovered that much of the issues of handling the bow with accuracy revolve around maintaining leverage. You will notice this if you try the previously mentioned exercise of lifting bow off the string and slowly lowering back down again at various parts of the bow on either side of the balance point.
Go ahead and try it right now both at the tip and at the frog. Notice what is happening in your index and little finger when the bow is lifted. Notice what happens to the angle of the wrist and any tension in your arm or hand. Is the tip of the bow steady when you lift it? Does it flop around a little when the hair leaves the string? Does the grip seem to change when the bow is no longer supported by the string? Does your hand lock up with tension when holding the bow in the air?
By practicing raising and lowering the bow to the string at various lengths of the hair and paying special attention to how the weight is transferred between the string and the hand, you can discover exactly what a relaxed and steady bow hold requires. So far, I have found that two things should be true of any bowhold: 1) it should be a relaxed and flexible grip with supple fingers, wrist and arm, and 2) it should be a steady grip that doesn’t collapse, shift, or wobble when you lift it slowly off the string. These two traits will allow you to get a fuller undamped sound from your cello and give you the control necessary to alter the weight in fine increments and smoothly throughout the bow stroke (without bouncing).
Consistency:
The amount of bow weight you support and the direction of that support varies dramatically depending on which string you are playing on, the position of the note, and distance of the bow from the bridge. All of this variation can make it difficult to make a consistent sound, however if the dynamics and color of your tone are being primarily steered by the variation in playing conditions, then we aren’t really in control of our tone.
One way to regain a measure of control is to try making a consistent tonal color and loudness regardless of contact point or which direction or part of the bow I am using. As my teacher puts it, this is done by varying the bow speed & pressure so that the force the string sees remains constant regardless of the contact point. Of course, the bow will seem much shorter near the fingerboard and nearly endless when playing near the bridge. This consistency drill is an excellent way to work on bow dexterity with direct audio and tactile feedback, while training the ears to really hear these differences as well.
It is very easy when doing these kinds of exercises to get into the habit of using too much pressure, especially near the tip of the bow. To correct these habits, simply start over by lifting the bow up and finding the minimum activation pressure again. This is a relaxing reminder, and reassures the body of how little effort is actually needed to make a solid tone.
Slow and Low:
Continuing on the theme of consistency: playing slow is a good idea for getting better accuracy and muscle memory, but it is also a way to improve the fluidity of your tone. When you play slower, you are pretty much forced to move your bow down closer to the bridge just to maintain the same bowing patterns without running out of bow. Playing near the bridge is generally more challenging than playing anywhere else because it requires both deep relaxation, reduced bow speed, and significantly more weight to activate the string in a clean tone. As a result, any sudden changes in speed or pressure are immediately audible as hiccups or gaps in the sound. This is an excellent way to put a microscope on your bowing technique and smooth out any rough spots in your stroke.
Developing the Ears:
The ears are the most important tools in a musician’s tool box. Yet our minds are overwhelmed with so many technical aspects of creating sound that our ears are often neglected or ignored completely. This presents a grave problem because playing the cello while focusing only on the visual aspects of your hand position is like driving on the freeway with your eyes squeezed shut. This is because you “drive” the cello with your ears, and you can’t control what you can’t hear. My teacher put it to me this way. There are four progressive stages of acquiring any musical skill: 1) unconscious incompetence, 2) conscious incompetence, 3) conscious competence, and finally 4) unconscious competence. While we move through four stages for any particular dexterity skill on the cello, the degree of consciousness that allows for this journey to take place depends entirely upon the ear’s ability to perceive the countless subtle nuances that become increasingly apparent as we develop musically.
The development of the ears depends entirely on how much we are actually relying on them. It will not happen simply as a side effect of practice. It requires intense concentration. Human beings are primarily visual creatures, so it is not surprising that we often try to play the cello with our eyes: watching our hands or looking at a tuner. However, when our eyes are busy watching our fingers or a dancing tuner needle, our ears are operating at a dramatically diminished capacity because the brain behind both of these sensory organs is effectively multitasking. A study at the University of London showed that multitasking can lower your IQ by as much as 10 points. This is a greater mental deficit than losing an entire nights sleep or from maintaining a prolonged cannabis habit. The logical inverse of this finding suggests that playing with your eyes closed could potentially focus the mind enough to effectively raise your “auditory IQ”. This increased “auditory IQ” can be used for both more accurate intonation and better tonal awareness.
My teacher has even recommended such drastic measures as playing in a pitch black room or while wearing a blind fold. I am fairly clumsy even in a fully lit room, so I usually do these kind of sightless drills with my eyes simply closed. When I do, I can hear so much more in the music. It’s so mentally liberating that it’s almost as effective as listening to a recording of myself. Almost…
Record Your Best Sound (and then imagine a better one):
Owning and using a microphone is possibly the single greatest first step you can make to improve your sound. Maybe I should have put this first on the list? Well, if you don’t have a decent digital microphone like a Zoom HX series or an Apogee MiC, it is possibly the most worthwhile accessory purchase in your musical career besides maybe a metronome. I cannot stress this enough. Without it you might think you can hear how you sound, but you will be wrong. Oh so wrong. Trust me… it’s always better to know.
The only downside of having a mic (and it’s a big one!) is the often crushing disappointment when you listen to the first recording of yourself after endless hours on work on a piece. Pleasant surprises are few and far between whenever you hit the record button. However, whatever you discover on the playback, it is simply information. The objective reality is that information itself is neither good nor bad. It is merely a crucial tool to start making adjustments and trying new approaches. It is often during these exploratory adjustments that we can begin to start asking the right questions, so any initial pain or disappointment is well worth the cost in bravery or ego when staring down the red blinking record light.
In general, the more you use a mic, the more benefit you will get. But there is a limit. The human ego can be fragile thing when we open ourselves up to new experiences, and the feedback we get can occasionally be like having ice cold water dumped directly into the soul. To ward against drowning my nascent cello ambitions in a bath of ice water, I also devote plenty of time to letting myself soar free of a microphone’s woeful ear, and imagine for several precious minutes that I sound more like Yo Yo Ma. The illusion is tenuous and evaporates soon enough, but I think is a necessary white lie because these kinds of imaginings push me to aspire to things which are far beyond my current capability. In a very real way, this kind of exercise opens a door of possibility that may have remained forever closed otherwise. It also builds up the ego so that it can withstand a few solid doses of tough medicine from a callous microphone.
Beware of Bow Drift:
It is especially difficult for unseasoned cellists to keep the bow at a precise distance from the bridge. This distance is often referred to as the “contact point”. Intentionally changing the contact point during a bow stroke is usually done to get a certain tonal color or also during (de)crescendos within a bow stroke. Unintentional changes in contact point tend to produce uneven tone, excessive string noise, and unintended dynamics and tonal color changes. To a certain degree we begin controlling this distance by using our eyes, but as with ear training, we want to eventually graduate to using our other senses. Learning how a steady controlled contact point feels and sounds is the ultimate goal so that we can eventually make subtle intentional dynamic and color changes even with our eyes closed.
Tenderizing the Wood:
The tone of your cello will depend to a certain extent on the amount of time it has been played, and more importantly which notes you have played the most. The more you play certain notes on the cello, the more responsive, open, and resonant those notes will become. This is part of the reason why older “vintage” instruments are so valuable: they have been played in every note in every position for generations. The wood on your cello may look like it is motionless, but in reality it is alive and vibrating in what are called Chladni patterns:
Below you can see the outline of these Chaladni patterns created by the black dust sprinkled onto the wood that being vibrated mechanically at specific frequencies. The places where the black dust gathers is where the wood is vibrating the least. The empty spaces in between are areas where the wood is moving rapidly up and down between the nodes. The pattern for each note and each octave is unique:
Perhaps you have noticed that the first time you play a note on the cello its sounds stuffier and feel less responsive than more commonly played notes? This is because the cello has not vibrated in that specific Chladni pattern before. The more you play that note, the clearer and more resonant it will sound as the wood relaxes like a soft old cotton shirt. The process can take years. If you are impatient, there is a device called a ToneRite that can more rapidly “mature” your instrument’s wood by subjecting it to intense vibrations while you are off doing other non-celloy things. I cannot confirm the claims that it opens up your cello safely, however I can confirm that my own experiments with playing loudly into the bridge by hand have altered the overtones of my cello.
In general, the amount of resonance a cello has is directly linked to the bandwidth of resonant vibrations for that note and for the resonant frequencies of the wood itself. That means that after years of playing with consistent intonation, those notes will sound more clear and defined when compared to out-of-tune notes, and the more you use techniques like vibrato and double stops, the more depth and warmth each individual note will have. Playing the same note in a higher position (eg playing D3 on the C string) will encourage lower overtones and more depth and warmth in the sound when played in first and fourth positions. Playing an open string D close to the bridge at very high volume will encourage the wood to vibrate with more clarity and with higher overtones. There is some debate as to how much of this effect is caused by the physical properties of the wood being altered, and how much is due to the ears of the musician growing and changing as the skill improves to draw more colors out of the cello. After a grand total of two years and three months behind a cello, I am leaning towards the opinion that it is a good bit of both. A relationship with a cello has been compared to a marriage of sorts, and the more you get to know your partner, the deeper the relationship grows. To extend the analogy further, it is normal and expected that both partners in the relationship will grow and change over time.
On a related side note: I just installed a Wolf Eliminator on my cello and I am finding that some of my tonal issues were the result of wrestling with a fairly strong Wolf on the F# that greatly altered the responsiveness of the cello on several adjacent notes and in almost every position. Now my cello is much easier to play on any given note and the evenness of the response makes the notes sound and play much smoother.
In a recent article in the NY Times, a meta-analysis of 88 scientific papers on deliberate practice found that only 21% of the difference in performance between musicians was due to the number of hours they had practiced. This would seem to call into question the entire democratizing premise of this blog (that anyone can achieve a certain level of mastery after 10,000 hours), and begs the question of what is causing the remaining 79% of performance difference? The Times article claims that the difference is “talent” but the scientific paper it quotes actually states that the 79% is an unknown quantity.
Since the study was a “meta analysis” looking at a large number of studies, it can only show that variations within a group of people may depend on other factors besides the number of hours practiced. It is important to remember that variation in an individual’s performance still depends entirely on the amount and quality of practice they put in. In other words: no matter how “talented” a person may be, you can’t get to Carnegie Hall without putting in 1000’s of hours of practice. The exact number of hours to achieve “mastery” will vary from person to person, but there is a critical mass of hours for both the musically gifted and the musically challenged.
That being said…. it is also immediately clear that not every ability is influenced by practice. Some traits & abilities are binary: you either have them or you don’t. Most of these binary qualities can be learned or acquired, but are not significantly affected by practice. Other skills are progressive: they exist on a continuous range and can be improved incrementally with practice. Mastery of any musical instrument is a combination of binary and progressive skills & resources. Having certain binary attributes can accelerate the benefit you get from practice because these binary skills influence not only the way you practice, but also help determine your comprehension of that practice.
Most of these binary traits and progressive skills are deeply linked together. The NY Times study merely demonstrates that 21% of musical performance results from the small portion of progressive skills that are independent of binary traits. In other words, only 1/5 of the skill gap within a group of musicians is from practice-based skills alone. This does not invalidate the so-called “10,000 rule”, since thousands of hours of practice are still required for mastery. It simply means that 10,000 hours is a rough estimate, and the benefit of each hour spent in the practice room increases dramatically with the acquisition of more binary traits. Some people may call these prerequisites “talent.” However only two items on the list are accidents of birth (Perfect Pitch & Working Memory), so I choose to call the sum of these binary traits: preparation.
It’s hard to believe that this month marks TWO YEARS of playing the cello, and yet somehow the more I play, the more I feel like a beginner. Perhaps that is why I haven’t been able to post much of anything useful lately, because I am starting to get to the point where I realize the extent of how much I don’t yet know! During the last few months of my lapse in posting, I have been working hard on some fairly technical pieces: Twomovements from the first Bach cello suite, Tchaikovsky’s Chanson Triste, Saint-Saen’s The Swan, and Faure’s Bercuese Op 16. I have also been drafting a few somewhat technical posts that I’ve been trying to condense into their most digestible and useful elements regarding the known science on bow technique and the mechanics of string vibration on the cello – this one will take a while longer to complete because the physics is heady stuff indeed. I also have another post in the works where I’m attempting to refine the essence of what I’ve learned over the last two years with my four stringed companion into a list of practice focal points, so look for a post in the next week or so on that topic.
As for now, after reviewing my blog and deciding what needed the most attention I noticed how shamefully anemic the video section has become. This is mostly because I am loathe to post anything before I feel like it’s spent a sufficient amount of time in the oven. The pieces I am currently working on will likely take years to become proficient at playing, but after a few months of living under that shadow, I realized that my perfectionism was undermining the point of this blog: which was supposed to be a transparent investigation of the process of learning cello as an adult. As a compromise, I resolved to post a progress report video of the “easiest” piece that I am working on at the moment, the Bach Cello Suite Minuets I & II. Just trying to play through the repeats of this 4+ minute song with a blinking red record button is an taxing exercise in focusing, so I am beginning to see why the strain of recording an entire Suite would be a true mental and physical endurance test. However, what is probably one of the more frustrating aspects of recording is knowing how much better you can sound when you are relaxed and no is listening! Yet, as an aspiring performer there is no escaping that facet of musicianship. I have spent enough time as a musical hermit, and I have resolved that I will share what ever I can as freely as I am able.
Please feel free to share any comments, insights or tips. My ego isn’t nearly as important to me as learning new things!
If you haven’t heard of these two rock star cellists from eastern europe, then you are in for a treat. If you are already a fan, then stop what ever you’re doing and watch this video immediately. Warning: side effects may include increased heart rate, mild headbanging, tousled hair, and spontaneous combustion.
Sifting through the detritus of 2013 and the wisdom imparted by successes and failures of the prior year, the month of January is usually one of reflection and sober optimism for growth, advancement, and in some cases healing. In my case, this reflection took nearly the entire month of January, and finally resulted in a list of “cello resolutions” for 2014. What took so long? Well, my initial lists were bogged down with details and nuances that would have resulted in unfocused and unproductive practice sessions. So in an effort to refine the focus of my studies, I narrowed it down to a scant 10 technical skills and 6 musicianship skills. I tried to make it shorter, but alas, my ambition has once again outstripped common sense wisdom. To simplify the situation, I decided to write out a short definition for each of these skills so they could be organized by shared characteristics for more efficient practice. Perhaps not surprisingly, the definitions revealed how interdependent these skills are, so that a deficiency in one would lead to a limitation in another. Likewise, improving in one area should create new possibilities in mastering other skill sets! The skills are listed below along with the set of related technical & musicianship skills listed by number/letter in parentheses ().
I have printed this list and put in the cover of my cello workbook, so I can review it before each practice session in order to plan my goals for that day.
Technical Skills:
1) Double Stops & Chords – Playing two notes simultaneously with good tone quality,intonation, and relaxation (2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9) 2) String Crossing – Switching between two strings while maintaining the contact point, tone quality, left hand position, and rhythm (4, 7, 9) 3) Finger Spacing – The ability of the left hand to feel the position of the notes before they are played (4, 6, 8) 4) Intonation/Relative Pitch – The ability of the ear to anticipate the pitch of the notes before they are played (A, F) 5) Playing Faster – Increasing the tempo without sacrificing rhythm, tone quality, or musicality (2, 3, 6, 7, 8, F) 6) Relaxation – The ability to recognize sources of tension and then release it quickly, fully, and dynamically (A) 7) Rhythm, Counting & Timing – Giving notes their proper length according to the tempo and pulse (2, 6, 8, F) 8) Shifting – the ability of the entire body (mostly left arm) to feel the position of the notes and the distance between them along the string (4, 6, A) 9) Tonalization – Manipulating the friction of the bow on the string via speed, pressure, and contact point to produce a sound as distinct as a human voice (4, 6, 7, A) 10) Vibrato – wavering the pitch of the note by relaxing the left hand as much as possible (3, 4, 6, 7, 8)
Musicianship Skills:
A) Confidence/Game Face – Believing in the ability to rise to a challenge, releasing mistakes quickly, focusing on the task at hand. Keeping a poker face in the instance of performance mishaps. B) Ensembles – Playing with other musicians while maintaining proper timing, intonation, tonalization, and dynamics (4, 7, 9) C) Performance – Sharing current progress with an audience either live or via YouTube, once per month (A) D) Analyze Music Theory of Bach’s Suites – Using knowledge of music theory & “musical geometry” to gain a deeper understanding of Bach’s genius and insight into how to play the Suites E) Perform two movements of Suite no 1 – Learn the Minuets I&II and the Prelude from the first Suite with enough proficiency for competent performance (A) F) Sight Reading – Being able to accurately render notes, in proper time, pitch, articulation, etc by reading faster than a given tempo. (4, 7)
I’ll be starting in a quartet in mid April, I’m currently working on the Bach Minuets I & II from suite no.1, and I will be posting a video in the next week or so from the end of Suzuki Book 4 (most likely Tchaikovsky’s Chanson Triste). So I am well on my way to achieving my musicianship goals for 2014! The technique goals are ongoing, and I’m sure I’ll be refining that list continually as the year goes on and my understanding of the fundamentals deepens.
To all of my fellow musicians (and anyone who is trying to learn something new!) I wish you great success in the coming year!!
Happy Holidays everyone! Thought I’d post my progress here with a recording of the piece I played at a winter recital last weekend. It’s a duet that I performed with my teacher by Charles de Beriot, a little known composer and violinist who was influential during the Romantic Era. The piece is very slow and with wide dynamic ranges and is more than 50% double stops with some challenging shifts. It is not the most difficult piece I am working on, but is is still incredibly challenging with respect to maintaining good tone and good intonation since it is a four part harmony played on two cellos at a largo tempo. Every aspect of technique is under a microscope in this piece. I am also working on recording some stuff from Suzuki Book 4 (which I am finishing up!) that is much more forgiving and less exacting when recording. However, I wanted to post this first because I feel like it’s a more detailed picture of what I still have to work on. Namely fuller tone, rhythm, smoother legato bow changes, more supple and springy right thumb, & of course vibrato!
This is not a recording of the actual performance, but rather a multi-tracked duet performed on my student cello. The part with the sweeter tone & velvety vibrato is played by my teacher who used my cello to record a “practice” track to prepare for recital. Her own cello sounds so much better, but she didn’t have it with her that day so she used mine. Still… notice how much better she sounds on the same instrument!! My squirlly and shrill student cello doesn’t diminish her skills one iota.
The Mindful Cellist 