When you've had some time away from the cello, coming back throws into sharp relief all the things you were good at and the issues you glossed over. This is something I know well – my fourth finger extensions are not magically better after having a baby, even if my allergies have miraculously disappeared (knock on wood). My F-sharp on the C string is just as dodgy and crap as it ever was.
What is rapidly becoming apparent is whatever bad habits you have a musician visit you no matter what instrument you're playing at the moment. For me, it's swallowing notes mid-phrase/run and rushing off before finishing notes properly. I have it written all through my flute music from when I was 12 and ran up against it (again) in my cello lesson yesterday. Hilarious!
The swallowing notes mid-phrase is fairly easy to sort, and I don't do it as often as I abandon the ends of notes. That's a bit harder to rectify as I've never managed to consistently sort it out. I suppose as a lover of ensemble playing in orchestras, you don't tend to hear the ends of your own notes much – and if you do you've screwed it up and likely have the baleful eye of your section leader on you and WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN I PROMISE.
At the moment I'm not playing in any ensembles, so don't have the time pressure of learning orchestral music on top of anything solo I'm doing in my lessons – nowhere to hide, in a different way.
Emily had me play a single note to represent the three note slur, so I could concentrate on ending it properly. I'm finding I have to take phrases out of context entirely so I'm not tempted to read ahead and lose concentration. Mindfulness, you could call it.
Take this as a reminder to go practice something you hate for awhile, just so it doesn't come back and get you later.
Elaine Fine
15 June 2010 at 3:52 pm
“For me, it’s swallowing notes mid-phrase/run and rushing off before finishing notes properly.”
I find the change to strings from flute can really help to counteract the psychological problem of not finishing notes properly (I’m guilty as well). The thing about playing the fiddle or the cello is that you can actually see the bow, and you can actually pay attention to how fast or slow it goes when you feel like you are running out of bow. You just can’t do this with air, because you can’t see it. You just have to imagine how much you have.
Perhaps air on the flute is like water. When the glass is empty, it is really empty. The water has weight, and it is very difficult to control the flow when you need enough to keep enough water pressure to have a consistent stream. When you run out of air you feel it in every system of your body, and there is no way to “recharge” yourself in the middle of a long note at the end of a long phrase, when your air is gone.
Perhaps the sound production on the cello is more like sand than water. With skill and a lot of training of the small muscles in the hand and the big ones in the arm, you can regulate the flow of sand much more easily than you can regulate the flow of water. You can feel the contact between the bow and the string, and with time (it took me a good 10 years to get any control at all) you will develop more sensitivity to the extended sense of touch that helps your hand really feel what is going on at the hair side of your bow.
My flute instinct is to fade at the ends of notes (because that’s what is physically easiest to do) if I stop paying attention. I have to fight the tendency to fade all the time, but at least now I can fight it while holding a big stick!
I know that I will win, and I know you will too.