This afternoon there was a cello master class held on campus. Dr. Karen Becker from Nebraska worked with three students for about 20 minutes each. She was in town to give a recital this evening. I have been fortunate enough to attend several piano master classes with Sibylle, but this was the first for violoncello. I thought she did a fantastic job and I learned several things just by listening and watching. Two of the students were college age and had played for many years and the third was a 4th grader who has played for a couple of years.
Here, in no particular order, are my notes from the session.
Release 4th then 3rd, and finally the 2nd finger from grip as you the bow moves from frog to tip as way to practice pronating the hand to apply pressure
Pull in with little finger as you approach the frog
Keep angle of hand the same through entire stroke
Try for the same weight at the tip as you have at the frog
The wrist/hand pronation allows the weight from the entire arm to transfer to the bow
Think of pulling thought the strings and not just across them - scooping the strings
Angle of 1st finger vibrato is important particularly for 1/2 position notes (Bb, Eb, Ab, and Db)
Adjust angle of the cello to improve reach of left hand
Should be able to see a watch face on your left wrist all thought the slide down the finger board
Slow down to get nice warm sound
Adjust grip - curved thumb, don’t reach around the stick
Without changing your grip, turn the bow upside down and look for the “Thumb bump”. No straight thumbs.
Imagine pouring a glass of water with your bow hand as the bow stroke moves toward the tip of the bow
Practice with a mirror to see alignment of bow. Actually look in the mirror. :)
Play receptive notes along the length of the bow to see how the grip and weight affects the sound - goal is same sound regardless of up bow or down, and where you are on the hair
Move toward the bridge for clearer sound on the higher notes
Look for places to change dynamic range to make thins more interesting
Play chords not as chords - arpeggiated. Can be used to avoid running out of bow
Look for high or climax in piece and use that to adjust highs and lows in rest of piece
Start closer to tip to diminish dynamics
Think about phrasing - like having a conversation with someone
Conserve bow on the softer bits to have bow left for the louder bits
Think about wind instruments - you can’t hide anything without vibrato
Even if you only get one or two ideas from attending a master class I think you should go. Hearing things said differently than your teacher says them often leads to wonderful insights or breakthroughs.