In high school, I once showed up at a lesson very frustrated.
I had just played the Prelude to Bach II, and after I played, my teacher asked me:
“What wrong? Why do you look so worried?”
“Every bow change is so crunchy! I can’t make anything smooth, and it’s driving me crazy!!!” I replied.
“I’m so happy to hear you say that!” she exclaimed.
“Huh?” (What in the world could she mean by that)?
“It means you’re actually listening to yourself while you play!”
I believe that there are a few moments in our musical life when this ability to listen to ourselves manifests some important "firsts":
- The first time we understand that what we do at the cello changes what we hear coming out of it…
- The first time we understand how to “listen” from out in the hall while we are playing onstage…
- When we figure out how to use our imagination to hear ourselves before we make a sound and then have what comes out of the instrument match our imagination…
- When we learn to find our sound amid a noisy orchestra/pit environment… (It’s honestly one of the most challenging things about being an orchestral cellist; even though our most important tool for feedback is our sound, we spend a lot of time totally unable to engage with our sound because we can’t hear it)!!
So the ways we engage with our sound and how it relates to our technique is vital to everything we do as cellists.
One way to have fun with this is to find sets of bowing variations - like this:
