Being on the Journey
Most of the time if you are planning a trip you will sort out the details: destination, transportation, packing, eating places, and the all important what TO DO when you get there. These days traveling seems very far from happening, but one can always plan ahead and perhaps put together a potential dream vacay?
I’m getting somewhere with this I promise.
Learning cello is a journey. At the beginning you think if you can just “make it” that you will have arrived somewhere. But in reality if you don’t make it a journey and an adventure it can get really stale and boring really fast. Or perhaps you are in a frustrated state because you are stuck on a particular problem.
Even though I consider myself a “professional” I’d like to think my journey is still continuing. It has taken MANY turns for sure. A LOT of uphill battles. And teaching challenges me all the time. As in how do I explain things clearly so that my students can understand the info I’m trying to teach?
But I am also going on a musical journey re-exploring old etudes that I have played before AND learning new ones too! Have you been seeing my Schroeder etude journey?? Check out THIS PLAYLIST
If you’ve ever had a love hate relationship with the metronome (raising both my hands here) this series is showing how we can practice being steady but using a FUN sort of beat instead of our usual ticking-til-you-go-crazy sound.
Schroeder has THREE BOOKS of etudes. The beauty of them is that he compiles etudes from other etude books within his own. So you are really getting a fantastic variety of etudes to practice. And let me tell you when you really push yourself out of your comfort zone even the “easy” etudes can be a challenge and really help get your fingers and your bow arm back into shape.
Every week I am coming out with a new Schroeder etude and let me tell you they are really starting to get juicy…aka I may be looking calm, but my heartbeat is pumping and my eyes are DEFINITELY blinking less so I don’t mess up any notes.
One other thing to remember….there are LOTS of opinions out there and advice on Youtube. (Myself included!) It can be overwhelming to even GET STARTED. But remember to stay focused on your goal and to pick coaches, or advice from people whom you respect, and who you can SEE and HEAR and you WANT to sound like them. If you took advice from everyone out there you might be spinning in circles. It’s like taking travel advice from EVERY travel agent out there whether they are working in your best interest or not.
If you are getting started on your journey with cello I’d love to help you out. Check out this FREE download with tips to get you started! And comment below if you have any questions about cello playing I can answer.
Let’s keep going on this exciting cello adventure!