Lesson 15 - Crooked bow vs carbon fibre bow

I found Deryn's notes for me when I first started on the cello; along with my cello invoice and an ebony cello mute which I have not used at all much to the dismay of everyone in the vicinity.

They were basic techniques that we covered on the day, written out for me on a sheet of paper; all of which I am still constantly utilising when I play except they now come naturally to me and I no longer struggle with 2 of the things that I was finding difficulties in ~ the cello position (I was playing the cello too low as I took it literally when told that the pegs should be touching the back of my head) and the bow hold (I realised later that I had misunderstood Deryn's instructions and had the fingers in the wrong places. Holding the bow was a new and unnatural feeling and I kept gripping it with my thumb because it felt off-kilter; like it wanted to fall off and slip away.)

Anyway, before we started on the lessons, I noticed that my bow was feeling more unbalanced than usual ~ the strings were winded taut but it still felt loose and made that whispery sound during bow strokes. Deryn took a look at it and decided they needed to be more taut. As she winded the bow, she took another look and said my bow was a little crooked to the right; my suspicions were well founded! She then took one of her personal bows off the cello stand, handed it to me and said (something in the lines of), "See how that feels to you. This is one of my favourites and my go-to bow. I use it all the time for recordings."

I was astounded.

All this time, I was far from convinced that a more expensive bow could feel any more different than the average basic entry bow and that an artist does not blame his tools. I guess I should eat my hat. The L.G. Chen carbon fibre was excellent. It was light, felt wonderfully balanced and a joy to the touch; I'm a rather tactile person.

So I used the bow for the entirety of today's lesson and what a difference it was. I knew straightaway that I had to have it. Deryn figured it was probably time for me to get a new bow as I was advancing rather quickly (I have outgrown my old bow.) and will send a link later to a few places for purchase.

Today we mostly worked on my slurs again. I get both nervous and excited when performing in front of Deryn. The mixture of wanting to impress and nail-biting nerves really does affect my playing and it really shows. My fingers slip, I bow faster and my sound and intonation suffers. Hopefully this gets better later when I learn to calm down though knowing myself, probably not.

Still, I should really try and cover more bases when I practise at home. I find that I tend to concentrate more often on musical pieces and etudes rather than techniques. Also, I am impatient by nature and techniques get dull and repetitive. I am trying or will try to make scales and arpeggios more interesting to practise somehow.

We covered chapter 15 today with uneven bowing and slurred retakes of staccato, legato and tenuto. I find that I am still trying to get a hang of staccato. Mostly since I find lifting the bow at the end instead of stopping it on the string more natural even if I don't put it into practise. My brain, however, has other plans as I try and fight off the urge each time a staccato appears! Instead, what I find that helps is Deryn's advice to put in more power to the bow stroke before stopping it dead in its track. Lifting the foot just before putting in that power really does reestablish the balance and it clearly shows in the sound achieved. This also explains the sight of a cellist lifting her or his foot during solo concertos when here I thought it was a dead leg or an itch - probably an effect of sitting and playing for too long!

This exercise, although very basic, would be use in more challenging situations like Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations. There is a CelloBello youtube video of Paul's cello lesson particularly focused on this very technique ~ Up and Down Bow Staccato.

Next we revised the Rigaudon by Rameau. It seems I have been playing it in tenuto instead of legato. I was uncertain about this as the composer did not mention this on the script and I was not at all familiar with the Baroque era, music wise. I asked Deryn how one was to dance to the piece as it seems an awkward tune to. Apparently, music played a more functional role then; more as an accompaniment to performances. Bach cello suites, apart from the preludes, were good examples of this. Although pieces were titled as if they were made for dances, it was really just a perceived idea of dancing since the 'powdered wig people' did not dance to the pieces at all but sat and watched (and 'kept their mouths shut'). And if you were in class with me at this moment in time, you would have been witness to Deryn's demonstration of the 'powdered wig people' dance or jig, as I saw it :}

After playing along with Deryn a couple of times and fixing my 'own bow interpretations' and playing it in legato instead of tenuto, Deryn proceeded to the piano and played it with me as a duet; this really brought home that it was a Baroque piece (I imagined Deryn playing a clavichord as it sounded like it). I love it when I get to play my pieces as duets with Deryn - the pieces suddenly have more meaning attached to them and they sound 'whole'. Also, I find that I try a lot harder to play better. Deryn says I should focus on playing with expression next and observe the crescendos and decrescendos. A bit of trivia, the Baroque era did not use either forms of expressions as neither existed then! The way they used to do it was to play a whole bar of notes soft and then the next bar louder and then the next one much louder.


We will be moving on to book 2 very soon, much sooner than expected so Deryn figured I might as well order book 2 now as shipment does take a while. I told her I already ordered all of Langin's books up to book 5 so she needn't worry. Looks like I'm in it for the whole ride.