Lesson 53 - All about the bow

Today's lesson was all about the bow; dynamics, texture, speed, position and overall improvement of control with flexible thumb and wrist coordination.

Having spent quite a fair bit of time recently on the left hand, the right hand feels a tad neglected so here comes Bunting to the rescue!

We spent the first hour just on the Bowing Regime including the first dynamics exercise. This is where we touched on texture and colour, akin to how an artist paints, when expressing your cello voice. Deryn explains how it is a shame for a cellist to be technically proficient yet unable to fully portray the broad spectrum of the cello range; almost undeserving of the instrument itself.

When we played through the dynamics exercise, I noticed that I was far more in control of the bow now than when I first played that same particular exercise many months ago. Instead of bowing 2 ticks of piano and then 2 ticks of forte, I was bowing a crescendo or just tapering off when it came to bowing the reverse. But now, now I know where the weight is coming from and when I should release that weight to achieve the different dynamics; not gradually but instantly.

I shared this with Deryn and how the period of practise you put into the cello really establishes learning the instrument. The discipline to actually put in the time is definitely something easier said than done. This was when Deryn brought up the difference between practise and play, a concept I struggle with personally as the temptation of the latter is so much easier to indulge in; you could say there is a disproportionate amount of time spent on playing my pieces than practising!

After going through the dynamic bowing patterns many several times, Deryn asked me to play a few bars of the Marcello Adagio. Straightaway, one could hear the confidence in the playing so much so Deryn said she now hears me interpretation of the piece instead of me playing the notes as written. This was when she suggested that a new exercise focused on just dynamics could be a good addition to forster a better grasp on the technique and Exercise 4 (Andante) from Percy Such's New School of Cello Studies Book 2 will hopefully do exactly that.

And now, for something inspiring.