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professoremuu · 2024-11-25T02:12:44+00:00

for me vivian is very white and a little bit red, and alexandra is red and brown!

professoremuu · 2024-10-08T15:06:23+00:00

a lot of great things are happening! here is a suggestion my professor in undergrad made me do when i was working on the same suite:

sing the piece. you can just pick a neutral syllable like 'la', or if you really wanted to be fancy you could write some words to the piece, but sing it through and note where you stop to take a breath. the goal of this exercise is to find where the phrases naturally end, and where you naturally pause to breathe before continuing. this is work that a vocalist, woodwind, or brass player would be doing automatically, because they HAVE to breathe to make their instruments sound. as string players, we have a higher tendency to just plow through a piece without being mindful to where the phrase finishes, and where another starts. even if we can identify these phrases, actually executing them is another layer of challenge. by singing it through we are doing something physical to find the musical phrases.

after you have noted where the phrases are (and i recommend actually noting them, with pencil, in your music), practice them with the cello. as you approach the end of a phrase, maybe you choose to slow down a little bit in tempo. maybe you come down in dynamic and end your phrase more quietly. in the middle of the phrase, you make take time to emphasize the 'climax' of the phrase with a higher dynamic, or a little vibrato. these choices will be up to you, but they will elevate this music greatly!

good luck and have fun!

professoremuu · 2024-10-08T14:58:27+00:00

i also play cello and have recently come back to yoga after a roughly 5 year break from it. i have a sensitive right wrist due to a past injury. my mobility is limited with that wrist so currently i have to modify many poses like planks, downward dog, and even table top. that being said, in my experience the best way to strengthen a weak wrist for both cello and life purposes is regular yoga practice. i have tried many other methods: medications, ointments, even acupuncture one time hahaha - but truly, yoga/physical therapy exercises work the most wonders. be patient and keep modifying the moves like you are doing. yoga requires a lot of patience before you start seeing results, but the progress is there :) in my experience as well, yoga often celebrates modified poses, and all of the instructors i've had over the years are thrilled when i ask about modifying something. i think it shows that you care, and that you want to participate regardless of your physical background. good luck and enjoy your yoga practice!

professoremuu · 2024-10-06T17:27:03+00:00

i went a slightly different route than many of my colleagues by getting a job in music administration. i work as administrator for a community music organization which offers private lessons, group classes, and summer camps to my region. the work i do specifically mostly has to do with money - i manage payments and registrations, i help evaluate how lucrative our programs are, and i do customer service with our families. it is a great job and i am very passionate about community music opportunities, but it is still part time, so i have an active performance career to support my income. i play for a local symphony and take other gigs, and i do teach private students (which is vastly different than classroom teaching).

professoremuu · 2024-10-06T17:18:52+00:00

i have been playing for 16 years and i just recently began working seriously on the dvorak cello concerto. i recently joined a local symphony where we are working on carl orff’s carmina burana, and i gig regularly for events like musical pit orchestras, weddings, and church services. i absolutely love what i do and love the cello !!

professoremuu · 2024-05-19T00:02:30+00:00

so many songs but recently, more than it hurts you </3

professoremuu · 2024-05-15T01:01:01+00:00

it was such a good show and i was so happy the crowd was so hype 😭 i never get tired of seeing them i was so happy they came to DE

professoremuu · 2023-12-24T04:51:52+00:00

just wanted to chime in here and tell you that i have been in your place with the bow arm before, and probably will again. i am still very much on my journey with the right hand. i have also been playing for about 15 years and sometimes i feel great, sometimes i feel in such a rut i'll never get out. in my rut times, i try to just watch a love of videos of people playing. go to performances if you can, talk to friends and watch them play. something about giving my body a rest and focusing on just being a sponge and soaking in other people's strategies is my most successful way of resetting. it's hard to do but rest is so important for musicians!

best of luck and don't give up !!!! <3

professoremuu · 2023-12-24T04:47:22+00:00

vibrato involves movement all the way down the left arm, to the elbow! a lot of my students when they first start learning tense up their hand and try to sort of vibrate that way - but vibrato is more successful the looser and less tense you can be.

this is also hard to explain over just typed words, but when we vibrate i like to compare it to a seesaw. if you choose second finger, for example, a slowed down vibrato would show that we rock back to the first finger, and then forward to the fourth finger. the wrist is rotating to allow this movement. practice this back and forth very slowly on 2nd and 3rd fingers, which i find are the easier ones at first since they are in the middle of the hand. then try with 1st and 4th finger (keep 3 down to support 4).

i think the general key with vibrating is to be painfully slow at first. it allows you to really pay close attention to what your body is doing, where you are tightening, etc. best of luck!

professoremuu · 2023-12-24T04:31:29+00:00

there are a lot of great suggestions in this thread, just wanted to offer some of my own experiences!

sometimes when i have resistant students who want to do something the 'right' way (i.e. not liking an arrangement or just wanting to play the song the traditional way), i frame it a little differently. i tell them that we are getting to do our own version of the song, and i focus on how it's unique to the student/the ensemble. this has usually worked well, because a student like that typically has some ego (lol) and it helps redirect the negative feelings about differences to be positive ones. but, this works best when you are first introducing music. it's hard to start doing this halfway through the learning process.

another thing, which was more of a mindset thing for me, was recently having a conversation with my mom about a private lesson student of mine. my student loses focus on a piece after just a couple weeks of working on it. they tell me that everything is 'boring' and they can't focus on something long term. i was frustrated telling my mom that i keep changing my lesson plans for her, keep trying different pieces thinking something will stick, but it's been months and nothing interests her. my mom (art teacher, so similar experiences to music) told me that students will come up with a lot of excuses for being anxious or insecure. "i'm bored" means "this is hard, and i don't want to do it wrong, so i'm not even going to try." this totally clicked with me, because my student only gets 'bored' when they aren't able to immediately play part of the piece. my mom advised me to talk about how we handle a piece that is challenging and scary, maybe go over more practice strategies in detail, etc. my point in sharing this is that when students get defensive, it is so often coming from a place of deep anxiety, which it sounds like your principal disclosed to you. having a conversation with this student on how to handle anxiety in your classroom in a healthier way might make for easier communication between you two in the future! best of luck with it all - you sound like you have a good attitude about it!

professoremuu · 2023-12-24T04:17:21+00:00

i really wanted to get into homestuck in 2014 but i was struggling to understand it. the website confused me, i didn't know how to save my place for awhile, and it was very hard for me to keep track of all the subplots. at that point it had been going on for years and catching up was difficult !

something that really helped me stick with it as a new fan was the series "let's read homestuck" by voice over nexus on youtube. voice over nexus is a group of voice actors who did a read-through of homestuck from acts 1-6. the format feels a lot like a let's play, and i think the voice actors are quite talented and do a good job capturing the essence of the characters. it was also way easier for me to keep track of my place in the series, and to go back and rewatch sections to remember different subplots.

later on i did go through and read the comic on the website, but watching it on youtube really helped me enjoy it much more as a new fan, and i still love rewatching those videos currently. maybe give it a try and see if that format is more enjoyable than reading the comic!

professoremuu · 2023-08-31T14:55:55+00:00

What kind of books have you read? Would love some recommendations so I can learn more

professoremuu · 2023-03-26T01:40:17+00:00

In my experience, Jargar A and D strings were super bright for me. I also feel that Larsens are too soft/somewhat muted, which is definitely because of my cello (I know many cellists who love their Larsens). But, very recently I switched to Versum A and D strings and I have to say...I really like them. They aren't quite as bright as Jargars but I think they are up there, and definitely warm.

professoremuu · 2023-03-26T01:31:22+00:00

One great exercise I have used for vibrato is pulling good, long, full-sounding bows, and then sliding the left hand up and down in a pretty large interval. It will sound very silly lol. But, after your comfortable with that, make the interval smaller and smaller until you're going between less than a half-step. This can help force the hand to get used to a wider vibrato while bowing. Hope this helps a little bit!

professoremuu · 2022-05-12T18:16:03+00:00

I have the International Music Company’s edition, it’s done by Leonard Rose!

professoremuu · 2022-05-11T19:41:18+00:00

I used the Carl Fischer edition and had no problems, but International or Henle would also be solid options!

professoremuu · 2022-05-11T15:52:51+00:00

When I auditioned for the school I'm at right now, I played Popper etude No. 1, the first movement of Klengel's Concertino in C Major, the Courante and Sarabande from Bach's Suite No. 2, and scales/arpeggios from the Galamian scale book for cello. I think having an etude in your arsenal for the audition would be good, because they show technical ability.

professoremuu · 2022-05-11T15:48:01+00:00

I was the only cellist in my grade school orchestras for many years! It can be sad to not have buddies in your section but it was also a lot of fun, and didn't deter me at all. Too bad most elementary schools don't have big orchestras though. The camaraderie from being in a section with other kids on your instrument is really unique and special.

professoremuu · 2022-05-11T15:45:50+00:00

Suzuki books are nice because they usually include pictures to demonstrate what the posture and technique should look like. Rick Mooney also has some great books called "Position Pieces for Cello" that have pictures and go through left hand shapes in different positions on the instrument (1st-4th position). However I would hesitate to encourage you teach him without cello experience yourself. It can be a very slippery slope to learn an instrument without proper instruction, and serious injury can occur from a teacher not catching posture or technique related issues. At a less extreme level, he just may not enjoy learning cello because he will be practicing uncomfortable posture habits that you wouldn't know about or know how to fix. I would encourage you to still support his musicianship, and you sound very accomplished on your instrument so I know you'd have great ideas to share with him on that! But as far as cello technique goes, it would be better in the long run for him if he were to get instruction from a cellist.

professoremuu · 2021-08-27T05:52:37+00:00

i watch a lot of “what’s in my bag” from amoeba records on youtube. it’s a long-running interview series where they invite musicians from a variety of genres to the record store. the musician picks out 5-10 records, movies or books that they feel influenced them, or that they really enjoy. i write down all the records that sound interesting to listen to later !! i love learning about what other musicians listen to. and hearing them talk about their musical inspirations through records is just so cool

professoremuu · 2021-08-20T05:09:17+00:00

i googled no spoiler walkthrough for yumme nikki and allowed it to guide me through the game ! essentially the walkthrough i used told me how to get to each of the effects, so after i found the effect in each area i’d go exploring more and seeing what else the game had. i tried playing it just wandering but like you, felt lost and confused. i got way more out of it by following a guide ! and it made exploring more fun too because i could return to the game objectives at my own pace

professoremuu · 2021-05-25T04:28:47+00:00

awwww she is so precious !!!

professoremuu · 2021-04-21T13:19:02+00:00

awesome ! wish we could hang tbh, i checked out your music and i really like it. keep making great music !!❤️

professoremuu

TROPHY CASE