·:[ CelliMuse ]:·
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Master Classes are now available from The Las Vegas Philharmonic for both Celli and Piano! Master Classes are often overlooked by beginning students because they aren’t yet “Masters.” The point is not that the beginner is the master, but rather that they are learning from a Master.

Wow! Look for a little video on celli and you get a LOT of video on celli! YouTube.com has revolutionized the way people interact with the internet and brought the cellists of the world together to show their stuff (for good or not so good). Enjoy!

Karine Georgian has a marvelous history in both repertoire and teaching. Just from her website about teaching:

“In 1980 Karine Georgian settled in London and two years later succeeded André Navarra as Professor of Cello at the Musikhochschule in Detmold in Germany. Much in demand as a teacher, in addition to the Detmold position she has recently taken up an appointment at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. She has given masterclasses in England, Italy, Germany, Japan and Austria, and annually since 1989 (except for 1998) has taught and played at Dartington.”

Tonight, we had our initial lesson with our new instructor, Jim Smith. He is *marvelous* and I’m so glad he posted to Portland Craigslist!

After making sure we had operational, tuned celli, he started working with D - she being the youngest and all. They worked on how to hold the bow properly. Holding a bow seems such an easy task, but when held for long periods of time, it has an impact. He watched her play Jingle Bells and was impressed with how well she knew her notes to this point - First position: A, D, E, F#, G on D, G, C.

Next was my “lesson debut.” Before I actually got to start playing, he decided I have my ‘cello too low - so we pulled the pin out some more. Of course, this threw me completely off and I sounded terrible! He didn’t seem the least bit concerned about how I sounded, though. Which surprised and pleased me. He was watching my arm/hand/body positions to make sure I was doing the *basics* properly (and I wasn’t, by any means). So, I have arm circles (rounds) to do, both “from the frog” and “from the tip.” My goal is to place the bow on the strings without any bouncing happening as my bow is placed on them. I also have to be aware of my wrist position and transferring weight from my shoulder and upper arm clear down to my hand and into my bow, rather than applying arm-strength pressure. “The wieght of your arm is all you need to make beautiful intonation. You don’t need to force it, just let it happen.” Yah, ok. After a year and a half of doing it incorrectly - forcing - I have to UNLEARN what I was taught in the first place and be like a brand new student again.

My other arm (fingering hand) was a mess, and I knew it. It hurt to play for longer than a half hour because I was squeezing the thumb and fingers together. Again, he told me to transfer the wieght of my arm down into the hand. Huh?? You rest your hand on the fingerboard, against the strings. Now, rather than pinching the strings down, simply move your whole arm - from the shoulder - backwards. That’s it. Simple yet elegant. No pressure, no pinching, no fatigue, NO PAIN! Yae!

D has to do the same thing. UNLEARN. That’s always the hardest part. But. We have a terrific new ‘cello instructor and he’s persistant and patient. I think we’ll win!

I like this set of instructional videos. Where you have to have Shockwave installed on your system, it’s worth the wait of the install! Not only does she show you from three different directions what she’s talking about, but she wrote out what she said, just in case you can’t understand her! And, not only are there directions spoken and written, but the directions give a clear method and reason for why she recommends this way versus that. Nicely done!

Well. D and I have a new ‘cello instructor, Jim Smith! Our first lesson is tomorrow night. We are SO excited!! Who knew that it would be so exciting to learn from a *real live cellist* as opposed to a violinist. I’m hoping he’s got lots of pointers for us.

He seems like a nice fellow and his teaching goal is to learn up more cellists as opposed to make money. Normally, he plays in Opera and Symphony, but had a shoulder injury that forced him to take some time off to recoupe. Now, he’s all better but the next season doesn’t start until the end of summer. So - he put an ad on Portland Craigslist.com and viola! We were a match!

In his introductory email Jim states, “My fees are by the lesson. Some lessons are only 45 minutes, but some people stay 2 or 2 1/2 hours. It varies with what the players are trying to get out of their lessons. I hate having to stop if things are going well. I should warn you– I spend so much time in a tuxedo, that I don’t dress up for lessons. Very informal, and my first goal is to put people at ease, and have them be comfortable with their ‘cello.” We spoke on the phone and I inquired about D, mostly because she’s so young. His response was encouraging. Basically, if you have to force her to play - he doesn’t want to teach. If she’s pushing you (and she pushes me, that’s for certain!) and is alive and WANTS to play - he wants to teach! lol. D is his kind of student!

I should dig out our picture from when we played at Dv’s school and D’s school so he understands that neither of us have stage frieght. ::grins:: Especially not D!!

Wish us luck!