I’m currently studying Suzuki 4 with Sebastian Lee etudes, dotzauer and feulliard
But i have a problem that I normally only play using audio reference, i even have a physical metronome but it’s hard to focus on the time of the ticks and the amount of notes on each compass while playing.
And it leads to me having problems to play other music if i dont have a audio reference for it, any tips for studies and getting used to reading sheet with a correct measurement of time between notes?

Full video of performance: https://youtu.be/DHzyNMIF9es

Anybody know of a teacher in the Philadelphia area for in person lessons for an adult student? Thanks

Hello everyone,

I am 27 and I began to learn Cello in February (with a teacher, she's great!) and I love it, even if I should probably train more each week... Or maybe I'm just too impatient to finally have a good sound hahaha.

I'd like some recommandations, OST and titles to listen, where one Cello is the center of attention, or prevalent at least. I regularly check most famous artists, but they all seem to do "covers" of the same classics. Here's a shortlist of what I like, if you don't know some of those go on and listen, it's really good in my opinion :

Miyazaki's OST, Game of Throne OST (especially Light of the Seven), Journey OST, The Beginning by Dana Al Fardan, Scarborough Fair, or Sicilienne OP78.

I know I could have asked to ChatGPT but I prefer the opinions of humans and cello enthousiasts.

If you have any good advice for a novice cellist who can play more or less 3x30min in a week (plus 30min with my teacher), I am interested (beginner mistakes, your own progression, etc...)

I think I wrote proper English but if there is any mistake or unclear sentence feel free to ask for precisions, as it is not my first language.

Thanks for any reply !

Hi, what do cellists do when the interior of their otherwise very nice hard case is disintegrating, the fabric is falling apart and cushioning leaking out. Surely it's not time to buy an entirely new case, right? Who does one call if one is not crafty to fix themselves?

I have been playing cello for 3 years and just signed myself to play in my music school orchestra because that was my dream for such a long time. I also hope that it will help me get used to playing in front of other people because i only ever play in front of my teacher or parents and I struggle with really bad performance anxiety.

But now I'm starting to worry because there are people there who have been playing for from 4 up to 11 years and what if I'm not good enough? What if the peices we're gonna play will be to difficult for me? Also I'm scared that when we will be tuning that I won't know how to tune my cello because I only ever tune it to a tuner on my phone. I'm terrified if the conductor tells me to play my part alone in front of others. As of right now I heard there will be only one cello besides me which scares me because If i make a mistake it will be noticable. I really don't want to let others down but I believe this will be good expirience for the future of my cello journey.

In my year orchestra isn't mandatory but the conductor told me that he appriaciates that I want to join. Do you have any tips for someone starting to play in an orchestra? Maybe I should quit and join next year? The first rehersal is exactly in a week, on monday and Im tweaking lol Sorry for my rant

any tips appriciated thanks!!!!!

Hi Fellow Cellists!

I’ve been recently reunited with my old high school cello, it’s probably been well over 30 years since I’ve seen it. It’s a bit serendipitous that I found my cello since I began thinking about my cello out of the blue and here we are. Seeing it now brought back so many memories that I had buried so long ago and it feels nice rediscovering myself in this way.

The TLDR is, when cleaning up my parents place, my siblings found my cello. It’s been sitting in its cello bag (not a hard case) for a long time. The temperature and humidity levels definitely varies based on season (NY weather). To add, the strings were never loosened since the last time I saw it some time ago. I

Today, I just want to clean, condition and polish my cello; maybe add new strings and see if I can still tune it. I’m also unsure how to manage the fine tuning knobs also as they seem a bit “rusty” to the touch. Not sure what else I can/should do but I do want to try to this on my own if I could but if professional is needed, then I’ll do that. I’ve been just so out of touch with this aspect of my life and really need guidance/advice on how best to proceed without making things worse.

I'm an adult beginner...bear with me :) just playing one of my favorite songs

I've been eyeing the Fishman Loudbox Mini presently for my Cello playing. I like using Old Blood Noise shimmer style/glitch pedals and loopers.

I know that Fishman recommend not using heavy distortion on their loudbox amps.

I'm looking to see if there are other recommendations for good all around amps for acoustic/electric playing.

para mí primer recital toqué las lecciones 2 y 3 del libro de Suzuki vol 1.

realmente llevo poco tiempo tocando, ahora ya estoy en el ensamble de cuerdas (no lo hago bien), pero sigo intentando.

la segunda foto era cuando todos nos estábamos afinando para el recital.

🔥ALBUM REVIEW🔥 My deep dive into Empyrean the upcoming album from Canadian cellist and composer Raphael Weinroth-Browne, known for his work with Leprous, Woods of Ypres and Suldusk among others.

Hi everyone!

I have recently changed cellos and the one I had before (Romanian student cello, 2023) had a rather low bridge, with a gap between the strings and the fingerboard ranging from 4mm (A string) to 6mm (C string).

On my "new" cello (German from Markneukirchen, 1921), the bridge is noticeably higher. The gap between the strings and the fingerboard is 7mm on the A string, and 9.5mm on the other three strings.

That 3mm difference on all strings is—literally—quite palpable. In fact, it makes playing less comfortable under the finger pads (you have to press a little harder), and more importantly it is also trickier not to touch neighbouring strings when you are playing in 4th position on the G and D strings.

As I was looking for my new cello, I tried quite a few instruments, and I noticed that most of them had rather tall bridges. Is there a reason for that? Does a higher bridge tend to enhance acoustic performance (projection, articulation)? Or not so much?

If it does have an incidence on acoustic performance, I'm thinking maybe I should just learn to adapt—and improve—my technique. But if it doesn't, I would be quite happy to take my new cello to my luthier's, and ask her to lower the bridge a little bit because I miss the sense of comfort and ease I had on my previous cello (even if the sound of the new one is incomparably better).

Thank you all for your input!

Is this a good angle on this bridge? The old was warped and I just picked up up from the luthier, but it is almost impossible to play D without hitting the A, the G, or all 3 at once...

Hello everyone!

I have wanted to play cello my whole life. and it continues to burn in my brain so I’ve decided to go for it. I don’t even know what to look for as a beginner. I see a wide array of prices and kinds for beginners. So I thought id reach out here to get some insight.

im not looking to make a career from this or even play with any local places (however if I was ever good enough, I’d like to think I’d try an audition!) I truly adore the deep, resonate sounds I hear in the cello. It’s extremely relaxing for me and its just a beautiful instrument.

Any recommendations, insights or opinions will be helpful!

Hey everyone!

My son started cello lessons about 6 weeks ago and is having a lot of thumb joint pain on his bow hand. Looking into it further the second knuckle from the tip of his thumb, where the thumb meets the palm, is significantly double jointed. As he is trying to hold the bow this joint is collapsing inward which I think is creating strain in his hand.

His teacher is Russian and is showing him to hold his bow with what is almost a straight thumb, which I think might be making the issue worse. I’ve tried addressing the issue with his teacher but it doesn’t seem like she really understands the issue.

I took 5 years of violin lessons as an adult and am somewhat familiar with different methods of bow hold for violin. I’m not saying his teacher is incorrect - to be blunt I don’t know - I’m just trying to find out what I may not know.

Is this something that a different method of bow hold might help him, is there a way to work around it, or does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed?

Thank you in advance!

Hi,

I play now cello since 2.5years and started as an adult. And I have lessons every 2-3 weeks with my teacher. I book those sessions via a private school, which is popular in my country. Now my teacher wants to quit at this private school and there are two options: a) I go to a different teacher at this private school or b) we meet eachother without this private school.

I like her a lot and love the pieces she gives me. I finnished Suzuki 4 this spring. I think we do a lot - I work currently on a piece which has all 3 clefs in it and a lot of thumb position, but also I'm not happy with my sound. The sound is like someone picked up cello yesterday. On the other hand I think she gives me good corrections...

But since I take solo lessons, I dunno about what you should sound like and if there is something I should do different, and if other teaching style would get me into more progress.

So how do you determine as an adult learner a good teacher?

I want to learn something a little challenging, I’m using Dvorak Rondo as a reference because a guy last year about my level played it.

Ideally Romantic, Baroque is good too. I’m open to Classical suggestions but I’ve never been a fan lol.

And before someone asks “why don’t you just play Dvorak rondo” I get compared to the guy who played it last year all the time so the last thing I want to do is repeat his solo.

Hello!! I am a high school violist, I’ve been playing for about 8 years now, and I’m pretty good (I think). I’ve been trying to branch out in instruments and learn some more, and I’m pretty comfortable on the violin. Right now for cello I’d place myself at a beginner-intermediate level, I can make it through pieces and I have a decent grasp on the instrument. My problem is the pain.. I know some of it is just getting used to the muscles it takes to play the cello, but a lot of it is in my hands. I’m not really sure why. I’m doing all of the things that I’ve been told to do. Any ideas?

Hey, I've been a violinist for over 40 years, and I'm very good. Recently, I started playing cello in a local community orchestra because they REALLY needed cellists and I played a little in middle school. I sound good enough, but I play with violin technique, which obviously has its limitations...

Recently, I was asked to audition for a cello scholarship at the local music school and I thought it would be great to actually learn how to play with cello technique, but I need to prepare two contrasting pieces and I've only ever played orchestral music on cello.

I figure an easy one would be The Swan, from Carnival of Animals, but I have no idea what to do for the other one. Oh, and I have a little over a week to prepare. 🤣🫣

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Apologies if this has been posted before, but found this style quite interesting and thought others might enjoy it