Musicanship : Robin's first lesson

Robin's technique of playing the 'cello is far different to Esther's technique. Robin emphasises the need for balance and freedom in both arms.

The biggest difference is this; Esther has reiterated the need for lowering the elbow when retracting the bow and to keep the wrist pointing upwards to keep the arm weight going through the fingers. Having done this, there has been one drawback that you may know of, the right hand thumb. I said this to Robin and he showed me a new may of bowing that has sorted the thumb out instantly. It is to keep the elbow up when bowing (not rediculously) yet to keep the arm unattached to the right shoulder. Having the wrist straight, this allows the tendons to work properly as if the wrist is bent, the fingers have far less power and they have to work harder (it is same possition as if you were disarming a man with a knife.)

Thumb sorted out.

Next was the left hand. Esther had taught well in that the distrebution of weight should be balanced and that the fingers should act like bridges. This is only the surface of what can be done as the will always be on their tips if this is consistantly carried out. Robin states that the thumb on the left hand should be free to go whereever on the bottom of the finger board even it is to the far right hand side. This allows more of the left hand's finger pads to be used so it is not just the tips that are being used, but the flat surfaces as well. The bridge theory still applies so there is nothing physically wrong with this technique, only that it provides another dimension of colour into the sound.

Vibrato. I have always found it very hard to do vibrato maybe because I didn't cover it until late. However, there is a new technique to doing it that has opened up another dimension/door into cello playing. Again it is the elbow that comes in. When vibratoing, it is not just the fingers and the wrist that do the work, it is the entire arm. When you raise your left arm and bend back your wrist and then vibrato you can get a far more passionate sound with greater depth in feeling and sound. This adds another level into the cello playing world as you don't have to ben back the wrist and expose a different part of your finger pad.

One part of the Debussy I found very difficult was when the cellist comes across the very fast hemi-semi-quavers between the A and the D string is beyond 5th position. I was making it far too hard for myself. The faster your fingers have to move, the closer they stay to the strings and hey presto, it was so much easier and I could go a hell of a lot faster.