Celloetudes.tumblr.com Website Review

Brian Carter, cellist - Greensboro, NC. DMA student at UNCG. I’m slowly getting videos up on youtu*e from the October recitals. I just got the audio back from the UNCG recital, so those videos should be up by the end of the week. These two pas*ages have occupied much of my practice time over the last few days. The first one is from Nordheim’s ‘Clamavi’:  This pas*age has a few distinct challenges. The first is dealing with the LH pizz. issues. In both cases, bow management is a problem. In the first one, my tendency has been to use too much bow during the grace notes, leaving me with undesirable tone quality for the sustained portion of that note. The other challenge here is to have the 3rd finger set-up to be prepared for the pizzicati as soon as the the sustained line, there is a greater level of LH control required. As I’ve been dealing with these pas*ages, I am finding that from 5th position and higher, it is easier for me to maintain vibrato on the sustained notes while also achieving clarity with the pizz. notes if I pluck with my thumb, 1st, or second finger. The physical set-up of the plucking finger being below the sustaining finger means that there is less chance for interference with the sustaining string. I really tried to honor Nordheim’s slur, but it became clear that it was This page made me want to quit the first time I played it. Everything I know about comfortable cello fi*gerings went out the window. Due to the amount of LH pizz., it became more important to choose fi*gerings that left the necessary fingers available for plucking rather than choosing what I would normally think of as 'musical’ fi*gerings. The other main issue is the fact that most of the LH pizz. notes involve multiple strings, so it is really important to only grab one string at a time, and also that it is always the correct string! On top of that, maintaining a level of quality tone production and vibrato consistency becomes almost secondary when sorting out the logistics - nonetheless,