I've been sending out a lot of little videos to my students lately because I've been traveling much of the summer and not available for in-person lessons. I found this great resource that was made by David Finkel: 100 cello talks, all short (about 4 minutes each usually) videos talking about a single aspect of cello playing. These cover necessary but often over-looked little details like how to set up your practice area so you are ready to play (have your rosin, tuner, metronome and pencil out and reachable).
His page of 100 talks is here and so far I think I've recommended talk #38 on spiccato the most. I was just watching talk #80 and that will become the next one I send around to everyone: 4 minute practicing. Usually I recommend that my students break their practicing into 5 minute groups, but hey 4 minutes works too. This video shows exactly how he uses his 4 minutes on a single phrase from a sonata. All the various approaches to solidifying his shifting and pitch over one phrase.
The best thing is what he repeats from Colin Carr in that video: the point of practicing is not to do it til you get it right; it's to do it til it's never wrong. For my part, I also think that practicing is about strengthening the many ways you think about playing - bow arm, left hand, left arm, shoulder, back, sitting on a stool, shape of hand while you shift. I try to think of one of those things while I'm playing, and I mix up the way I'm thinking during my practice. Last night, after spending time working on my upcoming concert music, I felt tight in the shoulders. So I went back to basics, played almost an hour of scales just thinking about my shoulders, my back, posture on the stool, release of neck, openness of pectoral muscles.
Hope this adds to your toolkit of practical practicing ideas!
Gaelen
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