I worked hard on this one, guys! Now of course, keep in mind as you see this that there are MANY different types of practicing, which can lead to the development of different skills. This one technique is merely a tool in a LARGE toolbox, so I don't mean to give the impression that this is the ONLY way to practice; but unfortunately, it is one that is almost NEVER used and is scientifically proven to be the most effective way to gain accuracy. So I hope it changes your lives as much as it did mine!
@CelloMonk One can certainly tell you did work hard on this one! Again, appreciate it a lot! Another question came to mind. I hope you don't mind me asking: Would you say that constant practice still offers some value? If so, in what situations?
Hello, great video, but in addition to studies that are unfortunately few and not necessarily as reliable as we'd like, an even more convincing argument (at least to me) comes from how AI is trained these days. The core of modern machine learning is neural networks, which our brain happens to be, and even if the way networks are trained differ, the core idea is the same : the more varied data with *good* *feedback*, the better the network becomes. It doesn't matter if the output is "yes this is a human face" or "that's a major third" or "the human face is in that rectangle" or "move your arm there for this sound" or whatever. And because human brains are very large and deep (in terms of neural network topology), it does actually matter to focus on what's going on internally too, because what's going on internally is at the same time the output of some parts of the network, and the input of some other parts. This explains why the brain would associate information like the crush by the way. For that reason, it is extremely important to always focus on the whole chain of sound production, from the intent (normally audiating what you want to play) up to the movement of the body, including anything in between like the sense of rhythm and also of harmony, like keeping in mind a note function in the current harmony, and anything that may come to mind (I can think of which string to use as an example of an instrument-specific detail). As a side note, practicing slowly helps because it allows focusing and intending the whole process better, and these are by far the two main inputs we can use to train our brain.
Why did you stop making videos?? I just discovered this channel and as someone who loves to play cello and work out I was sad to see there aren’t many videos especially when it seemed like you were so excited to make them.. please bring this back 🙏🙏
Very good!!! I played as a child, cello and piano, repeating repeating... you know. So boring. Now, being 66 and having just but a cello, this seems a much better practice approach for an adult. I live too far away to take lessons and anyway love experimenting on my own. Here we go!!! Thanks!
I’m 66 . I’ve taken my fourth cello lesson! I’m a guitarist for 50 years. I’m used to being able to figure out pretty much any tune. The cello has humbled me. I cannot practice for long periods of time as both of my shoulders have been replaced. I’ll do 20 mins per session and I’ll return to the instrument three to four times in a day. I don’t believe that I’m getting the most out of my practice. I learning to sight read bass clef which is quite the challenge. So I’m learning out of a book and naturally I practice my material for my next lesson. I want to devote some time to figuring out Cello Symphony Number One. It’s a long term goal for me. I’m learning two measures at a time. Slow going but I’m still a beginning beginner! I’m still learning fundamentals. But id like to be able to make my practice effective.
To both of you, thank you so much for your posts! As a soon to be fellow "mature student" cello dreamer, your generous glimpse into your world is very inspiring. Double shoulder replacement! Whoa. You raise the bar on insane in the most positively magical way possible. Best of luck to both of you!
I have been feeling so stuck with cello and have been increasing my practice time to hours a day, but still not seeing much improvement. This helped me so much, please make more videos :)
That is awesome advice and science. I have immediately started using this. If you're thinking about a follow up video, I think it would be great to have more examples on how to use this method. Routines, examples from other pieces, ideas for experimenting with it and make it even more fun. Keep up the great work of educating us.
Hey thank you so much!!! I have been learning a very difficult Indian Classical instrument, the Sarangi. I am very interested in neural plasticity and the topic of this video too. Optimal practice. I love it. Thank you again!!!
This video gives me hope for the future of my playing, especially now that I’m inching towards my mid twenties and my brain development is slowing down. ‘Beating my head against the wall’ has been giving me drastically diminishing returns in recent years and now that I’ve started incorporating these concepts into my practice I feel like I can actually see progress again. Hope to see more great videos in the future.
Great video! I'm actually brand new to cello (late 30s, yikes haha). However I've played piano and guitar most of my life, so I have lots of experience with music and practicing. I think this is the same idea of what you were saying with variable practice, but in the past year or so I've started to take difficult techniques or passages and create games and exercises around them in tons of ways. I just got so sick of playing the same passages (or same technical exercises) slowly to a metronome over. and over. and over. And hardly seeing improvement, or if I did, it was like 1% improvement for a ton of work - it just never seems to pay off that well. Then after doing research I started to take those same difficult passages or runs or whatever, and vary up how I play them in tons of fun and even creatively inspiring ways: varied rhythms (long-short-long, dotted-triplets, swung-straight, etc), transposing into other keys, inversion (which could be literally flipping the notes in either pitch or time), fragmenting (pulling apart the passage and playing chunks out of order, or repeating chunks back and forth), and perhaps my favorite: improvising around the difficult passage or idea, where you might take a segment of it and then find new musical expression around it which is all your own, which I think can also force you to really explore the melodic and harmonic framework which may unlock its difficulty. The list is limited to your own imagination. Nonetheless, from all these games it's insane how much better and more accurate I'm getting at certain skills - and I'm having A LOT more musically-inspired fun doing it, rather than just drilling mindless technical exercies all day. Like even if I'm doing exercises, they sound like actual music to me :) Of course I'm referring to piano and guitar, because like I said I'm only just starting cello. But hopefully using these techniques (along with my teacher's suggestions) I'll be able to improve at the instrument a bit faster than if I didn't. Wish me luck. Subscribed!
Please make more videos! The way you talk about it all makes it so clear to me, and I'm starting to learn and would really welcome more guidance from you.
Also I think we learn faster by trying a new page of music each lesson instead of reading only one piece until we memorize it. Set it down and come back to it. Also playing different instruments like guitar or viola or violin and coming back to an instrument you somehow can goto next level. So maybe it is the same theory about variable practice. The spacing is different.
Thank you so much for this insightful and inspirational video. Do you know the feeling just before you do a shift, this little fear you could fail again? I think your method helps me to avoid this fear. And this is so important, because I sometimes think I am learning this fear instead of the shift😅
Thank you very much for the content. I recently started my cello journey at 41 and really don't want to waste time whilst practicing. Any tips on how this relates to beginner exercises?
There exists three levels: consciously incompetent (beginners), then you move through to consciously competent (knowing but not yet mastery) to our end goal, which is, unconsciously competent, resulting in the state of flow. Like when you are driving…you just feel it and can actually do other things whilst doing the driving.
Thank you so much for this video! :D For a long time now I have been thinking about how far behind the discipline of music performance is compared to sports, in regards to having a scientific understanding of the physical execution and how to practice. Thus, I am very happy to have come by your channel, as you seem to be bridging this gap. I also have to say that in terms of content, I think this is your best video so far! ;) I also have a request/suggestion: Please make a video about how the ideas discussed in this video would relate to practicing the bow arm! I think it could be a very interesting and exhaustive topic to cover and thus very helpful. Cheers!
Wow. Amazing fearless sharing of details. It happens to be the way I like to think. An exhortation to practice is really terrifying. But a process to follow is reassuring. (I'll be back in one year to tell everyone if it doesn't work! :) )
man this video was honestly life changing for me. i played cello in high school, before i had the life experience and knowledge i have now. i loved playing, but i felt stuck. towards the end of school, i felt like i hadn’t really gotten any better in the past few years, and i stopped playing after i graduated. now i’m in my mid 20s, recently picked it back up for fun. in that gap of time, i learned a lot about myself, i learned HOW i learn, and i stared applying a lot of those life lessons to my practice sessions. and i can now say that, after years of being stuck, i feel i’ve actually seen some improvement in the last 3 months. with the knowledge i gained from this video, im hoping i’ll continue making progress these coming years.
Hi, this is highly interesting material! But for me you were speaking and explaining (plus visualising) far too fast. Too hectic the whole thing. I very often observe that in videos from the US. I usually have to review and stop them several times in order to have a lasting learning effect. Compare that style with teaching videos by Continental Europeans - usually much more relaxed and giving time to reflect and store the information. Yes, that needs more time, but, at least for me, at the end of the day it is much more learn effective.
This is a fantastic explanation, and probably even more valuable for the adult learner who is trying to unlearn so many motor habits from being an adult (gripping steering wheels, typing etc - I found that I try to "brake" when I feel a passage is too fast for me to play well). By "adult learner", I'm primarily referring to people who are 50+ who retired and took up cello. Take 4 decades of ingrained motor skills and try to make them disappear... not easy! I could see how this would be really useful with bow technique as well. Thank you for posting this!
you are obviously a talented performer and very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about your craft, . . . but, if I may offer some observances in hopes of perhaps a small improvement (constructive critique)? first, the background music is distracting and makes it difficult to hear as its not mixed correctly (and isn't really necessary we get that this is about classical music), the speed at which you talk is exhausting - I was holding my breath waiting for you to pause long enough to breathe, remember that this is a UA-cam channel, not a college lecture course a little brevity may be in need here - most folks have a 2-3 minute attention span, maybe 6 if the content is really engaging which is why most videos are that long - we get that you did your research and we believe you, it might not be necessary to defend a doctoral dissertation - you were 10 minutes in before you even starting talking about the cello. The cello content used for instruction was about 1 minute or less - which is why the entire episode could have been done in 3 minutes or less. Lastly, the cutesy little pop-ups are annoying and distracting and add no value, and probably took a ton of time. save yourself the effort. Nice setting, good example, vocals were very clear, but 16 minutes for 3 minutes of information just seemed a tiny bit too much.
Hi, THANK YOU for sharing. This is one of the best cello tutorials I've seen on youtube. I love your performances with Dover String Quartet and your tips are super valuable. I wish I could have watched this when I was learning cello as a teenager. Back then I got really frustrated about my shifts not being accurate, I became self conscientious about my intonation and stopped seriously playing. Now I'm picking up my cello again 10 years later. Your video is really inspiring and made my day. Looking forward to trying this variable practice model. Thanks again!
@@cellomonk3381 you are welcome🙂thank you for replying me. How to avoid having Tendinitis while practicing effectively? Ideally, I practice 2 hours a day but I got a feeling that sooner or later I may have tendinitis due to my fore arms soar each time after practicing. On average I practice an hour a day. What can I do to best use this hour. I am not sure what’s variable practice for a beginner. There are too much to learn such as string crossing, speed, weight, beats, intonation and change positions. I just start learning Suzuki vol 2😅. Should I try focusing on string crossing every other days and the other days try catching up the beats? Or practicing everything everyday in different orders?😅
@cellomonk request for improving vibrato, specifically about hand shapes and the paradox of the force required to hold the string down while keeping the other fingers loose. Also would love to know about wife vibrato on faster eighth notes… I’m 3.5 years in adult beginner trying to use the Swan to dial in tone/bow control, vibrato and pitch. Shifting from the 1st finger B to 4th finger E… I’ve been using the repetitive practice… going to try variable!
Thank you for this video!! I love how you take from scientific studies to support your advice. I’m always looking for more efficient ways to practice. I find myself often going into autopilot mode when doing repetitive practice, so I think trying these exercises out will help keep my practice intentional and effective!
I'll say, it wasn't boring. It was interesting (as an engineer this is the type of information I feed on), but I'm not exactly sure how to use it in my practice. I'm still very new (only playing about 16 months) and I'm getting older (40). What I really struggle with is deciding which string to play on and whether to shift up the neck or shift to a new string. I struggle a lot with that. I mainly play by site reading in my church's little orchestra (mostly easy songs). So, I've actually gotten really good and looking ahead in the music and imagining what is the easiest way to play through the songs. But for some reason I STRUGGLE with figuring out when practicing a single (more complicated) piece over and over...no idea why. I feel like I play better off the cuff, then when practicing (other than complicated patterns that I need to figure out ahead of time)
Oh my goodness, I know exactly what you mean when you say you feel like you play better off the cuff than when you practice. Same here!! It makes no sense though. I think my teacher is confused by it as well. 😆
Here's something to get curious about. What do you notice about yourself overall when you think of playing songs for church off the cuff? What thoughts, emotions, and sensations come up for you? What do you notice about yourself overall when you think of practicing a more complicated piece?
This is what the likes of (to name a few) Hanon, Ševčík and, on the cello Klengel, Feuillard and Starker operated on: variable/variated patterns all over the instrument, in different keys, on different strings, in different positions, different rhythms/bowings. The science is just (now) confirming the solid validity of this efficient approach to skill acquisition. 🤷
Good morning! This video is both revelatory and helpful. Thank you so much. Huh. I just realized -- across spiritual traditions, all the many monks I've known in my life all provide the same. So now, "cellomonk" makes sense. Monks also love requests for help. hahaha So here goes. Could you make a video(s) about using this technique for beginners? I realize you are at the maestro level. Yet, please think of us here at the "what's a 'position?' level. Thank you cello monk for your generosity and kindness in teaching us. Best of luck to you in all your activities.
Basically it's musical context even during practice. I would say even ditch these variations as the physics of strings (shrinking of intervals as we go towards the bridge) is a needless complication. Anything done out of context is counterproductive in my opinion. If you are a contemporary cellist accuracy is the least of your worries, playing a piece you don't know or have never heard before (probably because it is improvised on the spot) without sheet music completely by ear and anticipating key changes IS REAL MUSIC everyone else is just reciting a dialogue. Some people like dialogs I prefer a conversation. To each his own.
Damn, need to watch this again tomorrow during practice time but I didn't know you, you're very interesting, new subscriber. I hope I can go to Curtis in a couple of years.
I flunked fly-ball catching...no depth perception according to my doctor so I can't relate. I've been playing piano and cello (practice both every day) most of my life (71 years old), even took 4 years of university applied cello. In my retirement due to failing health, I can only muster minutes at a time. This is kind of mind-boggling but I can intuitively relate to it. An international concert cellist introduced it to me many years ago at a master class. Struggling with Dotzauer #112, skipping all over the fingerboard with the thumb & Chopin Cello Sonata. This will come in handy. No available cello teachers near me for 100+ miles round trip. Yes, please give us more examples. I see tremendous potential!!
At 69 just started cello 3 months ago. Of course, been playing fiddle for 45 or so. I found the video interesting, but it kinda confirmed how I practice on fiddle. Thanks!
I don't practice...I play my cello with many different genders BY EAR. I discovered patterns of scales and while hearing the music, I anticipate melody movement of unfamiliar music. This leads to enjoyment. Sooo I DISAGREE with the less is more BS. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT. And all learn in different ways. I also read music, but once melody is found, reading is no longer needed. Although, you do have some interesting tips. I also play violin since 3rd grade. I am 66 now.
I'm a self taught adult beginning violist and was always a compulsive sight reader. I've assembled a huge collection of beginning viola method books (cheap on ebay) and work part way through a different one every day, but always at an easy level. When I get back to a book two or three weeks later it goes much smoother and I haven't bored myself by struggling with the same book daily. Your video shows me a more advanced way to approach variable practice. Thanks.
This is the first of your videos I've seen and it's very interesting and helpful - thank you! I've probably got about 15 years on you but I'm fortunately still interested and hopefully improving and this will definitely help in my practise. Two of my favourite exercises/studies which resonate with the variable practise approach are the Tortelier shifting studies from 'How I play, How I teach'. All intervals between all fingers. The awkward intervals are also helpful for intonation. I look forward to watching more and thank you again.
I'm back to this video: one of the best on UA-cam I think. The analogy re the baseball had me thinking: I wonder about any feedback mechanism that occurs while in motion (while running towards the baseball). Running towards feels like the runner is inundated with new data every second and can (unconsciously?) make micro or even grand adjustments while in motion. Seems similar to shifting, as one can hear a trajectory while in motion (while the hand is moving along the fingerboard). I wonder if one was standing still and the ball was in motion, and the same "runner" tried to interpret the end location of the ball, if they might not have a lot less success :) Kind of like jumping to a high note from a low one, instead of shifting there. Thanks for this video... :)
I love this, and your humor is a welcome touch..."CRAP load of math!" Yeah, that pretty much sums up my feelings about math.😂 It amazes me how we want perfection to be gotten by mimicking "So and So", when "So and So" is 5" shorter than you with a long body, short legs and freakishly long arms and fingers. Good luck imitating that guys shift change capabilities, especially if you have smaller hands, short body and arms with long legs. I know where the bow and fingers need to go, but HOW do I get there in my body? Ergonomics is long overdue in the cello world. We need to say goodbye to the rigid "Beautiful Orange" type form, because it's given carpal tunnel syndrome to all who use that "exquisite" technique.😏 Georg Mertens covers this topic as well. I'm off to practice!♥️🎻
Outstanding! This brought me to the thought that we shouldn't get in the way of our brains playing the cello. A weird little outlier of hitting difficult sounds seems to be in my case singing the sound in my head before going or it. Weirdly this has a habit of not working while playing a gig, but works flawlessly at home or rehearsal. Makes me think that our mind knows perfectly where the sounds are located. Bur if we're stressed or something similar, we get in it's way of just putting the fingers where they should go. Might be me being idiosyncratic or perhaps that's neighbor of what you discus (magnificently) here... Never the less, excellent video, sending it to my colleagues right away :)
Omg. It’s 16 Years of playing the Cello. I Nerven really had to learn how to practice. So naturaly i hit that „I Nerven learned to practice“ wall. This Video helped a lot! Than you.
brilliant!!! Thanks for the help. Im an adult beginner and I really appreciate the insight! what size cello are you playing?? You look way more at ease than I feel with my 4/4. GRATEFUL!!
You don’t mention the importance of pitch. Knowing the note is wrong and being able to fix it. You are born with it or not. If you can’t get your fingers to the right note through hearing, only a lot of practice is gonna help. But you can also practice bad habits which take time to undo.
Meandered here via Bach Cello Suite No.1, which I thought I'd learn on the piano - I don't play cello, although I love it and the viola da gamba. This has been useful as a challenge to my idea of just practising the pieces I'm learning (because I don't like playing scales and arpeggios or doing endless boring reading exercises, but the pieces I want to learn have exactly the scales and arpeggios in them that I "need to learn"). It's a good reminder to broaden that approach. I forget that my instrument can be there for "play", in the sense of "experimentation", not just working towards singular goals. I do already spend a fair amount of time improvising, but I'm still aiming at developing a piece or my harmonic understanding, rather than challenging myself on position and accuracy - or indeed a lot of other variables, like dynamic range (volume). Thanks.
Cello Monk! Where you at?! I just discovered your channel and your ideas and teaching style are blowing my mind!!! I hope all is well in your world and I hope you’ll come to a place where making these videos makes sense for you again! For all of our sakes! 😂😊
Man this is really helpful and cool stuff, connecting science with your musical practice. I really hope that at some point you continue making videos. I leave my sub :)
this explain something funny that is whenever I play something and then from an urge I play it an octave higher I always instantly land the shift, but when schumanns fantasy shift comes.. me forget to human and *panik*
Hooked me at the Malcolm Gladwell reference. Was killing myself with practice trying the same thing over and over. What pulled it together was the idea of varying the how part. Crazy that's the way I lift weights and practice yoga and have made huge gains. Thank you.
This is really good stuff. I am a physical therapist and so I think about movement in terms of kinesiology. I have found that the cello teachers that I have had are largely not able to explain how they actually perform a movement in terms of joint and muscle activities. They will demonstrate many times, but without any explanation of what the body is actually doing. The idea of variable practice was a real surprise to me, but I see an analogy with how the homing pigeon always finds the its home, even though they may fly home by different routes. Thank you.
lol catching a ball it not math, its memory and imagination. We patch together various memories and guess somewhere along the middle of best relavent memories. Similar to billiards, we have memories we bank on. This video was awesome, really enjoyed it!
It soinds like I've been doing it right lol with fewer mechanical considerations... i did this technique to learn flute when i was 10 and i learned much faster than my peers.
Very interesting. You explained the science with supporting evidence. Then you explained how to incorporate it, which is useful. I Plato utilize your suggestions. Thanks!
Amazing video, thanks for explaining so well!! I love how you talk about basic physics and how our brain naturally works. It's so good to hear someone talk about how cello practicing is really about finding a good way to practice motor skills instead of the idea that if you're talented that it will magically work. This is an amazing video, really :))
Hi Camden, what a great video’s!! Yes I love all of them. I’m playing the cello since I was 45 years old and love doing it. I have noticed you did not put a new video up since 8 moths. What happened? I really look forward to a new video. Hope you are doing well. Kind regards David
Thank you for this video. I recommend you to look at book by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool called "Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise" about "deliberate practice". I think it's worth reading, especially after Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers", to broaden your perspective on learning and acquiring expertise in selected field. Info: Gladwell had based the idea of the "10,000-hour rule" on Ericsson's own research, but oversimplified and misrepresented it.
Fantastic video! I wish there was more accessible information on music + neuroscience, so I'm glad I came across this video and your channel in general. Can't wait to see future videos you may put out, I've learned eye-opening things in each one!
Oh man. I think I have recently started practicing some things this way but it wasn't something I was consciously setting out to do. However, I did notice that I got better pretty quickly in that minor area. Now I know why!! Thank you so much for making this video!
I worked hard on this one, guys! Now of course, keep in mind as you see this that there are MANY different types of practicing, which can lead to the development of different skills. This one technique is merely a tool in a LARGE toolbox, so I don't mean to give the impression that this is the ONLY way to practice; but unfortunately, it is one that is almost NEVER used and is scientifically proven to be the most effective way to gain accuracy. So I hope it changes your lives as much as it did mine!
@CelloMonk One can certainly tell you did work hard on this one! Again, appreciate it a lot! Another question came to mind. I hope you don't mind me asking: Would you say that constant practice still offers some value? If so, in what situations?
This channel is a goldmine. Thanks man :)
Thank you so much for this new video! Very interesting and useful!
Like this perspective - I answered this with a defined formula 3y ago - ua-cam.com/video/gIyp-ktPbt0/v-deo.html
Hello, great video, but in addition to studies that are unfortunately few and not necessarily as reliable as we'd like, an even more convincing argument (at least to me) comes from how AI is trained these days. The core of modern machine learning is neural networks, which our brain happens to be, and even if the way networks are trained differ, the core idea is the same : the more varied data with *good* *feedback*, the better the network becomes. It doesn't matter if the output is "yes this is a human face" or "that's a major third" or "the human face is in that rectangle" or "move your arm there for this sound" or whatever.
And because human brains are very large and deep (in terms of neural network topology), it does actually matter to focus on what's going on internally too, because what's going on internally is at the same time the output of some parts of the network, and the input of some other parts. This explains why the brain would associate information like the crush by the way.
For that reason, it is extremely important to always focus on the whole chain of sound production, from the intent (normally audiating what you want to play) up to the movement of the body, including anything in between like the sense of rhythm and also of harmony, like keeping in mind a note function in the current harmony, and anything that may come to mind (I can think of which string to use as an example of an instrument-specific detail). As a side note, practicing slowly helps because it allows focusing and intending the whole process better, and these are by far the two main inputs we can use to train our brain.
Why did you stop making videos?? I just discovered this channel and as someone who loves to play cello and work out I was sad to see there aren’t many videos especially when it seemed like you were so excited to make them.. please bring this back 🙏🙏
Very good!!! I played as a child, cello and piano, repeating repeating... you know. So boring. Now, being 66 and having just but a cello, this seems a much better practice approach for an adult. I live too far away to take lessons and anyway love experimenting on my own. Here we go!!! Thanks!
I’m 66 . I’ve taken my fourth cello lesson! I’m a guitarist for 50 years. I’m used to being able to figure out pretty much any tune. The cello has humbled me. I cannot practice for long periods of time as both of my shoulders have been replaced. I’ll do 20 mins per session and I’ll return to the instrument three to four times in a day. I don’t believe that I’m getting the most out of my practice. I learning to sight read bass clef which is quite the challenge. So I’m learning out of a book and naturally I practice my material for my next lesson. I want to devote some time to figuring out Cello Symphony Number One. It’s a long term goal for me. I’m learning two measures at a time. Slow going but I’m still a beginning beginner! I’m still learning fundamentals. But id like to be able to make my practice effective.
To both of you, thank you so much for your posts! As a soon to be fellow "mature student" cello dreamer, your generous glimpse into your world is very inspiring. Double shoulder replacement! Whoa. You raise the bar on insane in the most positively magical way possible. Best of luck to both of you!
I have been feeling so stuck with cello and have been increasing my practice time to hours a day, but still not seeing much improvement. This helped me so much, please make more videos :)
That is awesome advice and science. I have immediately started using this. If you're thinking about a follow up video, I think it would be great to have more examples on how to use this method. Routines, examples from other pieces, ideas for experimenting with it and make it even more fun. Keep up the great work of educating us.
I was really confused on how this related to playing music but in the end it all clicked thank you!
Hey thank you so much!!! I have been learning a very difficult Indian Classical instrument, the Sarangi. I am very interested in neural plasticity and the topic of this video too. Optimal practice. I love it. Thank you again!!!
Wow, I play violin, and this is still awesome advice!
This video gives me hope for the future of my playing, especially now that I’m inching towards my mid twenties and my brain development is slowing down. ‘Beating my head against the wall’ has been giving me drastically diminishing returns in recent years and now that I’ve started incorporating these concepts into my practice I feel like I can actually see progress again. Hope to see more great videos in the future.
I hope you'll keep uploading tips relating to cello! Your videos are very understandable and helpful!
Great video! I'm actually brand new to cello (late 30s, yikes haha). However I've played piano and guitar most of my life, so I have lots of experience with music and practicing. I think this is the same idea of what you were saying with variable practice, but in the past year or so I've started to take difficult techniques or passages and create games and exercises around them in tons of ways. I just got so sick of playing the same passages (or same technical exercises) slowly to a metronome over. and over. and over. And hardly seeing improvement, or if I did, it was like 1% improvement for a ton of work - it just never seems to pay off that well.
Then after doing research I started to take those same difficult passages or runs or whatever, and vary up how I play them in tons of fun and even creatively inspiring ways: varied rhythms (long-short-long, dotted-triplets, swung-straight, etc), transposing into other keys, inversion (which could be literally flipping the notes in either pitch or time), fragmenting (pulling apart the passage and playing chunks out of order, or repeating chunks back and forth), and perhaps my favorite: improvising around the difficult passage or idea, where you might take a segment of it and then find new musical expression around it which is all your own, which I think can also force you to really explore the melodic and harmonic framework which may unlock its difficulty. The list is limited to your own imagination.
Nonetheless, from all these games it's insane how much better and more accurate I'm getting at certain skills - and I'm having A LOT more musically-inspired fun doing it, rather than just drilling mindless technical exercies all day. Like even if I'm doing exercises, they sound like actual music to me :)
Of course I'm referring to piano and guitar, because like I said I'm only just starting cello. But hopefully using these techniques (along with my teacher's suggestions) I'll be able to improve at the instrument a bit faster than if I didn't. Wish me luck. Subscribed!
Please make more videos! The way you talk about it all makes it so clear to me, and I'm starting to learn and would really welcome more guidance from you.
very helpful and interesting information. thank you.
Also I think we learn faster by trying a new page of music each lesson instead of reading only one piece until we memorize it. Set it down and come back to it. Also playing different instruments like guitar or viola or violin and coming back to an instrument you somehow can goto next level. So maybe it is the same theory about variable practice. The spacing is different.
Excellent!
Thank you so much for this insightful and inspirational video. Do you know the feeling just before you do a shift, this little fear you could fail again? I think your method helps me to avoid this fear. And this is so important, because I sometimes think I am learning this fear instead of the shift😅
thanks, really interesting video!
Yo-Yo Ma: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert--- I`ve just recall the interview of yo-yo with the 4th study!
Thank you very much for the content. I recently started my cello journey at 41 and really don't want to waste time whilst practicing. Any tips on how this relates to beginner exercises?
There exists three levels: consciously incompetent (beginners), then you move through to consciously competent (knowing but not yet mastery) to our end goal, which is, unconsciously competent, resulting in the state of flow. Like when you are driving…you just feel it and can actually do other things whilst doing the driving.
Brilliant
🙏wow, amazing
Jumpscare at 2:08
Thank you so much for this video! :D For a long time now I have been thinking about how far behind the discipline of music performance is compared to sports, in regards to having a scientific understanding of the physical execution and how to practice. Thus, I am very happy to have come by your channel, as you seem to be bridging this gap. I also have to say that in terms of content, I think this is your best video so far! ;)
I also have a request/suggestion: Please make a video about how the ideas discussed in this video would relate to practicing the bow arm! I think it could be a very interesting and exhaustive topic to cover and thus very helpful.
Cheers!
Wow. Amazing fearless sharing of details. It happens to be the way I like to think. An exhortation to practice is really terrifying. But a process to follow is reassuring. (I'll be back in one year to tell everyone if it doesn't work! :) )
❤We will be waiting for you in three months
man this video was honestly life changing for me. i played cello in high school, before i had the life experience and knowledge i have now. i loved playing, but i felt stuck. towards the end of school, i felt like i hadn’t really gotten any better in the past few years, and i stopped playing after i graduated. now i’m in my mid 20s, recently picked it back up for fun. in that gap of time, i learned a lot about myself, i learned HOW i learn, and i stared applying a lot of those life lessons to my practice sessions. and i can now say that, after years of being stuck, i feel i’ve actually seen some improvement in the last 3 months. with the knowledge i gained from this video, im hoping i’ll continue making progress these coming years.
Hi, this is highly interesting material!
But for me you were speaking and explaining (plus visualising) far too fast. Too hectic the whole thing.
I very often observe that in videos from the US. I usually have to review and stop them several times in order to have a lasting learning effect. Compare that style with teaching videos by Continental Europeans - usually much more relaxed and giving time to reflect and store the information. Yes, that needs more time, but, at least for me, at the end of the day it is much more learn effective.
This is a fantastic explanation, and probably even more valuable for the adult learner who is trying to unlearn so many motor habits from being an adult (gripping steering wheels, typing etc - I found that I try to "brake" when I feel a passage is too fast for me to play well). By "adult learner", I'm primarily referring to people who are 50+ who retired and took up cello. Take 4 decades of ingrained motor skills and try to make them disappear... not easy! I could see how this would be really useful with bow technique as well. Thank you for posting this!
Please make the video on how to practice fast passages!
you are obviously a talented performer and very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about your craft, . . . but, if I may offer some observances in hopes of perhaps a small improvement (constructive critique)? first, the background music is distracting and makes it difficult to hear as its not mixed correctly (and isn't really necessary we get that this is about classical music), the speed at which you talk is exhausting - I was holding my breath waiting for you to pause long enough to breathe, remember that this is a UA-cam channel, not a college lecture course a little brevity may be in need here - most folks have a 2-3 minute attention span, maybe 6 if the content is really engaging which is why most videos are that long - we get that you did your research and we believe you, it might not be necessary to defend a doctoral dissertation - you were 10 minutes in before you even starting talking about the cello. The cello content used for instruction was about 1 minute or less - which is why the entire episode could have been done in 3 minutes or less. Lastly, the cutesy little pop-ups are annoying and distracting and add no value, and probably took a ton of time. save yourself the effort. Nice setting, good example, vocals were very clear, but 16 minutes for 3 minutes of information just seemed a tiny bit too much.
What about when you're just starting out and you only play 1st position?
Good info! Unsolicited advice, let your beard grow up to your ears and fade it out with clippers; will look cuter on you. 😇
How about a Lesson Plan for practice employing the same scientific techniques?
It changed everything and he disappeared from UA-cam.
🧐 😅
I’d wish he’d make more videos, he has such an amazing way of getting across either technique or information that’s really helpful
You should create exercise videos for us to follow along with.
This is so helpful! Please make more videos soon!
Hi, THANK YOU for sharing. This is one of the best cello tutorials I've seen on youtube. I love your performances with Dover String Quartet and your tips are super valuable. I wish I could have watched this when I was learning cello as a teenager. Back then I got really frustrated about my shifts not being accurate, I became self conscientious about my intonation and stopped seriously playing. Now I'm picking up my cello again 10 years later. Your video is really inspiring and made my day. Looking forward to trying this variable practice model. Thanks again!
This is great! Now I gotta think about how to apply this principle to piano....
Thank you, now I'm free at last
Can’t wait your new videos! Thank you for sharing. I am an adult learner. Practice effectively is so important for me. Can’t thank you enough.
Thanks so much, Paulina! Is there any particular subject you'd like to hear about next?
@@cellomonk3381 you are welcome🙂thank you for replying me. How to avoid having Tendinitis while practicing effectively? Ideally, I practice 2 hours a day but I got a feeling that sooner or later I may have tendinitis due to my fore arms soar each time after practicing. On average I practice an hour a day. What can I do to best use this hour. I am not sure what’s variable practice for a beginner. There are too much to learn such as string crossing, speed, weight, beats, intonation and change positions. I just start learning Suzuki vol 2😅. Should I try focusing on string crossing every other days and the other days try catching up the beats? Or practicing everything everyday in different orders?😅
@cellomonk request for improving vibrato, specifically about hand shapes and the paradox of the force required to hold the string down while keeping the other fingers loose. Also would love to know about wife vibrato on faster eighth notes… I’m 3.5 years in adult beginner trying to use the Swan to dial in tone/bow control, vibrato and pitch. Shifting from the 1st finger B to 4th finger E… I’ve been using the repetitive practice… going to try variable!
this is great thanks
OMG I hope I knew this when I was studing music, this will help a lot now im coming back to play cello, Thanks men!
Practicing incorrectly.
Thank you for this video!! I love how you take from scientific studies to support your advice. I’m always looking for more efficient ways to practice. I find myself often going into autopilot mode when doing repetitive practice, so I think trying these exercises out will help keep my practice intentional and effective!
The "10,000 hour" rule has been debunked in a dozen different ways. It was glib nonsense on Gladwell's part.
Yet, a small daily practice does wonders. Just do it is the message.
I think they should invent an arm sling just for cellists to carry around for mobile practice. Literally in the shape of an arm.
Thanks 🙏🙏!!!It's far from being boring !
Wow! What a valuable video of cello learning! Thank you so much!
THIS IS AMAZING! Thank you so much for sharing this perspective of practicing with us! I'm super excited to go and try this out!!!!
I'll say, it wasn't boring. It was interesting (as an engineer this is the type of information I feed on), but I'm not exactly sure how to use it in my practice. I'm still very new (only playing about 16 months) and I'm getting older (40). What I really struggle with is deciding which string to play on and whether to shift up the neck or shift to a new string. I struggle a lot with that. I mainly play by site reading in my church's little orchestra (mostly easy songs). So, I've actually gotten really good and looking ahead in the music and imagining what is the easiest way to play through the songs. But for some reason I STRUGGLE with figuring out when practicing a single (more complicated) piece over and over...no idea why. I feel like I play better off the cuff, then when practicing (other than complicated patterns that I need to figure out ahead of time)
Oh my goodness, I know exactly what you mean when you say you feel like you play better off the cuff than when you practice. Same here!! It makes no sense though. I think my teacher is confused by it as well. 😆
Here's something to get curious about. What do you notice about yourself overall when you think of playing songs for church off the cuff? What thoughts, emotions, and sensations come up for you? What do you notice about yourself overall when you think of practicing a more complicated piece?
Thanks for sharing your wisdom. Fantastic video…as always!!
This is what the likes of (to name a few) Hanon, Ševčík and, on the cello Klengel, Feuillard and Starker operated on: variable/variated patterns all over the instrument, in different keys, on different strings, in different positions, different rhythms/bowings. The science is just (now) confirming the solid validity of this efficient approach to skill acquisition. 🤷
fantastic, thought provoking video! thanks a lot for sharing your work!
Good morning! This video is both revelatory and helpful. Thank you so much. Huh. I just realized -- across spiritual traditions, all the many monks I've known in my life all provide the same. So now, "cellomonk" makes sense.
Monks also love requests for help. hahaha So here goes. Could you make a video(s) about using this technique for beginners? I realize you are at the maestro level. Yet, please think of us here at the "what's a 'position?' level. Thank you cello monk for your generosity and kindness in teaching us. Best of luck to you in all your activities.
This is excellent thank YOU
The brain is attracted to novelty, so by varying practice you keep your brain engaged. Great video!
Basically it's musical context even during practice. I would say even ditch these variations as the physics of strings (shrinking of intervals as we go towards the bridge) is a needless complication. Anything done out of context is counterproductive in my opinion. If you are a contemporary cellist accuracy is the least of your worries, playing a piece you don't know or have never heard before (probably because it is improvised on the spot) without sheet music completely by ear and anticipating key changes IS REAL MUSIC everyone else is just reciting a dialogue. Some people like dialogs I prefer a conversation. To each his own.
Damn, need to watch this again tomorrow during practice time but I didn't know you, you're very interesting, new subscriber. I hope I can go to Curtis in a couple of years.
I flunked fly-ball catching...no depth perception according to my doctor so I can't relate. I've been playing piano and cello (practice both every day) most of my life (71 years old), even took 4 years of university applied cello. In my retirement due to failing health, I can only muster minutes at a time. This is kind of mind-boggling but I can intuitively relate to it. An international concert cellist introduced it to me many years ago at a master class. Struggling with Dotzauer #112, skipping all over the fingerboard with the thumb & Chopin Cello Sonata. This will come in handy. No available cello teachers near me for 100+ miles round trip. Yes, please give us more examples. I see tremendous potential!!
At 69 just started cello 3 months ago. Of course, been playing fiddle for 45 or so. I found the video interesting, but it kinda confirmed how I practice on fiddle. Thanks!
I don't practice...I play my cello with many different genders BY EAR. I discovered patterns of scales and while hearing the music, I anticipate melody movement of unfamiliar music. This leads to enjoyment. Sooo I DISAGREE with the less is more BS. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT. And all learn in different ways. I also read music, but once melody is found, reading is no longer needed. Although, you do have some interesting tips. I also play violin since 3rd grade. I am 66 now.
I love this, great video I’m a teen Chello player and I found this specific content super helpful
I'm a self taught adult beginning violist and was always a compulsive sight reader. I've assembled a huge collection of beginning viola method books (cheap on ebay) and work part way through a different one every day, but always at an easy level. When I get back to a book two or three weeks later it goes much smoother and I haven't bored myself by struggling with the same book daily. Your video shows me a more advanced way to approach variable practice. Thanks.
This is the first of your videos I've seen and it's very interesting and helpful - thank you! I've probably got about 15 years on you but I'm fortunately still interested and hopefully improving and this will definitely help in my practise. Two of my favourite exercises/studies which resonate with the variable practise approach are the Tortelier shifting studies from 'How I play, How I teach'. All intervals between all fingers. The awkward intervals are also helpful for intonation. I look forward to watching more and thank you again.
I'm back to this video: one of the best on UA-cam I think. The analogy re the baseball had me thinking: I wonder about any feedback mechanism that occurs while in motion (while running towards the baseball). Running towards feels like the runner is inundated with new data every second and can (unconsciously?) make micro or even grand adjustments while in motion. Seems similar to shifting, as one can hear a trajectory while in motion (while the hand is moving along the fingerboard). I wonder if one was standing still and the ball was in motion, and the same "runner" tried to interpret the end location of the ball, if they might not have a lot less success :) Kind of like jumping to a high note from a low one, instead of shifting there. Thanks for this video... :)
I love this, and your humor is a welcome touch..."CRAP load of math!" Yeah, that pretty much sums up my feelings about math.😂
It amazes me how we want perfection to be gotten by mimicking "So and So", when "So and So" is 5" shorter than you with a long body, short legs and freakishly long arms and fingers. Good luck imitating that guys shift change capabilities, especially if you have smaller hands, short body and arms with long legs. I know where the bow and fingers need to go, but HOW do I get there in my body? Ergonomics is long overdue in the cello world. We need to say goodbye to the rigid "Beautiful Orange" type form, because it's given carpal tunnel syndrome to all who use that "exquisite" technique.😏 Georg Mertens covers this topic as well. I'm off to practice!♥️🎻
Outstanding! This brought me to the thought that we shouldn't get in the way of our brains playing the cello. A weird little outlier of hitting difficult sounds seems to be in my case singing the sound in my head before going or it. Weirdly this has a habit of not working while playing a gig, but works flawlessly at home or rehearsal. Makes me think that our mind knows perfectly where the sounds are located. Bur if we're stressed or something similar, we get in it's way of just putting the fingers where they should go. Might be me being idiosyncratic or perhaps that's neighbor of what you discus (magnificently) here...
Never the less, excellent video, sending it to my colleagues right away :)
Omg. It’s 16 Years of playing the Cello. I Nerven really had to learn how to practice. So naturaly i hit that „I Nerven learned to practice“ wall. This Video helped a lot! Than you.
Excellent tips! The concept of a variable practice has the benefit of preparing for all eventualities.
Thank you. VERY intersting. Maybe you go a little too fast and explain too many things at the same time.
brilliant!!! Thanks for the help. Im an adult beginner and I really appreciate the insight! what size cello are you playing?? You look way more at ease than I feel with my 4/4. GRATEFUL!!
You don’t mention the importance of pitch. Knowing the note is wrong and being able to fix it. You are born with it or not. If you can’t get your fingers to the right note through hearing, only a lot of practice is gonna help. But you can also practice bad habits which take time to undo.
Meandered here via Bach Cello Suite No.1, which I thought I'd learn on the piano - I don't play cello, although I love it and the viola da gamba. This has been useful as a challenge to my idea of just practising the pieces I'm learning (because I don't like playing scales and arpeggios or doing endless boring reading exercises, but the pieces I want to learn have exactly the scales and arpeggios in them that I "need to learn"). It's a good reminder to broaden that approach. I forget that my instrument can be there for "play", in the sense of "experimentation", not just working towards singular goals. I do already spend a fair amount of time improvising, but I'm still aiming at developing a piece or my harmonic understanding, rather than challenging myself on position and accuracy - or indeed a lot of other variables, like dynamic range (volume). Thanks.
Cello Monk! Where you at?! I just discovered your channel and your ideas and teaching style are blowing my mind!!! I hope all is well in your world and I hope you’ll come to a place where making these videos makes sense for you again! For all of our sakes! 😂😊
Man this is really helpful and cool stuff, connecting science with your musical practice. I really hope that at some point you continue making videos. I leave my sub :)
this explain something funny that is whenever I play something and then from an urge I play it an octave higher I always instantly land the shift, but when schumanns fantasy shift comes.. me forget to human and *panik*
Just started playing cello in my 30's. Wish me luck :P
Hooked me at the Malcolm Gladwell reference. Was killing myself with practice trying the same thing over and over. What pulled it together was the idea of varying the how part. Crazy that's the way I lift weights and practice yoga and have made huge gains. Thank you.
This is excellent information and advice for Cellists. Thanks so much for creating these videos!
This is really good stuff. I am a physical therapist and so I think about movement in terms of kinesiology. I have found that the cello teachers that I have had are largely not able to explain how they actually perform a movement in terms of joint and muscle activities.
They will demonstrate many times, but without any explanation of what the body is actually doing.
The idea of variable practice was a real surprise to me, but I see an analogy with how the homing pigeon always finds the its home, even though they may fly home by different routes. Thank you.
lol catching a ball it not math, its memory and imagination. We patch together various memories and guess somewhere along the middle of best relavent memories.
Similar to billiards, we have memories we bank on.
This video was awesome, really enjoyed it!
It soinds like I've been doing it right lol with fewer mechanical considerations... i did this technique to learn flute when i was 10 and i learned much faster than my peers.
Very good presentation of how brain works, thank you!
Where are you!!!?? I would be so happy to see more of your cellomunk project!!!!!!!
This was super interesting! Thanks for the video
Very interesting. You explained the science with supporting evidence. Then you explained how to incorporate it, which is useful. I Plato utilize your suggestions. Thanks!
Amazing video, thanks for explaining so well!! I love how you talk about basic physics and how our brain naturally works. It's so good to hear someone talk about how cello practicing is really about finding a good way to practice motor skills instead of the idea that if you're talented that it will magically work. This is an amazing video, really :))
Nice vid! I know that room well. Curtis 91 …
Hi Camden, what a great video’s!! Yes I love all of them. I’m playing the cello since I was 45 years old and love doing it. I have noticed you did not put a new video up since 8 moths. What happened? I really look forward to a new video. Hope you are doing well. Kind regards David
Thank you for this video. I recommend you to look at book by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool called "Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise" about "deliberate practice". I think it's worth reading, especially after Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers", to broaden your perspective on learning and acquiring expertise in selected field. Info: Gladwell had based the idea of the "10,000-hour rule" on Ericsson's own research, but oversimplified and misrepresented it.
So should I do repetitive practice for playing by memory?
Yesssss! Thank you for putting this out. Finally, someone competent on UA-cam...
This video is real treasure!! Thank you very much for doing it!
I’d greatly appreciate a video on how to achieve great intonation!
Very interesting video and applicable to many activities.🙂
Fantastic video! I wish there was more accessible information on music + neuroscience, so I'm glad I came across this video and your channel in general. Can't wait to see future videos you may put out, I've learned eye-opening things in each one!
As a professional scientist and a pseudo-professional musician I really liked this video. Thanks! I play bass and guitar but my son plays cello!
Fascinating and inspiring. Thank you for creating and sharing.
Oh man. I think I have recently started practicing some things this way but it wasn't something I was consciously setting out to do. However, I did notice that I got better pretty quickly in that minor area. Now I know why!! Thank you so much for making this video!