Corkybird Enterprizes

We have moved all our Cellovision videos to a new page to make them easier to see! On this page we provide a brief description of each video and talk a little about the teaching points. Clicking on the title will take you directly to the video. Links to additional resources (such as PDFs of music) are also included here.

Leap Frogs. This simple plucking exercise is a helpful way to establish a working posture at the cello. Often while the student is plucking with the left hand, the right hand gets very tense. In this video, Omeed is holding a bottle of water to distract his right hand, and staying hydrated too!

Rocking. Many cellists sit quite still when they play. Others rock from side to side in time with the bowstrokes. But sometimes that kind of motion ends up impeding the flow of the phrase and it is useful to do some exercises to break the habit. Janet is doing a Twinkle warm-up related to the first movement of Marcello E Minor Sonata. First she rocks in the same direction as the bow, then the opposite direction, then she rocks twice as slowly, i.e. going right with the first down bow and left with the second.

Motion Picture. Playing the cello requires movements of all kinds, some coordinated with the activities of the hands and some divorced from them. This little video shows Joshua doing a G scale exercise with a variety of 'choreography' designed to free up his neck, shoulders, and back and release the sound. The movement variations were 1) normal 2) looking at the ceiling 3) turning head left and right and 4) starting with a collapsed torso and expanding as you go up; first with separate bows and then with three notes linked on each bow. This was a preparatory exercise for The Swan.

Speak Scale. Rachel plays a two-octave C Scale naming each note after she plays it.

Handel Bourree Ballet. The elements of this 'ballet' are as follows: The five children sitting in the center of the circle have each been assigned one phrase of the Handel Bourrée. The others parade around in a circle:

Phrase 1--clockwise
Phrase 2--about face and counterclockwise
Phrase 3--clockwise
Phrase 4--backwards (counterclockwise)
Phrase 5--about face and counterclockwise.

Variables: Parents dance and children play, Dancers move either to the quarter note or to the half note.

Hand-slap Twinkle. Children at the Culford Cello Course in Suffolk play a Twinkle Variation using only 1st finger and slapping their bowhands with their left hands in between. This promotes mobility and flexibility and helps them internalize their awareness of fingerboard geography.

Ghosts and Aliens. I always say that a position is 'good' if it allows you to do what you need to do in the most efficient way possible. Many students shift to 4th position as though it were the end of the road and they never intended to go any further. However, I don't think the solution to this mobility issue is to keep the elbow up all the time. And I am quite sure that the Psychology of Physiology Pedagogy experts would probably say that advising the student to keep anything up is counterproductive. William was running into the shoulder of his cello when he shifted to 4th position so we invented these variations on Moon Over the Ruined Castle. In Ghosts he adds a glissando up and down the fingerboard every time he arrives in 4th position, and in Aliens he plays every other bar in the stratosphere. Speaking of PPP, I prefer whenever possible to embed these exercises in a piece of music.

Internalizing Rhythm. Many people find it difficult to play with a metronome. It is much easier to pay attention to the metronome once the notes have been thoroughly learned, but if that means that the rhythm is learned wrong, then we need to find another solution. I often ask the student to follow the music and clap the beat while I play. Sometimes I record the piece with the metronome for the student to listen to at home. Sometimes I ask the child to sing the music and clap the beat, but this is difficult with a piece that is still unfamiliar. In this little video, the student, who would prefer to be known as Joe the Plumber, has practiced stopping at the end of every phrase (marked with a blue line in the score) and counting two bars out loud. His awareness of the beat improved greatly after a week.

Bouncing at the Tip. We are always exploring new ideas for developing physical freedom in cello playing. For the left arm the first steps include an assortment of gestures--sliding, knocking and plucking-- where the goal is to reach all the parts of the fingerboard easily, not to play any particular note, especially not a very high one, in tune. We need to practice similar exercises for the right arm. In the very beginning stages, the teacher or parent can hold the bow on the various strings and the student can trace its eventual path by running his fingers along the stick. But we also need exercises we can do alone. One of the most useful is bouncing at the tip. In the video, Paul shows us a Perpetual Motion variation designed for this purpose.

Bazooka Chew. At the Culford Cello Course 2009 we worked on 'snapped' bowstrokes. We explored division of labor in the bowarm, trying to use more hand and fingers for the little notes and the whole arm for the bigger notes. An exceedingly useful vehicle for this work was as little jingle composed by my sister Alpha-- the Chew Bazooka Song! For a PDF of the score, click here.

Babylon Ballet. This classic hymn, in the form of a three-part round, has provided hours of entertainment (and educational benefits) in group lessons. The following video shows a group of teenagers at the Bryanston 2008 course performing the Babylon Ballet. The choreography we used while playing was body bowing in the first phrase, sinking and floating in the second, and rocking left and right on our sit bones in the third. Movement and flexibility go together and help reduce tension. For a PDF of the score, click here.

Cuckoo Song with Swimming. I like to set up the left hand using a little Finnish Folk Song called Cuckoo. Since it's never too early to start developing freedom at the cello, in this video, Erina swims her way through the piece. To download a PDF of the music, click here.

Corkybird Enterprizes

Creative Designs for Music Education