Learning the cello is like taking a long trip

Master Sheng-Yen, one of the most famous present day Chinese Ch'an ( Zen) Masters:
'Practicing is like going on a long trip; you have to take the first step before you can reach your goal. But after many steps, suddenly you are there. There’s no reaching a distant goal without taking many steps.'

Above, Master Sheng-Yen or Shifu as his students call him, is talking about practicing in the sense of cultivation. We cultivate a garden, we cultivate ourselves in order to be better people, and we cultivate the art of cello playing. Impatience is one of the most common obstacles to mastery of the cello.

It's all interconnected

THE BOW: The art of using the bow is one of the most complex areas of cello technique. Here are a few things to think about:
1. One of the ultimate goals concerning the bow hand is to have the learned actions become natural. The bow hold and movements of the fingers should be wedded to the general movement of the arm and even to the general body motion.
2. The bow hair has to “find” a special relationship to the string instead of scraping along on top of the string. It is an almost “glued” feeling the player gets as he/she “plugs” the bow into the string and the arm is “mover.” The hand responds in a flexible way to the motion of the arm. Thus, a circular feedback system is set up between player, bow, and string. Do you understand? Who would like to write comments on these points about the bow for the next newsletter?