Four cellochan vignettes

1. I have a five and a half year old student named K. He is a constellation of wonderful things....as of course we all are. At his last lesson he was quite sleepy during the first half. (It's only a half hour lesson.) But as usual, by about half way through, he was much more awake and focusing hard. I asked his father who was sitting right there if he thought K would benefit from a 45 minute lesson, given that he really gets going by mid lesson and then doesn't seem to want the lesson to end. We turned to him and asked him. He had just been laughing and wiggling in his chair but now became quite serious. He crossed one leg over the other, placed his chin in his hand, elbow on his knee, and leaned forward. Looking me in the eye he said, "Well, I would think my lesson should be a normal length" I most definitely had a flash of K at age 45. I think we'll stick with the half hour for now and not rock the boat!

2. This is an old story but is worthy of being documented here I think. I have a student named M who has been with me for quite some time. She is very very smart and more than that, she is funny and imaginative. During one lesson I was asking her to "tame the monkey mind", a Zen phrase basically meaning "get focused." She is a hard worker in the lesson and asks good questions. But today her mind was truly bouncing around. At one point I asked her to explain a particular thing she was doing on the cello from her point of view. She said, "I will Suzanne, but could I ask you a question?" I said, of course. She asked, "Do fish cry?"

3. I have an adult student, D, who really is just beginning. He has always wanted to play the cello and finally decided to do so. Yo Yo Ma is his favorite cellist. (D has no classical musical background) It takes some courage to start an instrument as an adult until the student realizes that he/she really can do it. At any rate, I asked him to tell me about his practice schedule at home and how it was going. He did so and then said, "Well, another thing I do is sit with my cello on the couch while I'm watching TV just to get to know it better."

4. My student A is a very motivated and determined student. She is also very sensitive. We were beginning a new song called Witches Dance. She looked uncomfortble when I suggested we study it so I asked her if all was ok. She said, "This song has always reminded me of spiders and I really really don't like spiders." I asked if it was the music or the title that was the problem. She said she liked the music just not the title. So I suggested we temporarily rename the peice. She chose the title "Jester's Dance" No more spiders. No more problem. She played it very well too!